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Back Past Perfect Life Save as PDF
Chapters (47)
  1. Half Title
  2. Dedication
  3. Title Page
  4. Chapter One
  5. Chapter Two
  6. Chapter Three
  7. Chapter Four
  8. Chapter Five
  9. Chapter Six
  10. Chapter Seven
  11. Chapter Eight
  12. Chapter Nine
  13. Chapter Ten
  14. Chapter Eleven
  15. Chapter Twelve
  16. Chapter Thirteen
  17. Chapter Fourteen
  18. Chapter Fifteen
  19. Chapter Sixteen
  20. Chapter Seventeen
  21. Chapter Eighteen
  22. Chapter Nineteen
  23. Chapter Twenty
  24. Chapter Twenty-One
  25. Chapter Twenty-Two
  26. Chapter Twenty-Three
  27. Chapter Twenty-Four
  28. Chapter Twenty-Five
  29. Chapter Twenty-Six
  30. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  31. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  32. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  33. Chapter Thirty
  34. Chapter Thirty-One
  35. Chapter Thirty-Two
  36. Chapter Thirty-Three
  37. Chapter Thirty-Four
  38. Chapter Thirty-Five
  39. Chapter Thirty-Six
  40. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  41. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  42. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  43. Chapter Forty
  44. Chapter Forty-One
  45. Chapter Forty-Two
  46. Chapter Forty-Three
  47. Acknowledgments

“Let me break it down for you,” she says as she raises her eyebrows. “It’s clear Neil has been pining away for a girl. We all have our theories on who said female is.” I swear she’s looking more pointedly at me. Or I’m imagining it. Because I want it to be me. Or maybe that’s why she tried to bring up boys? So, yeah, I clearly have everything figured out.

Marian continues, “We felt he needed some motivation, so there is a bit of a dare for him to step it up already and ask this mystery girl out. He has until the end of next week.”

Neil is asking someone out next week. What if it isn’t me? What if when I’ve finally come to admit my feelings for him, I’m going to have to watch him with another girl? What if she’s going to join us for lunch and everything else and I’m going to have to have it shoved into my face?

So basically, next week is either going to be awesome or the worst.

Chapter Five

Chapter

FIVE

Here goes nothing.

With a deep breath and silent prayer, I focus on the one thing I do have control over and hit submit on my application to UW–Green Bay. I redo the application for my backup options to the campuses at Eau Claire and La Crosse.

I did it. I applied to college. Next up: financial aid and more scholarships. Fun, fun, fun!

“It’s almost game time,” Dad shouts from the living room. “I need my good luck charm with me before kickoff.”

I love all my daily routines with Dad. We don’t just have Taco Tuesdays; we have Chinese Food and Classic Movie Mondays, Bad Movie and Pizza Wednesdays, Game Night Thursdays, and, my favorite: Football Sundays. There’s something about living in Wisconsin that makes cheering for the Green and Gold seep into your DNA. Over the course of the past few years, Dad and I have developed our own complicated and precise game-day traditions.

I throw on my ratty Donald Driver jersey, pull on my green, white, and gold striped Green Bay Packers socks, put my hair up into a ponytail with a green hair tie, and finish it off with a Packers bow.

When I get to the living room, Dad is wrestling Baxter into his Packers jersey.

“You know he hates that,” I say, although Baxter’s growling and squirming make that pretty obvious. However, the Packers haven’t lost a home game since Dad bought it at the start of the season, so Baxter has been forced into the insanity.

Poor dog.