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was concerned, he’d moved on. The boy had totally flipped after she’d told him about her parents inviting Sean Desmond to Disney World with them. Xavier had acted like it was all her fault, like she had personally extended Sean an invitation.
    As the driver circled and started down the long driveway, snaking through a dense, tropical oasis of freshly manicured grass, tons of shrubbery, and Mrs. Fox’s prized rosebush gardens, Samantha was trying to picture her life without Xavier. He hadn’t called her since hearing about the trip. Didn’t answer the birthday wish she’d sent via text message. Had his little birthday party Saturday and didn’t even have the common decency to include her. But from what she gathered Xavier had had his hands full with London Curry, some dizzy little nobody who was apparently trying to become the new Samantha.
    Oh well, Samantha thought.
    She had come too far, and had gone through too much junk, to worry about something she couldn’t control. This was her senior year, the last year of high school, and she wasn’t going to let anything stop her from enjoying it . . . even if it wasn’t going to be in the company of the one that she still held mad love for.
    Samantha could tell that the day was shaping up to be a hot one. It wasn’t even close to eight o’clock and the sun was a fireball in the clear blue morning sky. She went into her Louis Vuitton tote bag and removed a pair of Prada sunglasses. With them on her face, Samantha made herself comfortable on the supple leather and stared out at the world through the dark tint of the windows. Despite not having the only boy she’d ever cared about in her life this school year, Samantha had to find a way to push through it. Shake it off. She would be just fine. Besides, her two crazy BFFs were still riding with her. Tracy McIntyre and Jennifer Haywood were her road dogs and they would never bounce on her. They were the Three Musketeers—one for all and all for one.
    Yeah, she thought, as she looked out into the face of morning rush hour. My senior year is going to be a lot of fun.

3
    DAKOTA TAYLOR
    MONDAY, AUGUST 31
6:50 A.M.
    Â 
    â€œD akota!” Evelyn Taylor yelled from the upstairs room of their three-bedroom bungalow. “Get your tail up this instant! You gonna be late for school!”
    Fourteen-year-old Dakota Taylor was a little girl with a big imagination. She had to possess one in order to stay in the same house as her mother.
    The young girl lazily opened her eyes and yawned. She wasn’t given a chance to do anything else before her mother screamed again.
    â€œDakota Taylor, do you hear me, girl, get out of that bed before I come in there and beat you out of it, now!”
    Dakota sluggishly rolled out of the sack wearing a short nightgown decorated with playful, colorful kittens. She was overwhelmed, but joyful of the spectacular possibilities that the day could deliver. This could actually be the day that her Prince Charming galloped through on a black stallion and rescued her from a life dominated by her mother’s miseries.
    She stretched and yawned once more. Dakota wiped at her eyes as she slowly stepped over to the full-length mirror standing in the corner by her bedroom closet.
    Evelyn screamed again. “Dakota, I don’t hear no water running in that bathroom. Chile, get yo’ half-breed behind in the tub and take a shower. I ain’t gonna tell you no mo’!”
    Today was the first day of school. Dakota beamed with excitement. Yet she stood there, a little horrified, but ready to embark on the beginning of her freshman year at Coleman High. She told herself, Anything beats the loneliness brought on by having to stay locked up in the house for the entire summer.
    Dakota’s African American mother Evelyn had married a Native American man by the name of Bemossed Taylor. Bemossed was a skilled laborer and Evelyn worked as a waitress in an