CatalystPlotSummary

Catalyst Plot

=== [|Catalyst]is about a girl named Kate Malone, who is a senior in high school. She enjoys science especially Chemistry and wants to get into MIT extremely badly, mostly because that is where her deceased mother went to school. Throughout the book, her classmates await the day she receives her letter. They never do find out if she got in because when she didn't, she decided to continue acting as if it hasn't come yet. She lives with her father, who is a priest, and with her younger brother, Toby. She is dating a boy named Mitchell. Mitchell is also one of the brainy kids at high school. Kate is very responsible, except that she only applied to one college. But her life starts to spiral down when she isn't accepted into MIT. Another obstacle in Kate's life is when the Litch Family (Teri, Mikey and Mrs. Litch)comes to live at Kate's House. The Litch Family must move out of their house after there is a fire that burns it down. Kate never liked Teri. Teri was one of those kids who wasn't like anybody else. She always stood out where ever she went. Teri was a big and smelly girl who liked to steal other people's stuff. She would always steal Kate's stuff such as her watch and her necklaces. Teri and Kate begin to bond eventually, in the process of fixing up the Litch's house. Teri makes a very large effort in making the "new house" especially for Mikey, who is only about 3. It is never quite clear whether Mikey is her brother or son, but she loves him more than anything else. He tragically dies after having stuck the ladder of his toy firetruck in an electrical socket. Teri has a mental breakdown and never goes back to normal (for lack of a better term). Kate helps her deal with Mikey's death as well as smaller problems going on in the house, and she deals with her own stress by running at night when she can't sleep. ===