All the Ugly and Wonderful Things

Val asks Brenda to take Wavy and Donal for a few weeks, so she comes to pick them up the day after the Fourth of July. Amy describes her fascination with unpredictable Wavy, from the turquoise peacock she draws on Amy’s leg during the car ride, to Wavy’s ability to rattle Leslie. Amy describes the stance Wavy copied from Sandy: sitting back in a chair with her legs crossed, swinging one foot back and forth. Wavy sits this way at the pool, dressed in a tight T-shirt, skirt, and motorcycle boots instead of a bathing suit. Leslie’s lifeguard crush throws himself at Wavy, along with a string of other boys that summer. Amy notices that something has changed and that Wavy seems more like Aunt Val in the way she carries herself. A friend brings the book Forever by Judy Blume to Amy’s and Leslie’s house, and the girls discuss the famous oral sex scene. Wavy tells the girls what she does with Kellen, but they don’t believe her. Leslie’s friend Jana asks Donal if his sister really plans to get married, and he tells the girls about Wavy skinny-dipping around Kellen.

Wavy erupts in anger when she understands Brenda intends to keep her at her house past her birthday.