After a minute or two, Dan motions for me to roll down the window. I crack it open one inch.

“It’s okay if you’re nervous.”

“I’m not nervous.”

“Okay. It’s okay if you’re embarrassed you came to school with a teacher.”

“I’m not embarrassed.”

He takes a quick sip of coffee and leans against the car. He doesn’t know what to do with me. I watch kids walking in. Except for maybe the purses and hair clips, the girls are dressed exactly like me. I look at my skirt. You would never know I lived in a truck a week ago.

“Want to call Ginger?” he asks finally.

I shake my head. I have to pretend like I’m fine, for Mom. I have to be able to handle this, so that when they decide whether to let us live together again, they’ll see we are strong, capable people.

I pop the door open, and Dan steps aside as I get out. We both look up at the school, towering in the morning sun.

“It’s now or never, kiddo,” he says.

Since never’s not an option, I grab my backpack, check and double-check my phone and iPod, and follow Dan under the golden crest and into the shining halls of Chickering Academy.

If the outside looks like The Sound of Music, the inside looks like Hogwarts. It’s all dark wood floors polished so they glow, and the levels open up in a big circle to show the floors above, all the way up to a massive chandelier with little candle-looking lights that have to be fake, because that’d be a fire hazard, right? Above that is a skylight that shows the sky still tinged with pink.

“Palatial” is the word that comes to mind from one of the hotel brochures in Tahoe. It’s sweeping and epic like a palace, but it’s not a palace. It’s a middle school, and the high school is an even bigger and fancier version across campus. How am I going to have anything in common with these people? What if I scuff up this nice floor with my new shoes? Will I have to switch classes? How will I know where to go? Will there be assigned seats? What if there literally isn’t a desk for me? I chew at the corner of my thumb and follow Dan into the front office. He points to a big blue sofa, and I sink into it. I want it to swallow me whole. My head throbs and my ears are ringing. I put a fist to my stomach to ease the ache. This was a mistake.