Chapter 1-13
The chocolate war starts with Jerry Renault trying out for the football team. He’s not a guy cut out for sport but the coach sees determination in Jerry and gives him another shot the next day. Obie, tired of Archie, Obie both hated and admired Archie. Archie is the leader of the vigils, the assigner. He is the one assigning people with cruel assignments. Obie and Archie are deciding who should carry out their next assignments. Obie got his notebook which is well informed, even better than the school files. They chose ten people; two of them are the Goober and Jerry Renault. The goober was assigned to Brother Eugene’s room. Jerry whose mother just died from cancer was assigned to chocolates. Archie and Brother Leon discuss the upcoming chocolate sale. Archie agrees to help with the chocolate sale as the leader of the vigils even though none speaks of the vigils. The Goober is called by the vigils to receive his assignment. Carter a tough guy and who is the president of the vigils. Goober’s assignment is to enter Brother Eugene’s classroom at night and unscrew all the desks and chairs so the screw is about to fall off. After the assignment has been given out Archie has to pick a marble out of the black box. Every time and assignment is given out the leader has to pick a marble; there are 5 white marbles and 1 black. If the leader picks the black marble he will have to carry out the assignment himself but Archie is lucky and picked a white marble. Brother Leon takes up a student in is class to stand in front of everyone. Leon accuses Bailey; smartest kid in the grade is accused of cheating. In the end Leon turns the moment and blames the students for not siding with Bailey and helping him support his innocent. Archie sees Emile siphon gas out of Carlson’s truck. They talk for a moment and Emile asks about the picture Archie took. The Goober carrying out his assignment, he has been unscrewing for six hours. He thought for himself that he would never finish but then help arrives when about 6 people come to help him unscrew the rest. Jerry thinks about his mother’s death and how his father was affected by her death. He is watching his father sleep and when he wakes up he asks how his dad was. He wants his father to tell him about something interesting in his life but he gets nothing out of it. He does not want to become like his father, he wants more. The assignment in Brother Eugene’s room finally occurs and Brother Leon directly understands that the Vigils were behind this. Brother Leon furiously confronts Archie and violently pushes him against the wall. Brother Leon embarrassing Archie in front of a big crowd of students. It is time for Jerry’s tryout and they get to tryout against the real football team. It takes a few tries before Jerry gets a pass through up to Goober who scores a touchdown. After the practice Jerry finds a note which informs him that he will receive his assignment now. The chocolate sale has begun and it is the first day of roll calls. Brother Leon asks for how many they have sold and they reply. When Brother Leon gets to Jerry he says “no”. Brother Leon upset of the fact tries to convince Jerry to change his mind but still gets a strict “no”. Everyone shocked, even Jerry’s best friend Goober.
14-25
Another roll call and the whole class is tense, waiting for Brother Leon to reach Renault. It is the same as the day before “no” and Goober sees the trembling in Brother Leon’s hands. Two students is desperately trying to sell chocolate; one to buy his girlfriend a bracelet for her birthday. The other one just hates his house and will do anything to get out of it, even if it means to sell chocolate. Archie and Emile meet again whereof this time they talk about the photo. Emile asks for the photo but Archie wants something in exchange. The photo doesn’t really exist, Archie accidently walked into the bathroom and found Emile masturbating and Archie pretended to take a picture. Of course Emile didn’t know he was just pretending. Archie says that Emile will get the picture when he deserves it, when he has done something for Archie. Through David Caroni Brother Leon finds out about the Renaults stunt with not selling chocolates was just another vigil assignment and that it will stop tomorrow. The day has come when Renault’s assignment is over. The roll call, everyone waits for Renault’s name to come. Brother Leon closing up to R and finally calls Renault’s name. Out of the blue and shocking everyone he says “no”. He doesn’t know why he said no and is now stuck and doesn’t know what to do. Renault feels sick after what he had just done even though everyone admires him for standing up against the teacher’s. Contagiously Renault’s stunt is spreading, a lot of other students are thinking of refusing the sale of chocolates. Obie asks to meet Archie in the gym, Obie knows Archie hates the gym and Obie tells him about Renault’s stunt. At first he is not impressed but as Obie explains that this will become a problem for the vigils he gets more concerned because he had agreed with Brother Leon to help with the chocolate sell. Goober decides to quit the football team because of the “evil” in the school. All the cruel assignments and the way teacher’s treat some students. He doesn’t want to give anything back to this “evil” school. Brother Leon meets up with Archie and tells him that the sell is not going very well and that Archie is responsible for not promoting it well enough. Brother Leon threatens Archie that if the sell will not be better Archie and the vigils will go down. Renault gets called to another assignment. Archie delivers a speech about life and that Renault can’t do whatever he wants. Renault is asked to say yes at the next roll call.
