The Last Chance Texaco by Brent Hartinger Kindle Home is the last group home kids in the foster system are usually sent to before being sent to Eat-Their-Young Island- a prison-like compound from which nobody leaves before turning 18. The kids have nicknamed Kindle Home The Last Chance Texaco because it's the last chance stop before a kid is sent to Eat-Their-Young Island. Lucy Pitt knows all of this, and so she's not real happy to be at Kindle Home. The "home" isn't exactly like all of the others she's been at- the counselors are better, the house itself is a dilapidated old mansion, the neighborhood is extremely upper class- but a lot is the same- there's the same sort of pecking order social structure with the kids, there are the same rules and bed checks, the local kids are even more hostile than at other schools and even have the same name for the kids; "Groupies". In her eight years in the foster system, Lucy has been through more than her fair share of group and foster homes. She figures this one won't last any longer. She figures it's her last stay in the general world before she is sent to Eat-Their-Young Island.
It doesn't take long for Lucy to make the first step towards being kicked out of Kindle Home. She makes enemies with the house therapist, a jerk named Emil. Nobody likes Emil, but he has the last say in sending kids to Eat-Their-Young Island. When the home bully named Joy steals Lucy's roomate Yolanda's cigarettes, Lucy makes sure that Joy is caught with the cigarettes, and makes another enemy. On the second day of school, Lucy attacks Nate Brandon, an all-around good student and athlete, after being provoked. The principal, another jerk, wants to expel Lucy. Happily, Lucy's maverick counselor Leon points out that it is Lucy's first infraction, and that the school code says that both parties in a fight must be punished equally, regardless of who started it. So Lucy is only given suspension and eight weeks' clean-up by the principal. Leon tells Lucy that he wants to help her to stay out of Eat-Their-Young Island. In exchange, he wants her to trust the adults at Kindle Home. Lucy agrees, and Leon convinces the other councelors that fighting Nate Brandon is a school issue, and shouldn't get Lucy expelled from the Home.
For a time, life goes on. Lucy warms towards Nate while she is on garbage detention with him. One of the other kids in the Home messes up and is sent away. Then someone- Lucy would guess Joy- plants Oxies under Lucy's bed. Since Lucy was once addicted to Oxies, the evidence is against Lucy. Emil is all for sending her away, but the counselors think that Lucy deserves another chance. So Emil merely gives Lucy 40 points(kind of like demerits, they remove priviledges), institutes random urine tests, and warns her that this is two strikes- three and she's out.
Nate Brandon becomes Lucy's boyfriend, but this threatens to be short lived. Lucy's stay at Kindle Home is being threatened on two fronts. If Joy chooses to start a fight that would be Lucy's third strike. But a bigger threat looms- Kindle Home may be shut down. Someone is starting fires in cars around Kindle Home, and the neighbors think that one of the Groupies has to responsible. Nate and Lucy set out to catch the culprit and save Kindle Home.
Lucy is a very likeable main character and narrator. Her narrative is frank and never stoops to self pity, but is still believable. Nate's friendliness is not so plausible- how he comes to change his attitude so completely is not understandable to me. I like him anyways. The psychological reasons given for so many of the actions undertaken are funny, the more so because they are an acurate portrayal of how people are desribed when they are seen as damaged goods.
Happy reading.
