Poor Sandy Bacon. Every time she gets her own SVH storyline, she comes off as a jerk. First there was attempting to screw her best friend Jeanie out of membership in PBA and now she's dating a really great guy. Problem is, her parents hate Mexicans, and naturally she's fallen for a Mexican boy.

Whenever she tries to broach the subject to her mother, Mrs. Bacon tells her to stop talking crazy and to keep away from "those people." Sandy does keep trying, but she can never manage to spit out the words, "I'm dating one of those people, Mom, so shut up about it." Y'know, or something similar. And that I can't actually fault her for, as it's pretty obvious that her parents would forbid her to see Manuel, and at least this way she can still be with him, it just takes a little creativity.

When Sandy's boat explodes, Manuel saves her life. Instead of realizing that now is the best time to tell her parents [because he'll be caught up in that heroic glow], Sandy chooses to ask Liz to lie and say she saved Sandy. It goes entirely too far and Sandy actually manages to be incredibly horrible to Manuel, and as a result, I... don't really like Sandy as much as I did before I read the book again.

There are certain lines you don't cross, and she does, and no one says one word about how wrong she was.

As far as the 80's After-School Special effect of the book, well, it could be worse, but it could also be a lot better. ( )