Almost Six

Being a teenager I am blind to what is going on in the life of anyone other than myself.

Thirteen-year-old Peyta Clarae graduated college at the age of nine. Not eighteen, she is forced to live with her depressed widowed mother, and her five-year-old sister, Emmy, who acts like a two-year-old, in a tiny, two-room house isolated from the rest of civilization. Peyta wants to help at home, but her mother won't let her, and is going crazy having to take care of two children at the opposite ends of the spectrum. But Peyta doesn't see that. As a thirteen-year-old, all she sees is what everyone has done to ruin her life. She hates everyone, including herself, and the hatred never ends. But as Emmy's sixth birthday comes closer, Peyta is given the opportunity to pull Emmy out of her two-year-old phase. As Peyta helps Emmy, she starts to notice what is going on in the lives of others, and her hatred begins to die down.