Summary

The novel is narrated in first-person present by the protagonist, Stevie. In Chapter One, Stevie lies awake at night, unable to sleep. She and her girlfriend of two years, Nora, have just graduated from high school in their small, rural town, Wyatt. They plan to run away to California, where Stevie plans to go to UCLA and Nora is going to work on a farm. First, they have to get through the summer. Today, when a woman asked Stevie what her plans were for college, she nearly told the truth instead of the lie she had told everyone else—that she was staying in Wyatt and enrolling in community college. Nervous about what would happen if she accidentally let the truth out, Nora looks through a box of things--including an uncashed winning lottery ticket--that remind her of Nora to calm herself down. However...