- Macy's boyfriend is going to Brain Camp.
- Okay, okay, it's not actually called "Brain Camp," but it's a summer camp for super-smart kids—which Jason definitely is.
- He's got Macy helping him pack, which, for him, involves making a list and checking it not just twice, but, like, 40 billion times. Wow—obsessive much?
- But Macy explains that Jason is perfect. Like, really. Every single kind-hearted, socially responsible, intelligent thing he does, he does amazingly well.
- All this musing on Jason's mad life skills brings on… a flashback.
- Macy remembers the first day she met Jason, in sophomore English class.
- They were put into groups to discuss Macbeth, but something traumatic had recently happened to Macy, so she wasn't really all there.
- Jason was kind to her, and explained the plot; and Macy felt like maybe he could help her through her trauma, too.
- Back in the present, Jason and Macy hop in the car so that Jason's parents can drive them to the airport.
- Macy will be taking over Jason's job for the summer—working at the library information desk.
- She doesn't really expect to do much else, since she doesn't have many friends. After all, being with Jason takes all of her time.
- They're not a very touchy-feely couple, but as they say goodbye at the airport, he does give Macy a few quick kisses. Quick being the operative word here.
- The goodbyes bring on another flashback. This time, it's to that traumatic experience Macy had been dealing with—witnessing her dad's death.
- She hated the sympathetic face people always made when they heard, and she hated being known as the girl who'd been there when her dad died.
- She hadn't wanted to go jogging with him that morning (the day after Christmas), but had changed her mind and run after him a few minutes later, only to find him lying on the road, a stranger doing CPR on him.
- Flashback over.
- Macy gets home from the airport, and finds an EZ Products box waiting on the porch.
- Her dad had been obsessed with ordering stuff from late night infomercials and had been such a good customer that even now, after his death, they sent him stuff on a regular basis.
- Time for—you guessed it—another flashback.
- Macy's dad's enthusiasm for all those wacky new products was one of the things she loved most about him.
- After he died, Macy, her sister Caroline, and her mom Deborah, all reacted in different ways.
- Caroline cried her eyes out; Macy brooded, silent and angry; and their mom went on a cleaning binge, giving away everything in the house they hadn't used in a while.
- But Macy saved her dad's box of EZ Products from the Goodwill truck and hid it in her room.
- Now, whenever a new box came, she felt like it was a gift for her from her dad—especially since his last Christmas gift to her had been an IOU.
- He had told her the gift would be late, but that she would love it. But he had died before he had had a chance to give it to her.
- Now, every time a new box came and her mom threw it out, she'd dig it out of the trash and add it to the collection in her room.