Ashby is one of the heroes of my story.  Her resolve is not strong, and she’s not sure of what she wants, she only knows what she doesn’t want and that’s to stop the intrusion of other kids’ emotions and baggage into her life.

Ashby smiled, feeling that today the cycle was certainly broken, somewhere deep inside her an excited character mixed an elixir of anticipation.  There was a part of her that knew just what to do with this day.  She decided that she would listen to it, not resist opportunities and follow the day in the direction that seemed most promising.  “I’ll be damned,” she thought with a smile, as she turned the corner into the junior high school wing.

The microclimates of Jefferson Middle School were dictated by the winds of adolescent hormones.  Internal pressure systems brewed into moody storms in classrooms and hallways; storms that always…