Manny Hernandez Timeline and Summary

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• Manny is a high school student who seriously wants a new baseball glove, so he convinces his big brother, Nardo, to go picking in the chili pepper fields with him to make some cash.
• The next day, Manny joins his mom on the worst field trip ever: to grab his drunk dad from the local pool hall. After his mom slaps Manny for cussing, he then gets beat up on by the cruel Garcia brothers. It's a pretty bad day.
• One day later, Manny is on a mission to get his grades up so he can transfer to the highfalutin high school on the other side of town.
• He runs into his old teacher, Mr. Hart, who gives Manny some money for school and a ride home. Unfortunately, though, Dad grabs the money the second Mr. H is gone.
• Dad spends all the money at his favorite pool hall and Mom drags Manny there to get Dad to come home. Then Manny gets the joy of watching his Dad try to shoot his mom, which is basically the worst thing ever.
• When the cops arrive, Dad lies, Mom stays quiet, but the cops still end up arresting Dad and taking him away.
• Once Manny's dad is out of jail, he and Nardo get carted off to clean up Grandma's garden.
• Not long after, Grandma dies and Manny goes through oodles of emotions at her wake and funeral. Losing Grandma is a bummer.
• One day, when Magda leaves Manny to babysit his littlest sister, Pedi, our main man almost accidentally shoots her. Yep, it's pretty horrifying.
• School starts back up and Manny is at his old school again—the whole transferring thing never worked out. But things get better when Manny joins a boxing team that his kinda-sorta friend Lencho is starting.
• At the big boxing match, each boxer on Lencho's team loses, but Manny stays supportive the whole time.
• The support continues when Magda ends up at the hospital after delivering a premature baby and Manny helps out as much as he can.
• Manny keeps being Mr. Helpful and gives Nardo a hand with his pharmacy delivery gig. In the process, Manny meets the boss, Mr. Giddens, who forces his daughter, Dorothy, to invite Manny to her party. When Manny shows up, he feels like the biggest outcast ever.
• Manny decides to join a gang, all because being a member means getting to kiss a girl.
• He gets beat up in the initiation, which stinks, but he still thinks it's cool to be in the gang.
• The next day, a gang member named Eddie tries to get Manny to join in when he robs a lady out of the blue. Manny hangs back and realizes that he doesn't want to be like Eddie one bit, though.