When she got back to her office after grabbing a quick lunch, the girls were giggling. She poked her head into the cubicle. “Someone making milk come out of his nose again?” she asked.

Krista lifted up a gnarled pile of twinkle lights from one of Iris’s boxes. “No, not that. This year can I please help you put these decorations away so that next year Misty doesn’t have to deal with this disaster?”

“By all means, you’re hired. But I want you to know something. I put them away neatly and very well organized. In the eleven months I wasn’t looking at them, they did this to themselves. I think they get bored and unhappy....”

“Right,” Krista said. “We’re going to stay after school and help you put them up. There’s no way you could organize this wreck and still decorate. Really, Ms. McKinley.”

“I told you, not my fault! I’m very tidy.”

“Right,” they both said.

A little while later Krista left for her next class and Misty stayed on for her hour in the counselor’s office. Iris looked in on her later and saw that she seemed to have that tangle of lights pretty well organized. “Wow. Thanks, Misty.”

“You’re welcome,” she said brightly. “They were a wreck.”

“I know. Sorry. But in other areas of my life I’m neat as a pin. If you want some very bad news, I have lights for the house, too. I’m afraid to look at them.”

“I’m not signing on for that,” she said.

“Things seem to be going okay for you these days,” Iris said.

“I think working in this office helped a lot,” she said. “I like Krista. Hey, you didn’t tell her to be my friend, did you?”

“Of course not! I asked her to help you if you needed any orientation in this office—she’s been an assistant for a couple of years. She’s a nice person but I think she picks her own friends.”

“She is nice. And she has some good friends—they’re nice, too. I’ve been having lunch with them sometimes. Three of them are going to the university together. They’ll be roommates.”

“You’re going to miss her next year.”

“We’re going to chat on Skype,” Misty said with a smile. “Stephanie asked to have lunch with us one day and I wanted to tell her to get lost, but Krista said it was fine. I asked where her new best friend was.... Okay, I didn’t say it like that. I asked her where Tiffany was and she said, Algebra. But Tiffany used to have the same lunch, the one I wasn’t invited to join. Something’s up there.”

“Friendships change a lot,” Iris said.

“Krista told me no matter what, try to be nice, even if it’s hard. Then she said that doesn’t mean you have to be best friends again. Can you believe the same thing happened to Krista? A while ago, but the same thing! Krista—the cheerleader and who was in the homecoming court? Isn’t that unbelievable?”

“I told you, Misty. It happens to absolutely everyone.” She smiled.

“Well, somehow it helped to know Stephanie was getting a little of her own medicine. I apologize for that, but it’s true.”

“We’re only human,” Iris said. “Um, don’t feel obligated to stay late.”

“Oh, I’m looking forward to it. Krista has the car today and is going to give me a ride home. My brother will take the bus from middle school. And, hey—it’s a long time before I get any kind of class schedule for next year, but can I work in this office again? As long as my grades are good?”

“I’d be honored. And I won’t hold you to it if it turns out there’s something else you need to do with that time.”

“The connections in this office are pretty amazing,” Misty said. “It even gets points with the teachers.”

Iris raised an eyebrow, curious. “Good to know I have power.”

It had only been a couple of months and Misty appeared to be finished grieving over being dumped by a best friend. Iris found herself thinking she wished she had been that strong at that age. Seth wasn’t the only best friend she’d lost along the way. There had been girlfriends here and there, as well. It was never easy, letting them go, carrying on alone. And she had been telling the truth—absolutely everyone goes through it and it’s heart-wrenching.

She was patting herself on the back for having done something right even though it had been such a shot in the dark. Decorating with the girls and a couple of their friends who didn’t work in the office turned out to be a major undertaking and Iris was running late. She’d had two calls from Seth and they’d settled on him cooking dinner at her house. She knew he wouldn’t go to too much trouble but was happy it was off her schedule.

She was finally cleaning up her desk at almost six o’clock. The school was quiet and dark except for the basketball practice coming to an end just down the hall.

“How dare you,” a voice said from the door. “How dare you accuse anyone of doing anything wrong!”

She recognized the voice immediately even though she’d never before heard Rachel speak so angrily. She stood slowly. “Rachel, what’s wrong?”

“We’re being investigated! My family, Brett’s family, even some of my friends. All this about someone’s hitting me? We talked about this. You’re crazy. No one is hitting me. No one is hurting me!”

“I’m not sure I’m clear on what’s happening, but if there’s nothing wrong, then nothing more will come of it.”

“But it was you! Don’t deny it!”

“There might be more than one person concerned that you’re safe,” Iris said calmly.

“No, there’s not more than one—it’s you. Why don’t you just mind your own business! I’m fine, I’m happy, I want to be left alone.”

“Rachel, if someone has raised a question, just go through the steps. Tell the truth and move on. Who’s investigating your family?”

“I don’t know—some stupid child welfare person. And I am not a child! I’m sixteen. I’m old enough to get married if I want to. You’re ruining my life! Now everyone is upset. My family is upset. Brett’s parents are furious. It’s just a mess.”

“Rachel, sit down a minute. Let’s talk about this.”