Summary
Chapter 13
At last it’s date day, and Josie is extremely anxious but also excited. That is, until Jacob shows up to meet her mom dressed in old, tattered clothing with an unshaven face. Josie knows he did this on purpose, but still pleads with her mom to give him a chance. Christina reluctantly agrees, but tells Josie she most likely won’t let her go out with Jacob again. As they leave her house, Josie immediately begins criticizing Jacob for his condition and behavior towards her mother. Jacob snaps back at her and promises to himself to never go on another date with Josie again. When they reach the theater, they argue about what movie to see, and Josie asks again why Jacob behaved so poorly in front of her mother. He retorts it’s because he’s never dated an ethnic girl before, and his use of the word “ethnic” upsets Josie. He then says, “You people should go back to your own country if you’re so confused” (Marchetta 179). Almost immediately he takes his words back, but the damage is already done. Josie runs away, and begins to walk home.
As Josie walks home, she notices a creepy car trailing behind her. When the car pulls alongside her, she screams at the driver that her father is a cop, but the driver says back, “No, he’s a barrister.” It’s Michael Andretti, and tells Josie to get in. Michael was on his way to Josie’s house to see if she wanted to go for pizza. After some sassy banter typical of Josie they agree, and once they’re at the pizza place she tells him about Jacob. She realizes that when they forget their complicated history, they get along great and have plenty to talk about. When it’s time to pay Josie says she wants to pick up the tab, and Michael wonders where she works. He doesn’t like her working at McDonalds at night, and offers her a side job at the law firm. Excited, Josie agrees. When Michael drops her home, Josie asks if he ever thought her mother had gone through with the pregnancy. After beating around the bush, Michael says no, because he didn’t think Christina had the guts to stand up to Nonno Francesco. This answer satisfies Josie, and she waves goodbye to her father.
Inside, Josie tells her mother about Jacob and Michael. At first she’s nervous, afraid her mother will freak out on both accounts. Instead, Christina just hugs Josie. Then they sit in front of the TV and talk about the night. Josie talks positively about Michael, looking for her mom’s reaction, but Christina seems content. Christina does say however that tonight is exactly why she doesn’t like Josie going out alone. In her eyes, no one looks after Josie as well as she does. And for once, Josie understands and agrees. Later on, when Josie’s in bed, she thinks about Jacob Coote and hopes he calls to apologize. She even goes and checks three times whether the phone is on the hook properly before falling asleep.
Chapter 14
Things at the law firm are going great. Josie works there three days a week after school. She’s seen Jacob a few times, most recently at a cafe with another girl on his lap, but they haven’t talked. Right now, however, John Barton is her major concern. She ran into him recently on her way to the library, and they stopped for coffee. John seemed depressed and distracted. He’d also lost some weight. He told Josie that he hates life, and that his father’s pressure to succeed makes him not want to live anymore. Josie was at a loss. She tried to cheer John up and shared some inspirational words from Father Stephen with him, but John is an atheist, so he brushed her off. In that moment, Josie wished she could see Jacob and apologize, because she realized their date disaster was as much her fault as it was his. Eventually she focused back on John, and asked him to try a school exercise with her. Both of them write their current feelings down on a piece of paper, sealed it, and exchanged notes. At the end of HSC, they were to open the notes, read them, and ask each other if they still felt the same way. When she got home later that day, Josie placed John’s note in her jewelry box for safekeeping, amongst her other expensive and priceless items.
Now it’s Friday, and confession day. When Josie goes to give her confession to Father Stephens, he recognizes her because she always recites the same sins. Josie loves Father Stephens, because he’s learned and advanced, but still humble, kind, and down to earth. He was the first person in their school area to arrange for school AIDS talks, because he didn’t want young people dying due to ignorance. This is just one reason why Josie respects him. After confession, Sera teases Josie about her virgin status, and even taunts her about her illegitimacy. She says Josie must be so afraid of being like her mother, pregnant in high school. Normally this would upset Josie, but she’s starting to learn how to ignore the gossip and judgement of others, especially of the Italian community.
