Parents' Guide to There's Something About Sweetie

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT SWEETIE, but that something is complicated. While Sweetie Nair is smart, kind, and a blazing-fast track star at her California high school, she's never had a boyfriend. And she's fat. Even her own mother is constantly fat shaming her, commenting on what she eats and telling her what kind of clothes she should wear to cover up her less-than-perfect body. Ashish Patel is rich, handsome, and a star athlete as well, playing basketball at his private school. His latest girlfriend has dumped him and he's certain his "mojo" is gone. Ashish's parents have a solution to that problem: They'll set him up with a nice Indian American girl. The girl they choose is Sweetie, but when they approach her parents about setting the two teens up on a date, Sweetie's mother is horrified by the idea. She tells Sweetie she's afraid people will laugh at her if they see her with a boy like Ashish. Sweetie gathers up all her self-confidence and sends a text to Ashish. When he replies and agrees to secretly meet her, Ashish finds a girl who is strong, intelligent, and, in his eyes, beautiful. But being teens who respect their parents and their traditional values, it doesn't look as if a relationship is in their future. Until Ashish's parents come up with a seemingly crazy plan: They can date without the permission of Sweetie's parents, but the Patels will decide where they'll go on their first dates (a Hindu temple, the Holi Festival put on by the local Indian American Association, and a visit to Ashish's eccentric paternal great-aunt). Not only that, but Ashish and Sweetie must sign a Memorandum of Agreement that confirms the times and places of those dates.