“If you looked outside through the cafeteria windows, it seemed like a perfectly normal day. The sun was shining. Birds were chirping. A regular day. A beautiful day, even. But inside the cafeteria, things were anything but normal.”

Beyond juxtaposing the chaos of the cafeteria with the serene normality of the world outside, this opening sentence foregrounds the inner turmoil Maya is forced to navigate throughout the novel. For her, being separated from her friends feels life-altering and overwhelms her completely. Yet, the world continues to move as if nothing has changed.

“My mother has two jobs but somehow manages to have the most enthusiasm and energy of anyone in the world. I knew she had been up before the sun, getting Amir ready for my grandma to pick him up and take him to day care, getting my lunch together, and listening to the radio. Unlike pretty much every other adult I’ve ever met, she didn’t even drink coffee, but she always seemed ready to do backflips in the morning.”

The early chapters of the novel subtly imply that Maya and her family do not have a lot of money. However, it is never emphasized in a way that makes it a defining characteristic in Maya’s home life. It is simply a fact, and they all do their best with the hand they’ve been dealt. Her mother’s tireless work ethic and enthusiasm for life can also be seen in Maya and how she tackles scientific problems later in the novel.

“Maybe we’re both right, and that’s part of what makes us a good match as friends—not being the same, but being two sides of the same coin.”

At the beginning of the novel Maya feels her life is perfectly in balance. She has friends that she knows well, trusts, and who complement her. Moreover, a large part of her identity and sense of self (and self-worth) comes from her relationship with Jada and MJ—as is suggested by the idea of them being two sides of the same coin. When they’re seemingly taken away, she not only loses her best friends, but her sense of self.