Fox

As Imogene talks to him as his would-be girlfriend, Fox allows himself to daydream about Genevieve and how to win her. He can’t wait to be alone later with his laptop and its illicit images, and he wants to stop talking with Imogene. Realizing that Imogene is expecting more from their relationship, he decides to deal with it later. He’s eager to get to his own house. Once sequestered, Fox reveals that he’s been taking pictures of his targets. He stores these pictures on his computer, the favorites of which he calls “Sleeping Beauties.” He prides himself on obscuring the girls’ faces to conceal their identities. He plans out how to praise Genevieve in class to win her over while dwelling on the unattractive Eunice, whom he can’t seem to win over. He is determined to defeat her. Fox is convinced, despite evidence to the contrary in the Miranda Myles case, that he has never driven any student to “self-harm” (236). He congratulates himself on his moral rectitude because he will never put his pictures of the girls up on the web, even though he would make money doing so.

Fox sends Imogene a bouquet of roses and a letter that refers vaguely to a childhood trauma that he may have experienced. He uses this event to explain why he is being so cautious with Imogene, particularly intimately. She is grateful but also feels a kind of dread, as if she is “affiancing herself to a hooded figure” (239). Yet she feels that this is better than not having anything at all. She promises to be a loyal and understanding friend to Fox.

Eighth-grade student Mary Ann Healy, Demetrius and Marcus’s cousin, has the rare condition of “precocious puberty” (246), which has caused her to physically develop rapidly, starting at the age of four. This has caused her to have hygiene difficulties, and her mother calls her a “dirty girl” (242). She began her period at the age of eight, and her father, horrified, withheld physical affection. Other men often stare at her body, and people have expectations of her, thinking her far as being older than she is. Mary Ann carries a lot of shame and blamed herself when her father left the family.

Once, when Mary Ann wore a revealing pink bathing suit, her brother called her embarrassing. Demetrius stood up for her, engaging in a fight with his cousin. This incident solidified a devoted friendship between Demetrius and Mary Ann. Mary Ann is regularly bullied with sexual taunts at school and “learned young all kicks are deserved” (248). Despite this, Mary Ann is very intelligent and received a scholarship to Langhorne. There, the other students make fun of Mary Ann’s body, intelligence, and working-class background. Imogene befriends Mary Ann, who wants to be a librarian, and gives her books to soothe her. Imogene is mesmerized by Fox, but the way he looks at her makes her uncomfortable. This changes when a group of boys try to touch her inappropriately and Fox intercedes. He threatens to have them punished and escorts Mary Ann to the bus. Partially sincere, Fox also hopes that those in power notice his gallantry. This incident spurs Mary Ann’s devotion.

Demetrius realizes that his father is struggling with his arthritis but won’t consult doctors. Demetrius goes to help him at Langhorne even though they could get in trouble for having Demetrius on the property. Demetrius is disturbed to hear giggling from Fox’s office and finds it odd that the door is shut. Over the following days, he notices Genevieve hanging around, gripping her journal. He sees her slip inside the office. He also notices other girls waiting, including Eunice, who also has a journal. When he sees Genevieve again, she’s lost weight. When Fox lets her into his office, Demetrius wonders if he should try to stop him, knowing that there is no such thing as consent at her age. Fearful of bringing harm to his father, he decides to mind his own business.

Soon after, while cleaning Fox’s office, Demetrius finds the remnants of fruit tarts. Fox’s grade book has red stars next to certain girls’ names. He finds cards and poems signed “YOUR KITTEN” and concludes that Fox is dangerous (270). Fox finds Demetrius in his office and grows angry, but he then dismisses him as unimportant. On the drive home, Lemuel senses that something’s wrong with son, but Demetrius doesn’t reveal what he’s thinking: that it would be physically easy to kill Fox, even though he knows he could never do so.

In mid-October, Demetrius sees Genevieve crying after school. He hears Fox call Eunice “dear” as she goes into his office (277). He sees Mary Ann chasing after Fox in the parking lot, pleading with him, and follows. He sees Fox hit Mary Ann with his car and wants to take her to the emergency room, but Mary Ann refuses, claiming that it’s her own fault. Eventually, she runs away from Demetrius. Later, he goes to her house and sees a bruise on her arm. Demetrius confesses that he thinks Fox is a pedophile, but she says this is ridiculous. She insists that Fox is kind to her and is different from everyone else. As Mary Ann talks about Fox, Demetrius realizes that she’s in love. Grabbing her journal, he sees a poem that she’s written for Fox and tells her that this relationship isn’t right. She screams that she hates him and orders him to go home. Demetrius is sorry that he’s lost the argument and is furious at Fox.

Katy surprises Fox on his birthday by bringing dinner. Fox can’t remember if it really is his fictitious birthday and has forgotten that they made plans. He knows that he’s supposed to be grateful, but he resents her intrusion. She asks him if his family has remembered his birthday, but Fox insists that they’re too stoic to make a big deal about it. P. Cady has told Katy about Imogene, but Fox assures Katy that “only [she is his] soul-mate” (290). She asks if they might go over to her aunt’s together later, but Fox claims that he has too much grading to do, when he really wants alone time with his child sexual abuse material.

