Simon's Last Stand

One last adventure. One storm. Six friends carrying more than they can say.Everyone knows Simon.He's the charismatic new kid who somehow became the center of everything - the boy who makes strangers feel like friends, turns ordinary weekends into adventures, and notices the people everyone else overlooks.So when Simon abruptly announces that he's moving away, his heartbroken friends decide he deserves one unforgettable goodbye: one final adventure they'll call Simon's Last Stand.The plan is simple.Cross the field. Make it through the Narrow Forest. Reach the ruins of an old factory where fifty-two people died more than a century ago.But nothing about the day goes as planned.A storm rolls in. The field floods. The forest turns dangerous. Old tensions inside the group begin to break open. Kurt is furious, Noah is terrified, Anika is trying to hold everyone together, Rashmi sees more than anyone expects, and David - quiet, anxious, and used to being left out - may understand the ruins better than any of them.At the factory, they discover a blue marble that may have belonged to a twelve-year-old boy who died in the explosion. And David has always felt things other people don't.Pain left behind. Memories trapped in objects. Emotions too strong to disappear.As the storm closes in and the truth rises to the surface, Simon's Last Stand becomes more than a goodbye adventure. It becomes the day six kids finally see one another clearly - not as the roles they play, but as real people carrying fear, guilt, grief, anger, loneliness, and hope.Lexile(R) Measure: 670L