The author's attitude is the tone. This sets up mood, which is the reader's feelings toward the text. I often teach these together because they can be so confusing. Syntax is just the arrangement of words, which is often seen in poetry as this is where it is most effective. Diction is simply the choice of words, which is part of tone but not the full definition of tone. C is the correct answer.
You can conclude that Rita enjoys being active and being around friends and family, so when she didn't have anything to do the rest of the summer she grew bored and lazy, which caused her to count and dwell on the fact that her friends weren't with her and how many days were left until they were.
In my opinion i would go over the main idea of the story ooooooooorrrrrrr got to the back of the book and modify the summary and take specific facts good luck :)