As they eat, Fox revisits his old resentments regarding the plagiarism case at Columbia. He claims that middle school has different rewards than higher education, but Katy tells him that he doesn’t have to keep teaching. They could travel. Fox thinks about how Katy might be a better choice for a wife than Imogene, but then he starts sexually daydreaming about Genevieve. Katy goes to tidy up, and Fox panics that he left his laptop within reach, filled with incriminating images. He briefly thinks of murdering Katy, but when she returns, he quickly deduces that she hasn’t seen anything.

Since the beginning of term, Fox has become acutely fixated on Eunice’s dislike of him. He sees her as “cognitively impaired” for not succumbing to his charm and wants to retaliate by humiliating her (299). He decides to withhold good grades, knowing that it will break the girl’s spirit. Fox notes that Eunice is intelligent in a clinical rather than an imaginative way. He starts giving her Cs but offers a chance to revise. She does revise, but he still gives her low grades. This upsets her, and she is absent for two days. She returns and regards him in a detached manner. Irritated, he tells Imogene that Eunice is spoiled and might die by suicide as a young adult, a comment that disturbs Imogene. He readies himself for battle with Eunice, acting as if he’s truly perplexed as to why Eunice can’t do well.

One day, Eunice remarks on his bust of Poe. She knows Poe’s work, some of which she has already read on her own. Encouraging her thoughts on Poe, he then crushes her again by giving her a C-, causing her to cry. Eunice’s mother, Kathryn, meets with Fox, who tells her that Eunice deserves to be challenged to reach her full potential. He asks Kathryn if anything is going on in Eunice’s personal life, and she mentions her separation from Eunice’s father. Kathryn also tells Fox about Eunice’s medical condition. Fox is uncomfortable with his emotional response to Kathryn, whom he finds attractive. He promises to reach out to Eunice and ends the conference.

Eunice comes back to Fox’s office to ask if she can read his award-winning poem, which flatters Fox. No girl has asked this before, but he doesn’t really want Eunice to read the poem, which contains plagiarized lines from other prominent poets. He is also distracted by his next appointment and has little time for Eunice. In part to please her mother, he decides to give Eunice a marble-patterned journal as a gift and begins a relationship with her. Eunice becomes more devoted to him, constantly waiting for him and hoping that other students will cancel their appointments. Because she is always lingering, Genevieve doesn’t visit him. Angry, Fox invites Eunice to take Genevieve’s spot.

Kathryn asks to meet Fox off campus, but Fox is wary of becoming involved with her because she is Eunice’s mother. He assures Kathryn of their connection but notes both her separation and Langhorne policy as reasons why he must decline. Lastly, he mentions that Eunice is “beginning to blossom” (336).

Mary Ann goes to Fox’s apartment after midnight and stands outside, calling for him. He thinks she’s drunk. Fox has also been drinking while looking at images of child sexual abuse. He’s angry to be interrupted. Fox claims that he never touched Mary Ann because he’s researched precocious puberty and worries that she could get pregnant, but he regrets allowing any  personal relationship to develop between them. 

A flashback reveals that another English teacher, Clare Quilty, found something left for Fox by his office door. Fox hadn’t read it but knew that it was a love poem from Mary Ann. Worried about exposure, Fox had been acting coldly toward Mary Ann. Thinking that it was her fault, Mary Ann went out of her way to apologize, but Fox continued to ignore her. She began to follow him, and he grew concerned about potential gossip. She trailed him into the parking lot. Frantically escaping, he hit her with his car and drove away, fearful of being blamed.

When Mary Ann comes to Fox’s house that same night, he lets her into his apartment. After using the bathroom, Mary Ann begs to sleep on Fox’s floor. She’s told no one where she is. He thinks of putting pornographic pictures of her on the web but instead insists that he’ll drive her home. During the drive, Mary Ann, crying, tells Fox that she loves him. She says that they can have sex and she will tell no one about it. Grabbing at the steering wheel, she then slaps him before trying to put her hand on his genitalia. He tells her to stop this drunken behavior. She tells him that she hates him and jumps out of his moving car. He stops, worried that he’ll have to hide her dead body—but Mary Ann scrambles to her feet and limps into the marshland. Fox is grateful that he’s escaped.

The next day, Mary Ann does not show up for school. Fox is delighted and hopes that she never comes back to Langhorne. He assures himself that none of this is his fault. Students notice that he is in a serious mood and loses the flow of his lesson, but Fox rallies, assuring himself that this has nothing to do with him.

Fox meets Genevieve in his office and tells her that it’s his birthday and he would like her to send six nude selfies at midnight. Afterward, she should promptly delete them. He kisses the scars from where she has cut herself. He tells her never to cut herself again, but if she does, she should send pictures of the wounds. Fox assures Genevieve that she is the “most select” among his elite students (369). Genevieve falls asleep, drugged on tarts. Fox is happy, thinking that he can concentrate on Genevieve. It is the last day before the vacation, most people are gone, and Genevieve’s mother knows she has to stay late. In the middle of his assault on Genevieve, however, there is a knock on the door. Genevieve startles awake. Groggy, she panics and wants to leave. Worried that she’ll faint, he shakes her. He tries to insist again that she stay, but she begs to go. There’s no one in the corridor, but Genevieve flees. Fox lets her go, bitter and resentful.