Erica Winstead is 14 years old and about to go into high school. She's trying to shed her redneck "Ricky Jo" image that she's had at her Catholic school, and become more sophisticated Erica at the public high school in rural Kentucky. She and her best friend, Luke, work on his farm right before school starts and she tells him all her hopes and dreams for her freshman year of high school, well, at least the not too embarrassing ones! On her first day she realizes that homerooms are grouped alphabetically and the girls in her homeroom are gorgeous cheerleader types. She knows how much she wants to fit in, so she decides to go out for cheer too. Also in her homeroom is a boy who just goes by Wolf and Erica thinks he's the cutest boy she's ever seen. He seems to want to flirt with her, but she notices that he flirts with all the girls. Will Erica be able to overcome "Ricki Jo" and make her top ten goals for her freshman year happen? I enjoyed this book, the characters seemed real and the problems seemed real too. Ricki Jo seemed kind of like most of us felt on the first day of high school, nervous and completely worried about fitting in and having friends. I also liked Luke's character and I liked the way his family problems were dealt with in the end. I wish that the author hadn't felt the need to swear so many times in this book, but I liked it overall.
