After Ever After

Content Warning: The novel deals with themes of cancer and death. One character uses ableist slurs.

Jeff reminisces about the day he met his best friend. He was in fourth grade and in remission from lymphoma when a new student appeared in class. Thaddeus Ibsen, or “Tad,” has also had cancer and was encouraged to sit beside Jeff.

Jeff, who is now in eighth grade and about to walk in his graduation ceremony, remembers the events that led him to this day.

At the beginning of the year, Miss Palma, his English teacher, assigned her students an in-class journal topic. Jeff wrote about overhearing a conversation between his parents just after they learned he was in remission. His mother had been worried about Jeff’s future and the possibility of his cancer returning, but his father had wanted to “go home and live happily ever after” (7). After writing about that moment, Jeff was brought back to reality when Miss Palma called out his name (due to his cancer treatments, Jeff has neurological disabilities that include difficulty concentrating).

On the first day of eighth grade, Jeff notices a girl picking up spilled papers in the middle of the crowded hallway. He stops to help her, and she introduces herself as