what do we learn about Josie's background (family, education, class) and her character (what she does and says)?

Josephine Alibrandi is the daughter of a single mom. She's just starting a new school year in a school in Australia. Josephine is Italian (she describes herself as such). Josephine has never met her father, and is very close to her mother and grandmother. Chapter One ends as her mother announces that Josephine's father is in town and wants to meet her. Josie is caught between two social classes and cultures because she is stuck in a prep school surrounded by rich Australian kids and other rich Europeans. I think that Josephine, coming from humble Italian immigrant background, feels a certain awkward isolation for not being the affluent white European status quo at her school.