Pages 7 - 26 Summary

July recounts her "teen marriage" for the benefit of other teen couples who may be on the brink of same. In her last semester of high school, July is headed for a girls' college in New England, and her boyfriend Bo Jo Jones is destined for the local state university on a football scholarship. July doesn't think of Bo Jo and herself as going steady, but nonetheless they spend more and more time together and less time with everyone else. One night, they break from their usual gang of friends and go to the beach together at night. One thing leads to another, and though July is well-versed in the virtues of abstinence and marriage, July and Bo Jo have sex.

The two feel different and embarrassed; a subsequent trip to the movies doesn't feel the same. They discuss whether they...