I was so proud of myself in my brand-new Guess? jeans and Coca-Cola shirt. I was in style. I belonged. I heard the always in style girls, the always belonging girls, the honor roll girls laughing at their table.

The sound wasn’t coming from her dream, it was coming from inside the house. Somewhere outside her bedroom the noise was gaining power. Each pitch climbed higher with the urgency of a smoke alarm. With hands over ears and a hazy brain she got up from her