Summary

In Chapter 6, 11-year-old Mock spends spring break with her Auntie Wee Wee and cousin Mechelle. She develops a crush on a boy named Jamie. But when her father picks her up and he discovers she is going by “Keisha,” he reprimands Mock and demands: “You’re not gay, are you?” (79). Unsure how to respond, she simply cried. When they got home, he shaved her long curls off. Now, Mock reflects on the confusion she felt at the time, unaware of the difference between gender identity and sexual orientation. By May 1995, she and her brother Chad are summoned back to Honolulu by their mother.

Part Two opens with Chapter 7 when 12-year-old Mock is reunited with her mother after five years of separation. They live in a predominantly Filipino neighborhood in Kalihi and the children are racially discriminated against. Once, Mock recalls punching...