Chapter 1: The Summer Everything Changed
The summer I started high school, my mom started wiring me $7,000 every month—just for being her kid.
It was the kind of number that made everyone in the halls do a double-take. Enough to buy a beat-up car, enough to make me the subject of every whispered rumor. My friends acted like they didn’t care, but my desk buddy, Natalie, was so jealous she actually came up with a plan to trade lives with me.
The sun baked the blacktop, making the air shimmer above the rows of minivans and battered trucks. Someone’s little brother was chasing a soccer ball between the cars. Natalie sprinted toward the black Escalade idling at the curb, shouting, “Shotgun! Rich mom’s mine now!”
Her voice rang out across the chaos of the school pickup line, echoing over the chatter of parents and the cough of old engines. The whole lot smelled like gas and melting pavement—late spring in a nowhere Midwest town. As Natalie vanished into the glossy SUV, I slipped on her faded Target backpack, climbed onto her mom’s battered red Honda scooter (the paint streaked with stickers), and finally let out a shaky breath I didn’t know I was holding.
Great, I’ve finally escaped from my mom.