To Night Owl From Dogfish

Avery and Bett’s email exchanges continue, even though Sam forbids Avery from speaking to Bett, who he believes is a terrible influence. Bett gets her period and feels like she will never get used to it. Avery assures her that she will. Bett tells Gaga and many friends about her period, but not Marlow, who is struggling after the breakup; he pours himself into his work rather than spending time with friends or playing sports. Avery creates a new secret email address with the name “A. Allenberry Bloom” instead of “Avery Bloom.”

Kristina and Gaga lease apartments on the same floor of the same building. As part of the custody battle, a social worker comes to observe Avery spend one day with Kristina and one day with Sam. Kristina acts differently than normal during the visit. She wears beige clothing with no jewelry, scarves, or hats and has posted notes around the house about vitamins and appointments. Rather than going out to eat like usual, they make cookies.

The novel skips ahead two months, and Bett emails Avery on Christmas. Bett’s favorite present was the stuffed dogfish and camp T-shirt Avery gave her. Coincidentally, Bett sent Avery a stuffed owl, as well as a camp T-shirt. Bett asks Marlow to Skype with Avery and Sam, but he doesn’t want to. Avery celebrates the eight nights of Hannukah with Sam and is going to celebrate with Kristina later.

The girls make a joint New Year’s resolution: to get their fathers back together. They discuss how to accomplish this. Since Bett and Marlow are already coming to New York for the play’s opening night, Bett reasons that Avery could convince Sam to bring her to the play on the same night. Avery admits that Bett and Marlow’s upcoming trip to New York is the best chance they’ll get, but she doubts Sam will want to see Kristina’s play given their custody battle. While Avery waits for a good time to ask Sam about the play, the girls practice the fathers’ favorite song on instruments, in case they need to enhance the mood on the trip.

Avery notices that Sam has been going to a new gym a lot and has a haircut and new clothes. Bett suspects this means he is in a relationship. This turns out to be the case, as Sam has been dating a man named Bob for three and a half weeks. Bett advises Avery to act annoying when she meets Bob to sabotage his relationship with Sam.

Kristina and Sam continue to fight over custody. Bett reflects that families with parents who aren’t together come in all styles. For example, her friend Angel’s parents are divorced, and it’s awkward. However, her friend Zoe’s parents are also divorced, but the family all vacations in the same condo.

When Bob comes over to meet Avery, he treats her as if she is a very small child, speaking in a sing-song voice and asking questions about any collections she might have. Avery is polite but somewhat cold, saying she collects nothing rather than telling him about her myriad collections. After he leaves, Sam explains that Bob hasn’t spent much time around children, having none of his own. However, Avery overheard Sam tell Bob he wouldn’t rule out having another child. Avery suspects Sam likes Bob because he’s very different from Marlow. Avery hopes she never sees Bob again.

Bett agrees with Avery that it’s insulting Bob would assume that she collects things because she’s a child. However, Bett also has several collections and proposes starting a collection together. After some debate about what to collect, the girls decide to press flowers in books and mail them to each other, which makes them “flower girls,” if not in a wedding between their fathers.

Avery counts down the days until Bett and Marlow’s trip to New York. However, with slightly over two weeks left, she still hasn’t asked Sam to take her to the play. Bett suggests that maybe Sam would be more willing to take Avery if she suggested Bob come along as well. This could lead Sam to believe that Avery likes Bob, but things are getting more serious between Bob and Sam; they even went out for dumplings together at midnight.

Gaga emails Bett, excited about the upcoming visit. She describes her typical day, which begins with sharing coffee with the doorman, Dinos, who loves the candies Gaga makes. Then she goes to rehearsal. Once a week Avery visits Kristina, stopping to see Gaga as well. Avery gave Gaga a locket with a picture of Bett on one side and Avery on the other. Gaga hasn’t taken it off since.

Sam asks what Avery wants to do for her birthday, so she says she wants to attend the opening night of Kristina’s play with Bob. Sam agrees.

Bett tells Gaga about the plan to have the fathers meet at the play’s opening night, explaining that Bob will be there. Gaga speaks to Kristina, who believes that Marlow should also bring a date because Sam is competitive and jealous. Kristina has a particular fake date in mind: Javier Martinez, who promises to act very interested in Marlow during the play. Javier is a well-known dancer with the Ballet Hispanico. He is from Cuba and speaks Spanish and English.

The girls continue to press various flowers and fantasize about their fathers’ future wedding.