June 1 - June 30, pp 105 - 122 Summary

June starts out badly. George receives a letter from work to say he has been laid off. He begins drinking and smoking heavily. Doreen comes around to sympathize and brings her young son, Maxwell, with her. Adrian calls her the Stick Insect because she is so thin, but he begins to warm to her. She has certain charms—for one thing, she makes excellent jam pies with lots of jam in them. Unfortunately, Doreen answers the phone to Pauline, and when Adrian gets on the phone, Pauline demands to know what she's doing there. Feeling rebellious as a result of all the chaos in his life, Adrian wears red socks to school instead of the required black. He is given a lecture on the dangers of not conforming to rules by the head of...