The room is the meeting place for Poet’s Corner, a secret poetry club that meets every Thursday. When Thursday arrives, Caroline leads Samantha down deep into the basement of the theater, into a hidden room that has walls plastered with poems, written on slips of paper all different sizes. Samantha does not reveal that she has made a new friend with Caroline, but she is excited to meet with Caroline on Thursday to learn more about this life-changing secret club. Sue is one of the only people who knows of Samantha’s illness. Samantha has weekly Wednesday meetings with Sue, her therapist. Caroline instructs Samantha to meet her on Thursday in the school theater, and she will show her the way. Caroline tells Samantha that she knows of a secret club that will change her life. Samantha meets Caroline, who is unlike the Crazy Eights: Caroline is dressed in loose denim and flannel, and she wears no makeup at all.
On the first day of school, the Crazy Eights wrap Samantha’s locker in festive paper as a surprise to celebrate Samantha’s birthday, which passed during the summer. School, and particularly her friendship with the Crazy Eights, exacerbates her OCD tendencies. With the summer swim season ending, Samantha prepares to say goodbye to “Summer Sam,” which is the way she refers to the side of herself that is as relaxed and carefree as she is when not at school. In the pool, she can be her true self, in which she is not consumed with OCD thoughts. Swimming means more to Samantha than just a sports activity. The primary narrative begins as summer is ending: Samantha is a swimmer, and she's in the pool during one of the final swimming sessions of the summer. She obsesses over the idea that she will take the scissors and cut Olivia’s hair off in one fell swoop.
While Samantha is cutting roses, a dark thought begins to consume her. The Crazy Eights, the nickname for Samantha’s friend group, are the popular girls at school-they are admired, hated, and feared by the general student body. It's Valentine’s Day and Samantha’s group of friends are on a school spirit committee responsible for preparing roses that will be distributed at their high school. The scene shows the extent of Samantha’s mental illness, and how profoundly it affects her life. The novel opens with a brief vignette, set six months before the bulk of the narrative.
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