On the eve of the play, Neil is excitedly practicing in his room when Mr. Perry shows up unexpectedly at Welton. He tells Neil that a friend of his informed him that Neil was in the play, and he demands that he quit the show. Neil begs his father to let him stay in the cast since the performance is tomorrow night, but Mr. Perry won’t back down.

In the dining room, the rest of the junior class is eating with their left hands. When asked by Hager, their trigonometry teacher, what they are up to, they reply that they are trying to break old habits. Hager asks why they feel the need to break old habits, and Knox replies, “[t]hey perpetrate mechanical living […] They limit your mind” (119). Hager tells them to eat with their correct hand and walks away just as Neil is sitting down to join them.

Neil tells the boys what his father said, and the group decides to go to Mr. Keating for advice. They knock on his office door, but there is no answer. Charlie decides to take a peek inside and leads the way into the room. They find a photograph of a lovely woman and love letters addressed to a person named Jessica.