At the end of the school day, Emily and her friends walked downhill towards the back lakeside exit of campus. The moment they stepped outside of the gates everyone took out their phones. Notifications, chimes and dings began.

"Ahhh sweet music to my ears," said Evie.

Alex sighed. "Tell me about it! My Dad had to come up to school yesterday to get mine back from the main office. Sister Rosemary heard an email alert and confiscated it. I swore I just forgot to shut it off but of course she didn't care."

"My sister's been caught using her phone three times this year. Now she has to check it into the main office every morning before homeroom and pick it up at the end of the day," Jenny said.

"I bet your parents weren't happy with that," Anna observed.

Alex added, "Well as cool as my Dad is, he wasn't thrilled that he had to rush over here before he went into his four to twelve shift. Which means that I need to head home early today and suck up with a little light vacuuming. Get it? Suck up!"

Evie laughed. "We get it. Your love of puns is notorious."

Alex and Evie started to walk toward their bus stop together.

Anna turned to Jenny, "Coming?"

She shook her head. "I'll catch up."

While Anna walked away, Emily put her bags down beside the old stone wall that surrounded the property and checked her phone.  There was a text from her father.

Be there at 4.

"Wonderful." She gritted her teeth.

"What's wrong?" Jenny asked.

"My freaking Dad, that's what. He said he would get out of work early to pick me up and insisted that I wait at school because it would be easier for him on his commute back home. Meanwhile, it's probably because he doesn't want to see my Mom. And now he's not going to be here for an hour and a half. I could have gone back home in that amount of time and then I wouldn't have had to lug this bag around all day. It's so typical of him!" She leaned against the wall.

Jenny planted herself beside Emily. "That's not the only thing you're upset about."

Emily kicked the wall with her heel. "You know... I thought I was close to John. We went through so much while our parents' marriage went down in flames. I thought we forged an unbreakable bond. And as stupid as it sounds, when I skipped 8th Grade and started NDA I imagined we'd hang out even more. Like go to the dances at each other's schools and maybe parties and maybe we'd end up in the same group of friends."

She dug her nails into the lichen covered stones behind her back. "But the fact that he never even told me he was thinking about moving to Dad's. To wake up and find that he just wasn't in his room that morning and all he left was that lame note."

And our shattered mother... Who I had to pick up from the floor.... And try to help piece back together... It felt like such a betrayal and so unfair... And so familiar... 

"Well you've started talking to each other again, right?" Jenny asked.

Emily shrugged. "Yeah after eight months of cellular silence, we've had two months of 'what's up?' texts and a couple calls with small talk."

Jenny bumped her shoulder into Emily's. "Hey, that's a start. Plus, you don't have to address everything this weekend. Just try to have fun. I follow your brother's Instagram, so I've seen his friends and your Dad's pool. At least you'll have a nice view to admire." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

Emily cracked a smile. "That's true."

"I know what'll  cheer you up. Look at this." Jenny turned her phone around to show Emily the screen. "My sister actually invited me to go to that party with her tonight. Her friends even added me to the group message. Since you're ditching me for the long weekend and everything I figure I may as well go."

Emily took the phone and scrolled through the group texts. "Whoa this is pretty huge!"

"Shocking right? It just goes to show that you can even share a room with your sibling and still not be that close to them."

Emily handed Jenny her phone back. "Well, I look forward to a full report via text or phone call tomorrow. And if Geoff is there, you must stalk him and get me all the details on what he wore and how he looked.  I wouldn't object to a sly photo or two if you can manage it." Emily joked. 

Jenny laughed. "Yeah sure, let me look like a full on creeper for your benefit. That'll definitely get me invited to the next party."

They hugged goodbye and Emily sat down on top of her tote. She put her earbuds in to listen to The Beatles.

As she watched Jenny walk away toward their usual bus stop, Emily thought back to the very first day of freshman year when they met.

Which is funny to remember in hindsight...

Her mother, Maggie, insisted on commuting with Emily that morning, worried she would get lost. 

Affronted, Emily begged her not to tag along. She shrieked hysterically, "Please Mom! If I'm smart enough to skip the eighth grade, then I'm smart enough to figure out that when the other girls in the NDA uniforms get off the bus, it's time to transfer!"

Jenny traveled that morning with Charlotte. They sat directly across the aisle from Emily and her Mom. When she saw Jenny lean over and whisper to Charlotte, Emily just knew it was about her.

Visions of the story spreading amongst all the freshman danced through her brain. In fact, with only four hundred girls in the whole school, she was certain that her humiliation would be whispered to the entire student body by the end of the day.

She didn't dare engage in conversation. Instead, she pressed her mouth into a grim line and stared at the floor fighting off the feeling that she would vomit up her cereal at any moment.

Then when Emily walked into homeroom, the seats were arranged alphabetically, and Jenny Turner sat directly behind her.