26-39
The vigils are delivering another assignment to a Rollo. Rollo is not afraid of the vigils and is mocking the vigils for not being able to control the situation with Renault. Rollo gets beaten up by Carter for his stupid comments and is carried outside. The vigils then realize what the whole Renault problem has caused and know that they have to fix this. Obie found a poster as truth to this “Screw the chocolate and screw the vigils” and they know his betrayal has spread like a dieses. Archie comes up with a plan to make it cool to sell chocolate and make Renault look bad in front of everyone else. At football practice it goes as normal until he receives and tackle and punches after he tackled Carter. He knew it wasn’t carter because he saw him the whole time. At home he wondered who it was and then someone calls. He hears laughing on the other side and he tries to reply but none answers. It kept going throughout the whole night. The next day when Renault opens his locker his poster has been sabotaged and his gym shoes slashed. He knows that someone is trying to tell him something; the tackle, the phone calls and now the locker. At art class his teacher asks about an assignment that he had to give in today. Renault replies that he gave it in yesterday on his desk. The teachers haven’t seen it but he said he would look for it. The chocolate sells have rapidly increased and nearly all the chocolate boxes had been sold. It was word that the vigils were behind the sale and that they had been selling for other people. The Goober feels sorry for Renault and thought it would help if he stopped selling too. It was already too late; the vigils had sold the rest of his boxes for him. When Renault was on his way home he meets up with Emile, Emile tries to provoke Renault and succeeds quite well. Renault then gets assaulted by Emile and some small creatures. He vomits and they finally go off him, Renault goes home and takes a bath. He hears the phone ringing and answers; it is the same prank callers. He hears that the sound is echoing and then notices that the sound is coming from the outside too. When Renault’s father comes home he asked if he knows who it is and Renault decides not to tell him. His father puts the receiver off the hook. Archie asks Emile how the beating and provoking went on Renault. Archie finally tells Emile that the picture never existed and Emile was impressed. When Renault comes to school he feels like he doesn’t exist. His locker has been cleaned out as if he never existed and none notices him not even the teachers. Eventually someone pushes him in the stairs and he hears laughter behind him. Archie has planned to have a raffle tomorrow at the stadium to settle with Renault. The stadium is filling up and the students are buying raffle tickets. Archie had manipulated both Renault and Emile to attend to this event. He had said that Renault could settle this problem once and for all. The vigils had set up a boxing ring in the stadium and the whole student body was placed on the bleachers. Archie tells them the rules and even though Renault is scared he can’t back down now when the whole stadium is filled with students. Renault and Emile have to fight according to what it says on the raffle tickets. The raffle tickets says who gets to punch and in what way. Before the fight begins Obie enters the ring with the Black box. Archie frustrated has to pick to marbles since there are two assignments. He has to pick one marble for Emile and one marble for Renault. Archie picks up two white marbles and he is lucky but still angry with Obie and Carter for pulling this stunt. The fight begins and they get to punch each other depending on the raffle tickets shown by the students in the audience. Renault gets the first hit but he misses it because of Emile’s provoking. The next few hits they both get good hits on each other. Carter unknowingly reads out a card which tells Emile to hit in an illegal zone and therefore caught Renault unguarded. He tries to defend himself but Emile gets a punch on Renault in the temple. In the end the ambulance arrives and Archie who tipped the event off to Brother Leon and they have a talk.
Characters:
Archie: Leader of the vigil, Clever and he need to have control and to be cool
Obie: the one who makes sure vigil assignments are carried out correct. Hates Archie but still admires his decisions.
Renault: Main character, shy, skinny, just an average school boy who never does anything until now when he revolts against a school tradition.
Goober: Renaults best friend, kind hearted, long, and skinny and he loves running.
Brother Leon: Teacher and “vice headmaster”, he always needs to be in control of his class. He is cruel and very dramatic.
Emile: Unlevered bully
Carter: Muscle man and president of the vigils.
