Finding a friend isn't easy. Especially when there aren't many kids age eleven in your neighborhood.

Being a friend is even harder.

In Pearl's neighborhood, Lenore is anyone's first choice. She gets her hair straightened and curled at a real beauty shop. Pearl's is still in braids. Lenore has her own pink phone and a frilly canopy bed. Pearl has to share a room with her teenage sister, "Princess" Diana, and a shaggy old bed with her sassy little sister, Angela. Lenore has followers -- Nadine and Ce-Ce. She hardly needs Pearl.

But Pearl still hopes -- until Artemesia comes along. She is everything Pearl herself dreams of being -- a modern dancer, a gifted artist. She is also a mystery. "That old stanky girl," Lenore snorts, mocking with the others Artemesia's ill-fitting yellow dress. Pearl, meaning the best, does the worst thing possible.

And still she hasn't a friend.

Or has she?