Girl Next Door — Alyssa Brugman

See, what happened was, our lives were going really well. My mom got a promotion, I enrolled in an A-list school, and then my Dad had this great idea to start an empire. But now he's "gone to the country." What does that even mean? Is it the same place they take old, sick dogs? Has he joined a cult? It's been two months now, and I still don't know what it means. Declan, the boy next door, says that my dad's in a hospital, but everyone's dying as far as Declan is concerned. Now there are strange people living in our spare rooms, and all my stuff is on the lawn. I've tried to raise it with my mom, but she talks to me as if I am a four-year-old -- when she talks to me at all, which is less and less lately. Hello! Can somebody please tell me what's going on?