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IT’S THE HOTTEST SUMMER I CAN REMEMBER. MY ARMS are dotted with mosquito bites. I can’t bear the feel of heavy hair on my neck. I’m tempted to cut it all off, but Celeste and Frankie stop me by saying, “Winter will come way before your hair grows back.” They have a point. So I pile it all on top of my head every morning and hold it there with a claw clip. I hang out 192
in Dover Mall as often as Mom will let me—which is much more often than she used to (thank you, Aunt Marty!)— eating Dippin’ Dots and drinking Diet Cokes. That’s where the three of us are today. Mrs. Serrano drove us. A friend of hers is getting married again, and she needs to buy a gift. “It’s not fair that you should buy three wedding gifts just because your friend can’t stay married to one guy,” Celeste said on the way to the mall. “I don’t mind,” Mrs. Serrano said. “Sometimes it takes a few tries to get it right.” See how cool she is? “Meet me here in three hours,” Mrs. Serrano says to us at the Information Booth. We nod and wave and disappear into the swarm of shoppers. “Where to?” I ask my best friends. “Let’s just walk,” Frankie says. We do. The cool air smells of cinnamon and butter. A strand of hair falls out of my clip, but I don’t care. I’m happy to hang with my friends and wander through the mall looking at mannequins and picturing myself in their clothes. Just like a normal girl. Club Monaco is having a sale. Not that I have any money. Still, I stare at the white-and-black window display and imagine a day when I’ll walk in and pluck a shirt off the rack without even looking at the price ta— “S’cuse me,” a male voice mutters. 193
Page 3:
Mary Hogan
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15 IF AUNT MARTY WEREN’T SMACK IN
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SHE WALKS INTO CLASS TEN MINUTES AF
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“DUCK.” That’s the first word
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“Wasn’t the president’s daugh
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“If it isn’t P. Nerdy in his ga
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IT WAS DELICIOUSLY WARM OUT, ONE OF
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The two of us were trapped in a mat
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you see all four of them? They’re
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MOM HAS HER FEET PROPPED UP ON OUR
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Mom—her kinky reddish-gray curls
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ping powerhouse, Odessa, Delaware,
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when I’m in love with a boy who h
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four, but it felt like forty. We le
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a giant looping ramp. Suddenly, I s
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and Destruction” lectures. “Eve
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Before I could figure out what to s
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I laughed, too. Tried to look as ca
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“Do you have these in red?” she
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what everyone else did. “These cr
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sure they’d been ironed. Everythi
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in front of other males, about not
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“WE CAME ALL THIS WAY FOR A DAY ?
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“Who told you?” my mother asked
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The last thing I saw were Aunt Mart
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Far back in the corner of my closet
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emember it. Like the soft, warm com
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asking Aunt Marty for advice about
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un both hands down the front of her
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Mom is speechless. Her hair is a kn
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She slams the freezer door shut in
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WE’RE TOO LATE. BY THE TIME I BRI
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“We have company!” he exclaims.
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ack). He’d round a corner, wearin
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I’d say, “Sure,” without worr
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I wiggle my freshly painted toenail
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“Thanks,” I say, calling after
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But—and this is a humongous but
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Arthur turned into a puppy. I kept
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IF AUNT MARTY WEREN’T SMACK IN TH
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the wall that separates the living
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about your birth.” “What have y
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“She was the only member of my fa
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Quietly, she repeats, “There is o
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Swiveling, she turns her back on me
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corn. I want to bury my face in it
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“Check this out,” Perry says, s
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We sit. On the white couch. Like tw
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Aunt Marty steps back and watches o
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“I want my daughter to be prepare
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AUNT MARTY’S CAR SMELLS LIKE HER
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loop of their relationship going. I
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“I know.” Truth be told, it’s
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sunscreen, and something I can’t
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Only, when I see Frankie, she hands
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IT’S THE SMELL OF CINNAMON AND BU
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Aunt Marty beams. She races ahead,
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Lilah impatiently asks, “What siz
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“Nothing,” I say. “Good. Now
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Shop, the Gap, Tower Records, Banan
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Serrano is as excited to see Celest
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“A Cosmopolitan, please,” Aunt
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Celeste and Frankie excitedly bob t
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ultimate ego trip.” Caressing my
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oth heart and soul. Trust me. That
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“That’s why I’m here in Odess
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IT’S ABOUT NINE O’CLOCK WHEN WE
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fill my daughter’s head with garb
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“You don’t hate me, Fay. You ha
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My mother moves even closer to me,
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something in Wilmington, but the st
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I can barely breathe. “You busy S
Page 149 and 150: “Props?” “You know, setting s
Page 151 and 152: your nose, one eyebrow or the other
Page 153 and 154: “Tell your mother the truth.” M
Page 155 and 156: THROUGH THE BUS WINDOW, WE BOTH WAT
Page 157 and 158: “Let’s jam!” he shouts. The G
Page 159 and 160: scope out each mouth-watering possi
Page 161 and 162: “We’ll make it,” Perry says w
Page 163 and 164: appears on the pay line, an astrona
Page 165 and 166: “We can’t.” “We must!” I
Page 167 and 168: completely. My body jingles like a
Page 169 and 170: fantasies. The reality of it is . .
Page 171 and 172: that. Things are flying smoothly ag
Page 173 and 174: twenty minutes, then twenty-five. I
Page 175 and 176: the blood throbbing through my temp
Page 177 and 178: Aunt Marty brings my mother Little
Page 179 and 180: speaks to the coroner about Mr. Art
Page 181 and 182: emember most about Mr. Arthur. It d
Page 183 and 184: “Me?” At that moment, I realize
Page 185 and 186: of the talking.” Then she added,
Page 187 and 188: my head: For fourteen years, I’ve
Page 189 and 190: As I look at my mother standing the
Page 191 and 192: This year, three weeks after Mr. Ar
Page 193 and 194: last pool of syrup with my last for
Page 195 and 196: much smaller) head. “So do I.”
Page 197 and 198: WE HAVE ONE LAST FAMILY DINNER—TH
Page 199: makeup somehow remains perfect), Au
Page 203 and 204: “Hey,” he says to me, nodding a
Page 206 and 207: ETERNAL THANKS TO THE AMAZING Amand
Page 208 and 209: THE SERIOUS KISS PRETTY FACE
Page 210 and 211: Copyright PERFECT GIRL. Copyright
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