Chapter 1: Philip Hall Likes Me. I Reckon Maybe Summary

September: While Beth Lambert is eating a breakfast of grits, her mother tells her not to have her head filled up with that Hall boy. Beth is smart, her mother tells her, and she needs to pay attention and learn at school. Don't be dumb about Philip Hall, she tells her. But Beth responds that Philip Hall likes her—he always invites her over after school. Of course he invites her over, her mother tells her, she does all his chores. But Philip plays songs for her on his guitar all the time she's working.

Beth and her sister Annie say good-bye to their father, who is working outside as they walk by on their way to the school bus stop. The road to the bus stop is...