Chap­ter 13 of The Choco­late War opens with Broth­er Leon cheer­ful­ly con­duct­ing a roll call, a stark con­trast to the tur­moil expe­ri­enced by The Goober. While Broth­er Leon takes plea­sure in his role as the orches­tra­tor of the choco­late sale, using it as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to stir school spir­it and cre­ate uni­ty among stu­dents, The Goober is wrestling with deep­er emo­tion­al issues. The mem­o­ry of the Room Nine­teen inci­dent con­tin­ues to haunt him, leav­ing him in a state of shock and depres­sion. Ini­tial­ly, The Goober had been seen as an acci­den­tal hero by his peers for his involve­ment, but over time, this sta­tus fad­ed, and he found him­self more iso­lat­ed. Rumors start­ed to cir­cu­late, caus­ing a divide between him and his class­mates. The Goober is left to grap­ple with a sense of guilt, unsure of how to face the ongo­ing con­se­quences of the inci­dent.

As Broth­er Leon calls out the names of his stu­dents, The Goober grows increas­ing­ly ner­vous, feel­ing the weight of the room’s scruti­ny. Every roll call inten­si­fies his anx­i­ety, and the expec­ta­tions of hav­ing to sell fifty box­es of choco­lates weigh heav­i­ly on him. Despite his fear and dis­com­fort, he reluc­tant­ly accepts the task, see­ing it as a way to avoid fur­ther atten­tion. How­ev­er, his mind con­stant­ly drifts back to the guilt he feels from the Room Nine­teen inci­dent, par­tic­u­lar­ly in regard to Broth­er Eugene’s fate. The repair of Room Nine­teen does lit­tle to soothe his con­science; rather, it serves as a grim reminder of the emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal con­se­quences that came with the event. His mind is con­sumed by this guilt, and the choco­late sale has become yet anoth­er sym­bol of the weight of his actions. It becomes increas­ing­ly clear that The Goober’s inter­nal strug­gles, par­tic­u­lar­ly his feel­ings of shame and iso­la­tion, will have last­ing con­se­quences on his abil­i­ty to engage in the com­mu­ni­ty around him.

A turn­ing point arrives when Broth­er Leon calls upon Jer­ry Renault, a stu­dent who has become a focal point for defi­ance. In a moment of sur­prise, Jer­ry rejects the choco­late sale alto­geth­er, refus­ing to par­tic­i­pate in an act that has become manda­to­ry for every­one else. This refusal shocks the entire class­room, includ­ing The Goober, who watch­es in dis­be­lief as the ten­sion builds. Jerry’s bold deci­sion to stand firm is a clear act of rebel­lion, one that direct­ly chal­lenges both Broth­er Leon’s author­i­ty and the estab­lished norms of the school. The class­room falls into an intense silence as every­one process­es what Jerry’s defi­ance means for the dynam­ic of their rela­tion­ships with author­i­ty. Broth­er Leon’s reac­tion, though ini­tial­ly masked by an attempt to main­tain con­trol, reveals his own vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty as he strug­gles to regain the upper hand. Jerry’s sim­ple yet pow­er­ful act of resis­tance serves as a stark reminder of the pow­er of indi­vid­ual choic­es to dis­rupt even the most con­trolled envi­ron­ments.

As the class is dis­missed, Broth­er Leon’s unset­tling smile, which he attempts to main­tain, sym­bol­izes the divide between those who com­ply with author­i­ty and those who resist it. The scene illus­trates the emo­tion­al com­plex­i­ties of the stu­dents, with some com­ply­ing and oth­ers, like Jer­ry, open­ly reject­ing the expec­ta­tions placed on them. For The Goober, this moment marks a painful real­iza­tion that com­pli­ance with author­i­ty might come at the cost of his own integri­ty. His inner tur­moil deep­ens as he ques­tions where his own place is with­in this divid­ed school sys­tem, where per­son­al desires and social pres­sures col­lide. The chap­ter con­cludes by high­light­ing the grow­ing emo­tion­al land­scape with­in the class­room, with ten­sion build­ing around the themes of indi­vid­u­al­i­ty, con­for­mi­ty, and rebel­lion. The Goober’s inter­nal con­flict and Jerry’s pub­lic defi­ance set the stage for fur­ther exam­i­na­tion of author­i­ty, loy­al­ty, and per­son­al sac­ri­fice, mak­ing it clear that the pres­sure to con­form will con­tin­ue to shape the stu­dents’ jour­neys in ways they can­not yet ful­ly under­stand.