In the brief opening chapter of Make Lemonade, 14-year-old narrator LaVaughn tells readers she’s recounting her story “just the way it went,” including the pieces she’s not certain she’s “understood” (3). Comparing the events of the novel to a bird she glimpses only for a moment before it flies off, LaVaughn vows to tell her story “with all the details I remember” (3).

On her school’s job board, LaVaughn sees a flyer reading “BABYSITTER NEEDED BAD” (4). LaVaughn’s mother will allow her to work as long as LaVaughn finishes her homework, which is “a completely required thing/like a vaccination” (4). When LaVaughn calls the number from the ad, the voice on the other end, who introduces herself as Jolly, sounds to LaVaughn like someone who could be a friend: “like we could be friends/right away” (4). LaVaughn arranges to meet Jolly and her children after school.

LaVaughn goes to meet Jolly and discovers she is only 17 and has two children: 2-year-old Jeremy and baby Jilly. Jolly lives in “even a worse place” (6) than LaVaughn’s apartment building, and Jolly’s apartment is “smelly” (7) and filthy.