- The afternoon before they leave for Florida, Evie (the narrator) and her best friend Margie are at the candy store, buying chocolate cigarettes so they can pretend to smoke. How very adolescent of them.
- It's 1947 and WWII is finally over—and everyone seems happy and full of good old American consumerism again. People are buying things in great numbers, and the boys are back in town.
- She and Margie go outside and pretend to smoke in the street, even though it's not as fun in the summer because the chocolate cigarettes melt; they talk about how when they're sixteen, they'll wear lipstick and smoke for real.
- Evie is all jealous of Margie because even though they're both the same age—fifteen—Margie is starting to fill out with curves and look more grown-up, and because of her new bodacious body, boys are paying more attention to her.
- While they're walking, they see Evie's crush—a boy named Jeff McCafferty—walking with a girl named Ruthie Kalman. Margie tells Evie that she shouldn't worry though, because Ruthie is Jewish and Jeff would never date her.
- But Evie still recognizes that Ruthie is beautiful and that Jeff is probably totally in love with her.
- Margie comes up behind the lovebirds and tells Jeff that there's an altar boy meeting going on at the church—it's a lie, but he believes her and scampers off anyway.
- Then when he's gone, Margie walks behind Ruthie and steps on the back of her loafer so that Ruthie's foot comes out of the shoe. Ruthie totally knows that she did it on purpose, but she just hops and keeps walking.