Monday morning was an absolute whirlwind at the Blackburn house, as Ariel found out the moment she stepped from her room. She nearly collided with a half-asleep Rylee in the hallway, at which Rylee profusely apologized and then scurried off in the direction of the bathroom. Somewhere off down the hall, a hairdryer whirred, and the kitchen yielded the sounds of sizzling meat and the clatter of dishes.

“Tori, I can’t find my eyeliner!” Rylee called from the bathroom as Ariel stumbled toward the kitchen.

She heard the front door open, and that boy from the truck wandered into the living room as Ariel made her way toward the dining room table. He looked a lot better when he was awake, but his polo shirt and jeans looked absolutely lived in.

“Marcus, do your laundry!” Anette shouted from the kitchen. “Ariel, help me set the table!”

“So what’s going on today?” an unfamiliar voice asked. Ariel turned to see a shorter girl with black hair that hung just above her neck, styled and held in place with a pair of sparkly clips. She looked at Ariel and couldn’t manage to suppress a look of utter delight. “You must be Ariel! I’ve heard all about you!”

“I um…haven’t heard anything about you,” Ariel admitted. “I…don’t think I know…-”

“Addy.” The girl stuck out her hand for Ariel to shake. “My name’s Addy. You’re Rylee’s sister.”

“Um…yeah…” Ariel said, a bit apprehensively, but before she could inquire more, Addy stepped around her, walking toward the kitchen.

“Am I taking Rylee today?” Addy called out into the kitchen where Anette was dumping a pan of bacon onto a platter.

“Yes!” Anette called out over the sounds of the microwave, the sizzling pancakes, and the whirring of the stand mixer.

“Yes,” Tori echoed as she walked down the hall, fully dressed somehow. “You’ll take Rylee over to Kelly’s house. Ariel, you’re with me today.”

“Toriiiii!” Rylee called out as she emerged from the hallway, looking to Tori expectantly.

“Your eyeliner’s on the counter in there.” Tori flung her index finger in the direction of the bathroom. “If it were a snake it would have crawled up your ass and died; hurry up!”

“What’s uh…that’s going on?” Ariel asked groggily as she observed the commotion around her. As if that weren’t enough, the front door swung open again and Fiona strode in. She was dressed in a tight black t-shirt with a pair of blue scrub joggers, both of which conformed perfectly to her body. She made a beeline for the kitchen where Anette handed her a plate with eggs, bacon and toast.

“Gotta eat and run,” Fiona said apologetically. “I’m already running late.”

“Don’t forget to drink your juice,” Anette told her as she continued setting the table.

“Rylee! No!” Fiona snapped as Rylee re-entered the room, seemingly dressed. “Put a bra on, now!”

“But they hurt!” Rylee complained in a whiny tone. “I don’t have any boobs anyway!”

“You have more than you think.” Fiona dropped her plate on the counter and moved toward Rylee, practically dragging her back down the hall. “And you know what hurts more than the bra? Flopping titties!”

“Nooo!” Rylee squirmed and squealed as Fiona tugged on her arm and they both disappeared around the corner.

“Rylee’s got school,” Tori explained. “Mom and I have work, Marcus has work then truck stuff. Addy, what do you have?”

“Work,” Addy shrugged. “Only for a few hours, though. Do you need me to pick Rylee up after school?”

“She has a thing after school?” Tori shook her head.

“Is she ever alone?” Ariel asked, her eyes widening with concern. Tori shook her head.

“That’s a conversation for the car,” Tori remarked, turning away from Ariel and walking back toward the kitchen. She reached toward the platter at the center of the table and scooped up a few pieces of bacon and scrambled eggs. “Rylee! Hurry up!”

“I’m here! I’m here!” Rylee practically gasped; she emerged from the hallway in a light blue v-neck top and a black skirt that fell mid-calf on her. She was chased jokingly by Fiona who made exaggerated footfalls, each one pounding loudly as Rylee stumbled and eventually ran toward the kitchen. “I’m here!”

“Gotta go!” Fiona waved to Tori, Anette, and Ariel before bolting out the door, plate in hand.

“She took your plate,” Rylee pointed out. Anette rolled her eyes.

“Rylee, are you okay?” Ariel stepped over to her sister, looking into her eyes with concern. “Isn’t this a lot?”

“Uh…yeah,” Rylee laughed. “I’m okay!”

“We’ve been working on sensory stuff,” Tori explained as they all sat down for a quick breakfast, Addy and Marcus joining them. “Marcus, did you wash that damn shirt?”

“Yeah,” Marcus nodded.

“It looks like you just dried it,” Anette said accusingly. “Look, if you’re going to live in the back of the truck, at least bring some more clothes over!”

“I’m not living in the back of the truck!” Marcus protested.

“Okay, today!” Tori raised her voice, drawing the attention of everyone at the table. “Rylee’s got school, as always. Marcus, after work, come give the truck a once-over so I can take pictures for the bank. Ariel, you’re going to come to work with me.”

“Um…” The color drained from Ariel’s face. “Work? With you?”

“Yeah, you can prep or something,” Tori shrugged. “If you’re anything like Rylee, leaving you alone to think is a bad idea. Rylee! Okay, listen up, Kelly texted Mom and wants you to go to a scrimmage with her after school--”

“What’s a scrimmage?” Rylee frowned. “Do I have to do anything?’

“Uh…no,” Tori smirked. “I don’t think you’d be allowed, by me or the school.”

“It’s a football game,” Ariel explained. “But like, not a game game. It’s like…a practice. The team plays against itself.”

“You’re letting me go out?” Rylee asked Tori, eyes wide.

“Addy’s going to pick you up,” Tori explained, casting a glance to Addy, who nodded. “And your sister will chaperone.”

“Oh…I guess that works,” Ariel said, stunned.

“It’s okay, Ariel,” Anette said, giving her a soft smile. “You get used to the pace around here. It’s not always like this anyway, Tori’s just in a hurry.”

“Yeah I have a reason,” Tori said, very nearly glaring at Anette as she jabbed a forkful of eggs into her mouth. “We’re really short on time.”

“Ever been late once in your life?” Anette suggested with a small smirk. Tori’s ‘near glare’ quickly morphed into a look of utter disdain.