So Emily Randazzo broke the ice by blurting out, "My Mom is completely nuts and overprotective."

Jenny smiled and laughed. "I told my sister that I felt so bad for you because I could tell you were embarrassed."

A couple slices at Nino's Pizzeria after school that day solidified their friendship. By Christmas break the girls were nearly inseparable.

Everyone says our names in one breath 'JenandEm' or 'EmandJen'... Sometimes they even confuse us for one another, calling us each by the other's name... Which I don't understand because we don't act alike... And we certainly don't look alike...

Emily scrolled through her phone's photo album to pass the time. She worked backwards watching her friendship with Jenny in reverse chronology, knowing if she went back far enough she would eventually reach a time when they weren't friends.

What a sad thought... It feels like we've always known each other...

The Turners happily included their younger daughter's new best friend into their large, traditional family.

It was a welcomed change for Emily. With her father and brother gone and her mother always working, she ate most of her dinners alone.

And because money was tight, she had cereal or a bologna sandwich for that meal more than she should. Emily even needed to work in the bursar's office at school as part of her scholarship package.

Jenny's family wasn't wealthy, but they were comfortable and generous enough to invite Emily to spend most of the previous summer at their beach club in the Rockaways and then their August rental house on the Jersey Shore.

Luckily, Mom trusted Mr. and Mrs. Turner enough to allow me to go...

When Emily got to the pictures from last summer, she lingered on a shot of them side by side, as they prepared to jump off the dock in the Turner's yard. Emily smiled.

Jenny said we look like Taylor Swift and Demi Lovato in this picture...

Her blonde best friend could only be described as lithe, while brunette Emily was definitely curvaceous. Jenny often complimented Emily's pert butt while lamenting her own flat posterior.

Placed beside one another in this photo, I can see what Jenny meant... Sometimes I can't see the things that other people do... Especially about myself...

Thinking about things she struggles with, reminded her to spend some more time with her Chemistry notes. She closed the photo album, lowered her music and opened her notebook.

"Ionic bonds occur when there is a vacancy in the atomic orbital of one atom which allows the addition of one or more electron. In this type of bond, the atoms are attracted because of their opposite charges. The electrons are not shared at all, but transferred and result in a strong, but brittle bond..."

Soon a car horn interrupted as John Randazzo Sr. pulled up and called out "Emelina Beana!"

Emily removed her earbuds. Her father got out and came around the car to hug her. While he put her bags into the trunk, Emily sat in the passenger seat and buckled up. 

"I'm so glad you decided to come visit, sweetheart," he began, "Suzanne and I have some plans that were already set in stone but I'm sure you won't mind sunbathing by the pool or spending time with your brother when we have to go out.  That'll be much more interesting than hanging out with us old folks anyway." 

"No problem Dad. I didn't decide to come until the last minute so I can't expect you to cancel your plans. Besides I have plenty of school work to do."

She flipped a page in the notebook on her lap to emphasize her point. He patted Emily's head and went on.

"Well we have dinner plans with friends tonight. But I'll grill you up some burgers before we go. Then tomorrow we have our neighbor's barbecue. You should come to that for at least a little bit to say hello. Then on Sunday there's my Garden Railroading Club meeting. We'll have dinner together on Sunday night. Then Monday after we run some errands in the morning, the afternoon is wide open, so let's plan to do something then."

Emily bit at her cuticles. "That's fine," she murmured.

Her father continued, "I think you're going to really love the new place. There are plenty of kids your age in the development. And your brother always has friends over."

I know where this is headed...

He glanced at her and smiled.

"You'll see how happy your brother is now."

She stopped biting at her skin and folded the hem of her skirt to rub her fingers over the fabric instead. "Sounds great Dad."

...To the same place it always does ever since I was six years old and had to sit in front of the judge and decide who I wanted to live with...

Her father persisted, "I wish you would consider coming to live with us too. You could get your license and share the car with your brother."

...And there it is!

She leaned her head against the window. "We've been over this Dad. I like my school and I have friends there."

He frowned. "You could at least visit more."

"As far as visiting more... if I want to get into Yale I need to be involved with extra-curricular activities. Good grades alone won't get me in," she explained for what felt like the millionth time.

John Sr. pressed on. "You could do all of the same things at my township's public high school. They have drama club and a school newspaper and anything else you might want to try, and for free!"

Emily sighed. "Can we drop it, Dad? I'm not switching schools now."

She put her earbuds back in just as The Beatles' "She's Leaving Home" began. Tears prickled along the edges of her eyes but she willed them away and looked back to the work on her lap.

"The weakest bonds are hydrogen bonds, which while covalent, feature a disproportionate sharing of the electrons and one atom has the electron more often than the other. Such as with water..."

They rode the rest of the way in silence.