47 pages • 1 hour read
The Upside of Falling
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Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary: “Becca”
High school senior Becca starts her day by reading a book near the football field where the football team practices morning drills. Becca’s parents are divorced, but she loves reading romance novels and appreciates that her books always end happily. In Becca’s English class, the students read and discuss Romeo and Juliet. Brett Wells, the handsome football team captain, enters and garners the admiration of the entire room. Becca claims that “half the student body [is] in love with [Brett]” (4), and his family is very wealthy. The teacher, Miss Copper, asks Becca to share her thoughts on Romeo and Juliet. Becca begins to rant to the class about the impracticality of love, but she is interrupted when her ex-friend Jenny points out that it’s “easy to ridicule [love] when [Becca’s] never felt it” (7). Becca notices Brett staring at her, and when class ends, Jenny tells Becca that she reads too many romance novels and is setting herself up for disappointment when it comes to real relationships. Becca blurts out a lie: She is in a relationship. Jenny is shocked, and when she asks who Becca is dating, Brett suddenly appears at Becca’s side and wraps an arm around her waist. Brett effortlessly lies and tells Jenny that he and Becca have been dating for a few months, but Jenny doesn’t believe him. Brett decides to prove it by kissing Becca in front of Jenny.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Brett”
As Brett and Becca separate from their kiss, Jenny is gone. Becca is embarrassed and confused about what just happened, and she quickly leaves as well. After school, Brett drives home with his best friend, Jeff. Brett’s parents have a lot of money now, but they were once teenage parents, and Brett’s father chose to stay in town and become a dad instead of going off to play college football. Brett’s father loves the high school football team, and Brett is “continuing the dream [his father]never had the chance to live out” (16). Brett’s father travels a lot for work, but he never misses Brett’s football games. Jeff mentions that he heard about Brett’s girlfriend, and Brett realizes that word has already started traveling around the school. Brett’s father explains that he has to leave for a business trip to New York, and he promises to be back in time for Brett’s football game on Friday night. Later in his room, Brett looks up Becca’s online profile. He learns that she loves books and baking, and he finds her phone number.
Brett’s father comes to Brett’s room to say goodbye, and he encourages his son to use his time in high school to date around and enjoy being young. His father admits that although he loves his wife, he “[has] regrets about high school and what [he] missed out on” (21). Reluctantly, Brett shows his father a picture of Becca, and his father is delighted. Brett’s dad leaves for his trip, and Brett texts Becca. He offers to drive her to school tomorrow “for fake-dating purposes” (23). Becca agrees. Later that night, Brett’s mother falls asleep crying, surrounded by tissues in her bed.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Becca”
The next morning, Becca’s kitchen is full of cupcakes. Becca’s mom started baking after Becca’s dad left, and she now owns a bakery in town. Becca’s best friend Cassie arrives to pick up the morning cupcake order, and Becca tells Cassie about the fake-dating situation with Brett. Cassie is excited and encourages Becca to tell her mom about Brett. Cassie leaves, and Brett arrives to take Becca to school. When he smiles at her and calls her his girlfriend, Becca has to “mentally [remind] [her] brain to tell [her] heart to continue beating” (31). During the drive to school, Becca shares one of her mom’s cupcakes with Brett. When they arrive at school, Becca starts to get nervous about facing the other students. At lunch, Brett invites Becca to sit with him and his friends, but Becca freaks out at the thought of sitting at the center of the lunchroom where everyone might stare at her. Brett joins her at a table outside, and they establish the rules of their fake-dating relationship: Becca wants no public displays of affection, and Brett wants Becca to come to his football games every Friday. Becca asks Brett why he wants to fake-date her when he could date practically anyone else in their school, and Brett explains that he just wants to appease his dad. They agree to pretend to date for a few months, then part as friends.
Becca decides to walk home from school, and she passes her dad’s house. She remembers the first time she walked to her father’s house when she was 13 and saw him with another woman. Becca’s father hasn’t come to see her in years, and she feels like her father gave up on being her dad. Becca watches from a distance as her father arrives home and kisses the woman and her pregnant belly, and she hopes her father won’t abandon his new child.
