Freaky Green Eyes
by Joyce Carol Oates
The novel opens with Franky explaining how "Freaky" came into her life. It was few weeks after her 14th birthday and she went to a college party near Puget Sound in Washington with some friends from her high school. While there, she met Cameron (a college freshman at the University of South Carolina), who tried to rape her. As a swimmer, Franky used her strong legs to kick Cameron hard enough to get him off her. Altererad , Cameron looked at her and said, "You should see your eyes! Freaky green eyes!" Franky, now 15, lives in Yarrow Heights (a suburb of Seattle) with her father Reid Pierson, her mother Krista Pierson, her younger sister Samantha, and her half-brother Todd. As a sports reporter, Reid has had a big contract go through with a TV network and wants to celebrate with his family. Krista, however, goes to an arts and crafts convention in [[Santa Barbara, California]] instead, which angers Reid. When Krista returns home, Franky starts to notice the tension between her parents, especially after hearing them fight. She hears her mom say she does not want to go to Reid's work gatherings because she feels like she doesn't fit in with his crowd. In turn, Reid gets mad that Krista isn't fulfilling her role as a wife.Krista starts wearing scarves around her neck and long shirts to cover her wrists and arms, which Franky notices, thinking her mother is hiding something from her. Yet she cannot muster up the courage to ask her about it. Instead, she starts feeling resentful toward her mother, thinking all the fighting was Krista's fault for provoking Reid. Her younger sister, Samantha, worries that their parents will divorce but both say that that won't happen, "now or ever." Krista moves out of the house and into a small cabin in Skagit Harbor. She starts by taking her art supplies, then clothes and her dog, Rabbit. Whenever Reid is home, Krista lives in her cabin. When he leaves to cover sporting events, she comes back home to be with her children. Samantha sometimes calls Krista and begs her to come pick them up so they could all spend time together, but Krista always says no, saying it was their father's decision. Reid, however, is saying the opposite. Samantha's frustration angers Reid so he twists her arm to make her quiet, giving her welts.
{{quote box |width = 30em |border = 1px |align=right |bgcolor=#ddffdd |fontsize = 85% |title_bg = |title_fnt = |title = |quote = "Later, I would think of it as crossing over. From a known territory into an unknown. From a place where people know you to a place where people only think they know you." |salign = right |source = —Franky. }} For the Fourth of July, Franky and Samantha go with their father to Cape Flattery to stay with one of his friends. While there, Franky learns that Reid's friend's sons steal animals from a wildlife refuge and put them in cages to make their own zoo. In the middle of the night, Franky releases all the animals. When confronted about it the next morning, she confesses but says she's not sorry. Enraged, Reid grabs Franky and shakes her very hard, stopping only after his friend pulls him away.
Later that month, Reid finally lets the girls go down to Skagit Harbor to visit their mother. Franky vaguely remembers the cabin from her childhood, recognizing the fake rooster she had thought was real as a kid. Krista shows them around the property, including a small burrow hidden underneath a rock. The reunion is cut short when Reid arrives, yelling at Franky and Samantha to pack up and get in his car. When they get in, Reid tells them Krista is having an affair and that they should never forgive her for it.
After that, Krista tries to call and talk to her daughters, but Reid tells the new housekeeper to forbid it. Twyla, Franky's best friend, tells Franky that Krista calls her to talk about Franky and see how she is. Twyla tells Franky that Krista said, "Don't forget Mr. Rooster!" One night, Franky phones Krista and angrily tells her she never wants to see her again. The next day, she regrets what she said and tries to find her mother's number but can't find it. She had no idea the conversation the night before would be their last.
Krista (and her friend Mero Okawa) disappear. The police interview Franky about where her father was that night, but Franky says Reid took medication for a headache and slept the entire night. During the interview, she expresses her anger at her mother, referring to her only as "Krista Connor," not "mom." As a result of media attention on the case, Franky and her family move to the house of Reid's defense lawyer on Vashon Island. While there, the defense lawyer coaches Samantha and Franky, telling them that if Reid would have left in the middle of the night, they would have heard him leave.
During this time, "Freaky" tries to convince Franky that something is not right. One night, Franky dreams about her mother's cabin, and in the dream, the fake rooster is crowing. The next morning, Franky skips school and heads towards Skagit Harbor to visit her mother's cabin. She walks toward the barn and looks into the secret burrow, where she finds her mother's journal. Krista had kept it up throughout her separation with Reid. In the journal, Krista writes about how Reid beat and threatened to kill her. After reading the journal, Franky realizes what her father has done. She recalls waking up the night her mother disappeared, hearing Reid coming into the house through a door they never use.
Franky calls her Aunt Vicky to pick her up and they go to the police station. In a second interview, Franky tells the police what she knows, not what she has been coached to say by her father or the defense lawyer. Reid is sentenced to 50 years-to-life without parole for the deaths of Krista and Mero, whose bodies were found dumped at Deception Pass. Franky and Samantha, in the custody of their aunt, move to New Mexico.