“You know you raised me, right?” Tori said accusingly before turning her attention to Ariel. “Someone’s going to drive you to the scrimmage, haven’t worked out who yet. You’ll meet Rylee there. Just…make sure she doesn’t get into trouble. She’s your sister, you know what I mean.”

“Do I?” Ariel said, quizzically tilting her head as a thousand and one flashbacks of Rylee’s misadventures poured into her head. “I do.”

“Am I really that bad?” Rylee asked with at least some concern as she scooped the last of the food into her mouth. Tori, finishing her plate as well, rose from her chair and stepped behind Rylee, bending over at the waist to give her a quick kiss on the top of the head.

“Terrible,” Tori said at a whisper, loud enough for the entire table to hear. Rylee giggled.

“Rylee, you got your stuff together?” Addy asked, standing up from the table and straightening out the wrinkles in her top. As Rylee nodded and began to stand, Addy pushed her chair in. “Okay, let’s get going.”

Ariel watched as Rylee stood from her chair and crossed the living room, shouldering her backpack and looking expectantly at Addy, who took her time heading over.

“Hey, wait.” Ariel stood and walked over to Rylee, giving her a quick smile and offering a hug, which Rylee hesitantly and stiffly accepted. “Have a good day today, okay?”

“Okay,” Rylee whispered, more than aware that all eyes were on them. “You’ll be at the sausage tonight?”

“Scrimmage,” Ariel smirked. “And yeah, wouldn’t miss it.”

She watched as Rylee, backpack over her shoulder, left the house with Addy, leaving just her, Marcus, Anette, and Tori. Tori watched them for a second and then turned her attention back to Marcus.

“Work today,” Tori said to Marcus. “Then, after work, make sure the truck is ready.”

“It’s as ready as it’s going to get,” Marcus said flatly, leaving very little room for argument. “I’m mostly worried about water. You know the FDA regulations and all…”

“On that note,” Tori said quickly, taking her plate to the sink. “FDA regulations state we need three gallons of heated water, five gallons for hand washing, and fifteen for dishes, but those are the minimum. I am going to take it a couple steps further; we’ll have an external water tank, probably use a gravity delivery system. Oh, and the water heater -- ugh…I’m getting ahead of myself. You get the picture.”

“Got everything planned out, yeah,” Marcus nodded. “I could go to the bank with you?”

“Stop by your house and get something nice, something clean,” Tori reiterated. “Ariel, are you ready?”

“Yeah I just need to grab my phone,” Ariel said with uncertainty. “Are you…sure I can go to work with you?”

“We could use the help, and I want to talk to you more anyway,” Tori shrugged. “We have a lot to talk about.”

“Understatement,” Anette agreed. “I need to talk to you too, but we’ll let Tori have her turn.”

“All day,” Tori grinned. “Get your phone.”

---

“Rylee was laughing,” Ariel said to the road as Tori took them toward Upper Valley Pike. It was a foggy morning; overcast skies and few hints of sunlight. She focused on the field to her left and right after they passed the Crown Mini Mart. The place kind of reminded her of home. Kind of. “And I don’t mean that fake laugh she does to fit in--”

“I’m familiar with it,” Tori smiled, thinking back. “Took her a long time to even fake a laugh, though.”

“What was she like?” Ariel turned her attention to Tori who only gave Ariel the occasional glance. “When she…I mean, when she came to live with you?”

“I probably remember a lot of things that she doesn’t,” Tori said thoughtfully. “She was terrified, at first, I mean. Half the time she was shaking when I talked to her, which…is kind of a reasonable reaction since I held her there against her will.”

“That’s something we should talk about,” Ariel pointed out. “Why didn’t you call the police?”

“Gut feeling, mostly,” Tori admitted. “But what would the police have done? Locked her up somewhere? Turn her out on the streets? Neither one of those are good options. I could tell she wasn’t a bad kid, just scared; there was no reason to put her through the bullshit of a police investigation.”

“I wish I could be mad at you,” Ariel sighed. “But how can I be? I was, at first, back at home. I tried to find…so many reasons to hate you for keeping her like that, but now that I’m here…and…I see everything you’ve done for her…I wish someone had done that for me.”

“Not too late, Ariel,” Tori reminded her. “I don’t want to talk about Rylee anyway, I want to talk about you.”

“Me? What about me?” Ariel looked to Tori, startled, as they took a right turn on Upper Valley Pike, passing a Taco Bell and turning into Speedway. Tori pulled up to a pump and put the car into ‘park’, turning to look at Ariel.

“Biggest difference between you and Rylee,” Tori said, “is you can work. You’ve had a job for a while and you don’t shit yourself when people talk to you. You have trauma, lots of it, and you need to work through it. Therapy, meds, whatever it takes. You’re Rylee’s sister, that makes you my sister. Got it?”

“Okay, but why?” Ariel shook her head incredulously; Tori unbuckled her seatbelt and did a half-turn in her seat, reaching for her purse in the back. She grabbed the straps and yanked it through the seats, sorting through it to find her wallet. As she did so, she looked to Ariel questioningly. “Why us? You know what I mean. You haven’t known her for that long. You haven’t known me for that long. People don’t…just do this.”

“Do what?”

“Be nice to each other, I guess,” Ariel shrugged. “They don’t go out of their way to help each other.”

“Rylee said that. Almost exactly that,” Tori said thoughtfully, reminiscing. “You guys are a lot alike; you’ll have to just…accept that we grew up differently and we’re from completely different worlds. The way your parents raised you was bullshit, the way my mom raised us…well, we care about other people. That’s all there is to it.”

“This morning was…weird,” Ariel admitted. “Not in a bad way, I promise. It was just…at the table, at breakfast, everyone was happy; I mean, no one was laughing or joking, but I could just…tell. There was love, I could feel it, and…breakfast at our house wasn’t like that. No time was like that at our house. I just…at our house things were so stiff. There were always expectations and…I…there weren’t any expectations here, at your house I mean. I don’t know how to explain it. I just don’t. Do I sound crazy? I think I sound crazy.”

“You don’t sound crazy,” Tori assured her. “Everything is going to be fine, I promise. We need to get through today; we’re going to head to work and do the prep for lunch service, then you’re going to head to the scrimmage while I go to the bank. Just…relax, enjoy it, things are normal now.”

