Summary:
Sammy quit his job at the Speed Janitor Service because he was tired of getting up at four in the morning. But he got a full-time job for the summer at the university, where Pifas, his friend, got a job as well. When Sammy received his first paycheck, he asked Juliana on a date for the next day. When he was going to pick up Juliana for their date, he heard the ambulance. Sammy ran after it without knowing why but he had a feeling that something bad was happening. The ambulance stopped at Juliana's house. Sammy heard someone saying what happened, Juliana's father was fighting with his wife and she left the house saying she was not going to come back and Mr. Rios, Juliana's father, told her that she could leave but when she came back to not expect to find the children. That's when he went inside the house and killed Juliana and her siblings. It was a hard time for Sammy because now he had lost two of the most important people in his life, his mother and Juliana. "Okay”, that's the word that meant trouble to Sammy. One day Pifas asked Sammy to go out with him and some friends and he said "Okay" and the night turned into trouble. One night they went to a party, and it turned into a fight so then Sammy, Gigi, Angel, Rene and Pifas went to the river. When they were in there they played a game called What-are-we-going-to-do-when-we-live-Hollywood? At first, no one said anything until Sammy said he was going to college and Angel agreed with him by saying the same thing. Then Rene said he was going to be a boxer and Pifas said he was enlisted to go to the army, but later he confessed to Sammy that he was drafted. At last, Gigi said she was going to be a singer. Everyone was surprised when Gigi said she was going to be a singer because she was the kind of plastic girl that wore a lot of makeup and short skirts; no one expected that from her. Then they asked her to sing, and she sang a song in Spanish, another surprise for them. But when she started to sing Gigi didn’t seem like a girl at all, she seemed like a woman with a voice that any man could die just to hear it. The day for Pifas to leave came and Sammy gave him the crucifix that his mom has given to him when he was a little kid. After he went back to his house, Sammy's father told him to never join the army. His father had this idea because his brother got killed during the Korean War and they kicked his father out because he was retarded. Summer ended, and Sammy's senior year started. Gigi came up to Sammy asking him to be her manager since she was running for president. Sammy agreed and really got into the elections. They were not sure if Gigi was going to win because nobody seems to like her but since she was amused about it they helped her. For Election Day, the candidate had to write a speech but it had to be approved by the principal first. After two weeks of hard work, the day to present the speeches came. Gigi was pretty confident, maybe it was because Sammy helped her practice it a lot of times but when she got into the stage she took her speech and rip it in half. Then she started explaining to the students who she really was and somehow this inspired the students because at the end they started screaming her name. Unfortunately she didn’t win the elections because they were disqualified but what was true was that Gigi opened herself and let everyone know who she really was and why she does the things she does.
Quote:
"She looked so happy. Like the world had given her a chance at something. And she wasn't going to let the moment pass. She was beautiful–even with all that makeup that she didn’t need to be wearing. I thought the girl who'd sang that song. That song that broke my heart that night at the river. I thought of the girl that went with Pifas the night before he left. I loved that girl. Not like I had loved Juliana. But I loved her" (Sáenz 119).
Reaction:
As I read this quote, I can tell that Sammy is a good boy and I agree with what Juliana told him at the beginning of the book "Someone's gonna hurt you". I agree with that because sometimes people take advantage of the people that are too good. This is the case with Sammy, he is too nice to people but you never know who is going to stab you in the back when you are not seen it. Even though Gigi was the way she was, Sammy decided to help her because somehow he had seen someone else in Gigi the night she sang at the river. Also as it is seen at the end of these pages he was right because she opened to the people and was honest with them. This is the reason why people should not judge a book by its cover, because inside every person there's some enigma that no one really knows. Also because there is always a reason to explain why people are the way they are. By reading this quote, a question comes to my mind, “Is Sammy going to fall in love with Gigi? “. This questions pops into my head while I’m reading the book because at first Gigi and Sammy didn’t get along and now they are getting closer and Sammy is getting to see someone he had never seen in Gigi. Also Gigi came up to him to be the manager, “why didn’t she go to someone else?”
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