PROLOGUE

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SUSANN-ROSE HOPPER loves soccer

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SUSANN-ROSE HOPPER loves soccer.
There's nothing more in the whole wide world she loves more than a full day of studying, a long soccer practice, a hot shower with her honey-scented shampoo, her bed, and a Nancy Drew book. She loves her routine. Her everyday, never-changing, mundane routine with an occasional party or a drive-in movie.

Some of her friends would call her neurotic or a freak for being so punctual, never late, and tied to her ways, but she didn't care. She knew the circumstances she worked the best under and she saw no reason to change them.

Susann-Rose's mother worked as a therapist, specialized in working with children and children with special needs. It was a highly controversial job in the 80's when Louise-Rose, Susann-Rose's mother started working as a therapist. But the extreme empathy Louise-Rose carried in her heart was the thing Phil Hopper fell in love with. Phil was an English professor at Brown, where Louise-Rose studied. Despite the age gap, the two fell in love and got married. Louise-Rose gave birth to the twins; Susann-Rose and Phil Jr. or PJ as the everyone called him.

Susann-Rose, or Bunny as the Yellowjackets nicknamed her since she was one hell of a bolter, started to play in the team during her freshman year. She fell in love with the feeling of playing with a team that was actually motivated to play and win. Bunny was already friends with Jackie Taylor, the team captain, and Lottie Matthews, her neighbor. But the other girls were complete strangers to her. Well not strangers, but she didn't know them. But she quickly grew very fond of them all. Especially of Taissa Turner.

As Bunny found soccer, PJ found drugs. And through drugs, he found Natalie Scatorccio. And through PJ, Natalie found Susann-Rose; her rich friend's perfect angel twin sister. Bunny didn't like Natalie very much. She blamed her completely for dragging her brother into weed and other substances. This backfired in the field and was noticed by the whole team during the first year the girls playing together. Jackie locked the two into a bathroom once during Lottie's birthday, and they had to call it a truce. They promised not to hate each other, but agreed to hold on to their strong opinions of one another. And for a while everything was perfect.

The Hoppers had a good reputation in their town. They were active in the community, went to church, donated money to charities, and were never involved in any sort of scandal. That's why Louise-Rose's illness moved everyone so deeply. When Louise-Rose was diagnosed with cancer the Hopper twins were pulled from school for a couple of months. Time seemed to stop in that perfect American family for those long two months before Louise-Rose's death.

Suddenly, routines and repetitive patterns were the only things keeping Susann-Rose sane.

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