Prologue
THREE MONTHS AGO
It was supposed to be an epic summer. It would be my last summer with Matt and Ches before our senior year and we had big plans—the kinds of plans that involved a whole lot of nothing. Like racing to eat snow cones before they melted down our arms and floating in Matt’s neighborhood pool until our skin wrinkled and curling up together by night to watch every episode of Battlestar Galactica followed by a marathon of our favorite episodes of The Grove (selected by yours truly).
All of that changed the day Matt and Ches showed up at my house during our first full week of summer break and broke the news that Matt would be spending most of the summer with his grandmother in Georgia. Not only that, but Ches would be joining him.
“I won’t go if you don’t want me to,” Ches had said to me apologetically.
But I couldn’t blame her. Matt’s grandma had a soft spot for Ches, who’d never even left the state of Minnesota. I was sad and felt left out, but I couldn’t blame her. Matt felt bad too, but his grandmother’s retirement community only allowed her to host two people at once.
The first few weeks without them were fine. I’d fallen deep down the rabbit hole of Kingdom Keeper, a new multiplayer online role-playing game. I’d tried but failed to get Matt and Ches into it, so that we could play from afar, but they were busy exploring Atlanta. At least they sent me selfies from their adventures at the aquarium and the Coca-Cola museum. Besides, there were plenty of other people to play with in Kingdom Keeper, and putting yourself out there is a heck of a lot easier when you’re an avatar.
One night, a private message popped up on my screen from an orc who went by Sting.
STING: Hey, you’re in the Midwest, right?
A few of us had organized into different regional groups with the hopes of doing some meet-ups. Sting knowing I was from the Midwest was the least alarming thing about him. (Trust me. You should have seen his victory dance. It involved thrusting. Lots of thrusting.)
YOUGOTTAHAVEFAITH: Yeah. The land of cheese and malls.
STING: Cool. A bunch of us are meeting up at Mall of America on Friday. You should go!
I wish I could say I took the time to consider all the reasons why meeting a stranger from the internet was a less-than-stellar idea, but I missed my best friends desperately. Besides, we were meeting at a mall. What could possibly go wrong?
YOUGOTTAHAVEFAITH: Count me in!
Grandma Lou dropped me off since she needed the car, and I headed straight to Nickelodeon Universe, where I was supposed to meet the whole group. Sting said he expected at least fifteen or twenty people. I loved Matt and Ches, but the idea that I could make my own friends separate from them excited me in a way that now riddles me with guilt. What if I’d just stayed home? But I was so lonely without them.
There was only one person waiting for me that day. Sting. A white guy with mussed brown hair and a square jaw. Jeans, a black T-shirt, and a black baseball cap. He was definitely too old to be in high school, but I could imagine him in college. Okay, well, maybe grad school.
“YouGottaHaveFaith?” he asked, a charming smile playing on his lips. “I thought it might be only me.”
“No one else came?” I asked, my stomach plummeting. I was basically one second away from starring in an episode of To Catch a Predator.
He smirked, appearing suddenly boyish. “Just me and you. I guess that’s what I get for trying to make new friends.”
I could kick myself for how gullible I was, but that little response set me at ease. “I know the feeling.” Extending my hand, I added, “You can call me Faith.”
He chuckled. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Faith. It’s Sting . . . from Kingdom Keeper. You can call me Peter.”
Peter and I spent the whole day together, riding roller coasters, eating pretzels, and playing with all the different gadgets in the types of stores people rush to for Father’s Day. At the end of the day, when it was nearly time for Grandma Lou to pick me up, Peter and I took one last turn at the pretzel place.
“I think you might be special, Faith,” he said. “Have you ever felt like you were special?”
I snorted. “Uh, definitely not.”
He shook his head, and I could swear he blushed a little. “No, I mean, don’t you ever wonder if your whole life is a TV show and you’re the star?”
I gulped down my orange soda, not sure how to respond, because, yes, of course, I’d had that very same thought, but how could I even admit to that? I’d sound nuts, plus this was quite possibly the cutest guy who’d ever given me the time of day. But there he was, putting himself out there. It only felt fair to do the same.
“I know exactly what you mean. Do you want to hear something really weird, though?”
He tore off a piece of the cinnamon sugar pretzel we were sharing. “Oh, yeah. Lay it on me. I’m the king of weird.”
“So my parents died when I was a kid. Both of them. In the same car accident.”
“Oh, Faith—”
“It’s okay, it’s okay. That’s not what this is about. Well, it is. Kind of. Anyway, sometimes I wonder if them dying was part of some bigger thing. Every superhero and character I’ve ever loved had to go through some awful thing to achieve greatness. What if that was my awful thing?” I sighed, feeling guilty about how self-centered I knew I sounded. My parents didn’t live and die just so I could be a superhero or something ridiculous like that. “Some days,” I say, “that was the only way I could get past it all, pretending that their death was part of some bigger picture. But it wasn’t. They’re just dead. Gone. Forever. No higher—”
“Faith.” He looked straight at me, unflinching. In a matter of moments, he’d become someone or something else completely. There was nothing boyish about him anymore. “What if I told you there was a way to find out? A way to get the answer to every question you’d ever asked? Maybe your parents’ death was for a higher purpose.”
“But—how could—”
“There’s only one way to find out. I’ve been through some shit, Faith, okay? I’m not perfect.” He zoned out for a second, concentrating on his hands before shaking his head. “Hell, I don’t even know that I’m good, but sometimes the only way I can cope with it all is to know that everything I’ve done and everything that’s happened to me has brought me to this point.” He shook his head, and for the first time I felt like maybe I was getting a glimpse of the real Peter and not the guy who was trying to be on his best behavior or feeding me some line I’d want to hear.
After a moment, Peter looked me right in the eye. “I know I haven’t given you a lot of reasons to trust me. As far as you know, I’m just some rando from the internet, but Faith, I need you to know that I’ve felt lost like you do and sometimes I still feel lost. What I’m offering isn’t a magic pill. But I think there’s something special about you, and I think you might have the kind of potential you can’t even begin to imagine.”
I felt like he was dancing around the real question here. “I don’t quite understand what exactly it is you’re saying.”
He must have seen the skepticism on my face, because he added, “Your parents were great people, Faith. I believe that every moment in our lives serves a purpose, and maybe everything in your life has led you here to this moment. I don’t know for sure, but I bet Jack and Caroline would agree.”