With a quick smile, Tori tossed her purse onto the back seat and stepped out of the car, debit card in hand. Ariel opened her door and squeezed out between the car and the pump as Tori came around and swiped her card.

“I looked for her,” Ariel said, looking straight at Tori and then turning her gaze to the road. “I…I really did. I…”

“And what do you want to do now?” Tori asked a leading question as she put the nozzle into her gas tank and pulled the handle into place. She waited for the pump to make that familiar ‘hiss’ before releasing and straightening up, leveling her own gaze at Ariel.

“What do you mean?” Ariel turned away from the road, her eyes momentarily flicking back to the gas station, and then to Tori. “I…I don’t know what I want to do.”

“What did you want to do before?”

“Before?” Ariel raised an eyebrow. “Before what?”

Tori studied her for a moment; the handle on the pump clicked and released. Tori lifted it and screwed her gas cap back on before motioning for Ariel to follow her between the pumps, through the foggy morning air toward the gas station. They walked side by side past two other cars, toward the double doors of the Speedway store. Stopping just beside a trash can, Tori held Ariel’s gaze, her lips pressed together, eyes betraying her determination to press forward with the line of conversation.

“What did you give up, Ariel? Rylee told me a few stories about you. Her perspective is skewed, but I can infer a lot. You were so busy helping her, keeping her secret, and trying to bring her out of her shell that you probably pushed your own dreams to the side. Now you work at a non-profit helping people like Rylee because you felt guilty over not being able to save her. She’s saved, you’re here, so what do you want now?”

Ariel bit her lower lip and exhaled softly before making a slow half-turn and facing the road, peering past the rows of pumps. The brisk morning air brushed her skin, helping to cleanse her mood even as Tori’s question burned at her soul. She knew the answer, but it was one that she’d buried long ago. There had been a passion once, a dream, and at one time, when she thought about it, her feelings had been indescribable. Now she struggled to feel anything. Finally, she turned back to Tori and spoke softly.

“I wanted to be an artist,” she said slowly. “I had…a free ride to college, but…Rylee…”

“You couldn’t leave because of Rylee,” Tori said, finishing Ariel’s half-finished thought. She waited until Ariel nodded her confirmation. “No one would have blamed you if you’d left.”

“Couldn’t,” Ariel said quietly, shaking her head. “She…she couldn’t make it without me. She wouldn’t be Rylee.”

“She would have shoved that shit deep down, yeah. Maybe even lashed out at other people. Who knows, but still, no one would have blamed you, Ariel.”

“How can you say that?” Ariel demanded, feeling the anger beginning to rise. “She’s my sister!”

“Half-sister,” Tori corrected her for the second time. “And I’m saying this because you keep questioning my motives for helping her, for making her my family. For wanting to make you my family. Sometimes shit doesn’t make sense, Ariel. You’re looking for a motive that isn’t…really there. You know what’s fucked up, Ariel? Society tells us we don’t owe anyone shit, but we owe people. I told you that yesterday, and the moment you figure that out, that’s when you become a person, a human fucking being.”

“I…I’ve never met anyone like you,” Ariel admitted, uncertainty in her expression. “Or your mom or your nurse friend. I’m just…having trouble believing…”

“That’ll happen,” Tori shrugged. “Come on, let’s get coffee.”

The inside of the gas station was as filthy as predicted; the floor was covered in muddy footprints, and the ‘slushie’ station was covered in a thin, sticky layer of juice that had probably persisted since the previous night. Despite this and a number of other imperfections, the tiny store was filled with people; some at the coffee maker and others standing in line waiting to pay for their purchases. Tori opted for black coffee while Ariel added French Vanilla creamer and sugar to hers. They waited in line, eventually reaching the counter where Tori conversed with the cashier – a woman named Brandy, apparently.

Moments later they were on the road again, taking a right onto Troy Road and heading toward Bechtle Avenue.

“Mitchell’s is on Bechtle,” Tori explained. “Used to be everything was over on Upper Valley Pike, but when Kroger moved to Bechtle, a ton of businesses started popping up on the east end. Then the city built the St. Paris connector to connect Bechtle to St. Paris Road. Eventually the Upper Valley Mall is going to close and everything will move over to Bechtle.”

“This city is weird,” Ariel observed as Tori came to a brief stop at an intersection.

“Yeah well, it’s boring, and boring is good,” Tori said, Ariel nodded in reply.

“So what am I going to do at your work?”

“Help prep for lunch,” Tori explained. “It’s just something for you to do until the scrimmage tonight. Someone will pick you up after and take you home so you can get ready. Don’t know who, yet.”

“You don’t trust me in your house alone, do you?” Ariel asked with a smirk, though her expression was somewhat accusing. “And you get free labor.”

“I don’t trust you alone with yourself,” Tori reiterated. “Just like I don’t trust Rylee.”

“So I’ll be like her, then?” Ariel asked, her tone suddenly very serious. “You’re going to keep me locked away? Never let me have a moment alone?”

Tori gave Ariel a quick glance before finally turning right, into the Mitchell’s parking lot. She drove to the side of the building, pulling into an empty space next to a red sedan. When she switched off the ignition, they were left in silence, broken barely, occasionally, by the sound of passing cars on Bechtle.

“That’s not going to last with her,” Tori said, adamantly. “Relegating her to the role of a child was an extreme move, and it’s our job to make sure she grows. Yeah, she acts like she hates it half the time, but she’s comfortable.”

“How do you know she’s comfortable?” Ariel frowned.

“You should have seen her the day we laid down the rules for her,” Tori laughed. “She was giddy, giggling, bouncing around like a little girl. First time I saw her like that, really.”

“And she chose it?”

“She did, and I’m glad,” Tori smiled. “She’s fun to have around and…she kind of gives me a purpose. I can’t wait to see what she becomes.”

“And…me?” Ariel asked uncertainly. “You trust me to make my own decisions, right?”

“Ariel,” Tori said evenly, though clearly becoming exasperated. “You know Rylee better than I do--”

“Do I?”

“--so you tell me, should she be making her own decisions?”

