Free to Fall

RORY VAUGHN: a brainy, introverted sixteen-year-old who has always felt like an outsider, although she can't put her finger on a reason why. When she is accepted into her dream school. Theden, she is shocked to find out that her mother, who died when she was born, also went there and dropped out just before graduation. This is a secret her father has kept for sixteen years.

THEDEN ACADEMY: the only high school of its kind, Theden is an intense two-year liberal arts program for the strong willed and highly gifted. Students are designated by seven Greek numerical prefixes (the Hepta being the best). Rory is a Hepta.

NORTH PASCAL:a handsome, tattooed, coffee barista townie who can quote Milton and knows as much about philosophy as Rory's classmates. He was banned from Theden's campus for breaking and entering. This isn't North's only secret.

LUX: the decision-making app that everyone uses. No longer caught up in the details of their everyday lives—all those endless decisions!—people are free to just enjoy themselves.

AKRATIC PERSONALITY DISORDER (APD): a mental illness whose name comes from the Greek word akrasia, the term Plato used for those who act against their better judgment. See also the Doubt.

THE DOUBT: the colloquial name for the "whisper within' that children hear but adults are taught to ignore.