Ramona Blue

In the coastal town of Eulogy, Mississippi, 17-year-old Ramona Leroux, a gay girl known for her signature blue hair, says goodbye to Grace, her summer girlfriend, who is returning home to Picayune. Grace, who has a boyfriend named Andrew and has not come out to her family, promises to stay in touch but offers no commitment. Ramona, who works a predawn paper route and buses tables at Boucher's restaurant, braces herself for the loss.

Ramona's home life is already strained. She lives in a cramped trailer with her father, Bobby, and her older sister, Hattie. Hurricane Katrina destroyed the family's house and Bobby's po'boy truck years earlier, and their mother left for Arkansas and never returned. Bobby took a job at Le Manoir hotel, and the family has been scraping by ever since. When Hattie reveals she is pregnant and that her unreliable boyfriend, Tyler, is moving in, the trailer feels even more suffocating.

A bright spot arrives when Ramona reconnects with Agnes, a grandmother figure from childhood, who has permanently relocated to Eulogy with her new husband, Bart. Agnes's grandson Freddie, now 18, is starting his senior year at Eulogy High. At Tyler's birthday party, Ramona and Freddie catch up on years apart. Freddie reveals he swam competitively for three years before quitting. Eulogy High has no swim team.

As school begins, Freddie integrates into Ramona's life. He persuades her to swim laps with him and Agnes at the YMCA. Though Ramona has no formal technique, she loves the water and starts going several mornings a week. A blunt older woman, who turns out to be Prudence Whitmire, a retired swim coach from Delgado Community College in Slidell, Louisiana, comments repeatedly on Ramona's raw speed and lack of form.

Ramona's long-distance connection with Grace deteriorates. Grace admits she is still dating Andrew and has no plans to come out. When Freddie plans a trip to Baton Rouge for his girlfriend Vivienne's birthday, Ramona rides along, picking up Grace on the way. The weekend is a disaster. Vivienne tells Freddie she wants to see other people. Grace refuses to be affectionate with Ramona in front of others, and an explosive argument erupts: Grace accuses Ramona of forcing her out of the closet, while Ramona feels erased. On the drive home, Freddie and Ramona, both heartbroken, make a pact to swear off romance until after graduation.

Grace fades from Ramona's thoughts. One Saturday, Ramona's friend Saul, a 19-year-old bartender at Boucher's, takes the group to swim at a vacant rental property's pool, claiming they have permission. They are trespassing. When the property manager confronts them, they flee. Freddie is furious afterward, explaining that trespassing on private property is how Black kids get shot. He tells Ramona she cannot pretend to be color-blind when it suits her. Ramona, shaken, promises never to put him in that position again.

At Agnes's Thanksgiving dinner, Freddie says he is most thankful for Ramona. Afterward, they play MASH, a fortune-telling game, and the results pair them together. Freddie places a plastic spider ring on her finger and kisses her lightly on the backyard porch swing. Ramona kisses him back, then spends the night confused about what the kiss means for her identity. She consults her friend Ruth, Saul's younger sister and a fellow lesbian, who advises her not to lead Freddie on if the kiss was a fluke. Weeks later, a power outage at the YMCA traps Ramona in the locker room. Freddie finds her, and they share a more passionate second kiss. Ramona acknowledges that kissing Freddie feels different not because he is a boy, but because he is Freddie.

Freddie takes Ramona on a date to New Orleans, where they eat at his childhood favorite diner, dance in Jackson Square, and take photo-booth pictures. He calls her "his own Peter Pan" (234), saying she seemed like a wild summer child who would never grow up. For Christmas, he gives her a bracelet with a light-blue evil eye charm. Complications follow quickly. On Christmas Eve, Hattie outs the relationship to their mother, who excitedly asks if Ramona has a boyfriend. Ramona deflects, refusing to let her mother believe a boy has cured her sexuality. At Saul's New Year's Eve party, Ramona kisses Freddie at midnight to declare he is not a secret, but Ruth leaves in tears, feeling she is losing Ramona to a relationship that erases the identity they share. Ramona assures Ruth that kissing a boy does not erase her attraction to girls.

Freddie asks Ramona to be his girlfriend, and she agrees. They have sex for the first time, and Ramona reflects that she has not lost part of her identity but embraced another facet of it. She tells Freddie she loves him. The stability shatters when Hattie wakes up in a pool of blood and is diagnosed with placenta previa, a condition in which the placenta covers the cervix, causing dangerous bleeding. The free pregnancy clinic missed it. Ramona, guilt-stricken for being unreachable, picks up all of Hattie's shifts, drastically reducing her time for swimming and Freddie.

Agnes hosts an elaborate baby shower. The day is marred when their mother arrives drunk. Driving her home, Ramona hears her mother confess that Ramona was a planned baby, that she believes Ramona chose to be gay to disappoint her parents, and that Hattie will be fine because she has Ramona, "the kind of family I never was to you girls" (323). That night, overwhelmed and convinced their lives are incompatible, Ramona breaks up with Freddie, telling him she loves him but that love is not enough.

During Mardi Gras, Ramona runs into Grace, who reveals she came out to her family, broke up with Andrew, and credits Ramona for inspiring her. Grace challenges Ramona's decision to stay in Eulogy, saying the only thing keeping her there is fear. Spurred by the encounter, Ramona returns to the YMCA, beats Freddie in a race for the first time, and begins training seriously with Coach Pru.

Ramona and Ruth attend prom as platonic dates. A tornado strikes mid-dance. After the storm, Hattie undergoes an emergency C-section. Freddie drives Ramona to the hospital. Sara Belle Leroux is born at 11:53 p.m. The entire family gathers to meet her. Back home, Ramona and Bobby find the trailer condemned, its roof peeled back. In a hotel bathroom, Ramona finds Hattie's scissors and cuts off all her blue hair, each snip a small act of independence: loving Hattie more by needing her less.

Bobby secures an apartment. Hattie, Sara, and Tyler move in with Tyler's mother. Ramona buys a competitive swimsuit and a used red bike, investing her savings in her future. She decides to enroll at Delgado Community College on Coach Pru's recommendation, covering tuition with grants and loans. She submits a late yearbook page featuring a photo-booth picture from her New Orleans date and a quote from J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan. After school, she waits for Freddie at the bike rack and apologizes for shutting him out. Freddie says he needs time to rebuild trust, but they agree to take things one day at a time and kiss.

On the first Sunday of June, Eulogy celebrates the Blessing of the Fleet, a coastal tradition sending shrimping boats off for the season. Standing with Freddie at the docks, Ramona silently claims the blessing for herself: She is the vessel and the captain. She will leave for Delgado's summer swim camp in two weeks. She has not settled on a label for her sexuality and intends to figure it out as she goes. Freddie kisses her knuckles as they sway at the water's edge, and Ramona looks out at the future as a great and beautiful unknown.