"Since it's my sweet sixteen, my grandparents rented the country club for the night," Taylor continued. "Please say you'll come! Since we haven't talked in, like, forever, it would give us a chance to catch up."

"I'll have to check and see what I'm doing that night," Jamie replied, although she knew perfectly well that she was free. In the bus on the way home, she debated whether or not to attend Taylor's party. She'd been so lonely when she'd first moved to Oklahoma City, and Taylor had been the first person who'd reached out to her. They'd been such good friends for so long, and yet, the incident at the football game had been one of the most humiliating in her life. Could she really ever forgive that?

When she walked into the house, Bethany, who was sitting on the living room floor playing with a doll house, stopped her play and came running. "Jamie!"

"Hi there, Bethy!" Jamie scooped the little girl up and kissed her cheek. Bethany giggled.

"Hi, sweetheart." Jo walked out of the kitchen, wiping her hands on a dish towel. "How was school?"

"All right." Jamie shrugged, grabbed an apple from the bowl on the counter, and bit into it. "Taylor invited me to her birthday party. It's at the country club this year."

"Oh, that's nice! You'll enjoy that."

"I'm not so sure. That was a pretty rotten stunt she pulled."

"A rotten stunt? Hon, she couldn't help it that Hunter liked her instead of you."

"Well, she didn't exactly discourage it, did she?"

"Would you have discouraged it if the situation had been reversed?"

"Well, no, I don't suppose I would have," Jamie admitted.

"Then how can you blame Taylor?"

Unable to answer that question, Jamie skulked to her room.

The rest of the evening passed uneventfully. "Taylor's birthday party is at the country club this year," Jo mentioned to her husband as they were getting ready for bed that night.

"My, that's awful fancy," Doug replied. "So did she invite Jamie? If so, she ought to go. I'm sure she'll have a blast."

"She invited her, but Jamie's not sure about going. She's still upset about what happened at the football game a few months ago."

"Aw, that was way back in the fall!"

"I know, but to Jamie, it was a pretty hard blow. She sees it as a betrayal, and I can't exactly say I blame her." They got into bed, where Jo fell asleep in her husband's arms.

After much consideration, Jamie decided to go to Taylor's party, after all. Happy with her daughter's decision, Jo drove her to the country club where the party was being held. The inside of the club was very nice, with textured stucco walls, arched doorways, a red tile roof, and wrought iron trim. Cathy, Taylor, and Kennedy wore dresses that were identical except that Cathy's was yellow, Taylor's was pink, and Kennedy's was aquamarine.

"Jamie!" Taylor raced toward her friend and embraced her. "I'm so glad you could come!"

Jamie looked around and saw that, so far, only a couple of Taylor's friends were there. Hunter was nowhere to be found. I'm sure he'll be here soon.

Half a dozen or so more girls arrived, and the party began. Jamie mingled among the other girls, chatting with them. She knew most of them from school, and she remembered Taylor's cousin Lauren from previous birthday parties.

The night progressed, and no new guests arrived. Finally Jamie could stand it no longer. "Where's Hunter?" she asked Taylor, who was halfway through her second slice of birthday cake.

"You didn't know?" Taylor exclaimed. "He dumped me for Danielle Hardy ages ago. What a player!"

Although Jamie tried to look properly sympathetic, she knew that she couldn't really say she was sorry. For the rest of the night, she smiled more easily and laughed more often.

"Thanks so much for coming to my party," Taylor said as she gave her a good-bye hug. "Maybe we can hang out together next weekend. You know, like we used to."

"That would be great!"

Jamie walked out to the car with her mother. "Well, did you have a nice time?" asked Jo.

"I had a great time!" Jamie told her. "Turns out Taylor and Hunter aren't together anymore. He dumped her for Danielle Hardy."

Jo laughed. "So I guess that means you two can be friends again."

"I guess so."

The following weekend, Jamie invited Taylor over for dinner. Jo made tacos. "Wow, I haven't been over here in ages!" Taylor exclaimed as she looked around.

"You sure haven't," Doug remarked.

"Hi, Bethany!" Taylor said to Jamie's little sister, who was riding her tricycle around in circles. "Remember me?"

Bethany shook her head, then pretended to beep her tricycle's imaginary horn.

"How's Clay?" asked Taylor.

"He's OK. He just graduated from the police academy a couple of months ago, so he's a cop now."

"Neat!"

After dinner, the girls went for a walk around the neighborhood, and then Taylor went home and Jamie joined Doug and Jo in watching 'The Walking Dead.' Afterwards, she went to her bedroom to play the Sims on her computer.