Rachel Cooper

Diminutive brunette Rachel is an insecure adolescent, agonizing about her appearance, and wondering whether she will experience her first kiss before her sixteenth birthday. Compared to her best friend, Helena, Rachel seems socially inept, often blurting out whatever is on her mind. Helena, an attractive and popular aspiring actress, engineers a meeting between Rachel and Lewis Olswanger. Lewis gradually becomes Rachel's boyfriend.

Rachel tries to be patient with her parents Manny and Shirley, who are the same age as her friend's grandparents. She hates it when they baby her, and especially when they use her childhood nickname, "Mouse." Although Rachel tries to tolerate her parents, she occasionally explodes in anger, and then regrets hurting them.

Rachel wants to be a writer, so she began keeping a journal after Ms. Sykora, a noted author, visited her school. Throughout the book, Rachel's innermost thoughts and feelings are revealed in...