“You’re going to be amazing at this,” Millie said, taking Lucy’s face in her hands and giving her a peck. “Your phone is in your pocket.”

I paused scarfing my rice to point at my outfit. “How do I look?”

Millie squinted. “A little like me when I was your age, which is disturbing, but only to me.”

“Double bonus,” I cheered.

“You look lovely,” Lucy said, grabbing her keys and doing a cool backward walk out the door. “Love you.”

“LOVE YOU!” I scooped the last of the rice out of the container. “See you at school, sort of.”

“Have a good day, sweetie!” Lucy called back as she blasted out of the house like a military hurricane.

A few seconds after the door slammed shut and Monty barked her the-door-is-shut bark, Millie stretched. “All right. How do you feel about grabbing a doughnut chaser for your leftovers?”

“Good, obviously.”

Millie fished her keys out of her robe pocket and took Monty’s leash off the wall hook. “Let’s go.”

“In your robe?” I asked, in what I hoped wasn’t a judgmental tone.

“Says the girl dressed like she’s hosting an aerobic marathon on Mars,” Millie noted, standing in the doorway. “Are those shorts suede?”

“Yeah.” I pointed at my legs. “Suede and polyester and nylon in one outfit!”

Millie shrugged. “What you will soon learn, my dear sweet child, is that while small-town folks might not dig your perfectly reasonable cacophony of fabrics, wearing your pajamas out of the house is going to be totally acceptable.”

And with that, Millie swung open the door, twirling her keys around her finger. “Come on, MONTY!”

By the time we got to the school, full of doughnuts (no one blinked at Millie’s pj’s at the doughnut place, by the way), the road was jammed with people dropping off some kids while other kids zipped past on boards and bikes, and other kids in groups charged the door and shoved one another. As Millie idled and finished her jelly doughnut, I took a moment of respite to breathe in Monty’s doggy smell and give her doggy kisses.

“Wish me luck Monty o’ Mine,” I whispered into her fur.

Monty snuffled and licked a spot on my face very close to my eyeball.

“Right.” Lifting my head, pulling my knapsack up on my shoulder, I shifted into happy voice. “High school! Hooray!”

I hopped out of the car, full of forced vigor.

“GOOD LUCK!” Millie called out as she skidded out of the parking lot, Monty’s head hanging out the window like a party favor. I watched as Millie drove off with the rest of the doughnuts and my stomach.

That morning, before I even got up, I had three texts from my actual real best friend, Danny, who I’ve known since I was ten.