It's okay to accept things from people. It doesn't make you weak or helpless.

So finally, I decided that the best response — the safest — was none at all.

Again, it occurred to me how weird it was to be permanent in a place that to everyone else was only temporary. Like I could never be sure if they were the ones who weren't real, or if I was.

You just walk over there and into the office and say, 'Hey, be my prom date,'" he said. "It's that simple.

It's only advice. Ignore it if you want.

It was like discovering that some part of you wasn't yours at all. And it made me wonder what else I couldn't claim.

Maybe if I'd agreed to do the debutante thing like she wanted. Or taken up pageants instead of riding jump bikes with a bunch of grungy boys. I'd always tell her, why can't I do both? Who says you have to be either smart or pretty, or into girly stuff or sports? Life shouldn't be about the either/or. We're capable of more than that, you know?