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“Next tiuys invite soer” I walk to the refrigerator and take out one of the extra patties

“She doesn’t eat etarian”

Figures I put the e “I don’t have any fake onna do? Eat bread?”

“Bread’s fine,” Kiersten says as she walks through the front door…without knocking “I like bread French fries, too I just don’t eat things that are a result of unjustified animal homicides”

Kiersten walks to the table and grabs the roll of paper towels and starts tearing the one beside each plate Her self-assurance reminds me a little of Eddie

“Who’s she?” Gavin asks, watching Kiersten make herself at home She’s never eaten with us before, but you wouldn’t know that by how she’s taking command

“She’s the eleven-year-old neighbor I was telling you about The one I think is an is that co to suspect she’s really a tiny adult, posing as a little red headed child”

“Oh, the one Kel's crushing on?” Gavin s of ways to e

Gavin and I have beco how close Eddie and Lake are Kel and Caulder really like them, too It’s nice I like the setup we all have I hope it stays this way

Eddie and Lake finally walk in just as we’re all sitting down at the table Lake has her wet hair pulled up into a knot on top of her head She’s wearing house shoes, sweat pants and a t-shirt I love that about her; the fact that she’s so comfortable here She takes the seat next to mine and leans in and kisses me on the cheek

“Thanks, Babe Sorry it took ister online for Statistics but the class is full Guess I’ll have to go sweet talk someone at the admin office tomorrow”

“Why are you taking statistics?” Gavin asks He grabs the ketchup and squirts it on his plate

“I took Algebra II in the Winterto knock out all rabs the ketchup out of Gavin’s hands and squirts some on my plate, then on her own

“What’s your hurry? You’ve already got ether,” he says Eddie nods in agreeer

Lake nudges her head toward Kel and Caulder “I’ve already got ether, too That’s my hurry”

“What’s your major?” Kiersten asks Lake

Eddie glances toward Kiersten, finally noticing the extra person seated at the table “Who are you?”

Kiersten looks at Eddie and sonal to Will and Caulder, parallel to Layken and Kel We ht before Christet out of the city, before the city got out of us…whatever that means I’m eleven I’ve been eleven since eleven-eleven-eleven It was a pretty big day, you know Not many people can say they turned eleven on eleven-eleven-eleven I’m a little buh If I would have been born at 11:11, I’ I could have recorded the segonna be an actress when I grow up”

Eddie, along with the rest of us, stare at Kiersten without responding Kiersten is oblivious, turning to Lake to repeat her question “What’s your major, Layken?”

Lake lays her burger down on her plate and clears her throat I kno much she hates this question She tries to answer confidently “I haven’t decided yet”

Kiersten looks at her pitifully “I see The proverbial undecided My oldest brother has been a Sophoh credits to have five majors by now I think he remains undecided because he’d rather sleep until noon every day, sit in class for three hours and go out every night, than actually graduate and get a real job Mo to ‘discover his full potential’ by exa all of his interests If you ask me, I think it’s bullshit”

I cough when the drink I just sed tries to h

“You just said bullshit!” Kel says

“Kel, don’t say bullshit!” Lake says

“But she said bullshit first,” Caulder says, defending Kel

“Caulder, don’t say bullshit!” I yell

“Sorry,” Kiersten says to Lake and I “Mo cusswords just for media shock value She says if everyone would just use theh, they wouldn’t be considered cusswords anymore and no one would ever be offended by them”

This kid is hard to keep up with!

“Your es you to cuss?” Gavin says

Kiersten nods “I don’t see it that way It’sus to underh overuse of words that are made out to be harether like every other word That’s all they are, mixed up letters Like, take the word ‘butterfly’ for example What if someone decided one day that butterfly is a cussword? People would eventually start using the word butterfly as an insult, and to eative way The actual word doesn’t ive these words thatbutterfly all the ti The shock value would subside…and it would becoain Same with every other so-called bad word If ould all just start saying them all the time, they wouldn’t be bad anymore That’s what my mom says, anyway” She smiles and takes a french fry and dips it in ketchup