She was lonely, and as the months and then years wore on, it only grew worse. Without a single friend to relieve the tedium of breaks and lunch times, she eventually gave up trying to find one, and spent almost every free moment of her school days reading. Anything good, anything long, not the "little kid" books full of pictures that she’d learned to scorn because her mother had pronounced them "beneath your abilities". She didn’t want to let her parents down – she wanted to make them smile and be proud of her, and come home early from their dental practice instead of leaving her with the nanny again.