Even Pretty Girls Cry at Night (Crosswinds) by Merrill Joan Gerber

Faye and her father have been through a lot to end up in Florida running an apartment building full of old people. All she does all day during school holidays is clean up the place; even though she doesn't get paid or asked to. However, she has one rule: Never talk to the oldies. Faye hasn't had it all that easy. With her mother gone and a twisted back that she's really self-conscious about, she goes around wearing a feather-down vest; thus the elderly residents of the apartment building have nicknamed her 'Crow'. Another girl uses the pool she cleans up around to train named Marcia and whenever Faye sees her, she's envious of her beauty. But there's change in the wind when a hot young guy comes to stay over the Summer from New York. Is it good change or bad? Faye finds that she even changes as she get to know who her real friends turn out to be and that change can be good for her after all... or can it?

Merrill Joan Gerber began writing stories and essays when she was seven years old, and her first published piece of work, a poem, appeared in The Writer when she was eighteen. She began selling stories to magazines such as the New Yorker and Redbook. Over the course of her career, Gerber published more short stories in Redbook than any other contributor to that magazine. However, her publication record has not always won her recognition.