Because Greg spends so much time on Rachel’s film, his grades plummet. His parents enlist the help of Mr. McCarthy, who agrees to keep Greg after school to help him avoid failing all his classes. Greg notices his mom’s strange behavior but is unsure about the reasons behind it until he attends a pep rally at school: Principal Stewart calls Greg and Earl to the stage for a school-wide viewing of Rachel the Film. Greg discovers that Denise found the film, watched it, showed it to Greg’s mom, and the two women decided that despite Greg and Earl’s noted secrecy about their film projects, everyone should see what they created for Rachel. 

Greg explains that if this were a movie, the high school auditorium would have erupted in cheers at the finale of their film and Greg and Earl would have been heroes. This is not Greg’s reality. Their classmates feel the film is too “weird and confusing” (270). They, in fact, hate it. Their teachers, however, assure Greg and Earl that they love the film, as does Madison, but Greg believes none of them. It is now impossible for Greg to be invisible at school, and not only do people see him, he feels they despise him.