In Chap­ter Thir­ty of “The Choco­late War,” Broth­er Leon con­tin­ues his relent­less choco­late roll call despite stu­dents report­ing their sales direct­ly to Bri­an Cochran. The Goober observes Leon’s appar­ent delight, as he the­atri­cal­ly announces sales fig­ures, rel­ish­ing the atten­tion and the dra­ma it brings. Hart­nett, for instance, is false­ly cel­e­brat­ed for sell­ing fif­teen box­es, while in real­i­ty, he hasn’t sold any. The Goober, sym­pa­thiz­ing with Jer­ry, has decid­ed to stop his sales, his total stag­nant at twen­ty-sev­en.

As the sales con­tin­ue, Goober feels the pres­sure mount. He fakes his cheers as fel­low stu­dents, such as Par­men­tier who has sold sev­en box­es, receive com­men­da­tions from Leon. When Leon calls for Jer­ry Renault, both Leon and the class are poised, with Leon’s voice tak­ing on a melo­di­ous qual­i­ty, indi­cat­ing his excite­ment. Jer­ry, how­ev­er, stands firm, stat­ing he refus­es to sell the choco­lates, which is a defi­ance against the peer pres­sure and unspo­ken rules expect­ed in a school set­ting.

The atmos­phere shifts when Harold Dar­cy chal­lenges Jer­ry’s deci­sion, ques­tion­ing his par­tic­i­pa­tion. Jer­ry responds by assert­ing the vol­un­tary nature of the sale, which stirs resent­ment among the class­mates. The hos­til­i­ty esca­lates as Jer­ry remains unyield­ing. The bell rings, but the ten­sion lingers heav­i­ly in the air, with Jer­ry walk­ing away briskly, ignored by his peers who had once held cama­raderie towards him.

Lat­er, Goober finds him­self in the assem­bly hall where cheers erupt as Bri­an Cochran announces the sales. To his shock, Goober’s name is called with the inflat­ed sales fig­ure of fifty box­es, far exceed­ing his actu­al sales. Although he had pur­pose­ful­ly stopped sell­ing to sup­port Jer­ry, he feels trapped in the room of jubi­lant boys cel­e­brat­ing his sup­posed accom­plish­ment. The inter­nal con­flict deep­ens as he bat­tles with feel­ings of betray­al and insignif­i­cance, cul­mi­nat­ing in tears as he walks to his lock­er, deny­ing any sense of defeat or cow­ardice despite the over­whelm­ing pres­sure from his peers.