Annie Callahan

The Girl in the Translucent Dress Annie Callahan

Thirteen of us, BFF's, hanging out at the mall on Saturdays, having sleepovers on weekends, sharing histories, working through our diversities, our problems with our moms, boys, zits and being "fat," we thought we had it all together.

Until our losses began to stack up in the form of our close friend's death, problems with our diversities that threatened to split us up, parents losing their jobs in the deepening recession, some of us losing our homes, some of us losing our way;and on top of that, the mall, our favorite hangout haven on the planet closing its doors... not until then did we almost lose ourselves.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, our lives began to change. Mostly because of the mysterious woman who showed up toward the end of our eighth grade year, and the way she shook up our lives forever.