That made me laugh and I knew Beverly was just being kind, but it was still funny. I looked over at her as we walked and said, "I think it's too late for that. The first time we met, it was because I woke Eddie up while making a nest on the floor so I didn't have to sleep in my bed. He already knows I'm not cool."

But he was my friend anyway. That in itself felt like more than I deserved already.

It was okay if I wasn't cool. What I had learned of cool made me feel like I didn't necessarily want to be cool. Although maybe that wasn't true either. Beverly seemed cool in a way that was nice. She smiled easily and her hair looked like fire when the sun hit it and she knew how to sneak out of the Home, but she was never mean about anything. I wasn't like that either, but she never made me feel like that wasn't okay.