Chapter 25: Unwanted Advances and Deceptions
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.
Summary
After the Sunday dinner at the Edwards home, Daunis returns to retrieve her phone and is cornered by Mike, who kisses her. When she rejects him, he becomes aggressive and accuses her of thinking she is too good for him. Daunis photographs Mr. Edwards’s office bookshelves. Later, she and Jamie argue about the investigation and her future, and he decides to run separately with the hockey team. Daunis continues skipping classes to search for hallucinogenic mushrooms on Duck Island, carefully avoiding Auntie. At Friday lunch with Granny June, she walks into an intervention: Auntie is waiting, and the elders seem to know something is wrong.
Key Events
- Mike Edwards kisses Daunis without consent, then reacts with aggression when she refuses him.
- Daunis retrieves her phone and takes photos of Mr. Edwards’s basement office bookshelves.
- Daunis lies about increasing her mileage to avoid running with Mike; she and Jamie plan to run together.
- During their morning run, Jamie advises Daunis not to let the investigation alter her future. Daunis retorts that everything is already changed, and reveals that college hockey is no longer an option for her. She sprints away; Jamie does not chase her.
- Jamie tells Daunis he will run with the team instead, claiming it is for the investigation.
- Daunis spends the week searching for mushrooms on Duck Island, avoiding Auntie’s calls and texts.
- At Friday lunch, Auntie confronts Daunis in the elders’ dining room; the room falls silent.
Character Development
- Daunis is forced to recognize that Mike Edwards is not the person she thought she knew. His entitled, misogynistic reaction deepens her distrust and reinforces her awareness that the investigation will change how she sees everyone. She also struggles to maintain her deceptive cover by avoiding Auntie, a task that weighs on her.
- Jamie becomes more distant after the argument. He withdraws from the intimate connection they had started to build, reverting to a purely professional teammate. His decision to run with the guys signals a retreat from emotional vulnerability.
- Mike Edwards reveals a threatening side: he dismisses Daunis’s refusals, equates her rejection with being “too good for him,” and echoes his father’s derogatory views about women. This moment humanizes his character as more than a goofy teammate.
Themes, Symbols, or Motifs Evidenced Here
- Deception and Honesty (gwekowaadiziwin): Daunis prays for honesty while deceiving everyone. The irony is explicit, and the chapter emphasizes the cost of maintaining false appearances.
- Predatory Masculinity: Mike’s kiss and subsequent anger illustrate how male entitlement is enabled by Hockey World and the Edwards household. His father’s line “Girls are just distractions” echoes through his actions.
- Change and Loss of Control: Daunis insists everything changed when Travis pulled a gun. Jamie’s advice to preserve her old life is impossible; the investigation, her lost hockey scholarship, and her hidden mushroom search have already reshaped her identity.
- Leaves as a Marker of Time: The accumulating leaves on Duck Island symbolize the passage of autumn and the narrowing window for Daunis to find the mushroom, mirroring the ticking clock of the investigation.
Why This Chapter Matters
This chapter pivots the story away from Daunis’s undercover work as a spy toward the personal costs of her dual life. The unwanted kiss with Mike fractures one of her last innocent relationships, while the argument with Jamie marks the end of their romantic ease. The intervention from Auntie forces Daunis to confront the cracks in her deception. Chapter 25 sets up critical tension for the road trip to Green Bay and for Daunis’s need to decide whom she can truly trust.
Study Questions and Answers
1. Why does Daunis’s reaction to Mike’s kiss shift from confusion to fear?
Daunis initially tries to reason with Mike, but when he refuses to accept her rejection and accuses her of believing she is “better than me,” his tone becomes menacing. She recognizes in him the same entitled attitude that Grant had, and her instinct shifts to self-preservation. The moment reveals that Mike’s friendly façade hides a volatile temper.
2. What does Jamie mean when he tells Daunis not to let the investigation “change everything” for her?
Jamie hopes Daunis will resume her normal life after the operation, including playing college hockey. He does not realize that her hockey future is already gone. Her angry retort that everything changed when Travis pulled a gun shows that Jamie’s advice is naïve: the violence and deception have already rewritten her path, and there is no “before” to return to.
3. Why does Daunis avoid Auntie throughout the week, and what does the intervention scene reveal?
Daunis misses staying with her aunt but knows Auntie would quickly see through her lies about attending class. By staying away, Daunis preserves her cover. The tense silence in the dining room when Auntie motions her over suggests that the elders suspect something is wrong—possibly that Daunis is hiding her involvement in the meth investigation.