Yessssssss! Dabney texted back. Principal Windsor and Callie’s mom?? Wasn’t she, like, a for real model?

I winced and tried to think: If Principal Windsor wasn’t my principal was he any kind of hot, even in an old-man way? Nope. Nope. Couldn’t see it. Ewwww, I texted back. What is she thinking?

I didn’t follow Juniper Shores Socialite quite as closely as Dabney and Chloe because I was always a little afraid of seeing more bad stuff about my dad. But what I couldn’t figure out was how she knew all the high school drama and all the adult drama. And what was really crazy was that adults were, like, scandalous. I just figured that you got married and had kids and that was that. Nope. Not the case, apparently. I found adults infinitely more interesting now.

Sleepover at my house this weekend? Chloe texted.

I felt like my heart had just grown three sizes. I texted back Yesssss!!!

They weren’t ostracizing me, like I had feared so deep down that I hadn’t admitted it to myself yet. Everything was going to be okay.

At least, that’s what I thought—until the end of the day. Mom had prepared me that she wouldn’t be picking me up since, well, she didn’t have a car. What a shitshow. So I was looking around the carpool line when I saw her hang her head out of this newish-looking small Lexus SUV. For just a second, I had the best thought: this was all some misunderstanding and Dad had bought Mom a new car today and was out of jail. They had proven that he was innocent!

But as I walked over, I realized some other lady was driving. “Hi, honey,” Mom said in her mom-tone, with the mom-eyes that meant, You behave yourself, young lady, or there will be hell to pay.

I reminded myself that whatever was going on here, no matter how bad it was, I could always try to get a scholarship to boarding school next semester.

I opened the back door and tried to gently launch my overstuffed backpack into the seat. Juniper Shores Prep was all about the homework. Which was okay because I always had straight As, and I was fast at homework, hence my confidence I could get the scholarship to boarding school if I wanted to go off. “Um, hi,” I said. For just a second, I wondered if this was some long-lost family member of Mom’s. It certainly wasn’t Grammy, with whom, seriously four hours into our stay, I had been so annoyed that I suggested to Mom that perhaps camping under the overpass wouldn’t be that bad.

“Iris, this is Alice,” Mom said. “She owns a beautiful bed-and-breakfast on the beach, and she’s going to let us stay there for a while until we get this mess cleared up.”