Part 1: Chapters 1-7 Summary

In Chapter 1, Lennon is aware that her grandmother is worried about her, but she cannot make herself talk to her about the sudden death of her nineteen-year-old sister a month before of a fatal arrhythmia.

In Chapter 2, Lennon returns to school and finds everything the same, but somehow changed. Everyone is talking about Joe Fontaine, the new student who recently moved to Clover from France. When Lennon arrives for her band class, Joe is sitting in her seat. He had been filling her place as second chair clarinet in her absence. As Lennon tries unsuccessfully to speak to Joe, her best friend Sarah comes into the room and attacks her in a hug. Then Rachel, the first chair clarinet, arrives and ruins the moment.

In Chapter 3, Lennon walks home slowly through the woods, using a scrap of paper she...