Anastasia Krupnik

Anastasia decides she’s in love with a boy at school named Washburn Cummings because she read an article in Cosmopolitan about how people feel when they’re in love. When she tells her parents, her father says she’s a little young, but her mother argues she fell in love when she was 10, which sparks a light-hearted argument. Anastasia asks if her parents have a problem with Washburn being African American and two years older than her, and her parents don’t. Her father is most concerned that any potential boyfriend should treat Anastasia well and have a good character. This isn’t the answer Anastasia hoped for, and she concludes they haven’t “grasped the significance of being in love for the first time” (41).

Anastasia explains her feelings to Jennifer, who doesn’t believe Anastasia’s in love and tries, unsuccessfully, to talk her out of it. To get Washburn’s attention, Anastasia tries to style her hair in an Afro like his. When she sees him the next day, he asks if she electrocuted herself and laughs at her. Feeling an intense stomach ache, Anastasia goes home, lies in bed for the rest of the day, and writes that she hates Washburn Cummings in her green notebook 43 times.