Summary: Meet Maybelline Mary Katherine Mary Ann Chestnut, named for two Miss Americas and her mother Chessy's favorite brand of mascara. Chessy teaches the students in her charm school her Seven Select Rules for Young Ladies, but she won't tell Maybe who her real father is - or protect her from her latest scuzzball boyfriend. So Maybe hitches a ride to California with her friends Hollywood and Thammasat Tantipinichwong Schneider (aka Ted) - and what she finds there is funny, sad, true, and inspiring... vintage Lisa Yee.
Maybe is one of the "weird" girls in her school in Kissimmee, Florida. Ah, Florida... I love that she's from Florida. Unfortunately she doesn't like it there. She always has a different color hair one where she died her hair with Kool-aid! That would be cool if that could really happen in real life. I wonder... She wears men's XL T-shirts and her mother Chessy whom she calls Chessy which no one makes a big deal out of or explains always calls her out on it. Saying if she lossed weight and got some new clothes/makeup she'd be a real catch. I really don't like her mother.
Maybe's friends are oddballs too. Well to the people of Kissimmee. They sound pretty normal to me. Actually I think they are part of that artistic crowd that I am always jealous of. Problem is she doesn't have any real talent... well none that are obvious. Like with everyone. Sometimes our talents aren't obvious. So her best friend Ted was adopted when his parents found him at the base of a St. Anthony's statue and he has a book next to him called My Thai Baby. So his parents are obsessed with Thai culture and they make sure he calls them Maah and Paaw. He goes to Thai Culture Club and whenever he sees someone that's Asian he asks them if they are Thai. He's weird like that. He's such a talker. In California he gets a job with Miss de la Tour a famous movie star in her time who loves him and who wouldn't? He talks about himself but it's nice. He's a real character.
Hollywood is going to go to college at USC. He always has his camera out filming Maybe and Ted or anything/anyone else he can. He has a afro, is really tall, and skinny. He really likes Maybe. He even tried to kiss her once but Maybe has always seen him as just a friend. His is the car all three of them take to go to California which he nicknamed The Green Hornet. Yeah I know! Awesome name. It's a really rundown car. He has a picture of James Dean who he idolizes in is car. It's laminated too. Hollywood is kind of emotional. He was pushed by Maybe to go for his dream and this really helps a lot by Ted and Maybe going with him to keep him strong. That's not the reason she's going though. The reason she is going is because her mother who owns a Charm school to give tips to girls in pageants, has married 6 people but not her father, and who is an alcoholic basically denied that her new fiance tried to rape her. She thought she consented to it. That annoyed me soooo much. She leaves to find her real father but what she finds is way more than that. She finds new friends and old ones but most importantly of all she finds herself. At least a little part. She is a teenager it's a tough time!
I loved the characters. They seemed like people that I could know and I would like. There are some few surprises which I probably should have suspected and I did but just before it happened and another I thought of but dismissed.The story was a good one and you should read it. It wasn't mind blowingly amazing but it was still a good read.
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