Mahalia is used to trying to do things herself. Being the only child of a single mother, she’s accustomed to having to watch the pennies and to plan ahead. After her best friend’s Sweet Sixteen party Mahalia is determined to have her own party, to celebrate her coming out.
We follow Mahalia as she struggles through work and school, trying to save enough to have her party. Things conspire against her, but she tries her hardest to continue to plan. Though this is the main focal point of the plot, the real focus was on how Mahalia grows as she tries to develop her understanding of herself.
When Mahalia develops a crush on a girl she spots at a party the story shifts into focusing on her developing awareness of herself and her feelings. The girl, Siobhan, is an Irish student who also happens to be dating Danny, the one boy Mahalia seems immune to (with some reason we learn).
Over the course of the story the friendship develops. This puts Mahalia’s existing friendship under a little strain, but you just know that these characters have each others’ backs…whatever it might look like.
I felt, on occasion, that some of the characters were presented rather superficially but I liked the positivity surrounding her relationship with Siobhan.