Summary

In Chapter 9, Casey tells her fellow students that her family was rich and happy even though her mother was an alcoholic. Her mother wasn’t a mean drunk, drinking actually made her sweeter so the family basically ignored the problem. Casey and her sisters even had the code sentence “Mom took out the trash” when they recognized their mother was drunk. Casey’s biggest fear about her mother’s drinking was that she would be embarrassing. Casey said the summers were the worst because they stayed at their house in the Hamptoms. Because their father worked during the week, their mother had to drive them where ever they went. One night they’d attended a party on the beach with some neighbors. A boy Casey liked had been chasing her and flirting with her.

When it was time to go home, one of...