Chapter 15
One Wednesday the girls head to Harley’s, a cafe hangout at Darling Harbour. After school, this is the place to be among the high schoolers, who come to gossip and chill with their friends. The girls talk about their career plans and dreams, and Sera teases Anna about her crush on Anton Valavic, Jacob’s best friend. Just then, Anton and Jacob walk in to Harley’s, along with a group of girls and boys. They sit in the both behind Josie’s group, and everyone besides Jacob and Anton begin to tease them. Anton halfheartedly tells them to stop, but they don’t. Eventually the girls leave and go window shopping for a while before Anna and Sera head home. Josie and Lee walk along the pier and talk about the future. Lee feels lost, and trapped by her family legacy. Josie tries to tell her that she’s the master of her own destiny, but Lee won’t listen. To lighten the mood, she says she wants to be a fortune teller, and tells Josie that in her future she’ll be happy with Jacob Coote. When Josie protests, Lee says Jacob is the only person that won’t put up with her melodrama. She also tells Josie to not let insignificant people like Carly, Poison Ivy, and Sera prey on her problems. The girls hug goodbye, and go their separate ways.
While Josie waits at the bus stop for her bus home, Jacob comes over and sits next to her. She tells him to get lost, but he grabs her hand and apologizes for his behavior at the cafe and on their date. He asks for a second chance. Josie asks if he went to see a movie that night after all, and Jacob lies and says he picked up another girl. Josie doesn’t believe his lie, and Jacob tells her he went home. Satisfied, Josie turns away to hide her expression, but Jacob leans forward and kisses her. He asks again for another chance, saying that they were both hotheaded, that he said things he didn’t mean, and that he’d never say them again. He kisses Josie again, and she tells him he’ll have to redeem himself with her mother. Jacob agrees, and asks her to meet him tomorrow afternoon. Josie has work, and so Jacob cajoles her into skipping class on Friday to go on a date. At first Josie is nervous about going behind her mother’s back and skipping school, but the excitement of going out with Jacob overpowers those feelings. She gets on her bus home, smiling from ear to ear.
Chapter 16
Friday comes around, and Josie heads to Circular Quay to meet Jacob. It’s a glorious day weather-wise, and the most beautiful day of Josie’s life. Jacob is a boy of extremes, one moment tough, the other loving and sensitive. They sit on the beach for lunch, and exchange childhood stories. Josie asks if Jacob misses his mother, and he says he does. His father has a girlfriend that comes and stays with them though, and Josie is surprised to hear that they aren’t engaged. This wouldn’t work in Italian culture, and Jacob wonders why Josie doesn’t go against it all. Josie says it’s because her actions would reflect poorly on her mother and grandmother. Even though she dislikes the rules and regulations of her culture, she can’t hate it or ditch it because it’s a part of her. She also tells Jacob about the recent appearance her father in her life, and how she wants to hate him but actually likes him. Seeing Josie’s vulnerability and passion makes Jacob kiss her again. He admits that growing up he used to tease her all the time, and that even now she’s not his usual type, but he’s growing accustomed to her. They kiss on the beach for a while longer before heading home. Josie feels connected to Jacob in a way she’s never felt connected to anyone before, because he allows her to be herself. She realizes she’s in love with him, and even though this isn’t what she wanted or planned for, it’s even better than her wildest dreams.
Chapter 17
It’s June holidays, and Josie goes to Adelaide with Michael Andretti. Josie is surprised at how quickly their relationship has turned around in the six months since they met, and is pleased they have a relationship of respect and affection. They drive to Adelaide instead of fly, and their car ride is full of banter and teasing. He asks her about Jacob, who he met one day when Jacob picked Josie up from the firm. Josie says he’s fine, and they start to talk about Christina and Michael. Michael tells Josie their story. They were next door neighbors, and fought constantly until they were 16, when told each other their problems and became best friends. After a while, those feelings morphed into something more, and they had sex, which Michael regrets. Not because of Josie, but because he thinks they weren’t emotionally ready. Still, he believes it was worth it, because they have Josie now. Josie asks if Michael has a girlfriend, and when he says he does, she tries to make him jealous about her mother. Josie says Christina is dating an Italian man, and she (Josie) adores him, but that she likes Michael better. This makes Michael smile so beautifully that Josie begins to love the idea of him being her father. Michael in return says that if he had to choose a daughter, he would have chosen Josie. The pair continue to banter back and forth for the rest of the ride.
