The book explores the actions of two friends, Aza and Daisy, in the wake of a billionaire's disappearance. The first main event that occurs is the two girls trespassing upon and exploring the house and grounds of Russell Pickett, the missing billionaire, in hopes of finding clues to find the man, so they can receive the reward money. They meet his son in the process, Davis.
Later in the novel, after damaging her burgeoning relationship with Davis, Aza realizes that she has hurt Daisy, who expresses her anger through the Star Wars fan fiction she writes. The two argue, which leads to a car crash after which Aza is taken to the hospital. Once out of the hospital, the two girls reconcile.
The final event culminates the plot of the novel, as the girls come across Russell Pickett's dead body. They give Davis information on where he is so that he can lead the police there anonymously.
Event 1: Aza and Daisy investigate Russell Pickett’s house.
Early in the book, Daisy urges Aza to come along so they can investigate Russell Pickett’s house for clues about his disappearance. Aza knows Davis, Pickett’s son, from when they were both in a dead parents support group. The security guard catches them on the property and Davis ends up talking to Aza for the first time in a while.
The meeting she has with Davis is important because it is the start of their relationship—one that blossoms later in the book. Davis is Aza’s first real boyfriend, and he is also the one that gives her and Daisy $100,000—which Aza saves for college, and Daisy uses to buy a car later in the story. Their meeting and talking is important because it sets off a lot of the character development and emotional connection that Aza has in the later parts of the book.
Event 2: Aza and Daisy get into an argument and car accident.
In chapter 18 of the book, Aza and Daisy are driving to Applebee’s to have food and spend time together. However, Aza has just read some of Daisy’s Starwars fanfiction and realized that the sidekick of the text, Ayala, is based on her. Worse, the sidekick is the worst character in the stories, and people hate her. This leads to a long dialogue and a fight between her and Daisy where Daisy tells her the metaphor that Mychal created to describe hanging out with Aza,
“ . . . you’re like mustard. Great in small quantities, but then a lot of you is . . . a lot.”
The fight is a main event because it is a turning point not only in their relationship but it also pushes Aza a bit to learn that she is not always a great friend. It also leads to the car accident that puts Aza in the hospital, a place where she cannot stand to be and leads to her drinking hand sanitizer to become “clean”—something she is continually obsessing over because of her OCD. Without Daisy, Aza is a colossal mess, and they have to make up for Aza to deal with the ending of the story.
Event 3: Aza and Daisy find Russel Pickett’s Body
After the art show in chapter 22, Aza and Daisy are walking through the tunnels that are off the Pickett Engineering Project. As they sit at the mouth of Pogue’s Run, they realize that it is “the jogger’s mouth” from the cryptic messages and that this is where Pickett would have been hiding. However, the smell down in the tunnel is terrible, and they assume that he is dead. Aza decides to tell Davis and let him decide if they will alert the police.
Davis calls in an anonymous tip to the police, and then he determines that it is best if he and his brother move to Colorado for boarding school. Davis’s choice to call in the possible body and Aza giving him the option are significant because it is the end of the mystery, the end of their relationship, and the moment when Davis has to give up his wealthy lifestyle—because his father left his entire fortune to the research of tuatara blood.
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