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Outlines

"ABC" Storylines

A: Dani spirals after her perfectly crafted post-grad plan is thrown out the window. Thinking back on the last time her life felt “easy,” she realizes it was freshman year of college, when she had her first taste of freedom — and her first serious relationship, with Ben. He broke her heart, and she kind of takes responsibility for it (though isn’t entirely aware of this). When she reunites with Ben and he doesn’t remember who she is (due to a magical snow globe), she gets the chance to have a complete do-over of their relationship. Since she remembers how it ended the first time, she thinks she can “fix” where things went wrong and potentially prevent that heartbreak from happening a second time.

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B: Dani and Stella are sisters, both affected in different ways by the loss of their mom (not dead, but left). Dani has become very Type A, thinks deep down that having strict plans will prevent other people in her life from leaving too. Stella feels personally responsible for her younger sister, which causes some conflict in their relationship.

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C: As a way to stay on her feet while she figures out her next steps, Dani moves in with Stella and gets a job as a librarian at the school where she works. Part of her responsibilities is to assist with the monthly student book club. Since Dani likes to read, it becomes one of her favorite parts of her job. The time she spends getting to know the students involved opens her eyes to accepting that there’s no one right way to go through life.

The Full Story: A Chapter by Chapter Outline

PROLOGUE — Ben breaks up with Dani right before Christmas break of their freshman year of college

 

ONE — Three years later, Dani has recently graduated college and has been working as an intern for Dynasty Magazine for the summer. She expects to get hired as a staff writer, but her fellow intern Nick gets the job over her. She's offered a freelance position, but isn't sure if she'll take it. Her plans for after college are now completely thrown off, and she isn't sure what to do

 

TWO — Dani comes home from the office in a bad mood, anxious about what her next steps are going to be. Her best friend and roommate, Haley, has planned a joint "last week in college housing"/"Dani got a job" party. Kai, Haley's partner, adds to the list of things to celebrate by proposing ... and Dani walks in on the proposal.

 

THREE — Dani, Haley and Kai all react to the proposal. Dani's anxiety keeps building, and she doesn't want to ruin the mood by telling Haley everything, so she reaches out to her older sister Stella instead

 

FOUR — Dani spirals even more over how “easy” Haley and Kai’s lives/relationship seem; Stella offers to let her live with her for a year to get back on her feet and work in the library of the private school where she’s a counselor. Here we first get the idea that the last time Dani thought of her life as “easy” was when she was with Ben

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FIVE — Dani moves in with Stella. Their dad is there to help, as well as Haley and Kai; we learn details about Dani's family life and also get a couple more glimpses into her current attitude toward Ben. One of the boxes that Dad brings is Dani’s “Ben Box” in which she put everything that reminded her of that relationship (was brought on accident) but it includes the snow globe he got her on one of their dates — she pulls it out and puts it onto one of the shelves in her new room​

 

SIX — series of flashbacks: Dani recalls meeting Ben for the first time during her freshman year, at a party at Stella’s off-campus apartment; their first date; Dani receiving the snow globe; etc.

 

SEVEN — Dani’s first day at work: meeting her boss Elaine and a few students; chatting with Stella about how things are going; flash forward to end of the week for the ‘welcome back to school party’ and Dani “meets” Ben for the second time​

 

EIGHT — interaction from the flashback plays out again, except Dani thinks that Ben is pretending not to remember her and she gets pissed. Tries talking to Stella about it, only to discover that Stella doesn’t remember Dani ever having an ex named Ben. Calls Haley to figure it out with her too, but she doesn’t remember either (update on wedding plans?).

 

NINE — introduce the monthly student book club here/meet a couple members

  • Book club is slightly untraditional: instead of the group deciding on one book that everyone reads, they decide on a monthly prompt or theme and are given freedom on what they read, so long as it fits the theme (i.e. books that got turned into movies, young adult (YA) titles, celebrity memoirs, etc.)

