In addition to excellent structure and pacing, Couch also provides a compelling, endearing narrator in Clark as a teen struggling to see beyond the end of his nose in his increasingly narrowing world for which the time loop is only partly to blame. The story is structured around a series of deviations and mysteries as each mystery is solved, a new one springs up, spurring the plot onward and making the novel compulsively readable. The time loop mechanic has the potential to be repetitive, but Couch makes the excellent decision to begin the narrative right at the moment that things in Clark's Groundhog Day begin to change. Beau doesn't appear again on day 311, though, and Clark wonders if Beau could be stuck in the time loop as well, and if so, perhaps together they can finally learn how to escape.
Making a new friend in a time loop seems impossible until day 310, when a boy whom Clark has never seen before in all the previous September 19ths shows up in his trig class, and the two end up spending a whirlwind afternoon together. Clark's confession, however, prompts the first deviation in 309 consecutive days when his therapist gives him four tips to beating loneliness, the first of which is to make a new friend. Partly it's due to his parents' divorce, partly due to his best friend moving to another state, but mostly it's due to the September 19 th time loop itself, of which only Clark is aware. Clark has been stuck in September 19 th for 309 days before he finally tells his therapist the truth: he's lonely.
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