01 | new perspective

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featuring: 

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featuring: 

jacob artist as levi taylor (mentioned only)

→ kaya scodelario as meredith "red" carson

  → ella purnell as kennedy moore (mentioned only)

gabriella wilde as allison gallagher (mentioned only)


CHAPTER ONE

NEW PERSPECTIVE

          MY MOTHER WAS THE ONE WHO GOT ME INTO MAKING LISTS

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          MY MOTHER WAS THE ONE WHO GOT ME INTO MAKING LISTS.

          It all began when five-year-old me was given permission to open the front door to family members, but the real issue was that five-year-old me couldn't quite focus on a lot of things simultaneously. When the doorbell rang, I was helping Ma wash the dishes because our dishwasher had taken its last breath earlier that week and she gave me permission to leave for a minute or two.

          My mind was still focused on washing the dishes and my hands were soaking wet; naturally, I couldn't twist the door knob or even pick up my tiny wooden footstool to be tall enough to see who was outside, so my first decision was to wipe my hands somewhere. That somewhere ended up being Ma's prized curtains—the pearl-white ones with lace at the end, the ones that must always remain clean.

          I didn't think. I picked up my footstool, decided it was okay to open the door and welcomed Aunt Nancy and Cousin Hayden inside. Cousin Hayden liked to mess with me, being fifteen years older than me and being on summer break, and it was no big surprise for him to walk inside the house as if he owned the place . . . right before Mother came running down the stairs to greet them. When she saw the soap-coated curtains, I felt like digging a hole and burying myself in it.

          Aunt Nancy and Cousin Hayden were related to Mother, but not to me, as Ma was the one who conceived me through a sperm donor before meeting Mother. My sperm donor was white, or so she says, and I get my Puerto Rican heritage from Ma, bless her, who made sure to let me grow up in a mix of her culture and Mother's. We lived in California at the time, and most of my friends were like me, so I didn't have much trouble fitting in.

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