Opening
Three weeks after their disastrous first day, Layken Cohen and Will Cooper orbit each other in painful silence—until poetry, jealousy, and family secrets pull them back into collision. These chapters shift the story from a forbidden crush to a raw meditation on grief, responsibility, and the ways art keeps people afloat when life wrecks them.
What Happens
Chapter 6: The Daily Struggle
Layken and Will avoid each other in class while Layken struggles with loneliness in Michigan. Her new friend, Eddie, nudges her toward Nick, and Layken pointedly flirts to needle Will. Will assigns a slam poetry project—everyone must attend a slam, and anyone who performs is exempt from the final—bringing The Power of Poetry and Self-Expression to the center of the story.
After school, Layken’s jeep won’t start. Will helps, and their first real conversation in weeks breaks the stalemate. He admits he would have quit teaching if not for his duty to his younger brother, Caulder Cooper, underscoring Forbidden Love and Obstacles and Responsibility and Premature Maturity. Nick arrives and interrupts. That night, Layken and Will panic when they can’t find their brothers—Kel and Caulder—and after a frantic search, they discover the boys asleep in Will’s car.
At Will’s house, fear turns to fury. Layken suggests dropping out for a G.E.D. so they can be together; Will rejects it immediately. Desire and despair erupt into a kiss. He pulls away, saying he can’t give her the life she deserves. Layken admits she’s falling in love; he tells her not to. She storms out and calls him an “asshole,” a word that becomes the seed of her poem.
Chapter 7: Mean
Layken frames her “breakup” with Will through the five stages of grief, linking it to her father’s death and bringing Grief, Loss, and Acceptance into focus. In class, after Gavin reads a tender love poem to Eddie, Layken performs “mean,” a furious salvo of insults—“asshole,” “dickhead,” “bastard”—aimed squarely at Will. To twist the knife, she loudly agrees to a group date with Nick. Will drags her into his empty classroom, and Layken unloads about his mixed signals. He apologizes, admitting this is harder than he imagined; Eddie’s arrival ends the confrontation.
Later, Layken overhears her mother, Julia Cohen, say “I love you too, Babe,” and finds a cheesy love poem. She assumes an affair and seethes. The next day, Layken skips class with Eddie in the courtyard. Eddie reveals her traumatic foster-care past and that “Eddie” is a chosen name, cementing Family and Found Family. Layken shares about her father and her suspicions about Julia, and the girls’ bond deepens.
Chapter 8: Duckie’s Revenge
Convinced Julia is cheating, Layken snoops and finds the poem, fueling a bitter, tense dinner. A power outage makes everyone oversleep the next morning. Layken rushes to wake Will; he throws on his shirt over his tie, and they share a quiet laugh in class that Eddie clockes instantly.
On the group date with Eddie, Gavin, and Nick, the pressure lifts. At Getty’s Pizza, they trade stories of the “stupidest thing” they’ve done. On the way to the slam, Gavin and Nick reveal Will’s past: he was a star quarterback until his parents died; he gave up his scholarship to raise Caulder. His girlfriend, Vaughn, dumped him, telling people she wouldn’t marry a “college dropout with a kid.” Layken finally sees why Will refuses to take her future the way his was taken from him.
Chapter 9: Pink Balloon
At the slam, Eddie gives Layken a quick makeover as they discover Will at their table. Eddie performs “Pink Balloon,” a searing poem about the moment she was separated from her mother; she earns an exemption and stuns the room. The table relaxes. Will diverts an aggressive guy, Javi, from Layken. The four—Will, Layken, Eddie, Gavin—find an easy, teasing rhythm; Gavin reveals Will’s high school nickname was “Duckie,” and Layken glimpses a possible friendship with Will.
Back home, Layken opens forwarded mail: a bank statement with over $178,000 and an insurance invoice for their Texas house. Julia lied about selling the house and their finances. Layken explodes, accuses her mother of fabricating everything to move to Michigan for a secret lover, and storms out with Eddie and Gavin.
