The Benefits of Being an Octopus

Zoey is in the room with all the other students but still feels separate. She hasn’t cultivated the study skills that the other students exhibit, such as taking notes. Ms. Rochambeau emphasizes the importance of stating one’s position confidently, a skill that Zoey thinks is beyond her reach.

At home, Zoey finds her mother sorting laundry. The narrative reveals that the reason Zoey and her siblings don’t have clean clothes is that her mother must walk 40 minutes to the laundromat and can carry only one load. Zoey finds a few items of Aurora’s and Bryce’s clothing to add to her mother’s stack of laundry. Kara asks Zoey if she wants to add any of her own clothes. Zoey is surprised because she’s typically overlooked, and she takes the opportunity to add a couple of shirts and a pair of jeans. Zoey asks her mom if she ever feels confident. Kara replies, “The only confident I am is confident that life’s never going to get any easier than this” (50).

On another rare quiet and peaceful Sunday, Lenny’s out of the house, and all the kids snuggle with Kara in her bedroom. Even Frank seems calm, watching the weather channel instead of angry news shows.