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Tully wanted to scream "Okay? Okay? Im fourteen years old "

"My job is to love and support you, baby, not to get in your face "

Tully closed her eyes, counted to ten, and said again, "I dont have any friends here "

"Make new ones I heard you were Miss Popular at your old school "

"Come on, Mom, I—"

"Cloud "

"I you Cloud "

"Fine, Tallulah " Mom looked up to make sure her point had been made It had

"I dont belong here "

"You know better than that, Tully Youre a child of the earth and sky; you belong everywhere The Bhagavad Gita says"

"Thats it " Tully walked ahile hershe wanted to hear was soht poster On the way out, she snagged a pack of Virginia Slims from her moms purse and headed for the road

For the next week, Kate watched the new girl from a distance

Tully Hart was boldly, coolly different; brighter, soreen hallways She had no curfew and didnt care if she got caught s in the woods behind the school Everyone talked about it Kate heard the whispered awe in their voices For a group of kids whod grown up in the dairy farms and paper mill workers homes of the Snohomish Valley, Tully Hart was exotic Everyone wanted to be friends with her

Her neighbors instant popularity made Kates alienation more unbearable She wasnt sure why it wounded her so , as they stood at the bus stop beside each other and yet worlds apart, separated by yawning silence, Kate felt a desperate desire to be acknowledged by Tully

Not that it would ever happen