Content Warning: This section discusses mistreatment in foster care, death from a car accident, and the Challenger explosion. Outdated, offensive language to describe neurodivergent people is reproduced in quotations only.

Nova Vezina liked her last foster home, but her sister, Bridget, hated it. Bridget is almost five years older than Nova, and she planned to run away and take Nova with her. Now, Nova is in a new foster home, and Bridget is “gone.” Nova wishes that Bridget had waited until she turned 18 in just a few months because then Bridget could have raised Nova herself, as they planned. Nova will start at a new school on Monday and dreads the testing that will lead to the same conclusions she has heard before: “Cannot read. Does not speak. Severely mentally retarded” (4). Bridget hated that word and wouldn’t let people call Nova “retarded.” Bridget promised to find Nova if they got separated and watch the Challenger shuttle launch with her. The first teacher to travel to space, Christa McAuliffe, will be onboard. Billy and Francine West, Nova’s new foster parents, give her the toy box that their daughter, Joanie, once used. Joanie is in college.