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Chapter 1 - One hundred thirty-six days before In the first chapter, Miles Halter is introduced as the main character. Miles is leaving his home and his parents in Florida to attend a boarding school in Alabama. His mother throws him a going away party. Miles does not expect anybody to show up to this party. Two people from his school show up, Marie and Will, but Miles does not feel in any way excited about this. It is revealed that Miles does not excel at small talk or socializing with others. His father and his uncles have attended Culver Creek, the boarding school he is going to attend, so this is family related. Miles mentions François Rabelais, a poet, who’s last words were “I go to seek a Great Perhaps”. This affects Miles in a way he cannot understand. Chapter 2 - One hundred twenty-eight days before Miles arrives at his destination at Culver Creek, where it is much hotter than he anticipated and that he was used to back in Florida. He says goodbye to his parents and gets settled into his new dorm room, room 43. Miles describes his room, which contains no air conditioning and a very small shower. He meets his new roommate, who introduces himself as Chip Martin. Chip makes Miles understand that his nickname is the Colonel and should therefor call him that from now on, and the Colonel gives the nickname “Pudge” to Miles. Chip introduces introduces Miles to Alaska Young, who lives in room 48, and who provides cigarettes. Miles is immediately attracted to her. Miles tries his first cigarette and hates it. The Colonel and Alaska inform Miles about the the main rule at Culver Creek : to not snitch. They also inform him about the Eagle, who is the dean of students and disciplines the students. Chapter 3 - One hundred twenty-seven days before Miles becomes increasingly interested with Alaska and is constantly asking the Colonel questions about her and her background. The Colonel introduces Miles to his friend Takumi. In the middle of that night, Miles gets kidnapped by a group that the Colonel refers to as the “weekend warriors”, because they are wealthy kids who can afford to go home on the weekends. They take Miles and tie him up, and they tell him they’re doing this because he hangs out with the Colonel, and they dump him into the lake. Miles eventually gets out, and gets back to his room. When Miles tells the Colonel what happened, the Colonel gets extremely angry because this is usually what they do to newcomers, but they have never tied them up. The Colonel is aware that Miles could have died and promises to seek revenge upon them. Chapter 4 - One hundred twenty-six days before This chapter begins with the first day of classes at Culver Creek. Miles attends his french class, his world religions class and his biology class. Miles especially enjoys his world religions class because of the teacher, Dr. Hyde, who seems very intriguing to him. Chapter 5- One hundred twenty-two days before The Colonel’s girlfriend, Sara, comes to the dorm room to pick up the Colonel to go to the opera with her parents. Sara gets angry with the Colonel because his shirt isn’t ironed and she ends up storming out and leaving the Colonel behind. Sara calls the Colonel briefly after and tells him that the weekend warriors believe he ratted out a couple, Paul and Marya, who got kicked out last year for drinking and smoking. The Colonel gets angry because he can’t believe Sara would believe that, but gets over the situation after a few minutes and a few drinks. The Colonel mixes vodka with his milk to ensure the Eagle can never find it. Chapter 6 - One hundred ten days before Miles gets distracted by looking outside the window in Dr. Hyde’s class, and gets kicked out for not paying attention. Alaska gets kicked out also for pointing out how ridiculous the reasoning was. Miles is very upset because he does not want to make a bad impression upon Dr. Hyde. After this event, Miles, Takumi, the Colonel and Alaska head down to the forest to smoke cigarettes. Chapter 7 - One hundred nine days before Miles and the Colonel attend the first basketball game of the season at Culver Creek. Miles expresses about how deeply he hates everything about sports. The weekend warriors try to make truce with Miles and the Colonel by explaining they pulled the prank on Miles as revenge for the Colonel snitching. Since the Colonel didn’t snitch, they decide to deny their truce. The Colonel still wants revenge. The Colonel explains to Miles how he has managed to get kicked out of every basketball game since he’s been at the school, because of his behavior and attempts to distract the visitor team. Chapter 8 - One hundred eight days before Dr. Hype