Aven starts high school wearing a sleeveless tank top, choosing not to hide her armlessness from new classmates.

Joshua Baker flirtatiously catches Aven's eye at lunch, while Zion warns that Joshua bullied him in middle school.

Aven visits Henry at the ice cream shop and learns he is an orphan with no known family.

Aven writes a blog post listing twenty goals she hopes to accomplish during her first year of high school.

Aven and Zion go to the mall to find a Comic Con costume, and Joshua Baker unexpectedly joins them.

Joshua leans in as if to kiss Aven at the mall food court, then shouts it would be too gross.

Aven flees the mall crying after Joshua's public humiliation and stays home from school for three days.

Zion visits Aven at home with her schoolwork, and she apologizes for ignoring his warnings about Joshua.

At Comic Con, Aven furiously confronts two boys who call her armlessness freaky, shocking her friends with her anger.

Joshua blows a taunting air kiss at Aven during the homecoming dance, causing her to run out of the gym.

After standing up to Joshua over his treatment of Aven and Zion, Lando quits the high school football team.

Henry suffers a minor stroke and is hospitalized, and that same night Spaghetti the llama dies at Stagecoach Pass.

Aven tells the football coach about Joshua's bullying of her and Zion, resulting in Joshua's suspension from the team.

Lando stages a dramatic superhero-style public kiss with Aven in the crowded school cafeteria on Halloween.

Aven successfully jumps Chili at the horse show, completing her year-long goal after having fallen and gotten a concussion in practice.

Aven Green starts high school determined to face stares and unkind comments about her armlessness with confidence and humor. Her hopes are shattered when a popular football player named Joshua Baker publicly humiliates her at the mall by pretending to kiss her, then shouting that it would be too gross. Devastated, Aven retreats from school and struggles to rebuild her confidence and trust in others. With the support of her friends, she eventually reports Joshua's bullying to the football coach, leading to his suspension and the restoration of her sense of self. Aven's journey culminates in a heartfelt true first kiss from Lando and a triumphant jump on her horse Chili at the school horse show.

Aven's journey through the biggest moments of her freshman year.

After watching Lando's football practice on the first day, Zion invites Aven to attend Comic Con with his family.

Aven introduces herself to Milford, a shy new retiree, after Josephine rudely warns him away from her at the community.

Connor calls Aven to report on his first day at his new school and mentions making a friend named Amanda.

Josephine dares Aven to jump her horse Chili at the upcoming show by pointedly calling her a chicken.

Trilby introduces Aven to punk music at the Stagecoach Pass smoothie shop, and Aven immediately loves its rebellious spirit.

After the mall humiliation, Aven refuses to eat in the school cafeteria and she and Zion eat outside in the heat.

Lando overhears Aven playing and singing during one of Zion's guitar lessons at the Hill house, and she is embarrassed.

At Comic Con, Aven arrives in her Armless Tiger Man costume before anyone tells her the character is a Nazi villain.

Aven pushes Lando away at her school locker by telling him to leave her alone, and he walks off hurt.

Aven finally admits to Zion that she has feelings for Lando, ordering him not to tell anyone.

Zion calls Aven to confess he told Lando about the mall humiliation and about Aven's feelings for him.

Lando slips a stack of drawings into Aven's bag on the school bus; she discovers they show her as a superhero.

Friends and family hold Spaghetti's memorial service on the cactus hill above Stagecoach Pass, where Aven and Zion reconcile.

In the hospital, Henry angrily urges Aven to stop letting other people make her feel worthless and to believe in herself.

At Henry's welcome home party, Aven and her friends decide to form a punk band they call Kids from Alcatraz.

While Aven navigates the fallout from Joshua's bullying, the people around her play vital roles in her story. She discovers punk music through her friend Trilby, quietly develops feelings for Lando, and struggles to maintain her friendships with Connor and Zion. Comic Con brings costume mishaps and uncharacteristic outbursts, while the homecoming dance tests Aven's willingness to connect with others despite her wounds. As the year progresses, Aven mends her relationships and supports the people she loves, including helping Zion open up to Trilby and pushing Josephine to accept Milford's friendship. By the end of the year, Aven joins her friends in forming a punk band, having learned that her chosen family is one of her greatest strengths.

The friendships and discoveries that shaped Aven's year.

Joshua stops by Aven's locker and offers to carry her bookbag; Zion grabs it first and warns Aven to stay away.

Despite Zion's objections, Aven mentions the mall trip to Joshua during lunch, hoping he will show up.

After the mall humiliation, Aven writes a furious blog post vowing never to trust anyone's goodness again, then deletes it.

During a confused episode, Henry mistakes Aven for her deceased birth mother and tells her he knows her mother.

Aven's mother refuses her request to be homeschooled and insists she return to face whatever happened at school.

At homecoming, Lando finds Aven hiding outside and tells her he broke up with Janessa because she had become mean.

Visiting Josephine, Aven discovers that Josephine fell in love with a soldier who died in the Vietnam War and never moved on.

Aven's parents surprise her with a Find My Family DNA testing kit to help locate her unknown birth father.

Lando confronts Joshua when he bullies Aven and Zion outside school, and a teacher has to intervene before things escalate.

Aven finds Henry lying unresponsive on the floor of the ice cream shop and runs outside screaming for help.

Aven attempts the horse jump during a riding lesson, loses control, flies off Chili, and wakes up with a concussion.

Over dinner after her concussion, Aven finally tells her parents everything that happened with Joshua at the mall.

At a punk rock concert, Aven realizes that Joshua and other bullies are the Man who kept her feeling inferior.

Aven uses the DNA kit on Henry rather than herself and locates his long-lost brother Walter in Chicago.

Connor brings his father to Aven's horse show, having decided to give his dad a second chance at their relationship.

Beneath the surface of Aven's year lie the pivotal moments and revelations that truly define her journey. From ignoring Zion's warnings about Joshua to writing a private blog post she never publishes, Aven's inner life is full of turning points that shift the story's direction. Her path to healing involves confronting hard truths about Joshua's power over her, her growing feelings for Lando, and what family really means. She ultimately uses the DNA kit she received to find Henry's long-lost brother rather than her own birth father, revealing her deepest understanding of chosen family. Each discovery and decision pushes Aven closer to the self-belief she needs to fully reclaim her identity and trust in others.