A lightning strike made Lucy, twelve, a math genius but, after years of homeschooling, her grandmother enrolls her in middle school and she learns that life is more than numbers.

Eleven-year-old Makeda dreams of meeting her African American mother, while coping with serious problems in her white adopted family, a cross-country move, and being homeschooled.

Eleven-year-old Impy has always felt at home at the Renaissance Faire where her parents work. She starts middle school in the fall. She will soon learn that it's not so easy to spot heroes and villains in the real world like it is at the festival. How will she find her place and make new friends in this strange, new environment?