"Fourth grade," Nora said softly. "I remember fourth grade."

"Yeah, the year when all nice little kids turn into know-it-all, smart-mouthed preteens," Carla replied. "I don't envy Joanne one bit. How are your classes coming? You never did tell me what you decided to take."

"Introduction to Computers, Introduction to Business Management, Beginning Marketing, and a course called How to Get a Job in Today's Market. That one only meets once a week, but it's fascinating, and it's scary. I wish I was more interested in teaching, but I'm just not," Nora said.

"Doing any Channel surfing?" Carla said with a grin.

"Every night," Nora replied. "I don't know what I'd do without Kyle and Rolf."

"My God, Nora, no wonder you look so drawn!" Carla exclaimed. "You've got a full course load, and you're partying all night. When the hell do you sleep? Not to mention get your homework done." Her brown eyes showed concern.

"My schedule is set up so I only have classes three days a week. I go nine to noon two days, and nine to one on Wednesdays. I come home and do the course work and the reading. I'm asleep by five thirty most nights, up at nine, and into The Channel for some fun. I'm limiting my time there on school nights. I'm home by one a.m., and then up at seven thirty on school days. I've never been happier," Nora said with a smile. "Jeff isn't as happy," she laughed. "You're right, though. My clothes are hanging on me these days. I'll have to do some alterations. I just don't have the funds for new stuff, but I'm going to splurge and get my hair colored. Jeff wouldn't let me, but nothing ages a woman more than too much weight and faded hair."

"Are you dieting?" Carla asked.

"Nah," Nora said.

"What did you eat for breakfast this morning?" Carla demanded to know.

"I grabbed a yogurt and cup of coffee before I left," Nora replied.

"And lunch? What did you eat for lunch?" Carla persisted.

Nora thought a moment. "I forgot lunch," she said.

"It looks like you're forgetting lunch a lot these days," Carla told her, and going to Nora's fridge, she opened it to peer inside. "Good grief!" she exclaimed. "There's nothing in here."

"Yes, there is too," Nora responded.

"Half a cooked chicken, and you didn't cook it. It's one of those rotisserie birds from the market," Carla said. "A bowl of salad greens. Yogurt, a couple of bottles of flavored soda water, cheddar cheese, and some two percent milk. Nora, you aren't cooking for yourself! No butter? No bread?" She pulled open the top freezer. There was a package of Stouffer's macaroni and cheese, a bag of frozen green beans, and two packages of frozen chopped spinach. "No ice cream?" Carla shook her head. "Honey, you aren't taking care of yourself," she fretted. "You're going to get sick."

"I don't know how to cook for one," Nora muttered. "Besides, I take a multivitamin pill every day, Carla. I'm hardly skin and bones right now."

"You were a size sixteen, and I would put money on it that you've lost at least two dress sizes," Carla said, her sharp eye examining her best friend.

"I used to be a size eight," Nora said.

"Older women who lose too much weight always look their age, or older if they don't have the dollars to do face work, and you don't, sweetie. And even those women who do, hell, you can tell. I don't care how good the doctor is- those done-over faces on older gals always end up looking like an Egyptian death mask. There comes a time when a woman should age gracefully."

"I am aging gracefully," Nora laughed, "but losing a little weight will be good for my heart and blood pressure. Look at Margo. My mother is in her early seventies, and still a size six. And she doesn't look her age at all."

"Come to dinner tonight," Carla said.

"I've got a test tomorrow. I can't," Nora responded. "I'm not even going to go play tonight."

"I'm having my famous manicotti with meat sauce, and that garlic bread you love so much," Carla tempted.

Nora laughed again. "Bring me over some later, and I'll freeze it for another night."

Carla sighed. "When are you seeing Rick again?" she asked.

"Friday, after school," Nora answered. "Then I'm heading up to State for Parents Weekend. J. J. asked me to come."

"We're going too," Carla said. "Ride with us?"

"I will," Nora said. "I hate making that drive alone. Where are you staying?"

"The Fairfax Inn," Carla responded.

"Me too! That's great." Nora smiled. "It'll be fun."

"Okay, you're off the hook for tonight. I'll bring you some manicotti to freeze."

But after meeting with her lawyers on Friday afternoon, Nora didn't know if she wanted to go anywhere. She felt sick with their news. More than anything, she just wanted to find a hole, crawl into it, and die.

