I had warned Mom about August's face. I had described what he looked like. I did this because I know she's not always so good at faking her feelings, and August was coming over for the first time today. I even sent her a text at work to remind her about it. But I could tell from the expression on her face when she came home after work that I hadn't prepared her enough. She was shocked when she came through the door and saw his face for the first time.

"Hi, Mom, this is Auggie. Can he stay for dinner?" I asked quickly.

While Auggie called his mother on his cell phone, I whispered to Mom: "Stop making that weirded-out face!" She had that look like when she's watching the news and some horrific event has happened. She nodded quickly, like she hadn't realized she was making a face, and was really nice and normal to Auggie afterward.

After a while, Auggie and I got tired of working on our projects and went to hang out in the living room. Auggie was looking at the pictures on the mantel, and he saw a picture of me and Daddy.

"Hi, Auggie," she said. "Um, of course, sweetheart. If it's okay with Auggie's mother."

It took a second for my question to even register.

"Biracial."

"Wow, look at all those medals."

Auggie nodded.

"Yeah, it sucks. I really miss him a lot."

He looked at the picture again.

"Have you ever known anyone who died?" I asked.

"That's too bad."

"You ever wonder what happens to people when they die?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Not really. I mean, I guess they go to heaven? That's where my Grans went."

"Yeah."

"Just my grandmother, and I don't really even remember her."

"Yeah. He was pretty awesome."

"Wow, Summer. I'm sorry."

"I think about it a lot," I said. "I think when people die, their souls go to heaven but just for a little while. Like that's where they see their old friends and stuff, and kind of catch up on old times. But then I actually think the souls start thinking about their lives on earth, like if they were good or bad or whatever. And then they get born again as brand-new babies in the world."

"Yeah." I nodded, handing him a picture of my dad in his uniform.

"Yeah, wow." He nodded, handing me back the picture.

"Are your parents divorced? I've never seen him at drop-off or anything."

"Whoa! I didn't know that."

"Oh, no," I said. "He was a platoon sergeant. He died a few years ago."

"Yeah."

"I didn't know you were… what's the word?"

"Is that your dad?" he said.

"Right! That's the word."

"Hey, Auggie, can I ask you a question?"

He thought about what I was saying and then nodded. "Kind of like when you get a makeup test," he said.

"Hey, I might even be handsome!" he said, smiling. "That would be so awesome, wouldn't it? I could come back and be this good-looking dude and be super buff and super tall."

"But they don't come back looking the same," he said. "I mean, they look completely different when they come back, right?"

"I guess not." I shrugged.

"Why would they want to do that?"

He pointed to his face when he said that and batted his eyes, which made me laugh.

"Because then they get another chance to get it right," I answered. "Their souls get a chance to have a do-over."

"Right."

"Oh yeah," I answered. "Your soul stays the same but everything else is different."

I laughed again. He was such a good sport about himself. That's one of the things I like the most about Auggie.

"I like that," he said, nodding a lot. "I really like that, Summer. That means in my next life I won't be stuck with this face."

"Yeah, it's no big deal," he said casually. "The main thing I have is this thing called man-di-bu-lo-facial dys-os-tosis -- which took me forever to learn how to pronounce, by the way. But I also have this other syndrome thing that I can't even pronounce. And these things kind of just morphed together into one big superthing, which is so rare they don't even have a name for it. I mean, I don't want to brag or anything, but I'm actually considered something of a medical wonder, you know."

"Yeah, I guess. If it's okay for me to ask."

"That was a joke," he said. "You can laugh."

I hesitated. I've been wanting to ask him this for a while but I've always lost the guts to ask.

"Yes, I am," he said proudly. "I am cool beans."

"What?" he said. "You want to know what's wrong with my face?"

He smiled.

He shrugged. I was so relieved that he didn't seem mad or sad.

I smiled and shook my head.

"Yeah," he said, like he knew exactly what I wanted to ask.

"You're funny, Auggie." I said.