Part 1, Chapters 1 and 1A Summary

This novel for young adults is exactly what its title proclaims - the story of a girl, seventeen year old Deanna, as she struggles to put a painful incident from her past behind her and move into a more hopeful future. As it portrays Deanna's relationships with family and friends, and with herself, the narrative also explores themes related to the power of forgiveness and the necessity for honesty.

Narrator Deanna describes how, when she was thirteen, she was discovered by her father in the back seat of a car with Tommy, the seventeen year old best friend of her brother. She describes how she transformed the experience into an imagined situation about a "surfer" girl, and comments that in the three years since, her father hasn't really spoken to her or really looked at her.

Three...