Chapter 4 Summary: “Brett”
On Thursday, there is a pep rally at school, and Brett and Becca agree to walk there together. However, when the time comes for them to meet up, Becca is nowhere to be found. Brett finds her in the deserted library, engrossed in reading Romeo and Juliet. Brett decides to watch Becca as she reads, and as Brett moves closer to Becca, she reminds him that they “don’t have to pretend to be dating when no one’s around [them]” (49). She asks if she can skip the pep rally because she wants to head home and start studying for her calculus test next week. Brett reminds her she must still attend his football game the next day. After the pep rally, Brett calls his mom before he heads home. He notices that his mom sounds “kind of lonely” and “a little sad” (50), so he decides to get her a few desserts. He stops at a bakery and is surprised to find Becca working there. Becca explains that her mom owns the bakery, and she helps out sometimes. Becca’s mom is curious and excited about her daughter’s new friend, and when Brett starts to introduce himself as Becca’s boyfriend, she quickly cuts him off and says that Brett is just a friend. Brett takes his desserts for his mom and leaves, and he realizes that Becca is trying to keep him a secret. He decides to learn more about the girl he is fake-dating, and he hopes Becca will agree to meet his parents at the football game the following day.
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
The “fake-dating” trope is popular in the romance genre, and in The Upside of Falling, both Becca and Brett have specific reasons for going along with the charade. Becca feels pressure to be in a relationship from her ex-friend and her mother, and she believes that no one will be satisfied until she starts dating. Becca’s parents’ divorce has left her jaded and skeptical about the likelihood of finding love, and she turns to books about romance to fulfill her daydreams about love. Meanwhile, Brett’s decision to “date” Becca has everything to do with his dad, introducing the theme of Family and Parental Expectations. Brett claims to have no interest in dating, but he wants to make his father happy and play the role of the ever-obedient, perfect son who follows his father’s advice. Neither Becca nor Brett is deciding to date for themselves; they are trying to appease other people and live up to a “high school experience” that has been thrust upon them by societal norms. However, both Brett and Becca are in denial about how much they want to connect with another person on an intimate level, and as the novel progresses, their feelings become more real and less for show.
When Brett sees his mother lying in bed surrounded by used tissues, he assumes she is sad because his father left for another business trip. Brett believes that his parents are so in love that the separation is too much for his mother to bear, but the abundance of tissues on his father’s side of the bed hints that there is more to Mrs. Wells’ sorrow. Light uses this detail to create a powerful visual that foreshadows the truth that will come out later in the novel. The half-empty bed covered in used tissues illustrates how Brett’s father—and the nature of his absences from home—have created misery and heartbreak for the person who loves him. By covering Mr. Wells’ side of the bed in tissues, Brett’s mother lays her sadness on the space that belongs to her husband and covers their marital bed in her tears to symbolize the grief she feels for her marriage. Mrs. Wells isn’t just sad that her husband is gone; she knows what he is doing while he is gone, while Brett remains blissfully unaware of his father’s indiscretions.
At the center of The Upside of Falling is an age-old debate: When love so often ends in disappointment and heartbreak, why bother with it at all? Becca blames her bitterness toward love on her parents’ divorce, but at the end of chapter 3, Light reveals yet another piece of the puzzle. Becca learns that her father, who used to love her and be present in her life, is about to become a father again. Becca thinks about how her father was there one day, and the next, he just disappeared and left her and her mother behind to start a new family. Becca felt discarded by the one man who was supposed to love her unconditionally, and because of this, Becca isn’t just questioning romantic love but all love. While the novel foregrounds the theme of The Risk of Falling in Love, the story also raises questions about the potential pain that can come with any kind of love that subsides. Becca finds comfort in her romance novels, but she knows deep down that they are not realistic depictions of love. After all, unlike in real life, the books always stop after the characters get together and fall in love. The reader never has to watch the relationship fall apart, and Becca feels more in control when she can simply close a book after the happy ending. As she grows closer to Brett, Becca will have to face her fears and decide if love is worth the risk of dealing with heartbreak all over again.
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