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Chapters 1 & 2

Summary: Chapter 1

Stella Grant, a high school senior with cystic fibrosis, begins another stay in the hospital after developing a fever and a sore throat. Stella decorates her hospital room as she always does: with a new comforter; her stuffed panda, Patches; artwork done by her sister, Abby; and family photographs. After Stella settles in and consults her to-do list, her friends Camila and Mya arrive to pay her a visit before leaving on the senior class trip to Cabo, which Stella can no longer go on due to her illness. Stella helps her friends pick out bathing suits to wear on the trip, disappointed that she will not be able to go on the trip she helped plan but accustomed to missing out on life experiences due to her illness.

After Camila and Mya leave, Stella studies a family photograph and reflects on her determination to stay healthy and alive for her parents, who have recently gotten divorced. Trying to distract herself, Stella records a video for her YouTube account, which she has been using for years to provide updates about her condition and raise awareness about cystic fibrosis. In her video, Stella reports that her lung function has gone down to 35 percent and she is near the top of the list for a lung transplant. She ends the video by explaining the regimen of medications and treatments that she must follow to stay healthy.

After Stella finishes her video, the floor nurses Julie and Barb come in to welcome her and administer an IV drip. Stella sees that Julie is pregnant and feels at once resentful that Julie did not tell her earlier and apprehensive about passing her bad luck on to Julie’s unborn baby. As Barb and Julie leave the room, Barb tells Stella that her best friend Poe, a fellow patient with cystic fibrosis, has just arrived at the hospital as well. Stella is excited that she gets to see Poe, though she notes that they cannot get too close to each other as there is a high risk of cross-infection from bacteria between cystic fibrosis patients. Stella texts Poe, who confirms that he is at the hospital due to bronchitis. Poe is unconcerned, but Stella reflects on her own worries about this hospital stay as her lung function fell very quickly.

For the rest of the afternoon, Stella works on the app she is developing, which creates reminders for people with chronic illnesses and conditions. Looking out the window, Stella sees a happy couple her age walking into the hospital and reflects on her own lack of romantic life due to her illness. Barb knocks on Stella’s door to tell her there is a new baby in the NICU. Stella heads out of her room to go to the NICU but stops when she sees a handsome boy around her age in the doorway of a room a few doors down. He is with the couple Stella saw entering the hospital, and from their conversation, Stella realizes he is letting them have sex in his hospital room. The attraction Stella first felt dissipates, and she continues on.

Summary: Chapter 2

The handsome stranger, Will Newman, follows Stella as he kills time while his friends, Jason and Hope, are in his room. Will is another cystic fibrosis patient, but he is new to this hospital and realizes by Stella’s familiarity with the staff that she has been coming here for a long time. When Stella stops to look at the babies in the NICU, Will approaches her, but Stella ignores him until she becomes frustrated and berates him for letting his friends use his room for sex and for ignoring the hospital’s rules. Barb comes upon the two of them and orders Will to remain six feet from Stella, the distance cystic fibrosis patients must stay from each other. When Will returns to his room, his friends are gone, and he reflects on how lonely he has been for the past eight months since he was diagnosed with B. cepacia, a life-threatening complication from cystic fibrosis. After his diagnosis, his mother pulled him out of school to find different experimental treatments around the world in the hope of saving his life.

Will opens a note left by Jason and Hope that says they will see him in two weeks on his eighteenth birthday. Will feels relief that, when he turns eighteen, he will legally be in control of his life and will stop seeking treatment, preferring to travel until he succumbs to his illness. Will opens his computer and searches for Stella’s name, finding the YouTube diary chronicling her journey, and begins watching her videos from the beginning.

Analysis: Chapters 1 & 2

The first two chapters of Five Feet Apart introduce the relentlessness of living with cystic fibrosis. Stella has been in the hospital so often that she has a routine for decorating her room, knows the staff well, and has made a habit of going to visit the NICU. As with all chronic conditions, Stella’s life is controlled by her cystic fibrosis. While Stella feels disappointed not to be going to Cabo with her classmates, she is not surprised or devastated, showing that forgoing pleasure is typical for her. Will, meanwhile, has accepted that he is going to die and wishes to experience more of life before he passes. For two people who are so young, both Will and Stella seem almost unfazed by their situation, showing they both made their peace with having cystic fibrosis long ago.

Stella is immediately introduced as a character who centers her life around rules, order, and control. Even while out of school and in the hospital, she creates to-do lists to make sure she is productive and staying on task. The fact that Stella was part of planning the trip to Cabo—which she knew she may not be able to go on—shows how much she relies on planning every aspect of her life. Her need for control seems to be driven by the fact that her illness already controls so much of her life, so she takes back control in whichever ways she can. Stella is quickly contrasted with Will, who clearly enjoys breaking the rules simply for the sake of it. Partly due to his personality and partly due to the fact that Will’s condition is much more serious than Stella’s, Will behaves recklessly. But like Stella, Will is reckless because he is trying to take back control of his life. Rather than doing what he is told, Will prefers to set his own rules before he dies.

Stella’s and Will’s relationships with their parents are immediately contrasted as well. Stella arrived at the hospital in an Uber, having told both of her parents that the other was driving, and she is determined to not let her parents worry about her. Stella feels that her parents would not be able to handle her death and she is determined to stay healthy, or at least unburdensome, for their sake. Meanwhile, Will feels that his mother is overly involved in his treatment and is eager for her to no longer control where he goes or what he does. While Stella has taken on the parental role over her own life, Will longs to be free of his mother’s authority.

Next section Chapters 3–5

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