44 pages • 1 hour read
Lynda Mullaly HuntA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
“I haven’t cried since my mother told me that she was going to marry Dennis. That was 384 days ago, but I want to cry now.”
As Carley arrives on the Murphy family’s porch, she reflects on how she feels and drops bits and pieces of revelatory backstory. Here, in mentioning her stepfather, Dennis, she reveals her disappointment in her mother’s choice to marry him—but doesn’t say why. Also significant is that whatever traumas led Carley from Las Vegas to Connecticut and the hospital—and from her mother’s care to the Murphy home as a child in foster care—didn’t make her cry, yet standing on the porch meeting these strangers almost does.
“Still though, this Perky Murphy is as fragile as they come. She wouldn’t last a second in my world.”
Carley feels increasing derision toward Mrs. Murphy at lunch on the day after she arrives. Although Carley has witnessed Mrs. Murphy’s tenderness and parenting for less than a day, she thinks that compared to her own mother, “Perky Murphy” is both weak and laughable. Carley’s attitude suggests a complex backstory. Shortly after she has the above thought, she chooses to stick with a can of processed soup like she’s used to—instead of the sandwich she’d like to try—which suggests stubbornness and pride.
“I’m not happy that she’s here.”
Daniel interrupts his mother’s blessing over the food the first night Carley joins Mrs. Murphy and the boys for dinner. His bluntness hurts and in a cruel way also validates to Carley her hard suspicions that the Murphys couldn’t really care about her and that she doesn’t belong. Structurally, this line underscores and deepens the conflict between Daniel and Carley and instigates her attempt to run away.
“I’m gonna shut you up for good, little girl.”
Carley attempts to run from the Murphy house but falls to the dirt near an apple orchard up the road and immerses herself in the memory of the night her mother betrayed her love and trust by grabbing and holding her while stepfather Dennis kicked and hurt her. In Carley’s replay of the traumatic event, this line from Dennis clearly shows his motives and aggression, and consequently, reveals that her mother knew what he intended when she made the choice to prevent Carley from getting away.
“I…never cry. What’s the point? It’s just weak.”
After a fitful bout of unruly behavior in the restaurant with Mrs. Murphy, Carley insists that crying is pointless. This line demonstrates Carley’s strong opinion that one gets ahead through toughness and cleverness, not emotion and sensitivity. She often recalls how her own mother said and did “tough” things and encouraged her to be tough as well; to Carley, Mrs. Murphy’s caring, tenderness, and suggestion to release emotion indicate weakness.
“I wonder how I had planned to be a bad guy but ended up with a hero’s name. From the planet Oblivion.”
After she hears Mrs. Murphy sticking up for her in a disagreement with Mr. Murphy, Carley plays superheroes with Michael Eric and Adam for hours. Notably, Carley is surprised at herself when she really enjoys their games and fun. Her superhero name in this scene is Super High Tops Girl, but the more significant part of the name is “from the planet Oblivion.” Carley is beginning to see that her old life wasn’t very full, rich, or fulfilling in terms of both basic needs and love.
“How did the violence begin? What was it you did to get Mr. Gray so upset?”
This line of dialogue from the police officer who visits the Murphy house to question Carley is significant for several reasons. First, it threatens to “prove” to Carley her own deep, quiet suspicion that Dennis’s attack was in fact her fault. Second, it prompts Mrs. Murphy’s immediate dismissal of the officer with words that, Carley can’t doubt, mean that Mrs. Murphy cares about her. Finally, it shows how readily people outside of a situation tend to blame the victim. Carley appreciates that Mrs. Murphy sends the officer away but is so shaky and upset that she hides in her room.
“I answer question after question when I want to scream for them to just come.”
In a pivotal scene that begins with Michael Eric’s seizure, Carley proves both that she can keep her head in an emergency and that she has begun to care about the family. Here, she fields questions for the 911 operator; afterward, she calls Mr. Murphy at work and then stays with Daniel and Adam. In this scene, she’s especially mature in recognizing that Adam needs clarification: Michael Eric went to the hospital, not to Heaven.
“And although I leave with a backpack full of books, I’ve never felt lighter.”
