Catherine struggles to get her brother David into the family car for his occupational therapy appointment.

Catherine draws Jason's picture in the clinic waiting room, and he uses his word book to tell her to stop.

Catherine apologizes to Jason about the guitar and tears her drawing of a house from her sketchbook to give him.

Mrs. Morehouse gives Catherine a set of blank word cards to create new entries for Jason's communication book.

A minivan pulls into the driveway next door and Catherine watches from the porch as Kristi moves in.

Kristi visits Catherine's bedroom and the two girls have their first real conversation.

Jason confesses to Catherine in the clinic waiting room that he sometimes wishes he were dead.

Catherine takes Jason outside and pushes his wheelchair around the clinic parking lot as fast as she can run.

Jason arrives at the clinic with a new motorized wheelchair and he and Catherine visit the nearby beach wharf together.

Jason tells Catherine she is pretty and invites her to his upcoming birthday party.

Kristi turns on music and dances with David in Catherine's room; Catherine turns off the music and they finish the dance posters in silence.

Catherine presents Jason with an acoustic guitar at his birthday party and then hears him play a melody he wrote on his electric piano.

Jason invites Catherine to the community dance; when she refuses, he accuses her of being embarrassed by him and drives his chair away.

After comforting David, Catherine calls Jason's mother to say she will attend the dance, then calls her father demanding he come home immediately.

Jason leads Catherine onto the gymnasium dance floor and she surprises herself by raising her arms and dancing with the crowd.

Catherine spends her summer managing her younger brother David, who has autism, while longing for a meaningful friendship and some independence. A chance encounter in an occupational therapy waiting room leads to an unexpected bond with Jason, a non-speaking teenager who uses a wheelchair and communicates through a word book. Catherine begins creating expressive illustrated cards that open up Jason's world, and the two share increasingly daring adventures together. Meanwhile, Kristi finally moves in next door and the two girls begin building a friendship that is more complicated than Catherine had dreamed. Tensions come to a head at Jason's birthday party, where a painful accusation forces Catherine to confront her own fears about what others think of her. She ultimately chooses honesty and courage, showing up at the community dance and stepping onto the floor with Jason for the very first time.

The core story of Catherine, David, and Jason.

Catherine reviews her list of rules with David during the car ride to the occupational therapy clinic.

Catherine's mother refuses to take her to the park or shopping while waiting at the clinic, always staying in case David needs her.

Jason's mother goes back into the clinic to relay to Catherine that Jason liked the drawing of the house she made.

Jason asks if Catherine can put her name in his communication book and she illustrates the 'Catherine' word card for him.

Jason taps a private message to Catherine across the waiting room, establishing their first secret communication outside his word book.

David drops a Barbie doll into the fishbowl, and through the window Catherine spots Ryan talking with Kristi in the yard next door.

Catherine brings her guinea pig Nutmeg to the clinic and lets Jason hold her as a thank-you for the carrots he sent.

Jason uses the new 'Joke' word card Catherine illustrated to make his first joke with her.

Ryan teases David with an empty gum wrapper and Catherine loses her temper, screaming at Ryan to get out of her yard.

Catherine asks her father working in the garden to plan a simple outing just for the two of them and he immediately explains he is too busy.

Kristi dives off the floating pond deck and swims directly to Ryan on the shore, abruptly abandoning Catherine behind her.

Jason and his mother argue in the clinic waiting room, with Jason using the forceful new words Catherine created for his book.

Jason becomes upset when he sees the 'Together' card Catherine drew showing the two of them on a bench without his wheelchair.

Catherine introduces Jason to Kristi and Ryan at the community dance, calling him her friend.

Catherine and David stand side by side in the dark, looking at their reflections together in the glowing fishbowl glass.

Beneath the headline events of the summer, a series of smaller but significant moments steadily shaped Catherine's world and relationships. Her communication with Jason evolved step by step, from illustrated word cards to private messages tapped across the waiting room, to the guinea pig Nutmeg sitting in his lap. At home, Catherine's frustrations mounted as her father dismissed her requests, her mother remained absorbed in David's care, and Ryan continued to bully David next door. Catherine's relationship with Kristi deepened at the pond before Kristi swam away to Ryan, revealing how different the two girls truly are. Jason's growing assertiveness—arguing with his mother using Catherine's new words and rejecting a drawing that erased his wheelchair—showed how much their friendship had changed him. The story closed with Catherine and David standing quietly together before the fishbowl, their bond restored after everything the summer had put them through.

The supporting moments that quietly shaped the story.

Catherine's mother corrects her for telling David that Ryan is not his friend, insisting David needs to learn to interact with others.

Kristi calls across the yard offering to help while David screams; Catherine says no and Kristi goes back inside.

Catherine decides to create emotionally expressive illustrated word cards for Jason after finding the words in his original book too bland.

Catherine places headphones on Jason's ears during a clinic visit and is startled by the sensation of his hair brushing her fingers.

Jason tells Catherine she is his friend and she mentally qualifies the relationship as only 'clinic friends,' not 'always friends.'

Kristi visits Catherine's bedroom and finds her unfinished drawing of Jason; Catherine is evasive when Kristi asks who he is.

Catherine feels guilty after learning that Jason missed her when she chose to spend time getting to know Kristi instead.

Jason sends carrots for Catherine's guinea pigs; Catherine's father overhears and asks who Jason is, adding to Catherine's embarrassment.

Mrs. Morehouse tells Catherine that Jason's renewed desire for independence and his hand exercises are entirely new behaviors.

Catherine recognizes Kristi near the beach wharf and deliberately hides so Kristi will not see her with Jason.

Catherine and Kristi lie on the bedroom floor making dance posters while Kristi continuously pressures Catherine to attend the dance.

David rushes into Jason's birthday party and excitedly demands cake before Catherine and Jason can finish their conversation.

David insists Catherine fix his broken cassette tape; she screams at him and then holds him sobbing as he collapses to the floor.

Catherine confronts her father outside the community center about his neglect of her; he embraces her and commits to being more present.

Catherine slides new word cards—Complicated, Hidden, Weak—into Jason's book at the dance and confesses she had been afraid of Kristi's reaction.

Beneath the summer's events ran a current of private realizations and pivotal choices that gradually changed who Catherine was. From the moment she first felt Jason's hair brush her fingers while placing headphones on his ears, to the guilty sting of learning he had missed her while she chose Kristi over him, Catherine's emotional world grew more complicated and more honest. She discovered that Kristi was not the ideal friend she had imagined, that her father was drifting further away, and that hiding Jason from her other relationships was a form of cowardice she could not sustain. Jason's renewed independence—his motorized wheelchair, his hand exercises, his willingness to argue—reflected the transformation their friendship was quietly causing in him. The summer's crisis point arrived when David's broken cassette tape broke something open in Catherine too, forcing her to stop running from what she really felt. By the time she slid the word card 'Weak' across to Jason at the dance and Kristi walked in, Catherine had already chosen to stop hiding.