When her mom married Richard, it wasn’t just her mom’s life that changed. It was Alice’s and Charlie’s lives, as well. They’d both be heading to Wolcott Academy, an exclusive boarding school—“Aren’t they all?” Charlie deadpanned when the news was delivered, making Alice laugh even though she was beyond mad—in Vermont in September. Alice would be entering as a senior. The cliques would already be formed, and breaking into one would be next to impossible. Plus, she already had her friends at Rindge and Latin. She and Angela had been inseparable since the second grade. She had her boyfriend, Patrick, too. They’d been on and off since sophomore year, and even though they were technically still on right now, she knew that wouldn’t be for long. Long-distance relationships never worked; all they did was run up your cell phone bill. And then there was her art teacher, Mr. Delgado. It had taken her years to get him to notice her, give her special attention. He’d even agreed to help her put together a portfolio for the Art Institute of Boston, where he knew somebody in the admissions department. All that effort for nothing. What a waste. Charlie bitched about the transfer, too, but Alice suspected that it was out of solidarity more than anything else. Charlie wouldn’t have any trouble making the adjustment. Her new life would be every bit as good as her old life, better probably. Attracting people was easy for her. It was like it didn’t occur to her that it could be difficult, so it wasn’t. Alice would be the one who wouldn’t be able to cut it, to make the grade. She’d be eating her mom and sister’s dust by the time the leaves changed color.

But Alice was getting ahead of herself. Before Richard shipped her and Charlie off to boarding school for a miserable fall, he was corralling them into his beach house for a miserable summer. He was insisting that they all live together for the summer “as a family.” A family. What a joke. She’d known him for all of three months and had spent zero moments alone with him.