Family Problems    

"Networking?" I had scoffed when I overheard him talking to one of his friends on the phone. "Is that what you call flirting now?"

Haley wasn't much better. She had started attending school, but instead of focusing on her studies, all she cared about were the rich kids she had befriended. She became obsessed with fitting in, spending ridiculous amounts of money on makeup, designer clothes, and shopping sprees. Bars, parties, and the latest trends—her priorities were clear, and none of them included her education.

"I need to keep up with them, Eve," she had told me one night, rolling her eyes when I questioned her spending. "You wouldn't understand. You were never the new girl in an elite school."

I had been new before. I had been the outcast. But I hadn't thrown money at the problem—I had worked through it.