Character Interview: Grace from Like Mandarin

The stunt you pulled at the pageant that made your mother flip her lid was hilarious to read! Do you wish you would have done anything else?
Well, it's been awfully hard to live down what I did do. Maybe I should have, like, smashed the tape deck on the stage in a rock star explosion. Or on top of Alexis Bunker, except we were friends then. And I would never, ever do something like that.

How different do you think things would be if you had befriended Mandarin at the beauty pageant all those years ago, rather than in high school?
I want to think we would have had this long, incredible friendship. But who knows? I was so much younger. Of course, she was too, but three years is even further apart when you're six and nine. And I was different then, and so was she. And we'd have turned into different people, if we'd been friends all that time. Or maybe we wouldn't have been friends. Maybe we'd have been enemies. In the end, I think…. I think we came together exactly when we needed to.

What's one thing about yourself you want to change?
I wish I didn't care so much about what everybody thought. Everybody in town, I mean, and Momma, but especially the kids at school. Sometimes it's almost like, the more I try to pretend I don't care, the more I really do care. It makes my head hurt.

Looking back at it now, what would say about you and Mandarin's friendship?
Wow. Um, let's see. It’s still kind of close to home, if you know what I mean. A little too close to fully make sense of it. I'm glad, though. I'm glad we were friends. Before we got paired for that project, I imagined lots of times what it would be like – to be friends with Mandarin Ramey. It wasn't what I expected. It was better. And worse. Much worse. It was more, in every possible way.

One thing's for sure: no matter how well I thought I knew Mandarin, she never stopped surprising me.

Is there anything you regret?
I shouldn't have trusted her. I should have known better.

But I can't regret our friendship.

Thanks for stopping by, Grace! If you would like to read more about Grace, don't forget to pick up a copy of Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard!

♥amber