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Four sets of mothers and daughters make-up our freshman car pool. I have it on pretty good authority that we are widely regarded as "the cool moms," translation: we seem to stay out of our girls' lives. That irony makes the four mothers laugh out loud, because no four mothers on the planet ever more thoroughly wove themselves into the fabric of their daughters' lives; but we are skilled at hiding our meddling and manipulation

Melissa is Taylor's mom. Traci is Courtenay's mom. Susan is Madison's mom. I am Cristina's mom. Melissa and Traci do mornings. Susan and I do afternoons. We talk a lot in-between. What we describe as "pooling our knowledge and corroborating the girls' facts" really is sophisticated gossip; we know that. Everyone knows that. You won't change our minds or our habits, though. We have important stuff to discuss in great detail. In my nursing world, I would call it "case notes." It's "legitimate."

We have discussed "poor Autumn" in some detail, not because it really affects us or our girls, but just because we have known poor Autumn since kindergarten and I, especially, feel her pain and wish I could find some meaningful way to relieve it.

Autumn, a beautiful and vaguely nerdy girl, sweet as cotton candy and gifted as a musician, lives in the middle of some "Goodfellas" remake. Robbie, her father, reputedly owns and operates the south county's biggest meth lab; he gets arrested as regularly as the rest of us wash our hair and shave our legs. But just like the stubble always grows back, so Robbie always gets released on his own recognizance. And between tours of the criminal justice system, he cruises the neighborhood in a yellow Ferrari. He knows how frighteningly handsome he is, and he knows what his money can buy. Without shame or scruple, he'll do all the MILFs and talk about it with his buddies down at The Speed Bump, where the golfers and Hells Angels hang-out.

Autumn, who frequently eats lunch with our girls, saying very little, just grateful for the sanctuary our foursome offers, lives with a mother who very closely resembles Sharon Stone at the end of "Casino." Dawn is gorgeous. Robbie picked her up on a trip to Rio de Janeiro, and she looks like the Brazilian girls we see, and loathe, in Victoria's Secret catalogues. Whatever Nature did not willingly bestow expert surgery has supplied. When Dawn retires from wifing and mothering, she can become a mannequin. We have no idea what ever happened to Autumn's real mother; Autumn claims she never

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