Alcohol wouldn't be a lure. Susan drank wine with friends, but rarely stocked up, so it wasn't like Lily had a bar to draw from. Same with prescription drugs, though Susan knew how easy it was for kids to get them online. Rarely did a month go by without a student apprehended for that.

"Mom?"

Susan blinked. "Yes, sweetheart?"

"Look who's distracted. What are you thinking about?"

"You. Are you feeling all right?"

There was a flash of annoyance. "You keep asking me that."

"Because I worry," Susan said and, reaching across, laced her fingers through Lily's. "You haven't been the same since summer. So here I am, loving you to bits, and because you won't say anything, I'm left to wonder whether it's just being seventeen and needing your own space. Do I crowd you?"

Lily sputtered. "No. You're the best mom that way."

"Is it school? You're stressed."

"Yes," the girl said, but her tone implied there was more, and her fingers held Susan's tightly.

"College apps?"

"I'm okay with those."

"Then calculus." The calc teacher was the toughest in the math department, and Susan had worried Lily would be intimidated. But what choice was there? Raymond Dunbar was thirty years Susan's senior and had vocally opposed her ascension to the principalship. If she asked him to ease up, he would accuse her of favoritism.

But Lily said, "Mr. Dunbar isn't so bad."

Susan jiggled Lily's fingers. "If I were to pinpoint it, I'd say the change came this past summer. I've been racking my brain, but from everything you told me, you loved your job. I know, I know, you were at the beach, but watching ten kids under the age of eight is hard, and summer families can be the worst."