approaches Miles to let him know that he needs to pay attention to the class because he can tell that he enjoys the class, but has to stay focused. Chapter 9 - One hundred one days before Miles goes with Alaska, in her car, with a few other people to McDonalds in order to study for their upcoming precalc test. A sophomore, Lara, a girl from Russia, ends up sitting on Miles’ lap. Miles is somewhat attracted to her. The group spend the afternoon studying together. Chapter 10 - One hundred days before Miles spends some time alone with Alaska and decides to ask her about her first name. Alaska explains that her parents could not agree on a name, so they decided to let her choose her own name when she is old enough to do so. She explained that she choose the name at the time because Alaska was a big place, and it was far from Alabama, like she wanted to be. She later explains that she loves the meaning of the word Alaska which means “that which the sea breaks against”. Miles becomes increasingly fond of Alaska after spending time alone with her. Chapter 11- Nine-nine days before Miles, Alaska, Takumi and the Colonel go out by the lake to smoke. After hearing some noises in the bush, the Eagle comes out and catches them smoking. At Culver Creek, this is an offense and the Eagle lets them know that they need to show up at Jury tomorrow, where their punishment will be decided. Chapter 12 - Ninety-eight days before Miles explains what exactly the jury is. The Jury is a group of 12 students elected by the faculty who decide the consequences for non-expellable offenses, like smoking. The Eagle serves as the judge and could overturn the decisions made by the Jury. The Colonel, Alaska, Takumi and Miles show up the Jury and Alaska and the Colonel end up taking the blame, and stating that Miles and Takumi were only witnesses. Alaska and the Colonel end up getting 10 hours of community work. Chapter 13 - Eighty-nine days before Alaska lets Miles know that she is going to try and set him up with Lara, the russian girl. Alaska tells Miles that they are going on a triple date on Friday : him and Lara, Alaska and her boyfriend Jake, The Colonel and Sara, and Takumi who will be tagging along. Chapter 14 - Eighty-seven days before During the triple date, with Takumi tagging along, the group go to the gym to watch one of the basketball games. The date was going well until Miles get hit in the face by the basketball and ends up with a concussion. Miles then proceeded to sit back down beside Lara, and puke all over her lap. Miles is very embarrassed about this, and returns to his dorm after going to see the nurse. Miles gets some rest, and the Colonel tells him about how Sara dumped him. Chapter 15 - Eighty-four days before A rain storm starts and doesn’t stop for a few days. Miles decides it is best to avoid Lara to save himself the embarrassment. Miles tries to speak to Alaska, but she acts very cold and condescending towards him. Chapter 16 - Seventy-six days before Dr. Hyde gives the student their essay topic for their exam, which is “What is the most important question human beings must answer? Choose your question wisely, and then examine how Islam, Buddhism and Christianity attempt to answer it.” Alaska informs Miles and the Colonel that the weekend warriors have played a prank on her that ended up flooding her entire room and ruining most of her stuff. Chapter 17 - Sixty-seven days before Miles spends some time with Takumi. Eventually, Takumi admits to Miles that Alaska is the one who snitched on Paul and Marya. Alaska had done something that could have sent her home, but the Eagle asks her for any information she had in order to stay at the boarding school, so she ratted them out. Miles definitely did not except Alaska to ever be a snitch, but understands the situation. Chapter 18- Fifty-eight days before Alaska tries to convince Miles to stay behind at Culver Creek during Thanksgiving. Alaska is one of the only students who stays back during the holidays because she does not want to go home. Miles doesn’t exactly understand why, but he decides he wants to stay with her, even though he is feeling a bit homesick. Chapter 19 - Fifty-two days before While everybody has gone home for Thanksgiving, Alaska and Miles spend time alone, and the first night they read and drink together under the stars. Miles feels tipsy for the first time in his life. He cannot stop thinking of how beautiful Alaska is and how badly he wants her. Chapter 20 - Fifty-one days before Miles and Alaska spend the next day trying to find ways to prank the weekend warriors while everyone is away. Alaska comes up with a plan to put blue industrial strength hair dye in their hair products while they’re away.