“Tori…” Ariel took a long pause before speaking, considering her words carefully. In the end, bluntness was her only option. “Tori you’re great, I mean it. You’re great, your mom’s great, Fiona’s…Fiona. You did a lot for Rylee. You took care of her, you found me, and you…you let her be herself. That’s huge; I don’t even know how to begin thanking you for that.”

“But?”’

“But you…I don’t think you understand that…okay, I mean, Rylee was sheltered for her entire childhood. Mom and Dad didn’t want her to know things, they just…treated her like an invalid. Now you’re sheltering her in another way. You’re protecting her from the world and in my head I get it. My heart is telling me something else. Does that make sense?”

“It does, Ariel.” Tori opened her car door and stepped out; Ariel followed suit. “I don’t want to be like that. Not always. I don’t want Rylee to feel helpless forever, I want her to be happy, strong, independent, but you know damn well what it’s going to take.”

“She’s not normal,” Ariel said quietly; Tori sighed, probably glad she wasn’t the first one to say it.

“She’s not normal,” Tori agreed. “But, luckily, neither are we.”

---

The skies were overcast and gray, but Rylee had only felt a few sprinkles of rain as she’d crossed the parking lot next to Kelly, Carrie Ann, and Ron. She’d hoped that Beth would have come, but she apparently wasn’t into football. Okay, Rylee couldn’t really blame her for that one.

At the end of the parking lot they came to the field, encircled by a chain-link fence and flanked on either side by a set of bleachers. The ‘home’ bleachers were on the near side and had been well cared for; painted in alternating red and yellow, and at the very top, the announcer’s box loomed over the field. A quick glance, far across the field showed that the ‘away’ bleachers were not nearly as well built. They were devoid of any color other than the brown of the wood, and the orange rust forming on the railing. Today, those bleachers were empty though and there were barely any onlookers on the ‘home’ side.

“It’s just a scrimmage,” Kelly explained as she noticed Rylee craning her neck upward to survey the perhaps twenty people sparsely placed amongst the seats. “There are never many people at these, but the marching band usually comes out to practice.”

“They’re awful,” Carrie Ann commented. “They’re barely any better than the middle school band.”

“Harsh,” Kelly laughed. “Accurate, but harsh.”

“I’m the most honest person I know,” Carrie Ann smirked.

They moved forward, down the gravel track, past the chain link fence and toward the home bleachers. The ground crunched and shifted beneath their feet, and shouts floated over from the football field to their left. The football team had been split in half, each side wearing a different color of jersey. Their scrimmage uniforms consisted of red and yellow jerseys and pants along with simplistic helmets. Everything about the scrimmage uniforms was unremarkable, save for the fact that they were worn, faded, and scuffed.

As they walked they were quickly joined by a girl Rylee hadn’t seen before, as well as two girls that she recognized but couldn’t quite place. One girl, a bubbly one with black hair skipped up to the group, smiling widely at Rylee.

“Heyyy girl! Remember me?” The black-haired girl embraced Rylee in a partial hug; Rylee looked helplessly over to Kelly, who shrugged. “From the bathroom, remember?”

“Oh, yeah,” Rylee nodded as the girl fell in step beside them. “You’re um…”

“Alissa,” Alissa reminded her, finally tripping Rylee’s foggy memory of the events. “You passed clean out, did you turn out okay?”

“I…guess,” Rylee said sheepishly, shrugging and offering a small smile. “H-how are you?”

“She’s shy,” Alissa said, glancing over to Kelly, who smirked. “I’m doing fine, heh. You mind if I walk with you guys?”

“I think you already are,” Kelly pointed out. “Rylee’s sister should be here soon too.”

“So…what are we doing?” Rylee asked Kelly, unsure as they passed the bleachers and the sparse crowd in front of it, moving toward the far end of the track.

“We’re just walking,” Kelly explained with a shrug. “No one feels like sitting down.”

“Just…walking?” Rylee asked nervously. “…where?”

“Around a few times,” Alissa explained. “Until we run into someone we know.”

“Like your sister,” Kelly interjected.

They continued walking, passing a red and yellow painted concession stand, the windows shuttered and locked. Their walk took them past the far end of the chain-link fence, a cinderblock building with a tin roof just a few hundred feet beyond; Kelly explained it was a small gym, for weight-lifting apparently. They reached the ‘away’ bleachers, which were eerily empty and an almost skeletal structure when held in comparison to the ‘home’ bleachers which now sat on the side of the field opposite to them. On this side, a few other groups passed them, but they were mostly alone as a good portion of the scrimmage was taking place on the far side of the field.

“Should we be over here alone?” Rylee asked nervously, her eyes scanning the forest beyond the bleachers. Kelly gave her a sidelong glance.

“We’re fine, Rylee,” Alissa snorted. “Do you think the boogeyman’s going to come out of the woods?”

Kelly snickered, the other girl did the same, and Rylee, unfortunately, was forced to internally acknowledge the fact that there were far worse things in the world than the boogeyman, even though she didn’t voice it aloud. As they passed the bleachers and started walking back toward the main area, Rylee breathed an internal sigh of relief, listening to Kelly and Carrie Ann’s idle conversation. Alissa chimed in occasionally as they talked about homework, boys, homecoming, and a bunch of other topics that went right over Rylee’s head.

Passing the goalpost on their left, Rylee’s eyes wandered to the space of grass between the end zone and the chain-link fence to their right. A group of boys, maybe eight of them, were dressed in makeshift football uniforms and tossed a football around, doing their best to imitate the players on the field. One boy, a blonde, body checked another and they both tumbled to the ground, rolling across the grass while another boy ran toward a makeshift end zone, only to be blocked by another. Pure rough housing. They were several years younger than Rylee, maybe thirteen or fourteen, and she watched them in wonder, recalling her life at that age. By that time, Ariel had intervened, but the way these boys were acting…she could never have gotten away with it. They were just having fun, but it was a type of fun she’d been denied. She wondered, quietly, who she might have turned out to be if she’d been allowed to be a child. If she’d been happy enough that the truth of her gender hadn’t worked its way to the surface. Would she be happy? Would she feel like something was missing? Somehow, it irked her that she’d never had the chance to find out.

