Abigail Francesca Wright Barnes (Frannie) Timeline and Summary

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• Frannie gets to class on a regular school day and sees that there's a new boy in her class. He is the only white boy here (this is the 1970s), and his hair is long, which makes him a weirdo right away.
• At lunch, she sits with her friend Samantha and her not-exactly-a-friend Maribel, and they discuss the new kid and how he's being made fun of and called Jesus Boy.
• After school, Frannie goes home and talks to her brother, Sean, who is deaf. They communicate via sign language in their family.
• The next day, Frannie feels badly when her classmate Rayray starts picking on Jesus Boy for being white and for wanting to be known as Jesus Boy. The Jesus Boy starts crying and says that his family didn't belong on the other side of the highway, where white people live, and he was hoping to fit in here. Frannie wants to be nicer to him.
• Frannie walks home with Samantha after school and laughs when Samantha says that it's quite possible that Jesus Boy is actually Jesus. No way…
• At home, Frannie freaks out when she finds out that her mom, who has had miscarriages in the past, is sleeping and seems ill. When her daddy comes home and confirms that her mama is pregnant, Frannie freaks out even more.
• The next day, Frannie goes grocery shopping with her daddy, who tells her to stop worrying and start enjoying the fact that she might be getting a new baby sibling.
• Frannie goes to the rec center to watch Sean play basketball. While there, she gets upset when some girls start eyeing Sean… and then promptly lose interest because he's deaf.
• She runs into Jesus Boy at the rec center and is surprised when his daddy picks him up and turns out to be a black man. What the heck?
• On Sunday, Frannie decides to go to church with Samantha even though she's not really a religious kid. She just feels like she should.
• When Monday rolls around, Frannie and Sean walk toward their respective schools. Sean has to go to the Daffodil school, which is for students with special needs. During the walk, a couple of girls start trying to hit on Sean, but then they lose interest in him once they realize he can't hear them.
• Frannie gets to school in a foul mood because of this, and she sees Trevor picking on Jesus Boy and making fun of him for being white.
• When Trevor swings at Jesus Boy, but misses and falls in the snow, all the other kids laugh at him. Frannie goes up to him, though, along with Jesus Boy, even though neither of them likes Trevor.
• Samantha asks Frannie why she even helped Trevor, and Frannie says that it's because it was the right thing to do. She's starting to realize that being mean to people and making them feel unwanted doesn't solve any problems.
• In class, Frannie writes an essay about how her brother taught her how to use sign language even before she started to speak like everyone else.
• After school, Jesus Boy asks Frannie if she wants to hang out at the rec center, and she says that she'd like that—it's time to make more friends, even if they are different from her.
• The whole book ends with a scene in which Frannie is snuggling up with her pregnant mama, feeling blessed to be with her family in this lifetime. Aw, how sweet.