49 pages • 1-hour read
Faker
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Chapters 12-17Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 12 Summary
That night, Trey struggles to sleep as he ponders the implications of the email from the unknown sender. He knows that the message must be about El Capitan, and he is terrified of what it could mean for his dad and their family. However, he has no proof that the email refers to the con, and he refuses to do anything that would cause his family to flee from this enjoyable new lifestyle he has at Boxelder Middle School. Trey knows that if his family skips town, he will be forced to “[throw] away the first life [he has] ever had that actually feels real” (100). Before he can decide what to do, he falls asleep. By the time he wakes up and runs downstairs, his dad is meeting with the neighbor who wants to invest.
Trey is nervous and distracted during his social studies debate. When he botches his portion of the assignment, his teammates can’t recover from the mistake, and Kaylee’s team wins easily. After class, Trey checks his email. The unknown sender has responded with a message that reads simply, “There’s no such car as an El Capitan” (104). Trey sends back a link to the El Capitan website, and the sender asserts that the site is also fake. Trey feels panicked, but he reasons that because he is now a full partner in his father’s business, he has the right to wait and see what happens.
Chapter 13 Summary
The following week, the El Capitan scam has drummed up five new investors, with more lining up. At school, Kaylee shows the Albion Pond article to Logan and Trey; it states that El Capitan Motors will build a factory atop the pond. Kaylee is furious because this development would cause more pollution and traffic in her neighborhood, and she vows to fight against it. Trey agrees to help her, reasoning that his dad won’t care because he cannot get angry at his son “for opposing something that has no chance of ever existing” (111).
At home, Trey confronts his dad about the factory’s location being Albion Pond. Trey’s dad shrugs this decision off and warns Trey again that it is a bad idea for him to be part of YAAP. Trey knows that his dad is right, but he can’t bring himself to agree. He also cannot make himself confess the existence of the strange emails. At this point in the con, Trey’s dad is on the verge of convincing Logan’s parents to become investors. Logan’s family will be short on cash until they sell some of their art, and they have offered a painting as collateral. Trey’s dad wants to take the deal because the people in the neighborhood seem savvy. Trey silently reflects that they aren’t savvy enough to spot the El Capitan scam.
Chapter 14 Summary
Trey receives another email that reads, “El Capitan is a fake company and I can prove it!” (115). Realizing that whoever really owns the Albion Pond land might have realized that El Capitan is a hoax, Trey vows to figure out who the sender is without getting his dad involved. His investigation leads him to the Barstow Collective, a company with a beautiful website but no contact information. The company looks fake, and Trey wonders if his father set it up as a way to buy the land. If so, this would mean that Trey’s dad has lied to him.
Chapter 15 Summary
Trey and his dad receive word that the city wants to change all the welcome signs to include El Capitan. Trey’s dad dismisses this development as a side effect of the con, but Trey cannot let it go. He feels bad that the investors will get nothing, and he thinks that the signs will just be a permanent reminder of how they were ripped off.
At school, Trey continues to support Kaylee and YAAP. Kaylee appreciates this because she knows that it can’t be easy for Trey to risk his popularity. Trey argues that he isn’t popular, but Kaylee points out that everyone wants to hang out with him because of El Capitan. Trey realizes that he has lots of friends here, but he thought that his friendships were based on his own efforts to connect with people, not on their interest in his father’s “fake car company” (127).
Chapter 16 Summary
Over dinner one night, Arianna shows Trey and their dad a blank check from her friend’s family. Her friend also texted pictures of his parents’ signatures, and Arianna reasons that she and her family can now fill out the check for as much money as they want. Trey’s dad explains that this scam would never work because it will be too obvious, but he praises her for starting to think like a partner in the family business. Trey can’t believe that his father has praised an idea that is so blatantly cruel; he worries that “if [he] can’t get [his] sister off this roller coaster, she’s going to wind up in jail one day” (131).
Trey’s family has been invited to a party on Saturday for one of the richest families in the neighborhood. Trey’s dad is counting on both of his children to help him manipulate the crowd, but Trey has committed to participating in a YAAP fundraiser that day. He doesn’t want to abandon his dad, but he also doesn’t want to let Kaylee down.
Chapter 17 Summary
Trey tells Kaylee about the party and asks if she is attending. Kaylee scoffs because the kids from her neighborhood don’t get invited to parties in Trey’s neighborhood. Trey tries to argue that he can’t let his dad down; he even goes so far as to try to use his missing mom to gain sympathy points with Kaylee. However, she doesn’t budge, and Trey realizes that if he misses the YAAP fundraiser, he will “never be more than worm guts in Kaylee’s eyes” (135).
