Finally

Rory’s mother scoffs at the idea that Bunny is trying to kill Rory. She fusses with Rory’s hair, trying to get it to cover her swollen ear. At school, Sari hurries Rory into the makeup trailer and provides her with a woolen hat to cover the ear. Just as they are about to leave, Jake and Madison walk in. Madison is angry when she sees Rory wearing the hat, because it is part of Madison’s film wardrobe. She snatches it from Rory’s head. There is a shocked silence as everyone looks at Rory’s ear, and then Jake bursts into laughter. He sympathetically tells Rory that it seems like she cannot catch a break and asks whether it hurts. As Rory and Sari leave the trailer, Madison throws the hat at Rory and tells her to take it.

After school, Rory changes into the party clothes that Annabelle has brought her for the day’s film shoot. The director sees her ear and tells her to keep the hat on and stay at the far back of the scene. Realizing that it is time to put more ointment on her ear, she heads back into the locker room and overhears Madison yelling at Jake about a role he has turned down. Jake reminds her that his goal is not to become as famous as possible—it is to become a serious actor. Madison replies that their relationship is over.

Back on set, Rory is assigned to sit at a table behind the dance floor while most of the other extras are dancing. Amanda and Kira are also at the table, so she tells them what she overheard between Madison and Jake. Kira is overcome with happiness at the idea that Jake is single. There is a halt in filming when Madison refuses to kiss Jake in the scene. Rory hears Brenda saying that they could film Madison from the back and digitize the kiss, and she gets an idea. She suggests that, since Kira resembles Madison from the back, Kira could film the kiss in Madison’s place. Kira is overcome with excitement, and she faints twice while filming.

Over the next few days, Rory enjoys playing with Bunny and decides that she was being ridiculous to think he had murderous intentions. She does secure his cage with extra-thick tape, however, and puts his cage on the floor at night so that she does not see his glowing eyes. On Saturday, she goes with her mother and Sawyer to the community center, where her mother is taking an exercise class. Rory volunteers to drop Sawyer at the daycare facility so that her mother can make her class on time.

At the daycare, Rory sees a little boy who is clearly upset. He tells her that he forgot to get his book from his sister, who is in the building somewhere, dancing. Rory goes to find his sister and sees a sign for auditions for the Ballet School of America. In the room for the auditions, she sees his sister—a girl of about 16, her eyes red from crying. The boy’s sister has missed the audition time by one minute and they will not let her in. Thinking fast, Rory turns the room’s clock back; when the woman supervising auditions returns, Rory points to the clock and says that the girl is not late, after all. The happy girl goes to audition, and Rory takes the book to the little boy in daycare. In the community center’s main room, Rory runs into Leo; he tells her “Remember […] there are no such things as coincidences” (245). 

That night, Rory has a nightmare that someone is trying to smother her with a pillow. When she wakes up, struggling to breathe, she realizes that Bunny is sitting on her head, slowly smothering her in real life.

Rory returns the rabbit to the pet store. When she explains that he tried to kill her, the manager nods, saying that the rabbit is not named “Kyle R.” for nothing—it is a play on the word “killer.” On her way out of the pet store, she bumps—literally—into Alexa, Natalie, Mena, Heather, and Jess, the popular girls from school. Natalie makes a rude remark about Rory wearing the woolen hat to her party, and Alexa expresses surprise that Rory is invited at all. Rory knows that Alexa is thinking about the IM conversation she had with Rory, thinking it was boy-Rory she was talking to.

Rory’s mother asks how she is doing getting through her list. Rory only has three things left to accomplish: getting contact lenses, riding an upside-down roller coaster, and going to Natalie’s upcoming party. Her mother says they will go to get the contact lenses after school tomorrow.

At the optometrist, Rory watches a simple-seeming demonstration of how to insert and remove contact lenses. When she tries it for herself, however, she finds it impossible to get the lens in her eye. When her eye doctor tries to help her, she involuntarily flinches away again and again. Finally, the lens is in, and she decides that it is not too uncomfortable. However, while removing it, she scratches her cornea. In pain, she learns that she will need to wear an eye patch for 48 hours to protect the cornea while it heals.

Rory asks to stay home from school on the following day. To her surprise, her mother says yes. Annabelle calls, however, and tells her that there is an early-morning shoot planned for the next day. It will be a classroom scene; Annabelle is because it will mean several close-up shots of extras. Rory says she will not be coming to school, and Annabelle is horrified, because this will mean Rory losing her job as an extra. Annabelle threatens to quit if Rory quits, so Rory agrees to think about coming to the morning shoot, but she is starting to feel unsure “about a lot of things” (262) she once thought she wanted.

