Chelsea Olinger, the narrator of the story, is fifteen when she begins school at Crestwood High. Like many adolescent girls, Chelsea has an ambivalent relationship with her mother as she tries to find her own identity and assume more responsibility for her own actions. Her plan of remaining anonymous and slipping quietly through school life changes when she is befriended by Ashley. As one of Ashley's chosen people, Chelsea metamorphoses as she picks up character traits from her new friends, a way of walking from one, a hand gesture from another, a new hair style from Ashley. She reaches the point where she thinks, "I'd almost forgotten who I'd been."

Chelsea meets Pod Johnson in the registration line on the first day of school. By his manner, his speech, and his dress, Pod gives the impression of being a cowboy, but that affectation is...