Chapter 37

On the last day of the semester, Autumn and her friends hold a special gift exchange at their favorite restaurant instead of their usual casual swaps at school. Because Autumn’s first tiara was recently run over, her friends, led by Jamie, each give her a tiara in different colors. Jamie also presents a homemade tiara stand, a meaningful rock, and a burned CD of songs they share, turning the moment playful and personal.

Autumn, who has been shadowed by melancholy for weeks, feels genuinely happy amid the celebration. She gifts Alex a stunt-capable remote car, Angie vintage romance paperbacks, Noah walkie-talkies, and Brooke a silk scarf. For Jamie, she finds a garage-sale Polaroid camera, which Jamie vows to use to document victories and pranks.

Autumn gives Sasha a seemingly withered rose bush that Sasha names Judith; the group jokes as a waiter brings an extra chair for it. Sasha and Alex, once tentative, are now real friends, sharing a private joke over plastic fruit that Jamie promises to decode later. Angie is still with Preppy Dave, who will meet them at the movies, and their easy chemistry is evident.

During a recent double date with Noah and Brooke, the girls dreamed up a shared future, sketching wedding dresses and deciding on swans at a midnight ceremony in an abandoned church, to the boys’ chagrin. The mood is buoyant, and Autumn marvels that she once didn’t know any of them.

Jamie proposes a toast “to us,” and everyone drinks. The toast seals the evening’s theme: strengthened friendships, Autumn’s renewed lightness, and a sense of belonging within the group and with Jamie.