Teena Booth is a journalist. She and her husband have three children.

High school freshman Teri Dinsmore is a nobody. Daughter of the oft-married "Best Lookin' Gal in Town,” younger sister of a popular member of the "rowdies,” her only real friend is the rumpled, eccentric Wesley.
Then a fire, indirectly caused by her birthday celebration, burns down her home and sends her family into a tailspin. All of a sudden Teri begins to see herself and her family in a whole new way. At school, everyone knows who Teri is, including Doug, her secret crush. Even Wesley, the most maddening person she knows, is looking at her with a new light in his eye. When her past disappears in the fire, Teri must put the pieces of her life back together, this time in a way that really fits.