# Chapter 01 Initial Draft Assessment

Target: `output/drafts/claude/chapter_01.round_01.md`

VERDICT: REVISE BEFORE SYNTHESIS

Blocking findings:

1. CALENDAR CONTRADICTION.
   Evidence: the draft's printed class card says "EIGHT TUESDAYS, SEPTEMBER 29 TO NOVEMBER 17"; June later says "Eight Tuesdays from the twenty-ninth is November seventeenth."
   Canon: opening is Thursday, September 24; class begins Tuesday, October 20 and runs through Tuesday, December 8; showcase/first snow are December 8; June's lease ends December 15.
   Order: revise all class-date references to the locked calendar. June can note that October 20 to December 8 still ends before the December 15 lease deadline.

2. UNDER TARGET.
   Evidence: draft word count is 2,369 against the Chapter 01 prompt target of 2,600-3,200.
   Order: expand by deepening scene pressure, not padding: more June-specific private goodbye texture, a sharper public-offer pressure beat, or slightly more stockroom dilemma. Do not add a new scene or new canon.

Keep:

- Opening plan and program/object business.
- Label-switch correction as first June/Theo contact.
- Theo's room-flow competence through the wine/caterer move.
- Odile's economical public offer and mushroom/canape beat.
- Stockroom as immediate private fallout.
- Clipboard/ampersand ending.

Do not break:

- No reveal of Theo as nephew.
- No reveal that Odile knows.
- June believes Theo is gallery staff / employee-manager.
- `Winter Kitchen` remains invocation 1/5.
- No assignment-card epigraph; class has not begun.
