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The Girl Who Should Have Been Prom Queen
You met Etta Donaghue, but have you seen Dani Sparks?
Ever since kindergarten, Dani Sparks had often viewed Etta Donaghue as her arch nemesis.
When Etta wore pink jelly shoes to school one morning, Dani nearly had a tantrum because all she had were the Minnie Mouse sneakers her grandparents had brought her back from Disney World. Only when Dani’s mother broke down and bought Dani her own pair of jelly shoes was the little girl appeased — but it didn’t last.
It definitely didn’t help that Etta ran through her ABC’s so quickly while Dani struggled over remembering little things such as K coming before L or not.
The little girls also had a problem when it came to sharing. It wasn’t a normal day if the kindergarten teacher didn’t have to separate the girls after they began fighting over the same stuffed animal.
As the two girls grew older, the gap grew even more.
Etta read through chapter book after chapter book at the library while Dani pretended she didn’t check out graphic novels instead of “regular” books.
Etta practiced her cursive — back when schools still caught the skill — with sparkly gel pens. Dani had to settle for pencils with animal erasers as she tried to add loops and curls to…
