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Chapter One

“Go hohts And kill yourself”

Erin Alderlowered at me, pure hatred in her beautiful honey brown eyes She was spearheading a group of nine cheerleaders on the other side of a s that separated us

Nine pairs of eyes danced between each other and me in e sauce They were enjoying the show, but not one of them looked directly at me

Erin Masterson, Erin Alderman’s best friend and co-captain of the cheer squad, was holding the banana split Blizzard I’d just eance in her eyes She was as beautifully put together as her best friend, but instead of long, flowing golden hair like her friend, she had long, flowing chestnut hair “I said alnuts on top You have a simple function: put ice crearedients If you can’t perfore job at a Dairy Queen at seventeen years old, how do you expect to operate in your daily adult life? You should give up now, Erin Die with dignity”

Erin Masterson wasn’t speaking to her best friend She was speaking to me, Erin Easter, the third Erin in our senior class They weren’t always rade, we tried to spend every waking ether; our teachers and parents came up with nicknames to eliminate confusion Erin Alderman was known as Alder Erin Masterson was Sonny My name was simple: Easter The three of us didn’t share only names, we also shared a birthday: September first They went home with their parents, ere country club members and would eventually be heads of the Free Masons and the PTA, and I went home with my mother, as barely twenty and had no one to help, not even my father

Our friendship changed drarade when, for reasons I’et Now in our senior year of high school, I mostly tried to avoid them, but they loved to visit me at the Dairy Queen where I worked on weekends and almost every day after school

I pulled up the slidingand poked h “I’m sorry Hand it to me and I’ll remake it”

Frankie bumped me to the side with her hip, yanked the cup out of Sonny’s hand, scooped out the large chunk of brown ice cream with peanut chunks, and tossed it in the trash She spooned in a half dozen walnuts, and handed it back “I’ an entire cup of ice cream because your mama didn’t teach you how to deal with disappoint her head to the side

“I’ll let , Frances” Sonny spat out the words, iven name, the name she loathed “I’m sure your litter makes you an expert”

Frankie grinned politely “That ters, Masterson No one but your mother calls their kids that”

The Erins glared at Frankie, and then all ten girls walked away as one unit