53 pages • 1 hour read
Ashley ElstonThis Is Our Story
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 13-15
Chapter 13 Summary
Kate learns that the school’s Key Club is holding a fundraiser for St. Jude’s children’s hospital that evening. Knowing that Lindsey has a younger sister at the hospital, Kate goes—under the guide of taking photos for the Key Club. Kate suspects Lindsey knows something and seizes the opportunity to speak with her. Kate knows that Grant called Lindsey the morning that he was murdered but Lindsey refuses to say anything else.
While at the fundraiser, Kate sees Henry with Lori, the dark-haired girl who appeared in the video that Daniel showed the detectives in Chapter 12. Still, Kate doesn’t know who the girl is or what her connection to Henry is. Later, the reader will learn that Lori is one of the three girls (alongside Bree) pictured in the compromising photo leaked online; Henry has a crush on her and was angry that Grant would take such photos and leak them.
The chapter concludes with a brief narration from John Michael. He explains that Grant died with one secret, which he’s trying to figure out but doesn’t explain in this instance. Later, the reader will learn that that Grant in his possession a compromising photo of John Michael’s father paying off Gaines for some shady business reasons. What John Michael can’t figure out is how Grant got the picture, which was taken on the back patio of the River Point House. Kate will ultimately figure out the answer when she discovers a hidden wildlife camera set opposite patio. This will also eventually explain how Grant secretly took the racy photos of the three St. Bart’s girls.
Chapter 14 Summary
Kate is at Pat’s, spying on the River Point Boys, who still meet nearby regularly. She sees Henry and Shep get in an argument, and Shep hit Henry. Kate catches this all on her camera, hiding in her car. As she goes to leave, however, she discovers that her battery is dead. Shep comes to her rescue. He asks if she thinks he shot Grant. In exchange, she asks if he thinks the incident was an accident. He is shocked by the question and angered: “Of course it was an accident. You think one of my friends would kill Grant on purpose?” (164). Finally, Kate starts to believe Shep and to recognize him as her mysterious text-message-partner, not Grant.
The chapter concludes with a single line from John Michael: “The girl with the camera is going to be a problem” (166).
Chapter 15 Summary
Kate is in English class when there’s a fire drill. In the hubbub of students streaming outside, someone slips a paper into her pocket. It’s a photo of her and Shep from the previous night. Written on the photo is, “Can we all hope for special treatment from the DA’s office?” (169). Kate is afraid.
The chapter ends with a transcript of the detectives’ video interview with Phoebe Cage, a student who attended the party that took place the night before Grant’s death. She tells the detective that two strangers, older than the high school students, showed up at the party late, and threatened Logan with a knife, holding it against his neck (this explains the scar-like mark that Kate previously saw). Phoebe tells the detectives that Logan works as a bookie and that this incident presumably had something to do with his gambling side gig. After the men left, Logan was angry at Grant; it seems that Grant was supposed to deliver some money to the men who came by but never did. They men Phoebe describes match the description of those that Kate saw with Logan, punching him in the gut, in Chapter 12.
Chapters 13-15 Analysis
These chapters show Kate’s shift in perception as she finally accepts Shep, not Grant, as being the boy she developed a crush on via text message. Shep’s insistence that he is not the killer and doesn’t know who the killer is shows his awareness, even if subconscious, of the concept of complicity: A person who is aware of a crime but refuses to speak out on it is complicit in that crime. This line of thinking is intertwined with the concept of the boys’ club and the idea that men should look out for one another. Again, in the context of Grant’s death, the usually implicit silence required by the boys’ club becomes explicit—the boys all agree to remain quiet. Shep shows himself as a “rule breaker” in this regard.
Kate’s belief in Shep again ups the stakes of the mystery. At the start of the book, she was driven to get justice for Grant, whom she believed to be her crush. Now, she must get justice—or else her crush, Shep, could go to jail. She becomes more firmly entwined in the murder mystery because of her link to Shep and because the River Point Boys are now aware that she’s snooping around. The book foreshadows that Kate’s involvement in the case may put her in danger. John Michael’s words, “The girl with the camera is going to be a problem” (166), have a menacing tone. This line also reassures the reader, however, that the anonymous narrator is not Shep—who would undoubtedly not talk about Kate in this manner or at least use her real name.
The idea that Kate may be in danger is confirmed in Chapter 15, when Kate has the photo of her and Shep slipped into her pocket during the fire drill. The note accompanying the photo offers an ironic take on the idea of privilege. In asking whether all of the River Point Boys can expect special treatment from the DA’s office, John Michael is failing to identify that he and his cronies already are receiving special treatment. Gaines’s giving the case to Mr. Stone was already the first step in an active attempt to ensure the entire incident was simply hushed up.
Yet another twist is added to the thriller’s narrative with the revelation that Logan is involved in a side hustle as a bookie. The fact that Grant may have cheated Logan by failing to deliver money as instructed is a possible motive for murder. The reasons for the author’s inclusion of seemingly “random” testimonies from insignificant side characters thus become clear. While Phoebe will not reappear, her testimony adds complexity to the mystery, serving as a “red herring” for the reader. A red herring is a false clue, typical to murder-driven thrillers, that leads the reader in the wrong direction. In this instance, the reader might start to suspect Logan is the murderer.
