Maverick Falconer wishes that he could deal with school bullies and his mother's drinking problem and abusive boyfriends, but he starts to realize that others kids in his class have problems too and things might get better if they just survive sixth grade.

Harassed at her middle school, not taken seriously at home, and with a "perfect" older brother, Matthew, to live up to, thirteen-year-old Claire has always felt like her life was cursed--then one morning, when she are her beloved father are talking at breakfast, her father suddenly falls over with a stroke, and suddenly everything changes.