The Lake of Lost Girls

During Christmas break 1998, Jess hides in her childhood bedroom, drinking vodka stolen from her parents’ liquor cabinet and feeling restless at home. Her mother enters uninvited with a newspaper showing the headline “Another Girl Missing at Local College” and expresses concern about Jess returning to Southern State University (129). Jess manipulates her mother into letting her go back to school and, once Cara has left the room, hides her failing college grades in a secret wall cavity she created in her closet years earlier. She considers placing her ring in the wall but ultimately keeps it.

Jess receives a call from Daisy, who warns her about Ryan (nicknamed “Wam Bam McKay” [135]), revealing that he previously had relationships with both Tammy and Phoebe. Feeling confined, Jess walks downtown to a café where locals dismissively discuss the missing college students. Outside the old movie theater, Jess spots her father with a young blonde woman, following them to observe her 42-year-old father kissing the high school senior in an alley. This triggers a flashback to move-in day at college, when she caught her father flirting with another young woman. Devastated, Jess cries alone after watching them leave together.