Saturday morning. Really? I had three messages from Alison, two from Beth and a call from someone who wanted to give me a credit card with zero interest for the first year.

They knew I was seventeen, right?

I chickened out and emailed Alison an excuse about shopping that day, same for Beth. I just couldn't leave the family right now. Maybe having normal friends wasn't such a good idea. They had expectations, made plans, liked to be in my life.

Problem was, my ...