How It All Goes Down
Sweet Sixteen
- The Book of Moons disappears the morning of Lena's birthday. Not a good sign.
- When Ethan walks up the stairs to Lena's room, the whole house shakes, and the stairs flick him away like a pesky mosquito.
- He crashes into little Ryan and knocks her down. This is the second time he's collided into that poor girl—hopefully she can use her healing powers on herself.
- With persistence, Ethan is able to enter Lena's room. She's upset, and her room is a crumbling mess.
- They hide together under a blanket on her bed. While they're all cozy, Ethan gives her a present. It's a necklace, and it has one of his mom's rings on it.
- So. Sweet.
- Lena picks up on Ridley's surprise party from Ethan's head. There are some setbacks to having a girlfriend who can read your mind, huh?
- When they finally leave the room, they see Lena's family is ready for the Binding, a procedure that's supposed to keep Lena safe.
- Lena's family members—even her grandmother, whom Ethan meets for the first time—are all wearing creepy dark robes for another ritual.
- Link and Ridley are at the door with the cheerleaders and the basketball team. For some reason, Larkin lets them in, and everyone inside the house quickly starts pretending to be a normal family. There's even knitting and cake involved.
- Outside, there's a stage on the field for Link's band to play for Lena's surprise party.
- Lena wants to go to the party, even though it practically screams trap, but Macon doesn't want her to go.
- An argument ensues between Lena and Macon, and guess how it ends? Yep, Lena storms up to her room. Meanwhile, Link convinces Ethan to come outside for at least one song. He can't be a total party pooper.
- With Larkin's help, Lena has sneaked out of the house toward the party. Rebel!
- Link gets ready for his big debut, a little song called "Sixteen Moons." Half the crowd sings along, even though there's no way they could have heard the song before.
- Seems like the perfect time for Ethan and Lena's first dance as a couple.
- After the romantic moment, Savannah gives Lena a birthday present: an impractically tiny silver purse just like the one all the popular girls carry.
- Lena's not one for false gratitude. Nope, she throws it into the bonfire. Burn, tacky purse, burn!
- After a short intermission, Link takes the stage again to sing the song Lena wrote for him. Everyone seems to bond near the bonfire—it's a very Kumbaya moment.
- Finally, Lena and Ethan say the big L-word to one another: love. They say it telepathically, though, "in the only way that had ever mattered between us" (2.11[1].276).