Rules

Catherine goes to her favorite store, Elliot’s Antique, in search of an inexpensive guitar to give Jason for his birthday. Purchasing the only one she can afford, Catherine sneaks it into her mother’s car, which is parked near the clinic.

Jason and his mother are arguing when they enter the waiting room, with Jason using some of the new words Catherine has provided, as revealed when his mother says, “Don’t ‘whatever’ me, young man” (164). Jason asks Catherine to bring David to his birthday party, which she resists. Finally, they agree that her mother can bring David at the end of the party for dessert. Jason becomes upset when he sees that Catherine created a ‘Together’ card with the two of them on a bench but without his wheelchair.

Catherine is extremely nervous when her mother drops her at Jason’s home. She is greeted by his older brother, Matt, who comments on the cards she has made for Jason. She thinks, “I blush. Of course, everyone who talks to Jason sees my cards. Why didn’t I ever think of that” (169).

Catherine tells Jason she wants to give him his main present privately. He leads her back to his bedroom, giving her a “sneaky and wrong” feeling (171). Catherine gives him the acoustic guitar and Jason plays a song he has written on his electric piano. They are summoned by Mrs. Morehouse to have birthday cake.

Catherine’s mother arrives with David, who rushes in asking for cake. As Catherine and Jason watch David eating, Jason asks Catherine to come with him to the dance. When Catherine says she cannot come to the dance, he accuses her of being embarrassed by him. She protests that she has a rule that she cannot dance. Jason tells her she is making an excuse. He abandons her in the kitchen. She grabs David and tells her mother they must leave. Catherine begins to cry.

Riding home in the car, Catherine expresses irritation with her mother that she was not really keeping an eye on David, who was opening doors throughout the Morehouse’s home. During the discussion, Catherine has a candid discussion about Jason’s invitation to the dance. Her mother is sympathetic without being dishonest. Saying she must deliver tax documents, she leaves Catherine at home with David.

Catherine sets David up to play alone and goes into her bedroom. Alone and overwhelmed, she longs to for the sympathetic company of her friend Melissa. David comes into her bedroom asking her to fix his favorite cassette tape which is irrevocably broken. David’s insistence that she fix what is unfixable angers Catherine who breaks down and screams at him. David responds by falling into a sobbing heap on the floor. Catherine begins to cry. She kneels beside David and holds him, saying “‘I’m sorry,’ I whisper. ‘I’m sorry, Toad’” (183).

After apologizing to her brother, she calls Jason’s house. He refuses to listen to her on the phone, so she asks his mother to tell him that she is going to the community dance and hopes to see him there. Next, she calls her father, who is working at the pharmacy, and gives him specific instructions about what she expects him to do immediately. When her father arrives, she takes her brother’s hand and tells him to come along, “I’m going to a dance” (185).

Arriving at the community center, Catherine has an exchange with her father in which she tells him that she is tired of being completely neglected just because David’s needs are greater. Her father embraces her and tells her he knows she does matter. She asks her dad to stay until she knows whether Jason is coming and to give her money for the dance.

Entering the community center, Catherine takes in the noisy anteroom, seeing the poster that she created on the wall. David and her father follow her inside. With the decorative lights looking like stars, Catherine tells David they should make wishes. David wishes for a grape soda—a wish Catherine grants instantly with one of the dollars her father gave her. Her wish is that everyone might have the same opportunities in life.

Sitting by herself in the gymnasium with music blaring, Catherine waits for Jason to show up. Eventually, she sees the outline of a wheelchair in the hallway and makes her way to Jason, whose mother is with him and says she will wait in the hall in case he needs her.

In preparation for their conversations, Catherine has made a series of new words she puts in Jason’s communication book as she explains each: Complicated, Hidden, Weak. She confesses to Jason that she was afraid of the reaction of Kristi if she saw the two of them together. At the instant she admits this, Kristi appears with Ryan. There is a brief, awkward encounter in which Catherine says Jason is her friend and admits she should have been open about it.

Jason stops Catherine before she completes her apology and starts off in his wheelchair. When she asks where he is going, he says he is going to dance and insists that she come with him and break her rule against dancing. She follows him onto the dance floor, raises her arms, and begins to dance.

Later the night of the dance, Catherine lies in bed, reflecting upon all that has transpired. David appears in her doorway to tell her that he has dropped another toy into the fishbowl. Catherine discovers a toy wizard in the bowl. She laughs, causing David to be flustered. She calms him by quoting his favorite book and letting him respond. They stand together, looking at their reflections in the fishbowl glass.