Spencer that his parents will be upset, for this is his fourth private school so far. Thurmer was correct, and Holden agrees with him, but thinks instead that life is only a game if you are on the right side. Thurmer told him about how "life is a game" and you should "play it according to the rules" when he expelled him.
Spencer sits in a ratty old bathrobe, and asks Holden to sit down. Holden finds the Spencer's house somewhat depressing, smelling of Vicks Nose Drops and clearly indicating the old age of its inhabitants. Holden had recently been expelled for failing four classes. Holden does not attend the football game, instead choosing to say goodbye to Spencer, his history teacher, who knew that Holden was not coming back to Pencey. The fencing team was angry at Holden, but he thought the entire event was funny in a way. Although they were supposed to have a meet with the McBurney School, Holden left the foils on the subway. Holden, the manager of the fencing team, had just returned from New York with the team. Although she is unattractive and a bit pathetic, to Holden she seems nice enough, for she does not lavish praise upon her father. Selma Thurmer, the daughter of the headmaster, is at the game. Holden begins his story during the Saturday of the football game with Saxon Hall, which was supposed to be a very big deal at Pencey. He also mentions his brother, D.B., who is nearby in Hollywood "being a prostitute." Holden was a student at Pencey Prep in Agerstown, Pennsylvania, and he mocks their advertisements, which claim to have been molding boys into clear-thinking young men since 1888. He describes his parents as nice, but "touchy as hell." Instead, Holden vows to tell about what happened to him around last Christmas, before he had to take it easy. The Catcher in the Rye begins with the statement by the narrator, Holden Caulfield, that he will not tell about his "lousy" childhood and "all that David Copperfield kind of crap" because such details bore him.