What to Say Next

The novel opens with the first-person narration of David Drucker, a high school student. He is privately shocked when the popular Kit Lowell sits beside him at lunch; he has sat alone for every previous lunch of his high school career. He thinks about how names rarely fit the personality of the people they describe, which leads him to think about how certain names do or do not “fit.” He muses that the doctor who diagnosed him with a “borderline case of Asperger’s” was inaccurate in his diagnosis but feels that a specific description for his neurodiversity is unimportant (3). However, he “very much [wishes he] were more like everyone else” (14).

He considers but does not consult a notebook in which he lists facts about his classmates to help remember them, which include several interactions with Kit over the years. These were awkward, but Kit was always kind. He also considers her “the prettiest girl in school” (16). He remembers that his older sister, Lauren, whom David calls “Miney,” has put Kit on the “Trust List” (17).

David abruptly references Kit’s recently deceased father to her aloud, something about which other classmates have been gossiping.