Tully hated the disappointment she felt. She knew better than to expect anything from her mother. “I’m going to my room,” she said, climbing out of the beanbag chair.

The last thing she heard before she slammed her bedroom door was her mother saying, “Maybe it needs cheese.”

________

Late that night, long after everyone else had gone to bed, Kate crept down the stairs, put on her dad’s huge rubber boots, and went outside. It was becoming a habit lately, going outside when she couldn’t sleep. Overhead, the huge black sky was splattered with stars. It made her feel small and unimportant, that sky. A lonely girl looking down at an empty street that went nowhere.

Sweetpea nickered and trotted toward her.

She climbed up onto the top rail of the fence. “Hey there, girl,” she said, pulling a carrot out of her parka’s pocket.

She glanced over at the house across the street. The lights were still on at midnight. No doubt Tully was having a party with all the popular kids. They were probably laughing and dancing and talking about how cool they were.

Kate would give everything she owned to be invited to just one party like that.

Sweetpea nudged her knee, snorted.

“I know. I’m dreaming.” Sighing, she slid off the fence, petted Sweet-pea one last time, and then went back to bed.

A few nights later, after a dinner of Pop-Tarts and Alpha-Bits cereal, Tully took a long, hot shower, shaved her legs and underarms carefully, and dried her hair until it fell straight from her center part without a single crease or curl. Then she went to her closet and stood there, trying to figure out what to wear. This was her first high school party. She needed to look just right. None of the other girls from the junior high had been invited. She was The One. Pat Richmond, the best-looking guy on the football team, had chosen Tully for his date. They’d been at the local hamburger hangout last Wednesday night, his group of friends and hers. All it had taken was one look between them. Pat had broken free of the crowd of huge guys and walked right over to Tully.

She’d seen him heading her way and practically fainted. On the jukebox, “Stairway to Heaven” had been playing. Talk about romantic.

“I could get in trouble just for talking to you,” he said.

She tried to look mature and worldly as she said, “I like trouble.”

The smile he gave her was like nothing she’d ever seen before. For the first time in her life, she felt as beautiful as people always said she was.

“You wanna come to the party with me on Friday?”

“I could make that work,” she said. It was a phrase she’d heard Erica Kane use on All My Children.

“I’ll pick you up at ten.” He leaned closer. “Unless that’s past your curfew, little girl?”

“Seventeen Firefly Lane. And I don’t have a curfew.”