Narrative Essay: One Day In Florida

One day in Florida, two nine-year-old kids are playing in the park. The birds are chirping. The sun is shining. A dead body is rotting. The kids, Quentin Jacobson and Margo Roth Spiegelman, run home to tell their parents. Quentin wants to push the whole finding-a-dead-body thing from his mind, but Margo finds out the man killed himself and wonders why.

Nine years later, Margo Roth Spiegelman, who is now eighteen, comes to Quentin's window in the middle of the night. They haven't really hung out since they saw the dead body, but now Margo needs a favor. She needs Quentin to drive her around on a revenge hunt against Jase Worthington, her cheating boyfriend, and anyone else who annoys her. They vandalize houses and cars with spray paint and smelly fish in closets.

Quentin is excited that he and Margo are friends again. But she never comes back to school. He suddenly becomes worried and is on a hunt to find her. He spends the next week and a half trying to follow her trail, which leads first to an abandoned strip mall. Looking over her maps and seeing a clue posted online, he finally determines she's gone to New York and will only be there until the night after graduation. He learns the term paper towns was once used to describe fictitious cities some map companies included on their products.

If the paper town showed up on another company's map,
the mapmakers would know their designs had been stolen. Quentin finds one such paper town called Agloe on Margo's route.

Quentin plots out the trip and discovers he can just make it in time to save her if he drives above the speed limit all the way with minimal stops. He also brought his friends who decide to skip graduation to find Margo.
Quentin and his friends find Margo living in the abandoned Agloe General Store.
His investigation into her disappearance and his road trip have taught him to push through his fears, follow his heart and see people for who they are rather than who everyone wants them to be. When Margo sees the courageous side of Quentin, and when she realizes he can see her for more than her popular status, she asks him to travel with her. They kiss and bury Margo's journal, showing the burial of the people they once were. Quentin decides he can't go with her and complete his entire future, but they promise to remain in touch and meet
again.

This book was very fun to read although, seeing the movie first was a spoiler for the book, it's definitely a good book to read.