Unspecified suburbia forms the setting for the story. Halley and Scarlett live in Lakeview, a "Neighborhood of Friends"— or fiends, as kids frequently change the sign to read—whose only distinguishing characteristic is the new airport three miles away so that a constant stream of airplanes fly over the houses.

The setting could be almost any middle class enclave. Halley and Scarlett work at Milton's Market, the grocery store at the mall down the road. They attend high school where the counselor messes up schedules; go to the lake for picnics and other recreational activities; and explore new relationships both at school and away from it; They eat at McDonald's, shop at the mall, and speak with no perceptible dialect.

While no specific date is given for the story, Halley talks about watching Halley's Comet with her grandmother the winter she was six years old. Since...