Read Online Girls In White Dresses by Jennifer Close - Free Book Online

pot,” she’d say. “My mom raises chickens for us to eat.” If this didn’t get a rise out of them, she’d say, “My dad once kidnapped the neighbor’s peacocks.” That usually shut them up.
    Abby wasn’t complaining when she told people this. She just wanted it out there. It was better, she’d learned, to tell people right up front, instead of waiting for them to ask questions like “What line of work is your dad in?” and having it all come out like that.
    When Abby was thirteen, her parents sent her to boarding school. They talked about sending her to the local high school, they even entertained the idea of enrolling her in the hippie high school that took place on a VW bus and drove around the country, to teach kids through real-life experience. But in the end, her parents decided on Chattick, a really well-known and snobby boarding school in Connecticut, where all the kids had parents who were lawyers or bankers, and everyone bought their chicken in grocery stores.
    At boarding school, Abby learned to study. When she arrived that first year with a canvas bag of clothes and a homemade patchwork quilt for her bed, she knew she had her work cut out for her. She studied hard, taking notes on the silver link bracelets all the girls wore and the bright patterned duffel bags they carried home at the holidays. She made lists and bought these things for herself, quickly and quietly, so that no one remembered that she hadn’t had them before, no one knew that she looked any different than when she’d first gotten there. Sometimes she thought she should have been a spy.
    By the time she was a freshman in college, she had it down. When she met her freshman roommate, Kristi, she appeared totally normal. But still, she told Kristi about her family as soon as it was acceptable. Abby had perfected her five-minute rant about her parents, and she performed it well. Kristi laughed in all the right places, and Abby was sure that they would be friends.
    And still, Abby tried to keep her friends at a distance. She was quieter than the rest of them, always listening, always watching to see if there was something she was supposed to be doing. It was exhausting, but she knew the alternative was worse. By senior year, she had been to stay with the families of all of her college roommates. She’d been to Chicago and Philadelphia and even California, but she’d never invited anyone to Vermont. She also discouraged her parents from coming up for Parents’ Weekend. “It’s no big deal,” she always said. “No one is really coming.” This was a lie, of course, and she felt bad about that, but she didn’t have a choice. It was one thing to hear about her family. It was another thing to see them.
    Kristi was the one who brought it up one weekend when most of their friends were out of town for one reason or another. “I’m so bored I could die,” Kristi said. She rolled over onto her back and sighed. “I could literally die.”
    Their friend Isabella laughed. “Don’t be dramatic or anything.”
    “I’m serious,” Kristi said. “We can’t stay here this weekend. There’s nothing going on. Let’s do something.”
    “What do you want to do?” Isabella asked. Abby stayed quiet. They were in her room, which always put her on edge. After freshman year, wherever the group of them lived, Abby always got a single. It calmed her to at least have a place where she could go and shut the door and not have to worry about anyone watching her. She hated when they gathered in here.
    “Let’s take a road trip,” Kristi said. She rolled over and sat up. “I know! Let’s go to Vermont.” She pointed at Abby. “Come on, we’ve never been there. I want to see the farm.” She started bouncing up and down on Abby’s bed. “Come on! Please! Let’s go to the farm!”
    “You guys, it’s so boring there,” Abby said. She tried to stay calm. “You think it’s boring here? You’ll really die there.”
    But the girls kept