Chapters (38)
- Copyright Notice
- Dedication
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- Newsletter Sign-up
When she’d first started at the school, Dad had done his usual thing of reaching out to his vast network of business contacts and selecting a few friends for her. He’d invited them around to the house and ordered an obscene amount of pizza for everyone. There was Esther and Dahlia and Poppy, and they were nice and liked to talk about their pet dogs and their horses, but there was just one slight problem. They were mind-numbingly boring. So boring that Gracie would find herself actually yawning and thinking about naps. So boring, in fact, that Gracie would rather spend the day in school all alone than hear any more about how one of them had trained “Twinkles” to shake paws with her. Gracie always threw their names into the conversation at home, of course, just to throw her dad off the scent, and since everyone was so busy, the parents very rarely organized hangouts, which worked out very well for Gracie. She’d practiced what she was going to say in her head and decided to creep up to the home office and wait for a space between her dad’s business calls.
She put her head around the door, only to have her dad hold up his hand at her. He looked stressed. He was standing at the window, frowning. Gracie was sure her dad was, in fact, getting shorter. She knew that she herself was growing, but it was more than that; it was as if all the hours hunched over his laptop had squished his back, making him look about a foot shorter. Gracie waited, hanging on to the doorknob, listening as the conversation waxed and waned. Eventually, her dad gestured toward the desk. Gave her a pen. Gracie couldn’t believe her luck. She took some paper and scribbled her message on it.
“Can I go out with my friends tomorrow? I’ll have my phone with me.”
Her dad read the note over her shoulder and nodded. He smiled. Gracie smiled back and started to slink out of the room. Just as she was about to close the door, her dad put his hand over the phone.
“Do you need any money?” he mouthed. Gracie shrugged.
“Take some. My wallet’s downstairs.”
She closed the door behind her and let her shoulders drop. She hadn’t even had to lie. She was going out with her friends tomorrow, and actually, she couldn’t wait.