The party is held in a rich, palatial home. Trey hangs out with Logan in the arcade that the hosts have rented for the kids. Despite the high-quality entertainment, Trey can only think about the fundraiser, and he knows how disappointed Kaylee will be when the kids from Trey’s neighborhood don’t show up. Suddenly, Trey realizes that no one will miss him in the crowded energy of the party. Logan offers to cover for him, and Trey leaves. All the rideshare apps tell him that there are no cars available, so he walks to the mall in his dress clothes. By the time he gets there, he is sweating and has blisters, but the look on Kaylee’s face makes up for all of it.
The fundraiser goes well, but it doesn’t earn enough for YAAP to hire a lawyer to defend Albion Pond. After the event is over, Kaylee’s dad pulls Trey aside. He and his wife have a nest egg that they want to use to invest in El Capitan; they believe that this supposed business opportunity will earn them enough to cover both their retirement and Kaylee’s college expenses. Remembering his dad’s rule that they only con people who can afford to lose the money, Trey resolves not to let Kaylee’s dad invest, no matter what.
Chapters 12-17 Analysis
The mysterious emails intensify Trey’s stress as he grapples with his own sense of agency and debates whether to make decisions that go against his family’s wishes. The fictional El Capitan factory also fuels Trey’s internal crisis, and he wonders how he can simultaneously remain true to his family and protect his new friends from financial ruin. Up until now, he has taken a step back from the El Capitan scam and has primarily focused on his newfound sense of belonging within the Boxelder community. However, with the realization that his father’s fake company now poses a very real threat to Kaylee’s cause, Trey is forced to make a difficult choice about his future, and his thoughts bring him closer to Redefining a Personal Code of Ethics. The Albion Pond conflict also encourages him to step out of his comfort zone and actively keep secrets from his dad. Trey feels that the secret of the emails and his loyalty to Kaylee essentially betray everything that his father has done for their family, but he is nonetheless determined to do whatever it takes to hold onto the more authentic way of life that he has discovered for himself in Boxelder.
Although Trey’s assumption that his dad owns the Barstow Collective will later be revealed to be mistaken, this moment provides him with the motivation that he needs to start embracing his own agency. Shaken by the idea that his father might be lying to him, Trey begins to wonder what else his father might have lied about in the past, and he begins to see through the various deceptions that his dad uses to justify his criminal activities in front of his own children. Because Trey’s dad is so practiced at lying, he does not feel any guilt over his dishonesty, but Trey’s growing sense of social awareness contributes to his new conviction that his family’s actions are wrong. As he grapples with The Tension Between Deception and Honesty, he is forced to reconfigure his own sense of obligation toward his family.
Kaylee’s observation that Trey is popular because of El Capitan also forces the protagonist to reckon with his new realization that his social connections are not necessarily based upon his peers’ genuine liking for him as a person. During past cons, Trey believed that he was generally well liked because he was inherently nice. Now, as he sees his popularity through the lens of Kaylee’s critical perspective, he realizes that he is popular partly because people believe in his father’s illusory reputation. Trey’s dad intentionally portrays himself as a wealthy businessman with connections to new and exciting opportunities, and this guise allows him to influence public opinion in his favor and gain people’s confidence. This moment also shows Trey that Arianna’s own tendencies toward deception may one day sabotage her chances to make a bright future for herself. Whereas Trey begins to dislike grifting, Arianna openly embraces her father’s tactics, offering risky ideas like the scam with the blank check from her friend’s parents. As Trey watches his dad reward Arianna for her cleverness, he realizes that people are willing to trust his dad when they should not, and he takes yet another step toward the decision to renounce his family’s deceptive lifestyle.
Trey’s decision to leave the fancy party in Chapter 17 stands as a key shift in his mindset. Because of his involvement in YAAP, Trey understands how much Albion Pond means to Kaylee, and by extension, Trey is introduced to a more authentic vision of true passion and dedication. Compared to the fake enthusiasm that Trey’s dad musters for whatever scam he’s trying to sell, Kaylee’s sense of purpose is genuine. Unlike Trey’s dad, she wants to raise money to serve a cause that benefits everyone, not just herself. Seeing this, Trey realizes that his family is selfish and that he is selfish by association. When Kaylee’s dad decides to invest in El Capitan, Trey reaches a crucial decision point. Up until this moment, he has condoned the El Capitan scam because he believed that the con would put the rich people of the Pointe in their place. However, with the realization that Kaylee’s dad could lose everything on this fake investment, Trey has a significant change of heart.
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