After Jade dies she returns to re-live the last seven days of her life, helping her father to find a new life partner to replace her dead mother, helping her brother to fulfill his dreams of quitting university to work for his dad, and finally, finding closure for herself by experiencing sweet teenage romance for the first and only time. Jade is just a regular teenage girl who likes to do extreme sports. One day, she tries to impress a good-looking boy named Aidan by agreeing to do daredevil stunts on her skateboard while he films her in action for a viral video project. She ends up dying. In limbo, she meets her mom who had also died earlier in her life but was waiting in limbo to watch over her family and now, to help her on her way. She begs her mom to ask someone to give her another chance to make things right on earth so that her brother Devon and her dad aren't so devastated by her death. Eventually, she is somehow allowed to return to seven days before her death. She isn't allowed to tell anyone what lies in store for the future and after seven days, she has to agree to pass to the beyond with her mom.
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When Jade is transported back in time, she finds herself rollerblading with a neighborhood boy nicknamed Scratch, who is skateboarding. She knows that Scratch is going to fall and break his wrist so she asks him to skate somewhere else. Unfortunately, he ends up falling on his head and is rushed to the hospital. Jade receives a mental message from her mom saying that she isn't supposed to drastically change the events in time as the outcome is usually worse than it was before. Jade makes a list of things she wants to accomplish before the week is over and she has to return to limbo. She wants to help her dad get a girlfriend so that he can better move on with his life after she dies. She wants to help her brother achieve his dreams for the same reason. She also wants to be kissed by Aidan, her brother's friend.
The next day is her birthday. She wants to use the money her grandma sent her on a family experience. Devon also gives her the skateboard that she ends up riding to her death. Everyone thinks she's acting weird. Later, she sets up an online dating profile for her dad and communicates with some of the women on the site to see if any are suitable to date her dad. Scratch comes over with a bouquet of flowers for her and she tells him about her plan to get Dad to date someone. Since Scratch's mom is also single, she thinks it might be cool if they went out on a date. Later, she makes plans to meet with Devon and Aidan at a local restaurant. She hopes it will be romantic and she can sneak a kiss with Aidan.
At the restaurant, nothing really happens because her brother is around. The next day, Jade tries to convince her dad to take the day off and take her and Devon to Niagara Falls but he is too busy. She goes to Niagara Falls with Scratch, instead. There, she sees an opportunity to do skydiving. Scratch can't do it with her because he's still in a cast. She tries to convince her dad and Devon to do it. But again, her dad tells her he's too busy with work but he promises he will make time for her on Friday or when the weekend comes but she knows that by then, she won't have enough time left.
Later that night, Aidan comes round her house looking for Devon. She asks Aidan to take her out for some fries and he agrees. During their date, Jade tries to flirt with Aidan but he is more interested in filming things with his camera and almost completely ignores her. She is still hopeful that he might grow to like her and she will succeed to get him to kiss her.
The next day, she decides to go to her dad's workplace to help him out for the day. While she's there, she tries to convince her dad to let Devon do what he wants with his life. Apparently, her dad wants Devon to go to university but Devon isn't interested in school. She also tries to get advice from some of the female employees on how to be attractive and how to flirt with a boy. Her dad has to continue working late into the night so she gets a ride from an employee and gets dropped off at Scratch's house. Scratch's mom makes a delicious dinner and takes them out for a short hike. Jade hopes that she can get Scratch's mom and her dad to get together somehow.
The next day is parent teacher conference day and the day Jade was hoping her dad would be able to meet other single parents. She gets Scratch to help her select some nice clothes for him. At the parent teacher conference, things go very well between her dad and Scratch's mom. Her dad even invites Scratch's mom to join them on their family outing on Friday. When Friday comes around, the weather is poor and her dad has to postpone their family outing because they had planned to go fishing together with Scratch and his mom. Jade is worried that time is running out for her to fulfill her last deeds before she dies on Monday. Aidan comes around again and she asks him to come with her to do indoor skydiving instead. She is excited that he agrees.
When they arrive at the skydiving place, however, Aidan reveals he only intended to film her skydiving. It's too late for Jade to chicken out so she does it while Aidan films. Jade finds skydiving exhilarating. Afterwards, she kisses Aidan. It's a very awkward kiss. After the kiss, Aidan pretends it doesn't happen and they go ride a Ferris wheel.While riding the Ferris wheel, Aidan kisses her again. After his kiss, he tells her she is too young for him and he promised her brother that he wouldn't hurt her. Jade finds herself agreeing as she discovers she only had a crush on him and nothing more. She starts thinking about Scratch differently, though. After she comes back, she finally gets her dad and Devon to start talking about Devon's future. Her dad finally sees that Devon doesn't want to go to university - he wants to learn the family trade. Her dad respects this decision and Jade is overjoyed for Devon.
Later on, Jade goes to a water park with Scratch. They have lots of fun together. Things get even better when Scratch ends up kissing Jade. Jade wishes she didn't have to die in a few days as she's just fallen in love with Scratch. The next day, their family goes on a family outing with Scratch and his mom. Jade's dad surprises her with a hot air balloon ride. Scratch's mom is not amused by the idea. Jade notices that her dad seems to be getting along with the lady who operates the hot air balloon. She doesn't care who her dad falls in love with, as long as he does fall in love again. Later that night, she goes on another romantic date with Scratch – they both go to the beach and play in the water and kiss.
On Monday, Jade knows she's due to die again. She tells her dad about how she set up a dating profile for him online and she urges him to be serious about dating a woman and finding a new life partner. Later that afternoon, Jade again goes to the skate park. She again overhears Aidan trying to get skaters to perform some dangerous stunts while he films. This time, however, he ends up asking someone else, not her! Jade is torn – she doesn't want to die but should this other innocent boy die instead of her? While they're doing their stunt, Jade notices a car coming and it's going to hit the other boy. She rushes forward and saves his life, but the truck hits her instead.
Jade wakes up in limbo with her mom, again. She tells her mom that she's just happy that this time she died a hero and she helped her dad and brother get their life going. Her mom allows her to visit her dad in his sleep one more time. She says goodbye to her sleeping dad. The story ends with her mom taking her hand and telling her that they were very lucky to live the lives they did.
Best part of story, including ending:
I found the premise of the story to be very tragic and bittersweet. I specifically like that the ending of the story wasn't unrealistic - Jade still had to die. But at the same time, I like that the ending was so positive about moving on to the after life with a happy heart.
Best scene in story:
My favorite scene was when Jade is allowed to go and visit her dad one more time to say goodbye before she must leave with her mom to the afterlife. I thought that moment was really sad but at the same time a really sweet moment between father and daughter.
Opinion about the main character:
I like that Jade really cared that her father and brother are alright when she passes away. She spends her seven days on earth trying to help them rather than being self-absorbed and wanting to spend all the time experiencing things for herself before she has to leave earthly life for good.
