Part 4: Chapters 16-19 Summary

In Chapter 16, Katie recalls her first few years at university. Katie is unable to go home often because of money issues, so she pushes thoughts of her siblings to the back of her mind. Katie focuses on her studies, choosing to become an invertebrate ecologist studying the effects of pollution on the population of freshwater ponds. Katie gives Matt partial credit for this decision because of all those trips to the ponds he took her on. However, Katie thinks she left her family behind her until she met Daniel and he began asking her about the past. Now, in the present, Katie struggles to find the perfect present for Simon, leading once again to tension between her and Daniel when Daniel fails to understand the importance of this gift. Katie finally decides to give Simon, a future physics student...