Max: Daniel’s best friend since he was young, he is the opposite of Daniel meaning he is popular, a football star, and wavers between arrogance and confidence. He is accepting of his best friend’s different behaviors but he does not always understand why Daniel thinks and behaves the way he does. 

Raya Singh: a middle school girl who is well-liked, popular, and smart. She is the girl of Daniel’s dream because she is pretty, intelligent, and friendly. She forms a connection with Daniel during a group activity during class where both of them are the only contributing members. 

Sara: a middle school girl who goes to the same school as Daniel, Max, and Raya. Her grade has labeled her as “Psycho Sara” because she seems to isolate herself and refuses to talk to any students. In the beginning, the only person she willingly talks to at school is her 1:1 assistant. There is a commonality she finds between herself and Daniel that creates a sense of comfort for her with him. 

Daniel’s Family: a middle-class family of five with three children and a biological mother and father. Daniel’s younger sister (name) is extremely intellectual, reserved, and enjoys reading books with Daniel. Daniel’s older brother (name) acts like he is too cool for his family, especially Daniel. He does not care about school and spends most of his time sneaking around with his girlfriend. His mother is caring towards all her children and wants to be involved in their lives. His father tries to relate to him but there is mismatch between what the father enjoys and what Daniel feels is important. 

Sara’s Family: a blended middle-class family of three with one daughter, one mother, and her mother’s boyfriend. Sara misses her father who left and blames her mother’s boyfriend for her father’s disappearance. She rarely talks to her mother and has never talked to her mother’s boyfriend. Her strongest relationship at home used to be with her father. 

Daniel Leigh is an 8th grade student at Erie Hills Middle School. In school, he resides on the outside of the popular group because his best friend, Max, is popular but Daniel feels different from the rest of his grade which lowers his self-confidence and socialness. There is a specific reason why Daniel feels different, his “zaps”, which are compulsive actions that come over him and feel out of his control.  His “zaps” are unpredictable and he receives comfort when he can repeat the same actions until “it feels right” in his body and mind. The “zaps” are the strongest at bedtime as he goes through what he calls “the routine” which is a series of actions he must repeat before bed. These actions are typical of a bedtime routine like walking to the door, turning the light on and off, and brushing his teeth. However, this routine takes him hours to complete every night because if he does not do it for the exact amount of time or it just does not feel right he starts the routine over again and repeats it until every action is done correctly. These rules for the routine are self-imposed but Daniel says they are necessary in order to prevent disastrous situations as serious as death. Some nights he will start the “routine” at 11pm and not finish until 3am. Almost every night, his gums are bleeding and raw from brushing his teeth for hours and his fingers are sore and calloused from flipping the light switch on and off. There has NEVER been a night where Daniel has not done in the routine even when he is exhausted or needs to wake up early. 

One day, Daniels receives an anonymous letter asking for his help from one fellow star child to another star child. Daniel wants to figure out who wrote the letter and what is a star child. Within a few days, the fellow star child reveals herself to Daniel, it is “Psycho Sara.”  Sara calls Daniel and herself a star child because they have extraordinary minds. She needs help from someone with an extraordinary mind to help her solve the disappearance of her father. The two of them meet after school to discuss their investigation plan and start looking for clues. Sara believes that the main suspect in the case is her mother’s boyfriend, John. Sara convinces Daniel to go snooping in John’ house for evidence that John murdered her father. The most important piece of evidence they find is a note in John’s handwriting that is an identical match to the handwriting in her father’s letter. 

Even at school, Daniel experienced another series of unusual events. Daniel, who is usually the football team’s waterboy, became the starting kicker on the Erie Elephants Football Team for two of the biggest games of the season. Despite Daniel never making a field goal at practice, he was the team’s good luck charm for both games running a winning touchdown and taking out a strong player on the opposing team. These incidences did not completely change his reputation at school but the football players were talking to him more and it caught the attention of his crush, Raya. 

This leads to a new struggle for Daniel which is managing his relationship with two girls that he cares about and they both seem to care about him. Sara reminds Daniel of himself, she is different and an outcast but he desperately wants to feel “normal.” Raya is the opposite of Daniel, she is everything he wishes he was and being with her makes him feel “normal.” Although Raya seems to be Daniel’s obvious first choice, he chooses Sara as the main character in the novel he is writing. Throughout the book, Daniel is grappling with the fact that Sara might be the one for him and not Raya. Sara is the first person to tell Daniel that he might be suffering from OCD. She gives him a book about the behaviors and thoughts of someone with OCD and he realizes that his “zaps” and “the routine” are his compulsive behaviors that are triggered by obsessive thoughts. This becomes a huge realization for Daniel because he knows he is not alone and they are treatments for this mental illness. 

Very quickly, the scene turns from frightening to heartbreaking as Sara joins Daniel in the house and John opens up about the truth behind her father’s disappearance. John is not the murderer of her father but her father is not missing, he is dead. Her father suffered from a similar mental illness to Sara that caused an extremely bad drinking and drug addiction. Her mother needed help getting Sara’s father out of the house to protect Sara from the negative influence of her father. John helped Sara’s mother move her father into a hotel room by himself and two days later he was found dead. He killed himself with a drug overdose.  This devastating reality was kept secret from Sara because her mother did not want Sara to think that the only outcome of mental illness is addiction and death. 

The truth about her father causes a mix of feelings in Sara. On one hand, she is devastated that her father will never come back and that he suffered with mental illness for her entire life without her knowing; but on the other hand, her relationship with her mother and mother’s boyfriend improves because she understands why they protected her from the truth. This moment ignites a change in Sara as her communication with her family increases and anger towards them lessens. In addition to Sara, the truth profoundly affects Daniel by changing his view on mental illness. Before he refused to read the book about OCD, but now he realizes that he has the control to heal his mental illness and it is critical to heal yourself so the illness does not consume you. The book ends with Daniel agreeing to talk to someone about his OCD and Sara supporting his decision and standing by his side.