Academically bright teenager Liam Heap's best friend truly is his single mother, Claire Heap. In fact, she is his only friend, he, having been home schooled his entire short life by her, not having been exposed to socializing with others his age. Claire is also his protector and controls all aspects of his life in the goal for Liam to become the next Stephen Hawking in attending Cambridge in the Astronomy program after he gets his high school equivalency certificate. Subverting Claire, Liam is able to convince her to let him attend public high school, which she feels is only for losers, she having had to endure the pain when she was his age, until he takes and aces the next available equivalency test to graduate in four months. Liam's true goal in attending high school is to meet and befriend "her", Anastasia, the one-legged girl who would be his classmate and to who he is attracted. That socialization process is not only affected by the deal he and Claire make with the school principal, Mr. Kelly, the only way Liam will be allowed to attend the high school, but also by Anastasia's own socialization, and how Claire will insert herself into it all, not only when he's at school but for any official and unofficial extracurricular activities.—Huggo