The day before Thanksgiving break, Fadi runs to art class to learn the contest results. When Ms. Bethune announces the winners, he is happy for Anh, who wins second place, but is stunned when he only receives an honorable mention. Anh and Ms. Bethune are concerned because he seems to be taking the news badly. Ms. Bethune tells him that Clive Murray personally selected his photograph for an honorable mention, but Fadi does not feel any better. Angrily, he pounds the table and storms out of the room.

Fadi spends the rest of the day in a bathroom stall. He distracts himself by thinking about Claudia, who also hides in a bathroom during her escape, but he understands that his situation will not turn out so neatly: “Claudia had had her fun at the museum, had had her mystery solved by meeting Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and then had headed home with her brother, safe and sound” (2043-2048). Even though he understands that his life is not like a book, he still sees himself as the villain in his family’s story.

After school, the group of boys who want to take revenge on the bullies see Fadi and tell him their plan.