When You Reach Me Chapter 11 Summary

Things That Bounce

• Sal starts playing basketball more and talking to Miranda less. Eventually Miranda confronts him, and he tells her that he doesn't want to be friends for a while.
• Back at school, Miranda makes friends with the girls she's always avoided. They're often mean and have been known to torture Alice Evans, who always waits too long to pee.
• One girl in particular she really dislikes: Julia. Miranda thinks Julia is vain because the girl refers to her beautiful dark skin as "café au lait" and her eyes as "sixty-percent-cacao-chocolate" (11.10). Julia's parents take her all over the world and she has a silver watch "she was always shoving in people's faces" (11.11).
• Julia is on the outs with her best friend, Annemarie. Miranda asks Annemarie if she wants to go out to get food during the lunch period (typical for kids at the school), and they do.
• The two walk to go get pizza, though Annemarie only eats the cheese off the top, peeled "like a scab" (11.16). That's kind of gross, but, nonetheless, Annemarie laughs at Miranda's jokes and invites her over to her house.