Another realization hit her like a ton of bricks, however. She was here, dressed in a midi skirt and a blue v-neck top that hugged her at the waist conformed easily to her body. She looked like a girl and she was with girls. Girls who saw her as one of them, girls who, for the most part, had no idea. How many times had she dreamed of something like this at her old school, back in Woodhaven? She’d been given a chance to live again, a chance she never thought she would have, and despite everything, she was happy.

“Rylee!” As Rylee looked up, she saw Ariel stepping through the gate near the ticket booth, waving at her.

“Oh!” Rylee somehow resisted the urge to break into a run as Ariel trotted towards her, across the grass, then the gravel, meeting her halfway and embracing her in a quick hug. Rylee smiled widely as Ariel took her into her arms and gave her a squeeze before releasing her. Kelly and others quickly introduced themselves and the group made small talk before Ariel abruptly announced that she needed to ‘borrow’ Rylee. A few moments later, they’d broken off from the group and headed toward the bleachers.

“First football game?” Ariel asked as she led Rylee to a vacant section of the bleachers and gestured for her to sit. Rylee nodded, watching her nervously while throwing occasional glances out toward the field. “You should see a real game sometime, it’s a lot bigger than this.”

“I guess I never went to football games,” Rylee admitted. “But…you know that.”

“Mm….yeah,” Ariel nodded. “It was never really your thing, was it? I went to a bunch; I was into that whole school spirit thing, up until senior year.”

“I…still don’t think it’s my thing,” Rylee admitted. “There’s a lot of people here and--”

“And it looks like a lot of people who care about you.” Ariel gave a sideways nod to Kelly’s group as they passed the bleachers. “You should let them.”

“Let them?”

“Let them care,” Ariel said. “You got a second chance at high school, as yourself. No one gets that, Rylee. No one. So do the whole school spirit thing, make friends, go to prom, get the most out of it.”

“Tori said that,” Rylee said, distantly as she looked away from Ariel, toward the field. “Actually she keeps saying it. I don’t…know if that’s me though. I’m a nerd, you know? I play video games and play chess. I don’t…really do outdoor things or people things.”

“Remember when you took Taekwondo?” Ariel said helpfully. “You did okay at that, and it involved people.”

“I didn’t do that for very long,” Rylee argued. “And I wasn’t very good at it.”

“Rylee, you have a brown belt.” Ariel raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean you weren’t good at it?”

“It…was just relaxing,” Rylee admitted, suddenly looking down. “I liked the exercise I guess, and the forms. I was good at memorizing the movements, so I just kind of sailed through the tests, you know? I can’t really fight.”

“I…saw you spar,” Ariel suddenly laughed, catching Rylee off guard. “Yes, you can, you just have no confidence.”

Rylee allowed silence to fill the air between them for the moment, turning her head to observe the game. On the field, a man in a red and yellow tracksuit blew a whistle, shouting at players from both sides and signaling widely with his hands. The players returned to their starting positions, and Rylee watched their coordination with wonder. Finally, she turned back to Ariel and smiled.

“I’m glad you’re here,” Rylee said finally. “I didn’t think I’d see you again.”

“How did you end up in Ohio of all places?” Ariel asked, her eyes traveling the field momentarily and then moving back to rest on Rylee. She brushed a long blonde lock out of her face and then folded her hands onto her lap, leaning forward as if to study her sister. “From North Carolina…I never expected you to get out of the state.”

“Well, how did you get to Michigan?” Rylee wondered aloud. “That’s pretty far from here, right?”

“It’s three hours north, Rylee,” Ariel laughed. “Geography much?”

“Just don’t tell Tori I messed that up, she’ll make me study or something,” Rylee warned. Ariel laughed again.

“Is she that hard on you?” Ariel smirked; Rylee giggled a bit.

“Sometimes,” Rylee said with another quiet giggle. Ariel laughed again.

“She doesn’t seem so bad. I wasn’t sure at first, but she really cares about you. Us, I mean. She cares about us.” Ariel smiled again, looking around the field, then toward the school several hundred meters away. “She has to care. She put your ass back in high school. That’s either someone who cares, or someone who’s trying to torture you. Could go either way I guess.”

“Torture, I think,” Rylee suggested. Ariel shook her head.

“You look really good; I think I’ve told you that before.” Ariel reached a hand up, brushing Rylee’s brunette hair aside and placing her palm against her cheek. Rylee tensed, but didn’t pull away; her breathing slowed at the contact, her limbs stiffening. Ariel watched her, eyes soft and warm. “It’s okay, Rylee, just breathe.”

“Sorry,” Rylee choked on a whisper. “I didn’t mean to--”

“No, I’m sorry.” Ariel pulled her hand away and gave Rylee a warm smile. “It’s always been hard for you. Mom and Dad didn’t really help with that, especially when it came to emotions.”

“That’s just my autism,” Rylee shrugged. “I can’t really feel things.”

“I think even without the autism, it would be hard for you to show what you’re feeling on your face, given that they punished you for ‘back talk’ whenever you made facial expressions.”

“I never thought of that,” Rylee said, considering.

“You know what else I’ve noticed? You’re a lot less jumpy. You don’t freak out when people talk to you or distract you. You are…definitely a new person, and I like this version of you.”

Rylee immediately averted her eyes, looking down and being forever grateful that her makeup was concealing the massive blush that had broken out across her face. Rylee started to speak, but the sound of raised voices drew her attention to the other end of the bleachers where Cathy, Sheila, and their gaggle of ‘popular’ girls were mostly cheering on the players on the field, but Izzy was there too. She watched the group closely; Ariel fell silent as Rylee observed Sheila shouting inaudibly at Izzy. Izzy responded immediately by handing Sheila a bottle of soda before moving back toward an isolated section of the bleachers and cowering.

Just as Rylee prepared to turn around, ignoring it as per usual, she saw Cathy rise from her seated position, storming over toward the section where Izzy had taken refuge. Cathy began to shout, barking orders, and Rylee could easily make out the words ‘hit yourself’. Izzy complied, striking herself across the face with an open palm, repeating as Cathy’s order was shouted again.

“What the hell is going on over there?” Ariel craned her neck to see. Rylee looked back at her, indecisiveness gripping her.

