I'd call it: Painted Boots Inspiration, Chapter One

The journey begins . . . .

"I hope all they see, from the outside looking in, is a girl who'll fit in with this place."

Aspen Brand's journey begins on the first day of her senior year of high school .... in a new state, a new town, a new school .... alone.  On this first day, Aspen's isolation keeps her outside herself, as though she were just another stranger, looking in.

Chapter one is taken, almost verbatim, from the first day of my senior year of high school.  My parents had moved to a small community, and I spent the summer prior to school starting feeling lonely.  So I built a fabulous wardrobe--the largest I've ever had.  I combed sales, thrift stores and fabric stores; I sewed and altered.  And I started school with enough new clothing to wear something different, every day, for the first month of class.

I didn't realize it on that first day of school, or for a long time afterward, but my clothes not only told everyone around me I was different.  It told them I was okay with being different.