Most good stories start with a fundamental list of ingredients: the initial situation, conflict, complication, climax, suspense, denouement, and conclusion. Great writers sometimes shake up the recipe and add some spice.
Exposition
What Happened to Conner Sykes?
Conner's in Aspen Springs, a psychiatric hospital, but nobody at school knows it. Cara's parents have warned her not to tell—after all, it might ruin their reputation. The official story is that he's in a regular hospital for an extended ailment, but when Kendra's mom goes to the Galena High guidance counselor's office for a we-need-to-talk-about-Jenna meeting, she accidentally overhears the truth. She tells Kendra, Kendra asks Cara if it's true, Cara asks who told, Kendra says it doesn't matter, and the next thing you know, it's all over school.
You know how this works.
Rising Action
Taking a Ride on the Self-Destruction Express
Who's not self-destructing in Perfect? Sure, Cara and Andre are keeping it together, but they're definitely not following their dreams. Sean and Kendra, on the other hand, are on a bullet train to the funeral home and/or jail. Sean starts doing steroids, Kendra's eating disorder progresses, plus there's parental conflict and secrecy galore, with Cara hiding her sexual identity, Andre hiding his dance identity, Kendra hiding what she has to do to get modeling jobs, and Sean hiding the fact that he's on drugs.
Everybody's being pressured to get into a good school in the Bay Area (specifically, Stanford), except for Kendra, who's being pressured to work the runway.
Climax
Death and Near-Death
Everything comes to a head when Jenna gets raped, beaten, and stabbed, and Conner dies by suicide. Kendra has a supremely bad day when she gets the call about Jenna, goes to the hospital to be with her, and gets the call about Conner while sitting by Jenna's bed. Crises don't come much bigger than that. Cara's dad breaks down, but her mom remains calm—after all, somebody has to make the funeral arrangements and order the hors d'oeuvres.
Falling Action
Epiphany-O-Rama
All the narrators come together for the first time at Conner's funeral. Sean goes with Shantell, Cara goes with Dani, Sean goes with Aubree, and Kendra goes with her mom. All of them have epiphanies except Kendra, who arrives with an eating disorder and leaves with one. Sean realizes he needs to be happy on his own instead of needing Cara (or Aubree, or some other girl), Andre realizes he has to come out to the world as a dancer, and Cara realizes she has to come out to the world as gay. Cara takes the most drastic and obvious step of them all, though, and kisses Dani in front of everyone.
Resolution
At Least Tony and Vanessa Get It
Tony and Vanessa, the other two narrators of Impulse, deliver a eulogy at Conner's funeral. They're the only ones who really knew him, who knew how scared he was and how pressured he felt. They give Cara one last reminder of Conner's brief time on the planet: the letter he received from her parents on the wilderness retreat. She's seen it before, of course, but Conner has transformed it into a paper airplane and tossed it off the cliff before tossing himself.