“I don’t believe this,” Rylee muttered as her eyes traveled from Izzy and the mean girls to the track where Kelly, Carrie Ann, and Alissa stood with a few other girls they’d picked up on their rounds around the track.

“Believe what?” Ariel asked, an edge of panic in her voice.

“That I’m about to do something.” Rylee stood up from the bleacher, maintaining eye contact with Kelly, who quickly ascended the ramp, walking past a group of seated students, and finally up the center stairs, where Rylee and Ariel met her.

“You finally grow a backbone?” Kelly asked, nearly smirking.

“Did you?” Rylee demanded; the smirk nearly faded from Kelly’s face. “Look, I have a lot going on, Kelly. My sister just found me, I have people at home watching my every move, it’s hard for me to think, okay? Let alone…”

“Yeah, yeah.” Kelly shook her head and looked over toward Izzy, who was now cowering near the edge of the bleachers while Sheila and the others ignored her. Rylee took a deep breath and looked to a confused Ariel.

“I’ll be right back,” Rylee tried to say with some measure of confidence. This was dumb, she thought to herself. Sheila, Cathy, and the stupid little gang were all high school girls. Why should she be afraid of them? It wasn’t like she hadn’t dealt with worse. Still.

Rylee moved forward, across the bleachers, stepping around a group of jocks, and a few other people before finally making it over to where Sheila and her cohort stood. Cathy took notice of them first, rising up from her position on the bleachers and giving Sheila a tap on the shoulder. Neither of them seemed surprised; they gave Rylee a sly smile as she approached; Rylee balked, her face flushing even as she stepped forward.

“You know, it’s too late to hang out with us,” Sheila smirked. “You picked your friends.”

Rylee paused for a moment to look back at Kelly and the others, all of whom looked at her, uncertain. Rather than giving an answer to the statement, she turned to Sheila, determined to speak, but unsure of what she should say. A million and one things happened at once while she stood there, primarily flashbacks to her old high school in Woodhaven where speaking to a girl like this would have sent her into an irrecoverable panic attack. It wasn’t that much different now; her tongue seemed to weigh a million pounds and her body felt tense as words jumbled up in her mind and refused to manifest into spoken ones. Finally, it was Kelly who spoke up.

Kelly took a step forward, standing beside Rylee and looking past Sheila toward Izzy, who was cowering by the railing, her eyes wide and body about as tense as Rlyee’s.

“Izzy, come over here,” Kelly snapped; it wasn’t a request. Izzy looked at her uncertainly and gave a silent, imperceptibly shake of her head as Kelly leaned forward, her expression of insistence intensifying. “Izzy.”

“Why don’t you get your own friends?” Sheila suggested. “Stop trying to poach ours.”

“Izzy,” Rylee said quietly, her voice nearly cracking. “Come over to Kelly.”

“Maybe she doesn’t want to,” Sheila said firmly.

“Yeah, fuck off,” Cathy said. “Go get your own friends.”

Rylee gave one last look to Kelly, who looked at her expectantly; she then looked past Kelly, toward the bottom of the bleachers where a teacher seemed to have taken interest. Mr. Jacobs, one of the science teachers. He was peering up, probably trying to decide if the confrontation was normal teenage shit or an actual problem. Taking a deep breath through her nose, Rylee stepped forward in an almost threatening manner, which caused Sheila to react; she stepped forward immediately, shoving Rylee and shouting at her to back off. Her eyes were wide with panic. Rylee stumbled backward, immediately regaining her footing on the bleachers and stepping forward again. This time, as Kelly shoved, she dodged in a highly practiced motion, side stepping her and causing her to stumble forward. Kelly righted herself, glared at Rylee, and then grabbed her arms. Rylee shrieked as Kelly’s fingernails dug into her arm, but she made no move to stop her, even as Kelly gave her one last shove, hurling her backward, causing her to sprawl out against bleachers and mercifully, not tumble all the way to the bottom.

A whirlwind of events transpired next; Mr. Jacobs blowing his whistle, Rylee being helped up by Kelly and Carrie Ann, Sheila and Cathy being told to move to the other side of the bleachers. Finally, Rylee was left sitting on the bleachers, nursing her arm, and her eyes met Izzy’s, who had been left standing alone. Rylee looked up, cradling her arm at Kelly, who nodded; she stood up on unsteady legs and was immediately joined by Ariel, who laid both hands on her shoulders, turning her to look into her eyes.

“You okay?” Ariel asked uncertainly. Rylee nodded. “Who was that?”

“Bullies,” Rylee said simply, offering no further explanation. Ariel nodded, wide-eyed.

“Some things never change,” Ariel said quietly, throwing a glance back toward Sheila, then back to Rylee, who shook free of Ariel’s light grip and took a step toward Izzy.

“You can have real friends,” Rylee said quietly. “If you want.”

“Okay, come here.” Kelly and Carrie Ann took a step forward, past Rylee, and huddled around Izzy, speaking softly and bringing her over toward Rylee, Ariel, and the others.

“What happened here?” Ariel whispered to Rylee.

“I’ll tell you later,” Rylee whispered back.

---

Addy’s hair had grown out a little, that was something Marcus noticed as they walked along the river in Snyder Park. Maybe an inch, maybe more. It touched her shoulders now, and hung loosely, save for the spot above her temple where it was secured with a sparkly butterfly barrette.

“You’re staring,” Addy said, giving Marcus a sidelong glance.

“Obvious?” Marcus asked.

“Mhmm.”

“Sorry,” Marcus blushed. Addy remained silent as they continued down the path. To their left, down the embankment, a mother duck and her ducklings sailed past, quacking as an onlooker tossed bread into the water.

“I hear that’s bad for the ducks,” Addy observed. “Their digestive system or something.”

“What is?”

“Bread,” Addy said. “I heard it somewhere.”

“Oh,” was Marcus’s only response. He’d taken a beak from the truck; there wasn’t much more to be done at this point, and Addy seemingly had the the day off of work. Or maybe she’d called off, who knew. It was a a pretty nice day for a walk, Marcus had to admit. The sky was a bit overcast, and the air was holding moisture, but the temperature was tolerable, unlike the last few months which had been unbearably hot. It was a weekday, so where weren’t a ton of people there, just a few scattered couples, and a greasy old man with a shopping cart camped out on one of the benches. They walked down the winding path, past another family of ducks, and took a stop at a nearby marker, reading some interesting fact about a species of squirrel that apparently lived in the area. Wordlessly, they moved on.