Michael Eric’s safe homecoming prompts Carley to acknowledge that life is short—too short to spend at school when a beautiful library awaits. She skips school and takes Mrs. Murphy’s card to the library, where she consequently discovers that Mrs. Murphy recently checked out a book on adoption. Instead of anger or resentment, Carley feels surprise and wonder; she finds herself thinking about being an actual member of the family.
“Where was I when they handed out these lives?”
Carley attends Daniel’s basketball tryouts because Mrs. Murphy wants the kids to support Daniel. Carley wrongly assumes that Daniel will be skilled and receive accolades as a star player, prompting this line—which is doubly painful because she misses basketball and would like to play again. Minutes later, Carley sees that Daniel isn’t skilled at all and is surprised to realize that she feels sympathy for him.
“You skipped school to go to the library?”
Mrs. Murphy’s question to Carley highlights the unnecessary vehemence with which Mr. Murphy demands to know where Carley went when she skipped school and if she’s hiding drugs behind her back. When Carley reveals that what she’s holding is a copy of The Little Mermaid soundtrack, Mr. Murphy, notably, apologizes for his assumption. That Carley went to the library suggests that she likes stories, reading, and learning—but finds more satisfaction from those things on her own terms than from teachers in school classrooms.
“Am I ready for one of your mother’s fancy lunches, or what?”
Carley’s question to Toni causes Toni to smile at her in the vein of friendship for the first time. Up to this moment, which takes place in Toni’s Wicked-themed bedroom, the two have only sparred verbally and insulted one another. At her house, however, Toni’s defenses drop, and with coaxing from Carley, she begins to talk about her parents, her passion for Broadway, and her thoughts on “clones” (people who conform just to fit in). Carley shows that she’s starting to care about what Toni thinks: She turns her shirt inside out and backwards to break out of the “clone” mold that Toni perceives wearing “popular” clothes indicates.
“I’m even more shocked that the Murphys aren’t perfect after all.”
This line from Carley’s interior monologue shows that, little by little, her image of the Murphys as a storybook family is trending back to reality. What prompts her thought is Daniel’s bitterness toward his father and his father’s passion for a sport that Daniel doesn’t enjoy. Carley’s thought shows that Carley herself realizes she may have labeled the Murphys too hastily—and that even with her own imperfections, she might belong more than she originally thought.
End the agony already. Tell her you’re a foster kid.”
After Michael Eric inadvertently reveals to Toni that his mother isn’t Carley’s mother, Toni suspects that Carley lied to her. Flustered, Carley doesn’t know how to navigate around her misleading statements. Daniel’s resentment toward Carley may be at work here, as he inserts his attitude into this directive, or he may simply be demonstrating the immaturity of a young boy who doesn’t see that he should keep quiet.
“Stay with me.”
Mrs. Murphy tries again after Mrs. MacAvoy’s visit to convince Carley that she can lower her defenses in the safe environment of the Murphy household, but Carley continues to show resistance. Carley is clearly confused and down on herself, as she showed when calling Mrs. MacAvoy to leave but then immediately insisting that she wanted to stay. In this scene she tries to explain to Mrs. Murphy that she doesn’t feel deserving of any good things. Mrs. Murphy’s response above is an attempt to keep Carley talking. However, Carley instead goes to her room, emotionally exhausted.
“Do you know what courage is? […] It’s being afraid and doing it anyway.”
Carley convinces Daniel to summon more courage on the basketball court, where he can’t perform well, she thinks, because he lacks confidence. Daniel begins to take Carley’s advice and makes two baskets in the next game. The line is also significant, though, for Carley; in the impending conflict with her mother, she ironically will be the one who must summon courage.
“I guess sometimes you don’t know what you want because you don’t know it exists.”
Carley confides to Toni that her life with her mother wasn’t as good as she once assumed it to be. This line summarizes Carley’s internal conflict going into the last third of the novel; now that she feels more a part of a “real” family and sees how the loving and caring environment benefits Adam, Daniel, and Michael Eric, she covets what they have. Carley shows how her character is growing twofold with this line: first, in recognizing her shift in feelings since she arrived, and second, in confiding to a friend such a personal detail.
“What would it be like to love someone like that? Does my mother know what that’s like? Will I?”
Carley “catches” Mr. and Mrs. Murphy slow dancing together to an Elvis love song late one night. This sight mesmerizes Carley; her reaction shows indirectly how little she has witnessed positive emotions and secure, stable relationships. Notably, she thinks of her own mother in this moment, as it juxtaposes her mother’s relationship with Dennis against the relationship between the Murphys.