Rory gets an email from her father: Regardless of her setbacks, he and Rory’s mother are proud of her. She doesn’t know what they have to be proud of, because she feels as if she “messed everything up” (263). She does go down for dinner when her father tempts her with chocolate chip pancakes.

The next morning, Rory’s mother drops her off at school, agreeing to come back to get her right after the film shoot. The director asks Rory about the eye patch. Jake overhears her explaining her contact lens accident and doubles over laughing. Brenda concocts a scene where Jake accidentally opens his locker and hits Rory in the face, injuring her. Then, they film a scene of her walking down the hallway with her eye patch. She gets paid an extra $30 for the day and, even better, gets to enjoy Madison’s irritation at not being the center of attention for a few minutes.

On the day of Natalie’s party, Rory is still uncertain about the outfit she has chosen, but at least her eye patch is gone. Her mother gives her pink lip gloss to wear and then hands her the pouch containing her grandmother’s emerald earrings. Rory is touched to discover that her mother has had them converted into clip-ons. Since her mother knows that the only thing left on Rory’s list is now to ride an upside-down roller coaster, she offers to take Sawyer and Rory to the carnival.

At Natalie’s, Sari tells Rory how good she looks, and Rory feels reassured. Rory thinks about how close she is to completing her list and realizes that she is still sorting out how she feels about her experiences. She watches the people around her, taking note of small details. She does not mind being on her own in the background—after several weeks of drawing a lot of attention with her various injuries, it is actually a relief.

Amanda invites Rory to come to her and Leo’s upcoming birthday party. As Rory watches the other kids at the party, Amanda suggests that Rory has a gift for really seeing what others just look at. 

Natalie’s guests plan to meet up in the pool house for a kissing game. Rory nervously thinks about what to do, and then she decides she is old enough to make her own decision. She goes into a bathroom stall and takes out her phone to call her mother to come pick her up. Just then, Alexa and boy Rory come into the bathroom. In her stall, Rory covers her ears to try to muffle the sound of the two kissing. When they finally leave, she accidentally drops her phone in the toilet. She retrieves it and washes her hands “really, really well” (281). She borrows Sari’s phone to call her mother for a ride home.

Rory goes outside to wait for her mother. She is uncomfortable alone in the unfamiliar neighborhood. A big yellow dog that has escaped its leash comes toward her, followed by a girl that Rory recognizes: the ballet dancer from the community center. Rory realizes that she also knows the dog: It is the same dog she captured for the older woman. The girl asks whether Rory would like to wait inside her house, which is just down the street. 

Once they are inside, the girl introduces herself as Sasha. She explains that her family just recently moved to town. Rory is stunned to realize that she knows all of them. Sasha’s oldest brother is the boy that Rory gave a dollar at the pet store. Another brother is the boy Rory helped find his class on his first day of school. The youngest of the boys is the child she helped get his book at daycare. Sasha’s mother is the woman Rory helped get a job at the bookstore. Their grandmother is the older woman she helped by capturing the dog. Sasha’s younger sister turns out to be Kira. When the family’s great-aunt arrives, Rory is stunned to recognize the mysterious woman with the duck-shaped birthmark.

Sasha’s great-aunt, whose name turns out to be Angelina, explains how she knows the now overwhelmed Rory. Rory asks what Angelina meant by her prediction that day at the reservoir, and Angelina says that Rory already knows the answer. Her family members are a clear example of Rory’s gift for seeing people and situations clearly, echoing Amanda’s words at Natalie’s party. Once Rory understands how important this gift is, she will be able to get to know herself as well as she knows others. This will make her more able to get what she wants in life.

Rory realizes that many of the things on her list were not really things she wanted to do or was ready to do—she just thought that she should do them because that what 12-year-old girls are supposed to want to do. Her mother arrives. She is surprised to hear about how helpful Rory has been to the whole family. Suddenly, Rory realizes that Angelina knew all about everything Rory did without being told. She turns back to thank Angelina, understanding that somehow the older woman played a role in the events.

On the way home, Rory calls Annabelle and asks why Annabelle is her best friend. Annabelle says, “That’s easy. I like myself better when I’m with you. It’s like you see into me and I can’t hide anything” (295). When she gets off the phone, Rory tells her mother that she does not want to ride the roller coaster, after all. She wants to stay home and build a fort. She realizes that she does not need to speed up her life—she is content with who she is, right at this moment. The novel ends with her excited about being in the fort with Sawyer and her childhood teddy bear, Throckmorton.