The Wave: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Laurie Saunders, the pretty and popular editor of Gordon High School’s student paper, The Grapevine, sits in the editorial office looking around at the empty desks around her. No one on the paper’s staff is as hardworking as Laurie, and she is disappointed in her classmates for being so lazy. Even though there’s no rule that Grapevine staffers need to work during their free period, Laurie knows that if her classmates don’t focus, they’ll never get the next issue of the paper out in time. Every issue of the paper for the last three years has been late—even now that Laurie has been appointed editor-in-chief, her influence makes no difference.

Laurie leaves the publications office just before the bell rings. She walks down the hallway and passes Mr. Gabondi’s French classroom, where she spots her best friend, Amy Smith, through the window in the door. Laurie feels bad for Amy, who is stuck in Mr. Gabondi’s notoriously boring class, and decides to cheer her up by making some silly faces at her. Laurie delights in watching Amy try her hardest not to laugh—but feels a sharp pang of embarrassment when she realizes that Mr. Gabondi, too, has noticed her. Laurie is saved by the bell, however, as the period ends and Amy rushes out to meet her. The girls walk together to their next class—history.

In his history classroom, Ben Ross is crouched over a film projector, trying to make the machine work. He is inept when it comes to all things mechanical, and usually leaves such tasks to his wife Christy—who is also a teacher at Gordon High. Over the last two years, Ross has earned a “growing reputation as an outstanding young teacher.” His students know that he is intense, involved, and enthusiastic about what he teaches. Ross often uses elaborate classroom exercises to illustrate his history lessons more practically.

Frustrated with the projector, Ross heads up to his desk to gather up some papers he wants to pass back at the start of the class. He is disappointed by most of his students’ work—the only A earners are Laurie Saunders and Amy Smith, and the rest of the class’s work is middling at best. Ben is also bothered by his students’ “lackadaisical attitude” towards punctuality and their even more laissez-faire approach to completing their homework.

As students head into the room, Ross asks David Collins—Laurie Saunders’s boyfriend and a tall, athletic running back for the football team—to finish setting up the projector. Next, Robert Billings—the class loser—trudges in. Robert is messily dressed and barely groomed, and Ross feels a pang of empathy for the boy. As the rest of the class begins to take their seats, Ross distributes their papers, chiding them all for their “sloppy” work. As Ross moves up and down the aisles, he realizes that some students are barely even paying attention.