Some things I expected that did not happen.

1. I expected all the people who were not so nice to Timothy Green at first to grow to like him and for him to become more and more well liked. For example the 2 bullies who made an "art project" out of him could have ended up becoming his friends, and I was expecting him to get good at soccer and become a hero to the team, I even expected Mrs. Green's mean boss lady to become a nicer person based on affection she felt for the boy. Yet by the end his only friend was that girl and his parents seemed to be the only people who cared about him.

2. I expected Garner's boss to NOT fire her but instead admire Garner for her honesty and actually become a nicer person kind of like Ebenizer Scrooge or something.

3. I expected the 2 bored stoic interviewers at the adoption agency to be bawling by the end of the story, that would have been ironically funny.

4. I expected the boy to end up developing "powers" like many other "special child" stories. For example during the "dodgeball" game I expected him to suddenly develop super coordination or something and I expected him to rapidly get really good at soccer.