“I mean, all I want her to do is look at me the way Mrs. Murphy looks at her kids. Like I’m the best thing ever. Like she loves me more than anyone else.”
In the card store, overwhelmed with the inappropriateness of picking a message of gratitude and love for her own mother, Carley can’t help but compare her to Mrs. Murphy. In Carley’s biggest acknowledgement yet that she should appreciate Mrs. Murphy’s love and care—and not deride them, as she felt when she first arrived—Carley decides to give a Mother’s Day card to Mrs. Murphy instead of her own mother. This shows how dramatically her character has changed and pulls Carley deeper into subtle daydreams about becoming a Murphy.
“Mrs. Murphy didn’t mean to, but she’s taught me what I’ll never have. Brought me to the candy store and given me just a taste—just enough so that I’ll always know what I’m missing.”
Just before Mother’s Day, Carley asks Mrs. Murphy if she can call her “Mom.” Mrs. Murphy’s response—that she thinks this would be unwise—devastates Carley, and she quickly retreats to her defensive behaviors and self-soothing distractions: She counts aloud and avoids Mrs. Murphy’s presence for days. The incident shows that although Carley feels ready to take an emotional risk, she isn’t ready for the painful consequences if the request doesn’t go her way. She has come far over the first two-thirds of the narrative, but her character arc is incomplete.
“Julie Murphy is a better mother than you could ever hope…”
Carley must work to contain her anger and bitterness when she finally sees her mother after weeks of separation. She feels that she finally knows what it’s like to live as a part of a traditionally functioning family, and these newfound realizations compound her feelings of betrayal over her mother’s actions. This remark demonstrates how widely her opinion of Mrs. Murphy differs now, compared to her initial derisive and dismissive reactions. Her mother, who is likely feeling guilt and anxiety even before Carley’s remark, is defensive and angry, and their hurtful comments escalate quickly.
“I also think that maybe I’m not supposed to be able to save my mother. Maybe I’m supposed to save myself first.”
Carley’s character arc climbs quickly after the negative rehab room visit. After a talk with Mr. Murphy about the need to sometimes leave victims behind in fires, Carley realizes that she can’t heal or fix her mother, nor is she responsible for her mother’s mistakes. For a betrayed eighth-grade girl to see that her self-preservation and self-care is more important than tending to the person who should be tending to her is a big step in growing up. Moments of clarity like this contribute to Carley’s eventual acceptance that her life is in no one hands but her own.
“I bounced around foster care for four years. Not optimal situations. But it forced me to decide what kind of life I wanted. And I went after it when I was old enough.”
Mrs. Murphy reveals that she was once in foster care, too, which is why she wanted to open her home to a child in foster care now. This remark is significant because it shows the irony of Carley’s negativity toward Mrs. Murphy’s almost-cliched mothering habits at the start of the visit. It also provides Carley with the necessary inspiration to more confidently agree that her life’s path can be at her own direction.
“I think of my mom and then of Mrs. Murphy. How she’s both strong and gentle; the two, twisted together like soft-serve Ice cream. I wish hard that there could be two of me. One for my mother. And one for the Murphys.”
The book gets its title from this chapter cap in Carley’s interior monologue. She knows that she will soon leave for Las Vegas and a return to life with her mother. Her maturing insights as well as Mrs. Murphy’s support bolster her confidence and positive thinking about her next steps. Carley can’t help thinking, though, how nice it would be to also stay with the Murphys and continue being a part of the family.
“You’ve been mine, ya know. Hero, I mean.”
In one of her last comments to Mrs. Murphy, Carley references the “BE SOMEONE’S HERO” sign that hung over her bed in Michael Eric’s room during her stay, which Mrs. Murphy has now given her as a going-away gift. The comment demonstrates the extent of Carley’s character arc: Upon arriving at the Murphy home, Carley couldn’t acknowledge or give voice to emotion—good or bad. Now, not only is she willing to speak from the heart, but she also recognizes that not doing so would be cause for regret.
By Lynda Mullaly Hunt
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Forgiveness
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Hate & Anger
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Juvenile Literature
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Realistic Fiction (Middle Grade)
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Sexual Harassment & Violence
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