The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things Chapter 1 Summary

  • It's a Monday afternoon after school, and Virginia and Froggy are doing what they do on Monday afternoons: making out in her bedroom.
  • They go to Brewster, a private school on the West Side of Manhattan, and on Mondays they ride the crosstown bus to the East Side, where Virginia lives and Froggy takes trombone lessons at Juilliard.
  • They have a little time to fool around before Froggy's lesson starts and Virginia's parents come home from work.
  • Today, Froggy asks to feel Virginia up, and she says yes. However, she's worried he's going to try to take off her shirt, which would mean seeing her fat.
  • After he fumbles around for a while, trying to unhook her bra in the back without realizing it unhooks in the front, she becomes super self-conscious.
  • She reminds him he's going to be late for his trombone lesson and escorts him to the door, fighting the urge to smooth his rumpled hair, which is a girlfriend thing to do.
  • And, of course, fat girls don't have boyfriends… or so Virginia thinks.
  • As he leaves, she considers asking him if he wants to sit together at lunch sometime, but thinks better of it. If she can't even touch his hair, how could she ever sit with him in public?