Everything, Everything

On Madeline’s 18th birthday, Pauline takes the day off so the two can spend it together, a long-standing tradition. They follow the established birthday rituals of baking vanilla cake with vanilla frosting, playing a family version of Scrabble that requires spelling the words phonetically, and watching the movie Young Frankenstein.

The day after her birthday, Madeline’s nurse Carla returns to take care of her. Carla says her own 17-year-old daughter Rosa doesn’t want anything to do with her, in contrast with Madeline’s close relationship with Pauline. Madeline is reading a book she’s read many times before, Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, and Carla asks if the book will ever stop making her cry. Madeline says that someday it will; she knows this belief is linked to a larger wish for the monotony of her life to change.

Madeline and Carla hear a moving truck pull in next door, and because she has gotten attached to and then been disappointed by past neighbors when they moved away, Madeline is afraid to let herself believe that neighbors might actually be moving in. A page of her childhood diary, designed to look like a scanned piece of notebook paper with a child’s handwriting on it, relates that the family’s departure made her dream that aliens came and took all the “healthy” people but rejected her because of her illness and left her all alone. The young Madeline didn’t tell her mother about the dream, but she did tell Carla.

Back in the present, Madeline goes to her room window to look at the family standing in the driveway next door. There’s a mother, a father, a girl about Madeline’s age, and a teenage boy dressed all in black who immediately performs a “parkour” move—an urban pastime that involves running, jumping, and climbing over buildings, walls, etc. Madeline is amazed by his athleticism, and he sees her watching from the window and smiles up at her.

Madeline begins observing the Brights, the family next door, and writes their daily schedule in a logbook. Mrs. Bright stays at home with the two teenagers, while Mr. Bright goes to work and then comes home and drinks and yells at his family. The family’s daughter, Kara, sneaks outside to smoke cigarettes in the morning—which the mother knows about and cleans up so the father won’t find out—and spends the rest of her day on her cell phone. The son, whose name is Olly, doesn’t keep a regular schedule.

Madeline watches Olly through her bedroom window, which almost aligns with his. He generally uses his parkour skills each morning to crawl out his window then climb up the side of his house and onto the roof for a while before coming back down. Madeline is intrigued by him and exhilarated by the novelty the family has brought to her monotonous life.

It’s a Friday night, which Pauline and Madeline have designated as a French-themed night each week. Carla eats with them, and Madeline mentions that the French dish—heavily modified and reduced so that Madeline’s supposed allergies can handle it—was a favorite of her father’s, who died. Pauline concernedly asks Madeline if she’s OK because she’s uncharacteristically behind on a school assignment and wonders if the new neighbors have distracted her. Madeline lies and says that she’s behind because she’s been reading a good book.

While they’re eating dinner, the doorbell rings and Pauline goes to answer it. Carla and Madeline overhear her talking with Olly and Kara, who have brought a Bundt cake from their mother. Pauline politely refuses the cake because it isn’t sterile enough to enter their house, and Olly asks if Madeline, who he has seen watching him, can show him and Kara around the neighborhood. Pauline only says that Madeline can’t before closing the door. She lingers in the entryway because the house has an airlock with automatic filters that prevent contaminants from getting in.

After dinner, Madeline goes up to her room and sees Olly’s dad come home. He’s angry and throws the Bundt pan at his son. The pan breaks, and Olly cleans the pieces up then goes up to the roof with the cake, which is still intact. When he later comes back down, Madeline openly goes to her window instead of hiding as she usually does when she watches him. She sees him standing at his window watching her before deliberately closing his bedroom blinds.

Madeline confesses to Carla that her life was easier before the neighbors moved in because she didn’t feel so frustrated and depressed about being sick. Carla praises Madeline’s strength and expresses confidence that she can overcome her feelings.

One night Madeline hears something hitting her window repeatedly to summon her. She opens her curtains to see the Bundt cake, adorned with googly eyes and maneuvered by Olly from out of sight, “commit suicide” by throwing itself out of his window. It hits the ground intact. Olly never shows himself, and Madeline finally leaves the window. Too unsettled by Olly’s attempts to engage her, she ignores more summons from Olly over the next few days.

Finally, Madeline’s curiosity gets the better of her, and she goes back to her window to see that Olly has continued the joke by putting Band-Aids on the Bundt cake. The next night, the Bundt cake has cigarettes, pills, and liquor next to it, which Madeline interprets as its second suicide attempt. On the following night, the Bundt cake is in “intensive care” with a fake IV hooked up to it, and Olly solemnly mimes to Madeline that its odds of “survival” are bleak. He then dresses as a mock priest, giving the Bundt cake its last rites. He puts a note on the window apologizing for storming away; he also writes his email address so he and Madeline can communicate more easily.

Olly and Madeline begin emailing and sending instant messages to each other. Madeline asks what the Bundt cake was made of to be so indestructible and makes up a fake recipe using sawdust, cement, rocks, etc. They continue writing to each other over the next several weeks. Olly shows an interest in befriending Madeline, and the two get to know each other. Olly’s family moves a lot, so he just says he’s from the East Coast. Madeline at first evades Olly’s questions about why she doesn’t go outside before finally telling him that she’s sick. Likewise, Madeline asks Olly about his father’s violent behavior, which she’s seen from the window, but Olly dodges the subject.