As a child, Mackenzie Taylor only went near the ghettos of the city when she visited her cousin Crystal. While they drove past a movie theater called Starlight, Mak's mother gravely called it a place for drug dealing and gangs. Despite her mother’s extreme warnings in the past, Mak now sits in her Audi in the parking lot of Starlight with Kamari, her boyfriend and a neighbor of Crystal’s. Mak first saw Kamari walking down the street with his arm around a girl. When she asked Crystal who he was, she described him as a classmate with a bad reputation because he got his girlfriend pregnant and then forced her to get an abortion. Mak struggles to imagine that teen pregnancies could be so common, especially considering how all the girls at her school are on birth control. Although her mother always criticizes her cousin, Mak knows that Crystal, who has a full scholarship from Duke, is much smarter than Mak's mother. When one of Mak’s school friends crashes her car, she reluctantly agrees to drive her to Crystal’s neighborhood where the friend's boyfriend lives. While Mak waits in the driveway for her friend, Kamari opens the door of her car and slides in. They introduce themselves to each other, and Mak is surprised to see that he sports a Percy Jackson shirt. He became a fan of the series after using it to tutor his little brother. Kamari flirts with Mak and teases her for being so uppity. The next time she meets Kamari, Mak gets a flat tire, and he comes to her rescue. He is late to basketball practice because he helped her, and Mak sees how different Kamari is from Crystal’s opinion. Back in the parking lot of Starlight, Mak finally confronts Kamari about the rumor she heard about the pregnancy. He explains that he wanted to keep the baby since he grew up without a father, but his girlfriend got scared and aborted. When people started to make rumors about him, neither of them denied it. They both realize that they wrongly judged each other and share a kiss.