Zoe’s birthday had come three weeks before, and her grandmother had surprised everyone by throwing her a party. She’d made a real effort to be nice to Penny, whom she didn’t approve of, and absolutely doted on their other best friend, Katie, whom she obviously did.
For three hours, Zoe’s grandmother had preserved a neutral face as a handful of Zoe’s school friends milled around the little house, ate cake, and watched Zoe open presents. There was Penny, Katie, Jodi Lewis, Ellen Kelly, a girl in their grade who’d played Dorothy in the school production of The Wizard of Oz that winter and could still be seen wandering the halls between classes singing “If I Only Had A Brain,” and Trey Miller, a tall, muscular ninth-grade boy with olive skin and a smile that made the girls walk into walls a
