But internally, that night marked the change for Stella Burnside. Jackie was miserable in the girls' school that was halfway across town, and the sensual mother could no longer pretend that her husbands' concern was just his male protective instinct. She began to go out with other men, when Jackie was sixteen, knowing that it would only be a matter of time before Phil found out. Mostly, her dates were daytime affairs, with men much younger than herself, because men who were her age were all working. A couple of times she had even made it with high school boys, all the time imagining how they would be perfect for her daughter Jackie.

It was also around then that Stella began to notice Jackie's strange reaction to men and even boys her own age. She got frequent phone calls from boys, and yet she almost never went out. Last year, when Phil had left, Stella transferred Jackie back to the public high school for her senior year, in the hopes that it would help the lovely blonde girl to adjust to the fact that she was an attractive female on the brink of womanhood who would have to learn to associate with members of the opposite sex. It was at the public high school that the beautiful daughter of Phil and Stella Burnside had been elected homecoming queen, only to turn down the honor.

When Jackie graduated from high school last June, Stella had dreams of sending her to college, where she would be able to meet scores of handsome, eligible men. But it had been too expensive for Stella to pay the fees and tuitions at the state colleges and universities, because although Phil was still liable for support payments a long as Jackie was in school, the reality of the matter was that little money came, and even it was irregular. That was when the gorgeous divorcee had moved with Jackie to a small apartment where all the utilities were paid, and that was when she herself had gone back to work.