52 pages • 1 hour read
Julie BuxbaumTell Me Three Things
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2016A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-4
Chapter 1 Summary
Sixteen-year-old Jessie Holmes, the story's narrator, explains how much her life has recently changed as result of her mother dying of cancer about two years ago: her father Bill eloped with a woman named Rachel he met in an online bereavement group and decided to move with Jessie from Chicago to California to live with Rachel and her son, Theo.
A week into her junior year at her new, elite private school (Wood Valley High), Jessie receives an anonymous email from a 16-year-old boy calling himself “Somebody Nobody.” He offers to be her “virtual spirit guide,” in an attempt to help her navigate and adjust to the “war zone” of her new school. Assuming it is a prank, Jessie declines his offer. He insists that he is genuine, and they banter back and forth, ending the conversation with some suggestive, flirtatious jokes. Jessie recognizes that the confidence with which she speaks online does not match her personality; the extra time allows her to be the “better, edited version of [herself]” (7). She doubts the intentions of “SN” and admits to herself that she is weak and feels “lost and confused and alone as [she has] ever been” (8).
Chapter 2 Summary
A week later, Jessie still has no idea who SN might be. She thinks back to her first day of school, trying to think of clues or meaningful interactions she might have missed. She was late due to notorious LA traffic, and the secretary directed her to the wrong class. Her rich classmates shared the impressive things they achieved during the summer, and when she introduced herself, she could tell that they all pitied her for working at the mall.
Two weeks later, in the present moment, she still has no one to sit with at lunch. Her theatrical stepbrother, Theo, is also a junior, but he fiercely ignores her both at home and at school. She considers having lunch by the school's “Koffee Kart,” but the seats are always taken by her classmate Ethan (whom she continuously refers to as “the Batman” for the t-shirt he regularly wears) and a group of girls who flirt with him. As Jessie walks past them, one girl “barks”: “What are you staring at?” (18)
Chapter 3 Summary
Alone with her lunch on a bench outside, Jessie misses her best friend, Scarlett, who is her tough, witty, “five-foot-tall, half-Jewish, half-Korean bouncer” (19). Jessie tries to convince herself she can manage to survive Wood Valley on her own for two years when the group of girls at the Koffee Kart walk by, obviously whispering about her. Jessie feels embarrassed but refuses to let them make her cry. She texts Scarlett, who gives Jessie some fashion advice. Scarlett points out that Ethan is in the background of the selfie Jessie sent her, which only further embarrasses Jessie. As she deletes the photo, she “[wishes] it were that easy to erase everything else” (23).
Chapter 4 Summary
In AP English, Mrs. Pollack assigns a project on T. S. Eliot's “The Waste Land,” which reminds Jessie of her mother's love of poetry and books. She regrets not asking her mother about the notes she had scribbled in the margins, “stupidly [assuming] [she'd] have all the time in the world” (24). She anxiously tries to find a partner for the assignment, and Ethan, who sits behind her, wordlessly signals that he will pair up with her. After class, he informs Jessie that he will complete the project on his own, assuring her they will get an A, and he leaves before she can protest.
Through text, Scarlett bets that SN is a secret admirer, and she assures Jessie that her time in California will get better. She reminds Jessie that she is strong, but that “doesn't mean [she] shouldn't ask for help sometimes” (30). Eager for some insight into her unfamiliar environment, Jessie writes to SN, asking for suggestions on who to befriend and logistics about the school. SN suggests Jessie talk to Adrianna Sanchez, a classmate in English, and reminds her just how wealthy everyone at Wood Valley is. Back in Chicago, Jessie's family did well for themselves, and she is “proud of how [she] was raised, even if it means [she's] even more of a stranger in a strange land at this school” (32). Even so, she strongly resents, even hates, her current circumstances.
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
Buxbaum immediately introduces Somebody Nobody with an abruptness that mirrors the mysterious person’s sudden appearance into Jessie’s life. For most, this would be a huge surprise, but as Jessie explains, her life has become so “unrecognizable” to her in all its sudden changes that nothing shocks her anymore. This numbness is a result of her grieving the death of her mother, which still weighs heavily upon her, even though, as she reminds us, 735 days have passed. Jessie counts the days since her mother died, the day since her father eloped, the days since she moved to California, and the days she has left at Wood Valley: this is one of her coping mechanisms, but it also keeps her fixated on all of the things that trigger her anxiety.
Jessie’s tone as she recounts her experiences are candid and honest, making her a reliable narrator of her own story. She is forthright about her grief, which has a constant presence in the novel as one of the main themes, and her resentment; she truly hates everything about her current situation. As she recounts her first few weeks at Wood Valley, the contrast between Jessie and her new surroundings is abundantly clear: she does not know how to dress for California weather, she feels completely inadequate listening to her classmates’ inspiring summer adventures, and she faces the classic “new kid” problem of not having anyone to sit with at lunch.
Theo is the one person who knows her but is so resentful of her appearance in his life that he ignores her both at school and at home. Jessie is invisible at Wood Valley until SN reaches out. She has no way of figuring out who he might be, but her memories of the first day of school foreshadow the answer to the mystery: she notices Caleb, Liam, and Ethan—all three of the boys she later hypothesizes might be SN. When Jessie sends Scarlett a selfie, Scar points out Ethan in the background of the shot, and his subtle presence here is indicative of the invisible—but significant—space he soon takes up in Jessie’s life as SN.
Despite the overwhelming grief and bitterness Jessie feels, though, from the very first day, she demonstrates the inner strength and courage it takes to trudge through embarrassing first days, mean girls’ snide comments, and feeling out of place. Even though she believes that “[her] imagined personality and [her] real personality have never converged” (7), she remains true to herself from the very beginning. She is proud of her upbringing, even if it makes her “more of a stranger in a strange land at this school” (32). Jessie, like many high schoolers, struggles with a lack of confidence and insecurity, but she has no desire to be inauthentic.
