Events in the Life of a Cactus series by Dusti Bowling

Book 1

Aven is adopted, red headed, 13 years old and armless.  She was born without arms, but loves to make up wild stories about how she lost her arms.  Her dad lost his job as a restaurant manager and decides to accept a job in Arizona managing an amusement park called Stagecoach Pass.  As the family moves to Arizona, Aven has to get adjusted to life where she has to "fit" in again.  She makes a friend, Connor, who has Tourette's and then another friend Zion.  Through it all she and Connor start trying to find out the mystery of Stagecoach Pass's owner and what happened to him.

Aven is back and she is heading into high school.  After moving to Arizona and finishing her 8th grade year, she if feeling pretty good about life getting back to normal.  High school is scary though.  Connor has moved and will be going to another high school, but Zion will be with her.  Connor meets another girl at his new school with Tourette's and Aven feels a little jealous.  A boy at HS seems to like Aven, and even though Zion warns her of how mean he was in middle school to him, she tells him people can change.  Then Aven is humiliated and withdraws into herself and loses her confidence, deals with the loss of people, and finding herself again.