Story of a Girl Chapter 3 Summary

  • Deanna's mom comes into her room just as she's waking up. She starts cleaning, and Deanna tells her about the new job.
  • Mom says Deanna should have waited until she could hook Deanna up with a gig at Mervyns.
  • Mom asks if Dad knows. Deanna says she didn't know she had to ask his permission.
  • Deanna tells the story of the one time her family went to church, when her mom didn't have to work on Sunday. It went badly: they lied about being new in town, and Darren stole cookies.
  • Church is okay for people like Lee, Deanna says, because Lee is good and deserves to be there (Lee's a Christian).
  • The Lamberts are gathered around the table, because Mom's cooking breakfast. Dad asks where Stacy is, and doesn't accept that she was up at 5:00AM with April—Darren gets mad and says he and Stacy will go out for breakfast.
  • When she goes to work that night, Deanna gets a big, ugly surprise: Tommy works there too.
  • Tommy's a jerk, making sexual jokes to her. Michael, the manager, sees this and pulls Deanna into the back.
  • She gives him the brief lowdown on what happened with Tommy, and Michael is shocked that Deanna got busy with him when she was just thirteen.
  • Deanna realizes Michael is gay, which is a relief: at least he's one guy who won't hit on her.
  • He tells her she doesn't have to take the job, but she still wants it. He assures her that Tommy is a good employee and that he'll make sure Tommy doesn't give her a hard time.
  • Darren comes to pick Deanna up after work and tells her he and Stacy plan to borrow money from Stacy's mom to move out. Deanna tells him that's a bad idea, since Stacy has a bad relationship with her mom and they'll owe her forever.
  • What she doesn't say is that she's calculating in her head how many hours she'll have to work to move out with them.
  • The next day Deanna goes to hang out with Jason, reveling in how comfortable she feels at his house and with him.
  • They eat spaghetti and cake, and Jason tells her she can crash at his house. She, of course accepts.