### Sum­ma­ry of Chap­ter: Dizzy

In the open­ing chap­ter of “When the World Tips Over,” we meet twelve-year-old Dizzy Fall, who is in a tough emo­tion­al place fol­low­ing her friend­ship breakup with Lizard, now Tris­tan. The once insep­a­ra­ble duo had always shared secrets and inter­ests, from bak­ing ambi­tious desserts to explor­ing eso­teric top­ics online. While Tris­tan has gained pop­u­lar­i­ty and a girl­friend named Melin­da, Dizzy feels aban­doned and iso­lat­ed. She rem­i­nisces about their fleet­ing roman­tic experiment—a three-sec­ond kiss that failed to ignite imag­ined feel­ings.

As Dizzy strug­gles through her school day, observ­ing her ex-best friend’s new rela­tion­ship, she finds her­self increas­ing­ly dis­tressed and mute in class. She is hurt by the dis­con­nec­tion and the shift in her friend­ship, grap­pling with feel­ings of loss. In a bid to escape, she seeks solace in a sel­dom-used school bath­room. There, she spots Tris­tan styling his now-groomed hair, a shad­ow of their for­mer bond. Her self-esteem plum­mets as she per­ceives her own unflat­ter­ing reflec­tion.

Dur­ing gym class, the mis­ery cul­mi­nates as she becomes a tar­get in dodge­ball. After being humil­i­at­ed by Tony Spencer, who mocks her synes­the­sia, Dizzy runs away, over­whelmed. She bolts through the city, wish­ing to escape her reality—dreaming of leav­ing for South Amer­i­ca. Not pay­ing atten­tion to her sur­round­ings, she inad­ver­tent­ly steps into the street just as a speed­ing eigh­teen-wheel­er approach­es.

In her moment of cri­sis, Dizzy is unex­pect­ed­ly saved by an ethe­re­al girl with rain­bow-col­ored hair, who push­es her out of the way just in time. Dizzy soon real­izes that she is unharmed but con­fused in the pres­ence of a sweaty man who wit­nessed the event. Despite his efforts to com­pre­hend what hap­pened, he does­n’t see the mag­i­cal girl, leav­ing Dizzy to pon­der the mirac­u­lous inter­ven­tion and the girl’s mes­mer­iz­ing aura. The chap­ter ends with her reflect­ing on the encounter and its pro­found effect, mark­ing a piv­otal moment in her life where hope and bewil­der­ment col­lide.