- That night, Laurie Saunders tells her parents what's been going on in her history class for the past two days.
- Mrs. Saunders isn't psyched: it's all too military for her.
- But Laurie doesn't think it's a bad thing. So far it's been a good experience; it's actually been bringing her classmates together.
- According to Mr. Saunders, anything that will help students "pay attention" (7.8) can't be bad.
- Laurie continues to share her thoughts, and she brings up Robert Billings. How can The Wave be bad if it's stopped kids from picking on him?
- History class, says Mrs. Saunders, should be about learning history, not about learning to be part of a group.
- Things are starting to heat up! To counter his wife's argument, Mr. Saunders says that learning about working together as a team or a group is how America was made. Groups like the pilgrims had to cooperate and act toward a common goal.
- Community is indeed important, Mrs. Saunders admits. But America is also about people being independent and thinking for yourself. This is what she wants for Laurie.
- Once again, Laurie tries to defend The Wave, but her mother just isn't having it. Her father supports her, saying that Ben Ross probably knows exactly what he's doing, and Mrs. Saunders shouldn't worry about it.
- Well, to Mrs. Saunders, it sounds like Ben is "manipulating" (7.20) his students. Laurie assures her this isn't the case.
- (Whatever the case may be, this whole The Wave thing is definitely causing a stir!)
- Luckily, Mr. Saunders changes the subject by asking where Laurie's boyfriend David is tonight. He comes over almost every night to study with Laurie and to talk to her dad about sports and engineering. Turns out David wants to be an engineer like Laurie's dad.
- Laurie tells him that David decided to stay home and study for history tonight.
- What?! Well, The Wave can't be too horrible if it has David studying! That's Mr. Saunders' opinion, at least.
- Cut to the home of Ben and Christy Ross. Ben is telling Christy that, so far, his experiment seems to be turning his class into better students (and better people!).
- They really seem to like being told exactly what to do. Christy understands this: it's definitely easier to do what you are told than to think for yourself. (Pretty risky business, if you ask us.)
- But something about The Wave really bugs Christy. For one thing, Ben is acting like the students in his history class are now better than the other students or something.
- She asks Ben how far he is going to go with his experiment.
- He's not sure, but he's really curious to see what will happen when he continues with it.
- Half joking, she warns him to be careful.