“How’s the truck coming?” Addy asked, making idle conversation.

“It’s cleaned up,” Marcus said quickly, happy that the conversation had moved to something he was more comfortable with. “I replaced the floorboards. Tori paid for it, but doesn’t know that’s what she was paying for. She doesn’t know a whole bunch about how the truck works, you know? She’s distracted anyway.”

“Yeah, the whole Rylee thing,” Addy nodded. “Takes up a lot of her time.”

“Lucky for me,” Marcus chuckled. “She would have gotten in the way.”

“Yeah,” Addy agreed. “She knows about the things she knows, but the things she doesn’t know… Marcus, you’re staring again.”

“Sorry,” Marcus looked away, embarrassed. “I didn’t mean to. I thought I was looking over at that um…playground thing.”

Addy followed his gaze over toward a play area, cordoned off into a square space by old brown 2x6 boards and filled in with pea gravel. The abandoned playground equipment was comprised of a platform with a slide and various obstacle courses branching off and ultimately leading back to the main deck.

“Come on,” Addy wrapped a slender hand around Marcus’s arm and gestured toward the playground. Marcus looked at her uncertainly but it was too late; she was moving quickly, keeping him in tow until they reached the platform. Addy quickly scrambled up the ladder and gestured for Marcus to join her.

“You sure we should be up here?” Marcus looked around the octagonal platform uncertainly, then back to Addy who chuckled and shook her head. “It’s just for kids, right?”

“I don’t see any kids around,” Addy stuck her tongue out. “Come on, let’s go down the slide.”

Marcus watched her as she climbed a narrow set of metal stairs, keeping a tight grip on the faded yellow railing, laughing lightly as she mounted the platform at the top and threw a look back toward him.

“You coming?” She asked, almost playfully.

“This is dumb,” Marcus said apprehensively.

“Then come be dumb with me,” Addy suggested. Marcus relented and joined her, climbing up the narrow stairs, and then took the brief ride down the slide until they both lay laughing in the pea gravel at the bottom.

“Okay, that was kind of fun,” Marcus admitted, rising into a sitting position and looking over at Addy whose hair was askew and shirt wrinkled. “We should do that again.”
“You don’t have to humor me all the time,” Addy snorted. “Besides, you’re always at work, or in the truck.”

“Just the truck soon,” Marcus said. “I get to quit my job as soon as Tori gets that thing rolling.”

“That’s gotta be exciting,” Addy nodded, rising to her feet and dusting off her black jeans. “Getting out of your dad’s place and just…doing your own thing.”

“Yeah, well,” Marcus said distantly, standing and doing the same. “It’s just another kitchen. I’m going to be doing the same ting for the rest of my life. My dad wanted me to go to culinary school, but I don’t want to work in kitchens forever.”

“So don’t,” Addy said. “Do something else.”

“Kinda looks like destiny though, doesn’t it?” Marcus leaned against the ladder, looping his arm around the rung and staring at Addy, who, this time, stared back. There was something about her that had become extremely attractive over the last few weeks. Maybe he just hadn’t noticed, or maybe something had changed. Either way, he couldn’t take his eyes off of hers. The black, wavy hair that swooped down across her cheeks, her rounded eyes, the pump, pink lips that accented her dark freckles, all of it creating a picture that was quickly becoming irresistible to him. Still, she couldn’t possibly be interested.

“You can be anything you want,” Addy reassured him. “I mean, Rylee just decided to be a girl one day and it worked out for her.”

“Don’t let Tori hear you say that,” Marcus warned. “She’ll flip your fucking pancake.”

“Oh my god,” Addy rolled her eyes. “I support her, one hundred percent, but let’s just call it what it is. She made a decision, it worked out for her. If she can do that, you can switch jobs. What do you want to do?”

“I…I don’t really know,” Marcus admitted. “I like construction but I don’t want to be a construction worker, does that make sense?”

“Not a whole lot,” Addy admitted.

“I like to draw, and plan stuff,” Marcus said thoughtfully, scratching his chin as they resumed their walk. “But I don’t like the actual building, you know?”

“I think you’re saying you want to be an architect,” Addy offered helpfully. “Like, a person who does blueprints, or whatever.”

“Yeah, an architect!” Marcus said, suddenly excited. “That’s what they do!”

“Yeah, you could even design restaurants,” Addy teased.

“Okay, back the hell off,” Marcus snorted. Addy laughed.

They continued their walk, down the winding blacktop path, veering away from the lake and past a nearly abandoned picnic area. A gust of wind cut through the trees and for a moment, the air chilled as a poignant reminder of the cold season that was ahead of them.

“I’m going to have to break out the winter coat soon,” Addy remarked. “Or maybe get a new one.”

“I’m not ready for summer to be over,” Marcus admitted. “It’s gotta be my favorite time of year.”

“Spring,” Addy corrected. Marcus looked at her, confused. “You like Spring, not Summer. Spring and Fall are the best months, really. Everyone likes Summer because we had it off when we were in school, three month vacation. Now that we’re out of school it’s just a bunch of hot, muggy bullshit that gives you under boob sweat.”

“Actually it just makes my balls sweat,” Marcus corrected her.

“Just glad it’s one or the other,” Addy said, smirking. “What would it be like to deal with both at once?”

“Ask Rylee.”

Addy burst out laughing, stopping for a moment to place her hands against her knees, catching her breath between bursts of laughter. She shook her head and stood upright, looking at Marcus with a lopsided grin.

“That was awful, Marcus,” She snickered. “you can’t just say stuff like that.”

“Please, she’d probably laugh.”

“Yeah, but Tori wouldn’t,” Addy pointed out. “Who are you more afraid of?”

Marcus acknowledged her point and they continued down the path until finally coming to the parking lot.

“So,” Addy said, turning toward him. “You going to ask me out, or what?”

“Sorry, what?” Marcus stumbled, literally and metaphorically as Addy posed the question that he’d wanted to ask, but couldn’t work up the nerve for. He became even more disarmed as she grinned and cocked her head.