They arrive in Adelaide three days after leaving Sydney. Josie of course has preconceived notions of how the trip will unfold, but it doesn’t play out that way. She expected her grandparents to hug and cry over her, but they don’t. They’re still surprised over her existence, and so are kind of standoffish at first. By the end of the trip though, her grandfather is impressed with her Italian, and her grandmother even points out pictures of Josie’s mom in the family photo albums. Paulina, Michael’s sister, is nice to her though. She takes Josie shopping, has her over for dinner, and her kids (Josie’s cousins) are excited to meet her too. However, the biggest revelation for Josie is her father, who she adores being with. She learns about his likes, dislikes, personality, and mannerisms, like the fact he snores when he sleeps. She realizes how much it means to her to finally have a father. Still, Josie is happy to go home because she misses her mother and Jacob, who both miss her dearly too. Jacob even tells her to never go away again, that’s how much he missed her. With both him and her father, Josie feels like she’s known them for years.
Analysis
This section of the novel sees Josie’s relationships with various characters gain momentum and emotional depth. The first of these characters is Jacob, who once again shows an uneducated perspective regarding Italian dating culture, despite Josie’s best efforts to educate him. After agreeing to meet Josie’s mother, he arrives at their house looking disheveled. This alarms Christina, who isn’t comfortable letting Josie go out with a thug-like young man. Against Christina’s better judgement, she lets Josie go, only for Jacob to say more racist and culturally insensitive things. This time Jacob does apologize for his ignorance regarding multiculturalism in Australia, but the damage is already done. However, despite the ways he has questioned and mocked her culture, Josie forgives Jacob, because she realizes that perhaps she was making her own judgments about him based on his background. She gives him a second chance, and it goes really well, demonstrating that though cultural differences can be divisive, they don’t have to be.
Another character whose relationship to Josie evolves in these chapters is Michael Andretti. Once again, Michael comes to Josie’s rescue, saving her from walking the streets alone at night after she runs away from her date with Jacob. Like a good dad, Michael shows up when Josie needs him, even without her asking. Between their pizza meeting and her working for him at the law firm, their relationship builds and grows, to a point where they feel comfortable going on holiday together to Adelaide. Though only a few months have passed, the father and daughter are quickly making up for the 17 years they lost and developing a close, strong bond. They are so close that Josie is comfortably with teasing him about her mother. Michael admits that he loved Christina, but that the pressure of deciding between being a father or aborting a fetus was tough to handle. He didn’t even think Christina would overcome the pressure of Nonno Franceso and actually have the baby.
Christina’s shaky bond to Nonno Francesco was obvious to everyone, even her secret boyfriend. When talking about Nonno Francesco and Christina’s pregnancy, Michael says, “I knew her father. I didn’t think that Christina Alibrandi had the guts to stand up to the bastard” (Marchetta 187). Like Josie and John, Christina felt the pressure of her family and her community when she was 17 and pregnant. As a Catholic Italian from a traditional household, she was caught between a rock and a hard place. Having a baby outside of marriage would be construed as sin, but aborting a fetus would be an even worse one. The strength and resistance Christina showed in the face of the familial, community, and religious pressures she was up against is commendable.
Looming over all of these relationships is Nonna Katia, who is an important figure in both Josie and Christina’s lives, but who is being kept out of the loop. Despite their rocky relationship and past, Christina cares deeply about her mom’s opinion, particularly with regards to Josie. When she sees Jacob’s sorry state the night of the first date, Christina says, “Nonna would have a fit” (Marchetta 175). Even though Christina has voiced her resentment about Nonna Katia trying to dictate how Josie should be raised, she still considers her mother’s reaction when considering allowing Josie to date Jacob. It seems that in some ways Christina is still searching for the approval she never got from her mother when she was a child.
Alternatively, it seems as if Josie is learning how to stop prioritizing other people’s approval. Instead of allowing her fears of being judged to pressure her into living her life a certain way, she’s learning to let go. This is evidenced when she brushes off Sera’a snide comments about pregnancy and being like Christina. Josie says it herself when she thinks, “I just ignored her [Sera]. I’m getting good that way. Things that worried me a few months ago no longer worry me as much” (Marchetta 198). Unlike her mother and John, for whom the pressure of their communities and families seem debilitating, Josie is learning how to stand strong and live her truth. This a huge step on her path to self-discovery. Another step is when she acknowledges her own culpability in her failed first date with Jacob. Josie managing to be self-reflective about her own actions and behavior is crucial, as oftentimes teenagers can only see when they are being wronged, not the other way around. By taking ownership of her own actions, Josie is showing maturity and growth.
