Kate had been thinking a lot about what to say, how to handle this first heartbreak. Like all mothers, she would do anything in the world to keep her daughter safe and whole, but some dangers couldn’t be fully protected against, they could only be experienced and then understood. That was one of the many lessons this country had learned this year, and even though some things had changed for them all, some things had stayed the same.

“In fifth grade, I had two very best friends. For years, we did everything together—showed our horses at the fair, had slumber parties, hung out at the lake in the summer. Grandma called us the three horse-keteers. And then one summer, when I was almost fourteen, they stopped liking me. I still don’t know why. They started hanging around with boys and went to parties and they never called me again. Every day I went to school and sat on the bus by myself and ate lunch by myself, and every night I cried before I went to sleep.”

“Really?”

Kate nodded. “I can still remember how much it hurt my feelings.”

“What happened?”

“Well, when I was at my very most miserable—and I mean miserable, you should have seen me with my braces and dork-o-rama glasses—”

Marah giggled.

“I got up and went to school.”

“And?”

“And Aunt Tully was waiting at the bus stop. She was the coolest-looking girl I’d ever seen. I figured she’d never want to be friends with me. But you know what I found out?”

“What?”

“Inside, where it counts, she was as scared and lonely as I was. We became best friends that year. Real friends. The kind that don’t purposely hurt your feelings or stop liking you for no reason.”

“How do you make friends like that?”

“That’s the hard part, Marah. To make real friends you have to put yourself out there. Sometimes people will let you down—girls can be really mean to each other—but you can’t let that stop you. If you get hurt, you just pick yourself up, dust off your feelings, and try again. Somewhere in your class is the girl who will be friends with you all through high school. I promise. You just have to find her.”

Marah frowned at that, thinking.

The waitress delivered their meals, left the bill, and walked away.

Before she took a bite of her cheeseburger, Marah said, “Emily’s nice.”

Kate had hoped Marah would remember that. She and Emily had been inseparable in grade school but had drifted apart in recent years. “Yes, she is.”