Weird Rules to Follow

It's the 1980s. Mia and her best friend, Lara, have known each other since kindergarten. Now in middle school, they like to compare notes on their crushes, have sleepovers and dream about their futures. But even though they both live in the same neighborhood in their coastal fishing town, Mia's life is very different from her friend's. Lara lives with her parents and brother in a big house with two cars in the driveway and a view of the ocean. Mia lives in a shabby wartime house that is full of relatives--her churchgoing grandmother, party-going mother and a rotating number of aunts, uncles and cousins. Even though these differences have never mattered to the two friends, Mia begins to notice how people treat her differently just because she is Indigenous. Teachers, shopkeepers and even Lara's parents all seem to have decided who Mia is without getting to know her first.