During the summer I read the book True Beleiver by Virginia Euwer Wolff. LaVaughn has to go through many challanges, and her main challenge is trying to figure out if she's following the right path to a good future. LaVaughn has to go through understanding who her real friends are, and wanting the answers to her neighbor, mysterious Jody, who she fell in love with.

      LaVaughn a 15 year old girl, who lives with her mother in a very dangerous city, filled with criminals, and murderers. She has a tough life, living in poverty, but somehow making it through. With her mother working, she holds a stable life.  Infact, a few years back her dad was murdered, and ever since she is getting used to her mother's boyfriend.

     Her world changes, when her former neighbor Jody moves back in to her building. He's lived there once before, when they were both very young, but moved a few years later. When Joby's moms payment, couldn't support their new house, they had to move back to their old one.

     As children, Joby and LaVaughn were best friends. They did everything together. From school, to homework, to playing games with eachother, they had a very close relationship. Ofcourse, that is until Jody moved out. When LaVaughn found out Jody had moved back in, she couldn't care much. She knew that regaining the same relationship they once had, was going to be difficult, it was out of the queston. 

    When LaVaughn started continuously running into Jody, in school, and in the elevator, new feelings evolved. LaVuaghn loved the smell of chlorine on Jody. He went swimming at a public pool after school, and he even invited LaVaugn once.

    As getting closer to Jody, LaVaughn lost herself. All she did was pay attention to him. Her friends were out of matter, and she even stopped worrying about saving up and getting into a good college, which was her life- long dream. Having money in her neighborhood was tough, so she baby-sat every chance she got to earn her some extra dollors for college. After becoming very interested in Jody, she let her friends go. Both Myrtyle and Annie her two best friends, joined a christian group, and only pay attention to that. LaVaughn doesn't have a relationship she once had wit them.

   When Jody becomes sick, laVaughn thought it would be nice to bring him some cookies. When she gets to his floor, she deides to open the door with the key she has that belongs to his door. As she suddenly looked forward, she saw a shadow of jody, and another boy.....kissing..... LaVaughn ran out outraged and devastated, back to her house, where she tore up her prom dress.

  This part made me really upset. LaVaughn really liked Jody. And it's hard for her to accept him being gay. I mean she liked him for such a long time. She went to prom with him. She made him cookies. I think tearing up the prom dress, refers to cutting out LaVaughns horrible past with that dress. I think by cutting that dress, it shows that she wants to throw away that upsetting chapter from her life, and start a new one.

 A few days later, When LaVaughn thought she was DONE with Jody, she finds out that he wasn't actually kissing the boy. It was just a prank, to get LaVaughn off his back. Now LaVaughn has no one. Both of her close friends left her for religion, and the boy she liked is a fake.

  I personally can't relate to LaVaughn. I've had friends who left me. I've had boys who i liked, and who didn't like me back. But i was never in a position like her. I feel like LaVaughn is strong, because I know what it feels like to feel by yourself, and it feels awful. LaVaughn is the strongest character in the book. She goes through a continous amount of difficulties in her life. From losing her father, to losing her friends, and the one boy she likes, ; she really showed me a character I've never seen before. She still held her head straight, and tried her hardest to get her life back to normal, and to pursue her college dream.