Summary

The narrator, a 16-year-old girl named Frankie, describes a “greased watermelon contest” that would take place at their public pool in a town called Coalfield, Tennessee, where the winner retrieves a watermelon slathered with Vaseline that’s been thrown into the water (3). She describes her triplet brothers (Andrew, Brian, and Charlie), six years her senior, “nearly feral,” who would steal people’s money and snacks during the chaos. She meets a boy named Zeke who wants her to help win the contest for him (4). He dives into the pool, getting thrashed around by everyone else; Frankie enlists her three brothers to help him win the watermelon in exchange for $20. They help him, and he wins; Frankie and Zeke eat the watermelon covered with the “greasy, disgusting film” (6).

Chapter 2 begins with Frankie trying to find ways to occupy her time over the summer. She...