Flower in the Hills — Norma Jean Lutz

Latina Harmen knew she was going to hate Missouri. “There's nothing in Missouri!” she had told her father when he announced they were to spend the summer there. And now she knew she had been one hundred and ten percent right. Latina had taken for granted that she would be spending another happy summer vacation with her friends at Periwinkle Cove on the East Coast. After all, her family had spent summers there as long as she could remember. Now, in the summer before her senior year, she would be stuck in a hick town with no one around but her boring parents and bratty younger brother. How could she have guessed the beauty that lay waiting for her in those brooding hills? How was she to know she would meet fascinating people, and that she would learn more about herself than she'd ever known? How was she to know she would meet a special someone whose friendship and support would change her life forever?