Aubrey and Joel are like two tomato vines that grew along the same crooked fence--weird, yet the same kind of weird. Then Joel disappears. The whole town is looking for him, and Aubrey was the last person to see him. For the last two weeks of the school year, when sixth grade became too much, Aubrey and Joel have been building a raft in the woods. The raft was supposed to be part of their running away game, but the raft is gone now, too. Aubrey doesn't know where Joel is, but they (Aubrey) might know how to find him. As Aubrey, their friend Mari, and Aubrey's sister Teagan search along the river, Aubrey has to fess up to who they really are, all the things they never said--and the word that bully Rudy Thomas used that set all this into motion.