Stargirl: Chapter 14 Summary & Analysis

Looking back on this period, Leo finds that his memory blurs, because “head and heart are contrary historians.” Even though Mr. Robineau destroys the tape, everyone knows what happened on Hot Seat by the next day. Mica High is filled with tension over the treatment of Stargirl and how Stargirl will react. But the next day, Valentine’s Day, Stargirl leaves candy on her classmates’ desks, just as she’d done for each previous holiday.

That night there’s another basketball game. The Electrons are undefeated—an unprecedented development—and heading into the playoffs for the Arizona championship. At first, Stargirl only cheers when Mica scores. Then, halfway through the game, opposing Sun Valley’s star player, Ron Kovac, trips and breaks his leg. As his coaches and teammates attend him, Stargirl, too, kneels beside him and soothes him. Everyone applauds as Kovac is carried out of the game on a stretcher. Leo wonders if some Mica students are applauding because they’re happy to see him go. They win the game easily.

Two nights later, Mica High loses to an even better basketball team. The students are devastated—winning had come to feel like destiny. But Leo notices that, as the other cheerleaders cry and listlessly cheer, Stargirl continues to cheer with “ferocity […] [flinging] her defiance at our gloom.” Then, suddenly someone throws a ripe tomato in Stargirl’s face. There’s scattered, bitter laughter as she stands there in bewilderment.

The next morning, Leo finds a card in one of his school notebooks. It’s a childish cut-out Valentine declaring, “I LOVE YOU.” It’s signed with a crude picture of a star and a stick-figure girl.