  • First theme is “a book you read over summer vacation”

  • Have Dani interact with some of the students either before the meeting starts or after it’s over

 

TEN — another interaction with Ben and he asks Dani out; Dani comes to the realization that he isn’t pretending​

 

ELEVEN — first date: Ben shows Dani around downtown as a proper introduction to Holly Springs 

  • Even though they’re in a different town than they would’ve been the first time they dated, Ben still takes Dani to the equivalent places in Holly Springs (i.e. there’s still a bookstore, a park area, an ice cream shop, etc)

 

TWELVE — Book club meeting: theme is “the first book in a series”; Dani puts together that the snow globe has something to do with Ben losing his memory; comes home and realizes that the snow globe is now missing; later that night she writes out as much of their relationship as she can remember into a “timeline”

  • Her thought process: if this is a true do-over, now she has a map to follow that’ll let her see where she messed up the first time and can make sure it doesn’t happen again​

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THIRTEEN — second date at the aquarium/first kiss; Ben leaves the same snow globe on Dani’s desk the next day, she comes home and the one that was originally on her shelf is missing (further cements the magic)

 

FOURTEEN — check in with Kai and Haley/update on wedding planning; Dani updates Haley on the whole Ben situation (and has to pretend it’s all a new experience); Dani meets Ben’s friends from college, one of whom is Nick

 

FIFTEEN — Dani explains everything to Nick (More here?)

 

SIXTEEN — Book club meeting: theme is “historical fiction”​

 

SEVENTEEN — Dani and Ben go on another date; talking about sex (Dani wants to wait until she’s in a serious relationship. She surprises herself by telling Ben that, because she later realizes that he was the reason she ever set that boundary — if he hadn’t broken up with her, she would’ve done it)

 

*CHRISTMAS BREAK HAPPENS IN BETWEEN HERE — NOT SEEN*

 

EIGHTEEN — back to school/more library stuff; Ben comes over for dinner/meets Dani’s dad; Dani realizes this isn’t a true do-over anymore (there was no meeting of parents the first time around — maybe she pushed for it but it never happened?)

 

NINETEEN — checking in with Kai and Haley again; Stella points out how much Dani talks about Ben on the call, which starts a rift between the two of them

 

TWENTY — Dani meets Ben’s parents and it doesn’t go very well; Dani learns that Ben really wants to get out of his hometown; they sleep together?

 

TWENTY ONE — the morning after? Later that next night, Nick reveals to Dani that the reason Ben broke up with her the first time was because she got too controlling/clingy…first signs of Dani spiraling again over the possibility of the relationship ending

 

TWENTY TWO — book club meeting: theme is “a book with a color in the title”; first signs of Ben getting distant

 

*CHAPTERS 23-26 HAPPEN OVER SPRING BREAK*

 

TWENTY THREE — Dani’s in full-blown panic mode; Ben has seriously pulled away; huge fight with Stella

 

TWENTY FOUR — Dani begins to realize that it’s not going to work out this time either/it’s time to let the relationship go; she apologizes to Stella and they talk things out

 

TWENTY FIVE — Dani breaks up with Ben (kinda taking back the power, since he broke up with her the first time)

 

TWENTY SIX — Haley comes to visit and they have a mini bachelorette party (literally just her, Dani and Stella); heart to heart about the perceived “easiness” that Dani sees — Haley opens up to Dani about how so difficult her relationship with Kai sometimes is (much to Dani’s surprise); the snow globe breaks

 

TWENTY SEVEN — back to school; book club meeting: “a book you wish you could read again for the first time”; Dani gets the idea to write a piece about the group and pitch it to Dynasty Magazine

  • What happens to Ben after the magic is reversed? Do/should we see him again, just hear about him, something else?

 

EPILOGUE — a year later: Dani’s still working at school and has also been writing freelance on the side — it still isn't ideal, but she's happy and that's what matters; Dani’s been going to therapy to work out her control issues; Haley and Kai’s wedding (Nick is her date!)

 

THE END

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