"What do you mean, I can't get the house?" she demanded of Rick. "It's the only thing I want from him. Nothing else."

Rick sighed. "It's been a long shot all along, Nora. Joe and I told you that right from the beginning. The house has always been in just his name, and that gives him the advantage over you. However, when he nicked the kids' college money he made a mistake, and that's been our club. It's a little club, but we've gotten you a really incredible settlement under the circumstances. The house has no mortgage, and you're going to get forty percent of the sales price. That ain't hay in this market, given the neighborhood we're in," Rick explained. "You should see close to four hundred thousand dollars, Nora. And you're going to get a thousand dollars a month in alimony for five years. J. J.'s scholarship is good for four years, and we've got Jeff to pay for J. J.'s dorm room. However, if the kid goes off campus, he's out of luck, and he'll have to buy his own meal ticket, but he'll manage it."

"What about Jill's tuition at Duke?" Nora wanted to know.

Rick shook his head. "Jeff loves having a daughter in law school at Duke, but he won't pay for it. He paid for her undergrad work, and this first year at Duke. No court will think him unfair to ask that she get scholarship money for her last two years. Jill is bright, and she's resourceful, Nora. She'll manage it, and we'll see she does, I promise you. What are friends for?"

Nora felt the tears, but she blinked them back. "A car?" she asked hopefully.

Rick shook his head. "Sorry," he told her.

"What if I bought out his interest in the house?" she said.

"Nora, you couldn't afford it, and you couldn't get a mortgage in your name. You have no credit. Everything- the phone, the electricity, the water company, the car, the credit card you had- it's all been in Jeff's name. I told you this before. That's something you've got to do. Begin to establish your own credit. I've gotten the bank to agree to give you a credit card in your own name, but it only has a twelve-hundred-dollar credit line, I'm afraid." He reached into his desk and pulled out an envelope. "Here," he said.

She took the envelope, heart sinking. She knew that Margo was very well-fixed, but she couldn't ask her mother for six hundred thousand dollars to buy the house. Her mother lived comfortably on her interest income and her late husband's Social Security. She would have to sell something to help Nora, and that would drastically cut her income. I can't do it, Nora thought. She loves being independent, and I can't make her pinch pennies. It isn't fair. But what wasn't fair was Jeff taking the house. "There's no way of stopping him from selling?" she asked.

"If you got lucky, and he died screwing Heidi before the divorce, then you would get everything," Rick said, "but we can't count on that happening, Nora. But he's not going to put the house on the market until next April first, so you've got at least until then, and while the house will sell quickly, by the time the details are settled it will be June or July. Almost a year," he finished, looking uncomfortable. Carla was really going to give him grief about this, but what could he do? They were dealing with the law.

"Don't tell Carla yet, Rick. I don't want to spoil our weekend. I don't feel much like going right now," Nora admitted, "but J. J. would be so disappointed."

He looked relieved. "Yeah," he agreed. "If we tell Carla, she'll go on about it all weekend, and no one will have a good time. What do you want to say?"

"Let's give her something or she'll be suspicious," Nora told him. "We'll tell her about the five years of alimony, and J. J.'s dorm room. You can say you and Joe are working on the rest, okay?"

"You're a good friend, Nora Buckley," he told her.

"So are you and Carla," she responded.

The leaves were turning as they drove to the state university at Whitford. At the Fairfax Inn they discovered that Nora's reservation in the name of Mrs. Jeffrey Buckley was now in the name of Mr. and Mrs. Jeffrey Buckley.

"There's an error," she said. "My husband and I are in the midst of a divorce. Here's my reservation number. See? Three-six-nine-one-one." She held out the postcard to the clerk. "And you will note it is addressed to Mrs., not Mr. and Mrs."

"There's obviously been an error," the desk clerk said, "and Mr. and Mrs. Buckley checked in a half an hour ago." He looked uncomfortable.

"That would be my husband and his girlfriend," Nora replied sweetly. "Well, give me another room, then."

"I can't." The clerk looked agonized now. "We're full. It's Parents' Weekend, madame."

"I know, and I'm here to visit my son, who is one of the junior varsity soccer stars." She smiled a dangerous smile. "You have a choice, young man. Either give me another room, or remove my husband and his little playmate from my room."

"Is there a problem here, Roberts? We're stacking up with check-ins," asked an officious man in a dark blazer with a name tag on his lapel that read C. ELDERS, ASSISTANT MANAGER.