I loved to be alone in the woods, especially in the late fall when everything is crisp and golden, the leaves the color of fire, and it smells like things turning into earth. I loved the silence - the only sound the steady drum of the hooves and the horse's breathing.

Sometimes I feel like she deserves a best friend who is just a little more special.

You have to go forward: It's the only way. You have to go forward no matter what happens. This is the universal law.

I start to follow her, and Alex grabs my hand. "I'll find you," he says, watching me with the eyes I remember. "I won't let you go again." I don't trust myself to speak. Instead I nod, hoping that he understands me. He squeezes my hand. "Go," he says.

You have to understand. I am no one special. I am just a single girl. I am five feet two inches tall and I am in-between in every way. But I have a secret. You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way to fly above them. You can try to pin me down with a hundred thousand arms, but I will find a way to resist.

It won't matter if nobody ever thinks I'm pretty (although sometimes I wish, just for a second, that somebody would)

The worst is knowing I can't tell anybody what's happening -or what's happened- to me. Not even my mom.