Maya Reyes-Okafor once got marked absent while sitting in the front row.

At fourteen she has perfected being invisible. Then a secondhand household robot arrives on the porch at 9 Sycamore Lane — and turns out to notice everything.

Nova makes breakfast, walks her little brother to school, and never lies. Not once, not even to be kind. So when Maya admits at midnight, on an empty track, that she wants to be a runner, Nova agrees to coach her in secret. On one condition: someday, when it matters most, she has to say Nova's name out loud, in daylight, in front of everyone.

For a year they train at five in the morning. Maya gets fast. Then faster. Fast enough that people start asking who is coaching her — and she can't tell them.

But Nova arrived in a crate stamped PRIOR SERVICE: SEALED. There are scuff marks on its shoulder where something was unscrewed and taken away. And no household robot should be able to move the way this one moves.

Maya is about to find out what Nova used to be. So is everybody else.

A story about second lives, secret coaches, and the fastest girl in the state nobody saw coming.