(Marcelo eventually wises up and refuses, which, whew.) All he wants in return is for Marcelo to a) do his work for him, and b) lure Jasmine onto the yacht so he can put the moves on her.

He'll pretend to be Marcelo's friend and will tell Arturo good things about his son, which will mean Marcelo can go back to Paterson in the fall and get out of his way. So Wendell, scheming cad that he is, seizes the opportunity to manipulate Marcelo. He wants to hook up with Jasmine, who can't stand him, because she has a brain. He's already become the captain of the squash team, he has a yacht, and he's pretty much a pompous, womanizing jerk, just like his dad. Wendell's just graduated high school and is going to Harvard in the fall. What really makes the law firm awful, however, is Wendell Holmes, the son of Arturo's partner Stephen. She's not happy about the situation either because she wanted to hire a girl named Belinda, but Arturo forced Marcelo on her.

Jasmine's got it together: she's only two years older than Marcelo, but she's running the place. He'll be working in the mailroom with Jasmine, the manager. Marcelo chooses the law firm, though he's less than pumped. If Marcelo does well at the firm-and 'well' is defined by Arturo, of course-he can go back to Paterson for his senior year. He thinks that what Marcelo needs is a dose of the 'real world,' which amounts to one of two options: either he goes to Oak Ridge High instead of Paterson in the fall, or he gives up his job at the stables for the summer and comes to work at Arturo's law firm, Sandoval and Holmes. You know that job at the stables? Yeah, Arturo's not down. He's been there all along, of course, but now he's about to throw a giant tire iron in the spokes of Marcelo's life. In short, life's pretty sweet.Įnter Arturo, Marcelo's dad. He's just gotten a job working with Paterson's equine-therapy horses, he lives in a nice house (well, actually, he lives in a fancy tree house in the backyard), and, best of all, he hears his own imaginary internal music (or IM) whenever he wants. He goes to Paterson, a school for special-needs kids, and he straight up loves it. He may have some kind of Asperger's-type syndrome, but he's happy. Marcelo Sandoval has a pretty good life, at least at the beginning of the book.

Marcelo in the real world