CHAPTER SEVEN
Maia put Betty into the car and packed the dessert she had bought carefully onto the back seat, praying she wouldn’t have to make any unnecessarily sharp stops on the way to Emory’s house. It was the week before Halloween, and she was enjoying all the decorated houses and porches as she drove across the island. More and more, this island was becoming a home. Back in Manhattan, in Zach’s world, she’d had Sakata and Julia, but she’d always found most of Zach’s friends dismissive of her. Here, all of her new friends were so different and yet they shared one vital thing: she believed they cared for her.
And she adored them. Lark, her cohort and buddy at the store, despite the age gap, they were two silly schoolgirls giggling together. Michonne and Jamelia made her feel young, t
