Chapter 2 Summary

Stella remembers her last birthday, which was when she was in the sixth grade and turning eleven. She describes the frantic way that her mother tries to help Stella curl her hair with the curling iron. She also recalls her father dropping a bottle of wine on their white carpet and her mom frantically trying to clean it up, while her father paid the balloon man for the delivery of balloons for her Miami-themed scavenger hunt party. Stella reveals that her parents were using cocaine but she didn't know it at the time.

Stella and her team for the scavenger hunt are rounding the corner to her house when they see all of the police cars and ambulance. Stella tries to rush past the two cops that are guarding the top of the stairs. When she gets a view into her parents room...