How It All Goes Down
Everything begins in Feathers when a new boy shows up at Frannie's school. This is a big deal because the boy (1) has long hair, and (2) is white. Frannie's school is all black, even though it's the 1970s and segregation is technically over. Nonetheless, white people live and go to school on the "other" side of the highway, and black people have their community on "this" side of the highway. That's just the way the cookie crumbles. The other kids—especially a mean boy named Trevor—try to pick on the boy, who picks up the nickname Jesus Boy.
The next day at school, Trevor is out because he broke his arm, but the other kids—including one of Trevor's friends named Rayray—start in on Jesus Boy for well… looking like Jesus and wanting to be called Jesus Boy instead of by his real name.
Jesus Boy starts crying and says that his parents moved over to this side of the highway because they didn't fit in on the other side. This makes them all stop in their tracks, and even Rayray feels badly and says that he doesn't fault Jesus Boy for being a little lost. Aren't they all a little lost sometimes? After school, Frannie and Samantha walk home together and Samantha reveals her crazy conspiracy theory: She thinks that Jesus Boy is really Jesus. Frannie tells her that this is completely nuts—but Samantha is convinced.
When Frannie gets home that day, she has a conversation with her brother, Sean, who's deaf. He taught her sign language when she was little, so it was her first language, even though she can hear and speak just fine. They talk about the different sides of the highway, and how Sean wants to go to the other side; Frannie, on the other hand, is fine where she is.
Then Frannie realizes that her mama is lying down and is tired, which worries her. Mama has had some miscarriages in the past and even lost a one-month-old baby named Lila before she had Frannie. When Frannie and Sean's daddy gets home—he's a truck driver, so he has to be gone for a few days at a time for work—he goes in to check on their mama and announces that there's going to be another baby. Frannie is not pleased with this news, though. After all, she's the current baby of the family… even if she is already in the sixth grade.
That weekend, Frannie goes grocery shopping with her daddy, who tells her not to worry so much about her mama and how the pregnancy is going. They should just be happy about it. Afterward, Frannie heads over to the rec center to watch Sean play basketball. She sees some girls checking him out, but they lose interest when they learn that he's deaf. Jerks.
Frannie also sees Jesus Boy, and is surprised when his dad comes to pick him up… and is black. Say, what? Isn't Jesus Boy totally white? On Sunday, Frannie goes to church with Samantha, whose father is a pastor in a "fire and brimstone" type church.
When Monday rolls around, Frannie walks with Sean to school. He goes to Daffodil, the school for kids with disabilities. On their walk, a couple girls try to chat him up, but they say it's a waste of time when they figure out that he's deaf. Sean is devastated, and Frannie is furious with them for being mean to her brother.
At school, Trevor is back with a cast on his arm, and he tries to pick a fight with Jesus Boy. When Jesus Boy tells Trevor that he's just mad because Jesus Boy has a daddy and Trevor doesn't, Trevor tries to punch him. He misses though, and falls down onto the snow and starts crying. All the other kids laugh, but Frannie and Jesus Boy both go over to help him up.
Samantha asks Frannie why she helped him, and Frannie says that it's because it was the right thing to do. As they walk home from school, Samantha laments the fact that Jesus Boy is obviously not Jesus, because he said all those mean things about Trevor's daddy. Frannie says that it doesn't really matter either way to her.
Later on at school, their teacher, Ms. Johnson, leads them through an exercise where they write about an important moment in their lives. Jesus Boy reveals that he's adopted; that's why his parents are black and he is white. Frannie decides to write about how she learned how to talk from her brother Sean—not in the way that other people talk, but in the way that Sean talks. He taught her sign language when she was just a baby.
After school, Jesus Boy approaches Frannie and asks her if she wants to hang out at the rec center over the weekend. Instead of feeling embarrassed to be seen with him, Frannie tells him that she'll see him there, and that they can play pinball together.
At the very end, the reader is privy to a private scene at Frannie's home. Her mama's belly is much bigger these days because the pregnancy is going well and everyone in the family is super happy about the new addition—even Frannie. She snuggles up with her mama and thinks about how moments like this can be oh-so-beautiful, even if they aren't all that exciting or momentous.