EXPOSITION
The novel starts by explaining each of the main characters crazy situations. It starts with Laura moving to her father's place in a very messy and sad fashion. It shows her relationship with both of her parents, which isn't very good. We see Cory's stressed and forgetful personality which makes him seem like an angel compared to how he acts as the story continues. The next character introduced was Sylvie and her family. They were in a rush to get in and out of the doctors, then back to the shelter in time to get the stove for dinner. It represented how obedient Sylvie is and how uncontrollable Johnny is. Their family was always moving and hustling around. We later met Bing and his family at the nail salon. That night their lives changed forever when they had to escape their father. They moved to their aunt's house. We then got to know Ms. Hina a bit, who works at the literacy centre and we learned about her relationship with her boss.
RISING ACTION
At this point, the author foreshadowed not only Bing's high intelligence for his age, but also Bing's sexuality. For Laura, we learned that she's illiterate and she's trying to fix that with the help of Ms. Hina. Her and Ms. Hina were developing a friendship where Laura would come to her room at lunch every day to learn how to pronounce letters. Another friendship was in the making between Sylvie and Bing. Sylvie's family was struggling a bit more as her father is now injured and their suspicions grew stronger about Johnny's possible mental problem. Ms. Hina and her boss seemed to have a couple disagreements about her hijab and how she writes her emails. Cory also disagrees with Ms. Hina's choices and opinions. Cory was angry because didn't like the fact that Ms. Hina hugged Laura. Cory continued to be racist and homophobic.
CLIMAX
During the climax which i believe was during winter, a lot happened. First of all, Bing kissed a boy for the first time and he loved it. A couple of new characters also appeared in the climax. They gave different perspectives of situations we've already come across which was interesting. Sylvie's family enjoyed their Christmas at the shelter and Sylvie has a gut feeling her father won't be getting better anytime soon. Suddenly my favourite and least favourite character died in a fire in their apartement; Laura and Cory.
FALLING ACTION
I believe the falling action was during the spring. The next day after Laura's death, the students and Ms. Hina were all very sad and Ms. Hina made her boss aware of that. Ms. Hina received a heartless message back from her boss and that started an argument through emails. Luckily Ms. Hina's boss was fired and was replaced by someone much more compassionate. Sylvie had another reason to be sad because her friend at the shelter was moving away to live with her boyfriend. That friend was kind of like an older sister figure to her. Bing is confirmed to be a gifted student! Bing's mother was handling a long time conflict between her and one of her perverted customers. That same night she ran over to Rouge Hill to watch Bing perform. Bing performed a rendition of "I wanna dance with somebody" by Whitney Houston. He took off his shirt revealing a pink bedazzled tank top and the crowd went wild. Sylvie's brother, Johnny, finally got tested for Autism and it came out positive.
DÉNOUEMENT
At this point, school is almost out and Ms. Hina seems excited to see the children so happy. Sylvie, her mother, and many students performed an indigenous type of dance to celebrate the end of the school year. Finally, the very depressing part, Laura's ghost/angelic chapter arrived. She had a perspective of what she sees as a ghost. She's with Mrs. Kamal. She suddenly sees necklaces of all the people she cares about. These necklaces contain moving images of these people when they're older. She follows the necklaces into the sky which lead her to her father, who is now angelic. They hug each other and she can feel his smiles, his I learned so muches and his sorrys. Laura is happy now.