Going too Far (50-99)

Summary
After her first night assisting Officer After's job, Meg found out that he was a guy who graduated from her school, who sat in the same Spanish class as her last year and who is only nineteen years old. Tiffany realized it first and then told Meg when they all encountered at the hospital. Officer After nodded after Meg asked for clarification and she realized she was way wrong about him being forty with a wife and five kids. His real name is John After but people often called him Johnafter in high school. After staring at his picture in the yearbook and seeing how much he changed himself during police academy, she realized she had a crush on him. However, things went a little downhill the next night on the job when John told Meg that he picked her to do the police work with him under the program because she reminded him of the girl that died earlier on the same railroad tracks Meg was rescued from. He told her that both of them thought they needed a boy to show them life knowing he is nothing but trouble and they won't admit it to themselves. Meg screamed at him and released herself from the police car. They had a brief talk and then headed back to searching for criminals which was easy to do since Meg had a 'brilliant criminal mind' and knew where the criminals would hid themselves.
During this section, Meg also met John's High School friends who invited her to a party which John disapproved of and became irritated when Meg said yes, she would be there. He is trying to protect her, but Meg only wants to play by her rules.

Quote
"He turned to me with his arms crossed on his chest. Which of course he should not have done, because I knew exactly what that meant. He felt vulnerable" (Echols 80).

Reaction
Once Meg found out that Officer Meg was only nineteen she started to realized how vulnerable he was. She continued to notice and note every move he made that made it clear that he was vulnerable. When he crossed his arms against his chest, I guess that symbolizes that his heart is fragile and that he can't afford to get it broken by this blue-haired criminal who is only a year and a half younger than him. Maybe that is why she thought also. Either way, she is good at figuring out people and their feelings, not only John's but other characters in the story also.