Andrew Marcus wants freckles. He wants to look just like his classmate Nicky Lane, who is covered in freckles, and “[has] about a million of them” (7). Andrew thinks that if he had freckles like Nicky, “his mother would never know if his neck was dirty. So he wouldn’t have to wash” (7), and then he wouldn’t be late to school in the morning. Andrew becomes so distracted counting Nicky’s freckles that he doesn’t hear his teacher, Miss Kelly, telling the students to get into their reading groups. As Andrew hurries to join his giggling group and find the correct page number, he thinks about how if he had freckles of his own, “he’d hear Miss Kelly when she called reading groups” (7-8), and no one would laugh at him for being distracted or falling behind. Andrew asks Nicky how he got his freckles, and Nicky replies that he was just born with them.

Sharon, another of Andrew’s classmates, overhears their conversation about freckles and tells Andrew that “[she] know[s] how to get them” (10). Sharon tells Andrew that her family has a secret recipe for freckle juice, and she is willing to share it with Andrew, but it will cost him 50 cents.