Get a Grip, Man (Bryce)
- After the whole eggs incident, Bryce feels pretty horrible—and Juli is giving him the silent treatment, which makes him feel even worse. Then when Bryce sees Juli trying to clean up the front yard one day, he feels guiltier than ever.
- So Bryce decides that if he helps Juli on the yard, that'll make up for him being a mean jerk. But when he gets home from school, he finds his Granddad is already helping her out. Yep, the same Granddad who sits all day and never talks to Bryce is now helping Juli clean up her yard. Everything about this situation makes Bryce mad.
- At dinner that night, Granddad is in a great mood. Apparently he's enjoying his time with Juli. But dinner convo goes sour when Bryce gets scared that Granddad is going to reveal why Juli is fixing up her yard—but luckily for Bryce, his grandpa doesn't say anything (but he does give Bryce a look that lets him know he knows the truth).
- After dinner, Granddad and Bryce have a chat during which Granddad tells Bryce to start making better decisions. Good advice, Grandpa.
- All week, Granddad and Juli work on the yard and Bryce feels like a helpless jerk. He also spends a good chunk of time spying on them. And Juli just ignores him.
- Finally Bryce apologies to Juli and she forgives him. Phew—now that's a huge load off his back. When he apologies we learn that Granddad's first name is Chet.
- The good news is that Bryce is feeling better; the bad news is that he's about to sit through a rough family dinner. At this dinner Bryce's dad and Granddad get into a tiff. Granddad is happy about working with Juli, and Mr. Loski is upset that Granddad spends more time with the neighbor than with his own grandson.
- Then Mr. L takes things a little too far: he calls the Bakers "trash" (7.81) because they don't keep up their house. This makes Chet super angry. He explains that Mr. Baker has a disabled brother and Juli's family spends a lot of their money on his care; as a result, the Bakers don't own their house and they choose to spend their money helping Mr. B's brother.
- Chet goes on to explain that this disability was caused by Juli's uncle having the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck when he was born—the lack of oxygen, says Chet, is what made him disabled.
- Each family member has a different reaction to this news.
- Mrs. Loski's reaction: She breaks down in tears and becomes inconsolable.
- Mr. Loski's reaction: He doesn't think having a family member with a disability is a good excuse for not making your house look nice.
- Lynetta's reaction: She gets fed up with her family and leaves the room.
- Bryce's reaction: He feels guiltier than ever about how he's behaved. He also has a lot of questions for Chet about why his mom is so upset. Granddad explains that when Bryce was born, he also had the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck—but lucky for Bryce, the doctors got it off in time.
- This has Bryce thinking about what would have happened if the doctors didn't get the cord off in time. With his dad's rude reaction to the news about Mr. B's brother, Bryce has a bad feeling that his dad would've been embarrassed about having a disabled child.
- After dinner Bryce goes for a walk with his Granddad. They actually have a nice time, so that's cool.
- Later that night, Bryce checks out the old newspaper article of Juli and the sycamore tree. When he reads her quotes about the tree, Bryce realizes that Juli is actually pretty remarkable—and he can't stop staring at the picture of her in the paper too. Looks like someone is starting to develop an itty-bitty crush…