The Miscalculations of Lightning Girl

Large for her age, smart, a bit pushy, and cheerful, Windy befriends Lucy as a fellow eccentric. She wants to be an environmental lawyer, cares about animals, loves candy, and adores musicals. Lucy notes, “She seems to argue with everyone but me” (115) and goes out of her way to accommodate Lucy’s obsession with cleanliness. The two get along and become best friends, but Maddie interrupts their friendship at Windy’s birthday party, where Windy breaks her vow not to reveal that Lucy has acquired savant syndrome. Her apologies finally soften Lucy’s anger, and they recover their friendship.

Apart from her well-meaning slip-up about Lucy’s secret, Windy really does care about Lucy, and she learns that some friendships, such as with Maddie, though glamorous, are shallow. In their nonjudgmental friendship, they both learn the same lesson, that real friends accept them as they are.

Levi is a student in seventh grade and a friend of Lucy. He has “dark eyes […] brown skin, and black curly hair that’s thick on top of his head and shaved to almost nothing on the sides” (35). He seems to disapprove of everything, yet he loves dogs and wins an art award for his online page of candid photos of kids in different moods. Though he gets Lucy into trouble in math class when he copies her test answers, the two soon become friends, and Levi helps Lucy through several emotional crises.

Working with Lucy at the pet shelter, Levi learns to cooperate with others, participate more in community life, and care more about his friends. Lucy, in turn, discovers through Levi the importance of steadfast friendships and that other people can help her and give her useful advice.

Barb—Lucy’s Nana—is the girl’s grandmother who took her in after Lucy’s father disappeared and her mother died young. Nana is very proud of Lucy’s genius and helps her study from home and cope with obsessions about cleaning things and counting. At age 12, Lucy is ready for college studies, but she’s behind in her social skills, so Nana sends her to a local middle school.

Nana loves and supports Lucy as she is; she’s the rock on which Lucy leans for stability. Her help and guidance prove critical to Lucy’s growth.

Mr. Stoker—“tall, with cropped black hair, a thin mustache, and dark brown skin” (32)—is an excellent mathematician and a highly able teacher of Lucy’s math class. He reasons that she’s precocious in math, and he tries to draw her out. Lucy, wanting to hide her ability, resists until everyone learns about it. Thereafter, Mr. Stoker gives Lucy challenging math problems to work on, and he becomes a mentor to her. He also adopts Lucy’s favorite rescue dog, Cutie Pi, to save the dog from being put to sleep because of a terminal cancer.

McAnulty had a favorite teacher, though not in math, named Mr. Stoker. His name also suggests someone who “stokes” the intellectual fires of bright students like Lucy.

A seventh-grade girl who has been friends with Windy and seems to hate Lucy, Maddie has an apt name, because she’s an angry thorn in Lucy’s side. Maddie’s mom believes being in control of one’s looks is very important, and Maddie makes sure she’s not only in charge of her weight but also in command of social situations. She and Windy’s moms are close, as were the two girls until Windy became more eccentric and Maddie snobbier. Maddie is suddenly friendly again at Windy’s expensive birthday party, pushing Lucy aside so she can be the most important person there besides Windy.

Maddie shows consistent cruelty to Lucy, calling her “cleaning lady” and mocking her other compulsions. She demands that Lucy be removed from her math class because Lucy is too smart and will earn all the A’s. Lucy finally confronts Maddie, who responds by transferring out of class. Aside from Lucy’s OCD, Maddie is the chief antagonist in the story, the distilled essence of all the cruelty students might bring to a brilliant girl with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Nana’s son Paul, a Marine, visits her and Lucy when he’s on leave, and Lucy adores him. He notices that Lucy has gotten too comfortable being a shut-in and suggests to Nana that his niece should spend time in the company of other people. Nana agrees and sends Lucy to middle school, which launches the story’s plot line. Paul serves as a kind of “Greek chorus” that rises up and calls on others to take action against a looming problem—in this case, Lucy’s social isolation.

Claire owns and operates The Pet Hut, an animal rescue center. A sweet and loving, if somewhat disorganized, animal lover, Claire deeply appreciates Windy, Levi, and Lucy’s efforts to speed up the pet-adoption process. She’s a minor character, but she sympathizes with Lucy over Cutie Pi’s fate, and her sorrow brings out Lucy’s tears and helps the girl to process her grief.

Adele is Windy’s mom. She is “tall and thin and very put together—like with makeup and jewelry and high heels” (88). Adele’s clothing, house, and daughter Cherish are very stylish, and Windy has the sense that her mom and sister are closer to each other than to her because of it. Ms. Sitton and Mrs. Thornton annually chaperone the girls at Windy’s posh birthday parties. On meeting Lucy’s Nana, Ms. Sitton expresses gratitude for the girl’s visit, putting her hands over Windy’s ears and saying that Windy has trouble making friends; Windy retorts, “I can still hear you, Mom” (89). A minor character, Adele represents a sense of acceptance that Windy can’t quite attain.