I’m not a birthday person. At all. In fact, I’m not sure whether I even celebrated my sixteenth birthday at all. Birthdays are stressful. No, really. Okay, maybe you’re either a birthday person or you’re not. And I figured I couldn’t count on every reader to understand this deep abiding birthday-angst that some of us have. Plus, let’s face it, that alone wouldn’t make a very interesting story.

What’s going on with Kim is not just that she’s a party coming up and that her parents are doing the overprotective ‘helicopter parenting’ thing. It’s that the things she thought she was sure about – her friends, her future, and her boyfriend – are starting to seem a little more… uncertain.

I had a lot of fun writing this, especially coming up with names for bands, CDs, and Dan’s rants. I really hope people enjoy reading it!