Nicole  is 11 years old and lives with her Grandma Toni. She has curly hair that is the color of caramel. She lives with her grandma because her parents forgot to pick her back up from her grandma’s house so she just stayed there her whole life since she was 1 month old. She has a best friend named Ellie, and Ellie’s parents are like her parents because she doesn’t stay in contact with hers.

Nicole is trying to figure out who her parents are because she doesn’t know who they are. She tries to guess who they are by the stories her grandma tells her, but her grandma doesn’t tell her a lot because she doesn’t want her to meet them. She thinks they are bad parents for leaving Nicole at her house when they went out to a party and not coming back to pick Nicole up. They abandoned her. Nicole doesn’t remember a lot about them because she is 11 and that was years ago. Nicole’s parents are looking for her too, but her grandma doesn’t want them to meet her and that’s why she moved when Nicole was a year old. She isn’t responding to their texts or calls to help them find Nicole.

One afternoon after school, Nicole and Ellie walk to Ellie’s house, which is a few blocks away from the school. Once they get to her house, they start to investigate who Nicole’s parents are. They start asking Ellie’s parents if they’ve seen Nicole’s parents, because Elle and Nicole have been best friends their whole lives. Ellie’s parents say that they remember that Nicole’s mom had dark brown curly hair, and that her dad had black hair, and always wore jeans with an oversized shirt, and that they loved coffee. Ellie’s parents say that they haven’t seen Nicole’s parents in a very long time.

The next day, as Nicole gets ready to go to school, she spots this picture on her grandma’s nightstand. It’s a picture of this couple. The lady has dark brown hair and it’s curly, and the man has jeans on with an oversized shirt. She starts getting excited because what they look like is exactly how Ellie’s mom described them. She starts feeling really happy because she thinks those people are her parents. She gets the picture and plans to bring it to school to show Ellie.  She gets on her bike, but before she gets to school, she goes to Magnolia’s Cafe to get a croissant. She gets in line for her order, and the couple in front of her ask the employee if she’s seen a girl with curly hair the color of caramel. The employee says that she hasn’t seen her and that she hopes they find her. Then Nicole starts thinking of herself because she has curly hair the color of caramel.

Nicole goes up to them and says, “Hi, my name is Nicole. I have curly hair.” The couple look confused and excited, and then they give her a huge hug. Nicole looks confused, and then she starts getting excited because she thinks that she’s met her parents. Her parents ask Nicole a favor. The favor is that she cannot tell her grandma that they met. They’re scared that if she tells her grandma that they found her, her grandma won’t let her see them again. Nicole says okay because she is not really paying attention to what she’s agreeing to. Nicole forgets that she is supposed to go to school. The parents ask her if she could go to their house. She says yes, again not knowing what she’s agreeing to.

After a few hours of them talking at their house, Nicole notices the time. She screams, “Aaaah!” because she realizes she missed school. School ends at 3:00, and it is 7:00!

At grandma’s house, grandma has started getting really scared because the school called and said that Nicole was absent. Grandma starts panicking because Nicole has never been gone this late before. She tries to call Nicole, but Nicole doesn’t answer. She goes to Eli’s house to ask Eli if she’s seen Nicole, and Eli tells her that Nicole hadn’t been in school. Then Grandma goes to Magnolia’s Cafe to ask the employees if they’ve seen a girl with curly hair who has a bicycle. They tell her that they saw a girl leave the cafe with a couple. They describe the woman as having dark brown curly hair and the man as having jeans with an oversized shirt. Grandma gasps and runs out of the cafe and drives to Nicole’s parents’ house.

Nicole suddenly realizes that she has to call her grandma because her grandma is probably really worried about her. She calls her grandma and the first time, her grandma doesn’t answer. A few minutes later, her grandma calls her back and asks her for the address, just in case the parents moved. She asks Nicole who she’s with, and Nicole says that she’s with her parents. Grandma tells her that she’s going to be there soon, so Nicole should start going outside.

Nicole’s parents overhear Nicole talking to her grandma. They try to leave the house with Nicole because they don’t want to be there when grandma comes. She tells them that they have to wait for her grandma, but they tell her that they’ll all be meeting at a restaurant nearby, even though that is a lie. While they head over to the restaurant, grandma arrives at their house. Grandma tries knocking on the door three times, and nobody answers, so she decides to look around for them in the neighborhood. She spots them sitting outside a restaurant one block from the house. She goes up to them with a furious face, and then she sits down at their table. They have a long talk about Nicole and the parents leaving her, and they decide that they can all be a family again. The grandma tells them that Nicole will live with her until her parents are more responsible, but they can all see each other.