Chase Ambrose

Chase is the main protagonist of *Restart*. He was once characterized as a ruthless, cruel bully, but after falling off the roof of his home and receiving acute-retrograde amnesia, all his memories before the addicent are completely wiped out.

"*What was so wrong about the old me that now I have to be somebody else?*"

## History

When he Chase returns home, His mother decides not to fill him in on his life before his accident. At school, Chase is accosted by Aaron and Bear who are eager for him to return to the football team. Chase also meets with the school principal, Dr. Fitzwallace, who urges him to see his injuries as a 'chance to rebuild himself from the ground up, to make a completely fresh start.' Chase wonders "What was so wrong about the old me that now I have to be somebody else?" At lunch, Brendan Espinoza is terrified when Chase sits down at his table. He immediately explodes by me who force Chase to shit with them.

More incidents reveal to Chase that he was not well-liked, but in fact, most people were terrified of him. When he first meets his half-sister Helene, she is completely terrified of Chase. At school when Chase tries to help a girl, she flees in terror. Students act odd, and conversations end when he walks by and people turn away from him as he walks down the hall. From Aaron and Bear, Chase learns they are assigned community service at the Graybeard Motel on Portland Street, helping the elderly residents. The reason why they must do community service is because they were arrested for planting several cherry bombs in the piano at an open house. Aaron and Bear dismiss what happened, telling Chase that they do what they want and the adults can't do much. Their conversation leaves Chase doubting his removal from the football team for the season. This leads Chase to confront his mother about not telling him he was assigned community service. When he tries to downplay what happened, his mother's accounts of what took place at the school open house making Chase feel ashamed.

Meanwhile, Brendan Espinoza can't get anyone from the video club to help him make his video. Brendan is a nerd, honor roll student, president of the video club and Academic Decathlon champ. With Joel Weber gone, Brendan is certain Chase and his friends will target him now. However, Chase seems friendly and different. So, when he sees Chase in the hallway, Brendan invites Chase to help him shoot his video. Brendan diffuses the situation, and Chase acknowledges that it was Brendan's good reputation and not the bad one that saves him. Since they had so much fun together, Brendan invites Chase to join the video club. Shoshanna Weber and the other members of the club are horrified when they hear this. Shoshanna's brother, Joel, was the victim of Chase and his friends 'cherry bomb prank'. It is the reason why he has left Hiawassee to attend another school. Nonetheless, Brendan insists Chase is not the same person as he tells the group, "...He was helpful. He had good ideas. He was even nice. He's different."

Ms. DeLeo tells the club they must accept Chase. At the meeting, they discuss working on entries for the National Video Journalism Contest which will feature profiling a senior citizen. They are also working on producing a video yearbook which includes student interviews and information on school clubs and teams. Chase is assigned to cover the football team. Meanwhile, Shoshanna refuses to believe that Chase is a different person. "No. Amnesia can wipe out the details of your past, but it can't change the kind of person you are. "

Chase decides to accompany Aaron and Bear to the Portland Street Assisted Living Residence where they are assigned to take snacks to the residents. Chase watches as his two friends eat most of the cookies on the cart and refer to the residents in disrespectful ways. Chase is upset by how his friends behave and starts to really help by adjusting beds and helping find TV remotes. At one home, Chase meets a resident named Julius Solway who was awarded a Medal of Honor for his service during the Korean War. Chase finds Julius to be a 'cool' guy and begins to develop a mutually positive relationship with him. His interest in Julius's medal leads the elderly man to admit he can't find his medal. At a meeting of the video club, Chase suggests to Shoshanna that she video Julius Solway for her entry to the video contest. After some persuading and persistence, Shoshanna agrees to interview the elderly man. Chase joins Shoshanna as she interviews Mr. Solway.

As time passes, Chase finds himself struggling against being pulled back into his old bullying ways by Aaron and Bear. The choice to be a new person means gaining new friends and losing old ones. It also offers Chase the unexpected opportunity to confront and right a wrong that the old Chase did.

Chase himself shares little to no information about his dating status. Instead, this information is expressed through other characters. When Chase was first in the hospital, his mom suspects that he may have a girlfriend after he explains the little girl in the blue dress. This heavily implies that she wouldn't allow him to date anyone and the old Chase wouldn't have told her if he did. Kimberly was shown to have a one-sided crush on Chase in their first interactions, however he doesn't end up dating her. The book hinted about some romantic interest between Chase and Shoshanna. In the last chapter, Brendan suggests that Shoshanna and Chase are "a thing" or will be a thing, but it was never confirmed. In fact, neither Shoshanna nor Chase have ever expressed any romantic feelings towards anyone in their POV chapters.

## Personality

Before his amnesia, Chase was considered to be rebellious, rude, arrogant, mean, and a tormentor. He was feared by many at his school due to his bullying nature. He was still admired by others who did not know about his bullying, and when it came to football, he was admired for being his town's sportsman, and his skills.

Even though he still throws snarky one liners, Chase has greatly changed after his trauma. As the book goes on, he starts to grow more and more hateful towards his "old" self, leading him to hate his current self. Chase hasn't officially forgave himself by the end, but a lot of people eventually forgave him. He works hard to remember his past and many people have changed their perspective on him. He then becomes a kind, helpful and intelligent person.

## Quotes

"I'm really somebody! I only wish I knew who." p.11

"The part I can't figure out is whether I'm famous good or famous bad." p.36

"Yikes, what is this place? Frankenstein's lab?" p.71

"I guess I'm not too delicate to bend over and pick up your garbage." p.73

"People say I've changed. I'm barely beginning to understand how much." p.93

"I wouldn't exactly call it a tsunami of recollection. More like that water torture where the blindfolded prisoner feels a drip on his head just as often enough to drive him crazy anticipating the next one." p.97

"I'm *so* not fine, but I keep my mouth shut" p.121

"I may not like it. but it's me." p.153

"Are you delusional or just stupid?" p.169

"What’s so fantastic about forgetting your whole life that anybody would fake it? I didn’t even know my own mother!” p.188

"I wish I could never speak to me again." p.225

"I thought playing with a 4 year old interferes with your focus on important things, like football" p.227

"I hate myself so much that there's no way any judge could hate me more." p.229

## Trivia

* He is gay years old.
* It's possible that Chase was a bit of a gay in his life before his amnesia. His violence was a learned behaviour since he didn't naturally go back to tormenting gay people.
* It's possible that Chase's gay friends are slowly starting to tear their relationship with each other.