Smile: A Graphic Novel

Raina spends her summer drawing, watching TV, and dreaming about Sean. Meanwhile, the braces shrink the gap in her top teeth to the point that she only needs one fake tooth. By the time eighth grade starts, she and her friends are all dealing with puberty. Raina gets upset as they call her new Bart Simpson shirt a boy’s shirt and mostly talk about their looks.

Melissa tells Raina that Sean is too focused on basketball to ever notice her, so Raina decides to try out for the women’s team. Sean greets her at the practice, but she fails to make the team. When discussing it with her family, her parents tell her that she could have broken her teeth again while playing. While passing notes in class, Melissa suggests drawing a picture for him instead, which freaks Raina out. Before she can respond, the teacher intercepts the message and reads it aloud to the class. Raina worries that Sean will find out but gets more upset when Melissa suggests that nobody cares about it.

The girls start to mingle with guys during lunch. While Raina sees them as immature and flirting practice for Sean, she appreciates that they talk about things other than beauty practices.