Counting by 7s

In a flashback to two months ago, Willow is preparing to start middle school and reflects on her adoption. Roberta and Jimmy tried to have a child for seven years before they adopted Willow. Even though her parents are white and she is not, she insists that “somehow [they] just naturally look like a family” (12). Willow is obsessed with the number seven, medical conditions, and plants, keenly observing everything around her. She devotes a lot of time and attention to her garden, which she considers her “sanctuary.” In kindergarten, evaluations deemed her “highly gifted,” but she does not consider labeling people a good thing. She believes that “every person has lots of ingredients to make them into what is always a one-of-a-kind creation” (18).

Several years ago, Willow rescued a baby parrot in her garden. She cared for it until it was strong enough to rejoin the flock, and when it did, she felt both rewarded and heartbroken, explaining: “It has been my experience that rewarding and heartbreaking often go hand in hand” (22). Willow has a gardening outfit which consists of tan layers, work boots, and a red hat (her favorite color, because of its significance in the plant world). She decided to wear this on her first day at Sequoia Middle School, which she believed “would be life-changing,” and where she “saw [herself] as the rare plant, prepared to unfurl hidden layers” (25). Worried the other students might make fun of for her unusual clothing, her parents secretly left her an issue of Teen Vogue to encourage her to reconsider her outfit choice.

Willow nevertheless wore her gardening outfit, and she had prepared for the first day of school by memorizing the student handbook and the layout of the building. Despite this, she felt overwhelmed by the noisy, unfamiliar environment, and within a few hours felt sick enough to call Roberta to pick her up. Since it was “not in her character” to cry (32), she consoled herself by spending time in her garden and later counting by sevens for longer than ever before. 

She continued to make an effort at school, but because she already knew the educational material, she observed her fellow students instead, drawing conclusions from the middle schoolers around her. A week into school, she finished a standardized test in exactly “17 minutes and 47 seconds” (35). She received a perfect score, but her teacher sent her to the principal's office and accused her of cheating. The principal was unable to prove it, but he required that Willow see the school's behavioral counselor, Dell Duke. 

In this chapter, the third-person narration provides background information on Dell Duke. After much indecision in college, Dell finally settled on a degree in psychology and became a certified adolescent counselor. When the Bakersfield school district hired him, he made the long drive from southern Washington, where “no one cared that he was leaving” (40). Now, he is in charge of handling the “difficult” cases of students with behavioral issues, which he knows will determine whether or not he will continue this career path. He has difficulty throwing things away, because owning things provides him with a sense of comfort: “If he couldn't belong to something, at least something belonged to him” (43). 

Despite his trouble organizing physical things, Dell considers labels useful and has therefore created a system of labels for his students, which he calls the Dell Duke Counseling System. His “Four Groups of the Strange” include: Misfits, Oddballs, Lone Wolves, and Weirdos. These color-coded labels help him remember the personalities of his students and allow him to get away with not doing much work. However, when he meets Willow for the first time, “all of his categorization ground to a halt, like a fork thrown into the gears of outdated machinery” (47), because she is different from any other student Dell has met before.

When Willow met Dell for the first time, she noticed he looked unhealthy, and that he was sweating profusely while ranting to her about her test score. Her silence made Dell nervous. As a last resort, Dell decided to play a word association game with her. He became increasingly overwhelmed by her responses and ended the game by muttering a fact about lemurs (he knows this fact because he often falls asleep watching a nature documentary). Leaving the session, Willow sensed that Dell could tell she was different, but she wanted to return for a second meeting because she believed “he somehow needed [her]” (55). 

That evening, Willow's parents asked about school at dinner, and she answered carefully to avoid telling the whole truth. She had not told them about her test scores or meeting with Dell because she wanted them to think things were going well. Omitting the truth, even for a good reason, made her feel uneasy.

During his session with Willow, Dell felt judged and nervous, and could not determine how to classify her in his system. This meeting had a deep effect on Dell: “for the first time in his professional career, he was not just motivated. He was almost inspired” (61). He decided to label Willow as a “Genius.”

Willow looked forward to her second meeting with Dell. Upon arrival, she noticed that Dell had organized his office, where she spotted a framed photo of a lemur on his desk. This time, Dell gave Willow another standardized test to take, and she finished two perfectly during the length of her session. This excited him greatly, and he wanted her to return the following day for a surprise. When she showed up the next day, two students were waiting in Dell’s office. According to the girl, Dell has been gone for most of her brother's session. While the children waited for Dell, Willow noticed their ambiguous ethnicity and could not help but ask if they are members of the Cahuilla tribe, because Native Americans interest her.

The siblings waiting in Dell's office were the Nguyens. Mai is a freshman at Condon High School, and her brother Quang-ha is a sophomore. Every Thursday Mai accompanies her brother to his counseling session, and then they head to their mother Pattie's nail salon. Dell had actually left school grounds during Quang-ha's session. He returned with an orange cat in a carrier, and admonished Quang-ha for not finishing his coloring assignment. Dell yelled at Quang-ha to leave, but Mai defended her brother and criticized Dell for not doing his job well.

Willow was impressed by Mai's boldness. Dell introduced them to his cat, Cheddar, and when he opened the crate, Cheddar ran out the open office door. They spent exactly 37 minutes looking for him, and the children made some Lost Pet posters for Dell to put up. Willow felt a sense of belonging in this shared experience because she was being herself and “they still accepted [her] into their troop” (77). This made her feel “human.” Energized by her new friendship with Mai, Willow decided she was going to learn everything she could about lost cats and Vietnam.

When they dropped Willow off at home, Mai noticed the “jungle” of her backyard garden. After dropping off the Nguyens at the nail salon, Dell drove home, passing by his office. He spotted Cheddar in the parking lot but decided to leave him there to fend for himself. In reality, Dell had only picked Cheddar up that day after seeing a notice online about this found cat. He had no intention of putting up the posters the children made but had noticed Quang-ha's artistic ability from the sketch he made of Cheddar. He found himself “wondering if all kinds of assumptions were questionable” (83), because Quang-ha no longer fit his prescribed label. That night, Dell lay awake thinking about his day and Willow, “the genius kid.”