title: A Home for Ruby: Helping Children Adjust to New Families (Let's Talk)
author: P.J. Neer
description: <div><BR><I>"...written for the 400,000 children who live in foster care, some of whom have a difficult time adjusting...</I> - <B>BOOKVIEWS by Alan Caruba</B></div>
zlib_text: Dedication
  
  For my niece, who is convinced she saw the ghost of a motorcyclist in her
  room.
  
  Chapter One
  
  “Stop being such a snob.” Ruby took a swig of her cherry red alcopop and
  leaned in to kiss him.
  
  Tate turned his head away and her lips connected with his cheek instead. She
  was drunk. One too many drinking games. The same ones they used to play in
  high school. Trouble was they weren’t in high school anymore.
  
  “Ruby, I think you’ve had enough.” Tate eased her arms from around him.
  
  “Come on, have some fun.” She pouted, her lips stained red.
  
  He looked around the room. Half the people he didn’t know, the other half were
  his friends by default because they were Ruby’s friends. He winced, they had
  all been friends once, but in the last year he’d realized two things. They
  hadn’t changed and he had, and he didn’t want to spend his weekend drunk and
  then hung over when he had assignments to do and projects to complete. At
  first the drift away from the group had been accidental because he