Plot summary

In New Zealand, Lily McKinnon, a shy waif who marches to her own drumbeat, clerks at a Meaty Boy fast-food joint; her only true friend is her brother Damon. She does whatever she can to ensure that she is always the one who waits on a customer who regularly comes into Meaty Boy just after noon. This is her secret crush, mullet-topped Jarrod Lowe, a video-game geek who works at a local mall's Screen Blasterz electronics shop; he too goes his own way. Lily believes they are destined to be together, partly because they both have upper-lip moles. After Lily is laid off due to "downsizing" (in reality, fired) so will no longer see Jarrod regularly, she does anything to insert herself into his life, despite his obvious attraction to her colleague Jenny. Lily and Jarrod do somehow become a couple and she accompanies him to his seaside hometown on his longtime mission: to get back at the "big Samoan", Eric Elisi, who bullied him in school. Jarrod, who has been in training, has learned that Eric will soon be coming home, so he plans to challenge him to a schoolyard brawl. On the trip, Lily meets Jarrod's family, who are all as eccentric as he is, and finds out that Jarrod's now-deceased brother Gordon was the family favorite. The path to a happily-ever-after between Lily and Jarrod is not smooth or certain, mostly because of Jarrod's insecurities. What happens between the two is largely affected by the circumstances of the fight.—Huggo