Each Tiny Spark

Emilia wakes up to a barrage of texts from Abuela: She wants her at church. Toni laughs at his mom’s text. She’s used to being in charge. His dad died when he was 13. As Toni doesn’t want to be around people, Emilia goes to church by herself and hears people talk about redistricting. They don’t mind Park View kids, but they claim they want to maintain smaller classes.

Gus’s family arrives, and Gus ignores her. During church, Emilia tries to get his attention, and Abuela gives Emilia a disapproving face. Abuela invites Gus and his family for lunch, but Orestes realizes Toni wants to be alone, and, in Spanish, he says they’ll come back another time. Abuela feels Toni was rude, and Toni and Emilia watch television together.

Emilia updates the class on her project and the anti-immigration laws she researched. She concedes that they’re children, but she asserts that they still have voices. Clarissa dismisses Emilia’s information, and Gus defends her, saying these truths are hidden, like a monster under a person’s bed. Mr. Richt reminds Emilia that she must cite sources separate from the internet.

The other students want to change their tourism guides. Richie wants to focus on Merryville during the Civil Rights Movement, Chinh wants to highlight head injuries from playing football, and Clarissa wants to highlight the greatness of Merryville’s schools to show that they don’t need Park View students.

Emilia gets a D on her math test, but Ms. Brennen lets her retake it. In the hallway, Gus and Clarissa argue. Emilia sticks up for Gus, and Clarissa accuses Emilia of spreading lies: She’s not like Gus—she should be on Clarissa’s side, so she’s betraying Clarissa and her neighbors. Emilia feels like Clarissa is electrocuting her and hurries away.

Emilia thinks on a tree stump in the woods until Abuela makes her come home and clean. She criticizes Emilia’s mopping and her mismatched socks. Abuela wants to make picadillo with black beans and rice, but Emilia hates black beans.

During dinner, Emilia eats the picadillo but ignores the black beans and rice. Abuela announces that she and Emilia are going to Atlanta to look at dresses. She’s also glad Emilia hasn’t been hanging out with Gus in the woods. Fed up, Emilia explodes. She yells at Abuela for trying to make her someone she’s not. She screams at her father for not communicating.

Crying, Emilia runs upstairs to her room, where her mom calls her. They discuss Emilia’s issues and what happened at school. Emilia doesn’t want Sue to call Clarissa’s mom or Mrs. Jenkins.

Sue notes Emilia’s growth and then shares some news: A tech company in San Francisco wants to hire her full-time and develop her app. Emilia doesn’t want her mom in San Francisco, but she doesn’t tell her out loud.

While waiting to speak with Mrs. Jenkins about her math test, Emilia hears Principal Andrews telling Mr. Richt that the tourism guide project is problematic. She doesn’t want to write him up again, so he needs to switch to something else. Instead of speaking to Mrs. Jenkins about her problems, Emilia encourages the counselor to check-in with Barry Johnson and other kids who might require extra attention.

In homeroom, Gus says a police officer stopped him and his dad on the way home from Clarissa’s house, but they had documentation. Gus is upset with Emilia for not sticking around during his argument with Clarissa.

In social studies, Mr. Richt says the projects are off. Instead, he wants everyone to attend Thursday’s school board meeting. On Friday, they’ll discuss democracy. While Mr. Richt teaches, Emilia apologizes further to Gus. She promises to do better and keep learning. She’s friends with Clarissa, but that doesn’t mean that she shares Clarissa’s beliefs. Gus accepts Emilia’s apology, and they reconcile through playful Star Wars references. After school, they agree to film interviews with Park View people and ask about their feelings on redistricting.

In Abuela’s truck, Emilia learns that her grandma never had a quinceañera. In Cuba, she and her family lived in a factory town, Hershey. When it closed, her family journeyed to the United States, and they moved wherever there was work. They ended up in Merryville and Park View, and Abuela loved Park View. She met her husband at church, and they saved money and bought the auto shop and their home. After her husband got sick, people tried to buy the auto shop. They didn’t think a Cuban woman could run the sole auto shop in town. Abuela made friends with everyone. In private, she embraced her Latinx culture; in public, she was cautious.

Abuela doesn’t want Emilia to feel badly, but Emilia doesn’t want to suppress her multilayered identity. They agree: No more hiding. Abuela might not always listen to Emilia, but she’ll hear her granddaughter. She concedes her grandma is protective, but that’s how she wants her to stay.