CHAPTER 18

THE FRIEND GAME

After school that day, I invited Bones over to my house, even though I knew that Estelle wouldn't be very happy. She had a rule that she had to know where the friend lived before they could come over. No wonder I didn't have any friends.

Most of the kids in my neighborhood went to boarding school. Estelle picked out a place for me in Virginia— actually, she didn't pick it out; one of our neighbors told her about it at the spa. But Gina was dead set against it.

When she heard Estelle talking about it, she went straight to my dad and told him there was no way I was going to a boarding school. When it came to Gina and Estelle, my Dad usually sided with Gina. I guess just another reason why Gina and Estelle didn't get along.

When the school bus drove into my neighborhood that day, Bones couldn't believe the size of the houses. That was the first time I realized that most people don't live in a house as big as ours. And when he walked into our front foyer, he kind of had his mouth hanging open the whole time . . . no different than how he looked at Gina these days.

As he stood there gawking at our foyer, Estelle came out from the kitchen.

"Hello, CJ. How was your . . . who is this?" She tried to sound nice, but I knew she wasn't very happy to see Bones.

"This is Hank. His first day of school was today, and he's in my class!" I was really excited because, like I said, I didn't really have any friends.

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