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visited her gravesite at Westwood Village Mortuary, reminiscing over the one woman she believed had never let her down.
    Grace, who had moved into a larger home with her family in the San Fernando Valley, decided it would be best to have Norma Jeane move in with them. Norma Jeane adjusted to yet another new home and a new set of friends at Van Nuys High School. A comfortable family life surrounded her as she became fast friends with Aunt Grace’s stepdaughter, Beebe Goddard, just two years younger than Norma Jeane.
    The film version of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone With the Wind was released in 1939. Norma walked to school over three miles in order to save the price of admission to see her favorite, Clark Gable. Her fantasy that the actor might be her long-lost father was still fresh, and she swooned every time he made an appearance on screen. Perhaps he liked her the most of all of his “children” and would swing her agile body onto his shoulder and whisper into her ear that she was the prettiest of them all.
    Aside from Gable, her fantasy father, and movie director John Huston, she idolized two other male figures: Abraham Lincoln and Albert Einstein. Norma Jeane avidly read Lincoln biographies, which gave her hope that she, too, could rise from abject poverty to achieve great things. Throughout her life, she kept Lincoln’s photo nearby. Arthur Miller, her third husband, resembled the assassinated president, and it was no accident that she was physically attracted to the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer.
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    She was nicknamed “Normi” by her new sister. They shared the same room, clothes, and shoe size. Beebe admired Norma Jeane’s rapidly developing body, which was soon to be the envy of every girl at Van Nuys High. She had to wear the same outfit to school each day—a white shirt and form-fitting black skirt. She never failed to sway her backside as she passed the guys on the school grounds. She saved her pennies for lipstick and mascara. Her breasts filled out her brassiere and stretched her blouses and sweaters to their limits. Her poreless skin was without a blemish. And to enhance her sensuality, she began highlighting the flesh-colored mole on her face with a black eyeliner pencil.
    Her jealous classmates didn’t hesitate to accuse her of making time with their boyfriends. They also spread rumors that she would get drunk at wild orgies on Venice Beach. Their contempt increased throughout high school as the boys ogled her every move. Norma Jeane liked the attention, but didn’t yet understand it. Her sensuous curves, bulging bosom and dynamite body brought her admiration, but the facts of life bewildered her, as she couldn’t quite connect her attractiveness to sex.
    Norma Jeane’s athletic prowess finally gained her the acceptance she desired from her female peers. Her muscular development enabled her to excel as both a track and volleyball star. Beebe and her friends were confident that Norma could make the Olympics if she continued competing in sports.
    In the classroom, Norma performed poorly in mathematics but well in English; writing poetry was her first love. Though she had enrolled in an acting class on the West Side, only to play male characters because then she was flat-chested, in Van Nuys she temporarily suspended all aspirations to become an actress. Classmate Jane Russell didn’t. She won the admiration of the student body for the roles she played. Concentrating on sports, moviegoing, and reading romantic novels, Norma Jeane started to form ideas about love. She decided that the strongest kind of love was always preceded by sympathy and that sexual, romantic love was second rate. Bewildered by the idea of sex, Norma Jeane spent more time hugging her cocker spaniel than she did any boys; actual dates with boys were extremely rare. On some evenings she laughed and played with Beebe; on others she read and imagined what it would be like to be with her