Chapter 38

• She gets in her SUV and I slide into my slick little car for the long drive back to my hometown. It’s about a couple of hours, just long enough for me to get lost in thought as I roll down the highway. I think about what kind of a girl I was back in high school. Only a year ago, and yet it feels like another world.
• I’ve never been the quintessential “good girl” but I’ve never been naughty enough to land me a reputation as a “bad girl” either. My parents did a good job raising me. They are both kind, hard-working people who did everything to make sure I was taken care of. Maybe we didn’t have every little thing we wanted, but we had what we needed plus a little more. I’m an only child and the apple of my parents’ eyes. I keep a good grade point average but I’m never top of the class. I wasn’t the prom queen, but I had lots of friends.
• I remember the bell ringing at the end of math class. My gaggle of friends and I making our way down the row of desks to the doorway, giggling as we go. And then, clear through the din, we all hear Mr.