Catalyst

I am nearly done with Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson. What has happened so far is that Teri Litch’s younger brother was killed by an electrocute accident when no one was watching him. The accident happened when they were at the Litch’s new house that was being built. Someone left wires out of the plug and Mikey was playing with them. When everyone discovered him, Teri kept saying “my boy” or “my son”. So Mikey wasn’t Teri’s brother, but he was her son. When he was killed, it was so surprising and I didn’t think that it would’ve happened that way. After Mikey died, Teri spent the next couple of nights sleeping right in the place where he died.
Something else that I remember most from the novel was when Kate won’t accept the fact that MIT declined her and didn’t accept her into their school. She called and pretended she was her mother (who is actually dead), and asked why she wasn’t accepted. The college said that she lacked something special that made her different from everyone else.
I think that there is a huge story about Teri that the author hasn’t told yet. I think Teri had a baby when she was young and no one even knew about it. Kate finally realized that Mikey was Teri’s son after he has passed away.
There is something else about Kate that I can’t figure out. I don’t understand why she needs to be an overachiever so badly. She wants to go to MIT all because her mother did when she went to college. I think that Kate wants to feel closer to her mom, so that’s why she had her heart set on MIT. After she has been rejected, she doesn’t give up on hope of trying to getting reaccepted. Finally, towards the end of the chapter, I think she finally accepts the fact that she has to apply some where else.