The first chapter of Leah Johnson’s You Should See Me in A Crown introduces the novel’s protagonist, Campbell High School senior, Liz Lighty. Liz, as one of the school’s only Black students, feels out of place amongst her classmates. She is comfortable only when she’s in band practice and is happy to fade into the background. Desperate to escape her hometown of Campbell County, Indiana, Liz eagerly awaits news regarding her scholarship to Pennington College School of Music.

The opening chapter begins with Liz desperately trying to avoid any accidents while she walks to her lunch table across the cafeteria. After an incident where Freddy Brinkley tripped and face-planted into his food went viral on Campbell’s own gossip app called Campbell Confidential, Liz is hyper-aware of her own surroundings. Liz’s anxiety about being seen and having eyes on her is a pervasive theme throughout this chapter. When popular student Derek Lawson begins singing and dancing to ask Liz’s rival, Rachel Collins, to prom, Liz feels ill at the thought of being watched by so many people. The incident gets uploaded to Campbell Confidential by many people around them because prom is an important event to the people of Campbell County.