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Back Anne of Greenville Save as PDF
Chapters (31)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright
  3. Dedication
  4. NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
  5. ONE
  6. TWO
  7. THREE
  8. FOUR
  9. FIVE
  10. SIX
  11. SEVEN
  12. EIGHT
  13. NINE
  14. TEN
  15. ELEVEN
  16. TWELVE
  17. THIRTEEN
  18. FOURTEEN
  19. FIFTEEN
  20. SIXTEEN
  21. SEVENTEEN
  22. EIGHTEEN
  23. NINETEEN
  24. TWENTY
  25. TWENTY-ONE
  26. TWENTY-TWO
  27. TWENTY-THREE
  28. TWENTY-FOUR
  29. TWENTY-FIVE
  30. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  31. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I folded my arms over my chest. “Thinking.” I couldn’t hold it. I let out an embarrassing snort of laughter. Berry gave my butt a light nudge with the boot of her toe.

“Oh, COME ON!”

“Yes! Fine! Geez!” I threw my arms out. “Berry! Of course we can be friends. You’re like. . .the best!”

Berry’s cheeks turned cherry red. “Okay, well, good.”

She pulled her phone out of her pocket. “So, given that this is your night out with the concrete animals, I’ll spot you one disco track for a decent track and we’ll go back and forth, okay?”

“Okay, in all seriousness, what are like your faves?” I asked as I pulled myself up off the ground using the head of a purple turtle.

“Iggy Pop?” Berry flipped through her phone. “Lizzo. Um. The Clash? B-52s?”

“B-52s is kind of disco.”

“Ish?”

“Okay.” I stood up, walked over to her phone. “How about you drove so you get first pick.”

Berry picked the Iggy Pop classic “Lust for Life,” which is actually a very good song.

That night I learned a few of Berry’s favorite things. In addition to mini putt, Berry’s favorite superhero is Ironman and her favorite surrealist painter is Magritte, although as of recently she’d switched to a love of folk art. Berry liked the idea that it was possible for a person to overcome something really horrible and save the day. And the idea that a person could see the world and then produce an artistic rendering of that world that was totally unexpected. We talked about the things that we liked and didn’t like, and we danced around the bear statue and the giraffe and the unicorn with the tail that had fallen off.

And the more we talked, the more I kind of liked being in Greenville.

Right before she dropped me off, Berry snapped her fingers. “Right! I forgot to tell you, Greenville High 101, tomorrow’s last Friday of the month.”

“Which I knew,” I said. “That’s not just Greenville BTW, the whole month and days thing. They have it all over the world.”

Berry shook her head. “Mmm. Last Friday in Greenville isn’t your average Friday.”

“What does that mean?”

“School Spirit Day,” Berry said, grimly. “Whatever you do, wear green.”

NINE

Okay, so I wore green.

But I mean, I really wore green. Like, I wore green like it was nobody’s business: my sequined emerald-green cheerleader outfit that used to be Danny’s with a matching mint-green bomber jacket and lime-green/neon-green-striped tights. Inspired by Berry’s giraffe, I painted (yes, “ruining”) my white cowboy boots from a vintage place in Arizona with green polka dots.

Even I, looking in the mirror, was like, “Okay, Anne. Wow.”