They met the first day of seventh grade. God, was it thirty years ago now? Jenna had turned twelve in August before classes started; she was coming to South Market’s only middle school from Lakeview Elementary on the east end of town. Emily was five months younger; she’d started kindergarten a year earlier than other kids her age and always felt she had to overcompensate to keep up. Her family lived on the west end of town, and until seventh grade, she went to Pennock Elementary with the same group of children she’d known all her life. Middle school was the first time she even realized there were other kids her own age in town.
Jenna and Emily were in the same homeroom together. Emily noticed her immediately because of her hair. This was 1986, when every girl spent hours in front of the m