Chapter 10: The Truth
Hours later, Layken returns ready to fight. Julia denies the affair. The poem is from Layken’s father; the “I love you” was to her best friend, Brenda. Then Julia tells the truth: she has terminal lung cancer. They moved to Michigan to be near Brenda and a specialist in Detroit.
The news obliterates Layken. In shock, she runs to Will’s house and pounds on the door. He sees her face and pulls her inside. She sobs that her mom is dying. When Julia arrives, Will quietly says Layken needs to stay—“She needs me right now”—and holds her through the night, becoming the steady anchor she needs when everything else collapses.
Character Development
These chapters strip the characters to their vulnerable cores, then rebuild their connections through honesty, grief, and art.
- Layken Cohen: Moves from jealousy and spite to empathy and devastation. Her “mean” poem vents rage, but Eddie’s story and Will’s past expand her compassion. Julia’s diagnosis transforms her priorities from romance to survival.
- Will Cooper: His restraint reads as cruelty until his history reframes it as sacrifice. He chooses responsibility over desire, then steps in as Layken’s protector when her world crumbles.
- Julia Cohen: Shifts from secretive and suspect to tragic and fierce. Her lies aim to shield her kids from an impossible truth; her revelation reorients the entire plot.
- Eddie: Evolves from quirky new friend to chosen-family confidante. Her honesty (“Pink Balloon”) models how art can carry trauma into the open and create trust.
Themes & Symbols
The chapters bring grief to the forefront. Layken first applies the five stages to romantic pain, but Julia’s diagnosis forces the concept into its true, crushing context. Grief here isn’t linear; it ricochets—anger at Will, anger at Julia, stunned acceptance in Will’s arms. Poetry becomes the pressure valve that keeps the characters from bursting.
Responsibility reshapes love. Will’s past engraves a fear of ruining Layken’s future, so he chooses duty over desire, recasting their relationship as something that must expand—teacher/student, then friends, then caretakers—rather than ignite. Their love stalls because of obstacles, but the deeper barrier is Will’s trauma and Layken’s impending role as her mother’s support, aligning romance with the hard work of premature maturity and found family.
Symbols:
- Poetry: The language of confession. Layken’s “mean” wounds; Eddie’s “Pink Balloon” heals by naming pain; the slam is a communal truth-telling space.
- “Backwards” Pizza: Kel’s upside-down order mirrors the family’s flipped reality—nothing is where it belongs.
- Will’s Tie: Thrown on wrong in the morning scramble, it marks haste, hidden intimacy, and a life held together by effort rather than ease.
Key Quotes
“I can’t give you the life you deserve.” Will’s refusal reframes him as protector rather than antagonist. He isn’t punishing Layken; he’s shielding her from repeating his sacrifice.
“Don’t fall in love with me.” A command that admits the very feeling it tries to forbid. It captures the paradox of their bond—real, mutual, and off-limits.
“Asshole.” Layken’s centerpiece insult in “mean” channels hurt into performance. The slam lets her say aloud what their roles won’t let her say in private, turning pain into power.
“College dropout with a kid.” Vaughn’s cutting label freezes Will’s trauma in a single phrase. It explains his vigilance around Layken’s future and why he chooses restraint over romance.
“She needs me right now.” Will steps over the teacher-student boundary into human decency. In the moment that matters most, he chooses care over rules, becoming the anchor Layken lacks.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters pivot the novel from forbidden romance to a deeper reckoning with grief, duty, and chosen family. Julia’s diagnosis raises the stakes beyond hallway tension; love now looks like showing up, telling the truth, and holding steady when tomorrow is uncertain. Will shifts from romantic lead to steadying force; Layken shifts from reactive anger to courageous vulnerability. Poetry threads it all together, giving the characters—and the reader—a way to survive what can’t be fixed.