Save Me a Seat

Six weeks until promotion. The Common Ground Club has painted a bench, planned a night, and made a promise: whoever walks through Maple Grove's doors next year will find a seat waiting for them, no explanation required. All that's left is pulling it off.But eighth grade doesn't end quietly. Maya wants the night to be flawless - proof, to everyone and mostly to herself, that nothing about this friendship will ever change. Avery is drowning in clipboards and contingency plans. Jade is stretched between soccer season and a cousin who needs her home. Sophie is trying to paint stars onto a plaque that has to say everything the club has meant in about twelve words. And Abigail is holding all of them together while quietly wondering who's supposed to hold her.When the pressure of building something perfect starts to crack the foundation it's built on, the five girls have to face the fear they've been avoiding since the bench idea started: that graduating doesn't just mean leaving a building. It means leaving each other, at least a little, and trusting the thing they built is strong enough to survive without them running it.Save Me a Seat isn't just the name of a bench dedication. It's the promise the whole series has been making since a lonely sixth grader first asked if anyone was sitting there - and now it's the girls' turn to find out if that promise holds when they're the ones walking away.Some endings are really just handoffs. This one comes with a plaque, a bench, and five girls who finally learn that letting go and holding on can be the same act of love.Book Six in The Common Ground Club brings Maya, Avery, Jade, Abigail, and Sophie's story full circle - a fitting, heartfelt finale to a series about the seats we save for each other, and the ones we leave open for whoever comes next.