Publishers WeeklyWhen tough talking 14-year-old Marissa least expects it, she feels an attraction to the most unlikely of boys. An unplanned meeting between Marissa and Rene, a player whose only game is chess, causes sparks to fly. Marissa may start out believing that "Dang, the boy's a nerd," but she finds herself attracted to his manners and to this boy "whose bicycle was too big for him and whose eyeglasses were crooked on his cute small face." In somewhat of an abrupt move, she transfers to a magnet school to be closer to him ("far up north where the Sierras peeked through the valley smog"). Marissa and her "muy wimpy" novio learn a thing or two about each other and themselves when he coaxes her to audition with him for a part in Romeo and Juliet.