“You’ve been ogling me for weeks,” Addy said. “you going to do something about it, or do I have to?”

Marcus froze, his body suddenly tense, cheeks flushed as he searched for something, anything to say. Addy raised an eyebrow as she observed his nervousness.

“You were okay with approaching Rylee but not me?” She pursed her lips and shook her head. “She was easier, huh? That’s not a good look, Marcus.”

“That’s not it!” Marcus stammered. “I just…I don’t know, okay!”

“So ask me.”

“D…do you…want to go out sometime?” Marcus managed to get out.

“Where?” Addy asked, coyly.

“Um…maybe the Starbucks on Bechtle?”

“That’s the most unoriginal thing I’ve ever heard,” Addy said. “But yes.”

---

“Max, how does this happen?” Fiona’s voice drifted down the hall; her question was accompanied by a few dozen other complaints, curses, and crashes as she worked in the living room. Max didn’t bother to respond; instead he focused on an old green photo album, vinyl covered and spotted with various multicolored stains. His feet crunched against a pile of old papers and wrappers as he moved across the floor and dropped the album onto the bed. For the sake of nostalgia, he once again pressed his hand to the sheets on Her side and closed his eyes. Fiona’s voice came again, louder this time. “Max, how does this happen?”

He turned from the bed, wringing his hands as he looked at her leaning in the bedroom doorway. Her blonde hair was hanging loose, but she’d tied a black elastic headband just above her forehead and her face was red with sweat and exertion. He looked around at the room, numb now. There was a time when he would have felt shame at the trash-littered floor, the stained walls, and unknown moistures soaked into the carpet. If he was going to be honest, this house had ceased to be a home shortly after Tori had left. Now it was barely even liveable; he hadn’t had a visitor in years, and now this beautiful woman was standing here in his doorway, blue latex gloves up to her elbows, clothes drenched in dirt and sweat. He should have been ashamed.

“I just…stopped caring, I guess,” Max struggled with the explanation. “You know, when she lived here, we kept it clean. I took care of the kitchen and living room, she did the bedrooms. We both…worked to keep it clean. After she was gone, there just…wasn’t anything or anyone to keep it clean for.”

“You keep it clean for yourself,” Fiona lectured. “Max, your house is a trash pit, it should have been condemned. Jesus fucking Christ, it’s like those soil dating periods. I can dig through layers of trash all the way to your breakup. I bet there’s a pizza box from the 90’s down there, and what’s up with all the liquor bottles?”

“Do you really need to ask?” Max’s numbness was beginning to fade and the shame was taking over. It started as a burning in his chest, and then a mixture of anger and despair as Fiona’s judgemental gaze swept over him. “Dammit Fiona, no one ever asked about me. Rylie was my daughter too. My daughter died, and then I watched my wife wither away into nothing. I had to watch the life leave her eyes, and then I had to visit her in that fucking mental hospital. Do you remember what she was like before? She was happy, bubbly, full of fucking life, Fiona! She was…a completely different person, and nothing in the world could change her.”
“She was different,” Fiona agreed. “I think in a way, the Tori we knew…sorry, the Vicky we knew died with Rylie. Maybe you did too. Maybe that’s why you grew apart. I miss her too, Max, but I pushed forward and you have to too.”

“I’m not like her. I didn’t have friends before her, I didn’t have friends after her. She…had things to live for. I didn’t. She just left me, everyone fucking left me, and now I have this fucking mess.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you were this bad off?” Fiona demanded. “Why didn’t you tell anyone you were this bad off?”

“Would you have done anything?”

“No,” Fiona admitted.”Not back then. Girl code and all. But you and Tori are both pretty broken and believe it or not, I’ve learned a bit about helping others in the last few months. So, I’m here now, and we’re going to do something about this.”

Fiona turned, walking down the hall and Max followed after throwing one last glance at the photo album. The living room curtains were wide open for the first time in forever and natural light covered the trash pile that coated the entirety of the space. Food wrappers, food, piss bottles, liquor bottles, and probably literal shit formed an ocean of trash that swallowed every livable space in the house. He dreaded the day they had to start working on the bathrooms.

There were some useful items amongst the debris; he could spot an old laptop and a zip drive along with a salad shooter, TV remote, and a silver thermos that he used to carry with him to work. He had little doubt that if they were to dig a little deeper, they’d find plenty of long lost items that had once been important to him. He dreaded finding the things that reminded him of her. A thousand and one unwelcome memories ready to come flooding back.’

“What’s this?” Fiona was holding the zip drive in her hands; it was about as wide as two credit cards and probably half an inch thick.

“It’s a zip drive,” Max explained. “It’s um…like a floppy disk drive, but bigger.”

“Bigger?”

“Well yeah,” Max nodded, distracted somehow. “It’s like a hundred megabytes; a regular floppy is 1.44. I…used it for storing pictures; there should be a box of zip disks around here somewhere.”

“Under all the crap,” Fiona nodded. “What kind of pictures did you store?”

“Um…the good times, I guess,” Max shrugged. “Me, and Tori and…her…”

“Max, look,” Fiona said. “You…need to get it together. There’s just no way around it. Here’s what we’re going to do, you ready?”

“Yeah,” Max nodded. Fiona cleared her throat and dropped the zip drive back onto the floor, wringing her hands and looking Max in the eye.

“You’re going to rent a dumpster, we’re going to have it dropped out front. Then we’re going to go down to Lowes, grab a few boxes of contractor bags and that’s going to be the start of all this. You got that?”

“Start of…what?”

Getting your life together,” Fiona said. “We’re going to get rid of everything. All of it.”

“Um, I need some of this stuff,” Max waved his hand around the room. “We can’t just-”

“Pick ten things,” Fiona told him. Max raised an eyebrow. “You can pick ten things, put them aside, and the rest go into the dumpster.”

“Fiona-”

“You use any of this shit?” Fiona demanded, picking up an old t-shirt and holding it between two fingers. “Ten things, Max. Ten.”

“Fine…” Max relented. “I guess it’s better than what I’ve been doing.”

“You mean nothing?”

“You don’t have to rub it in,” Max glared at her. “I know, I’m a fuckup.”

“No,” Fiona sighed. “Not a fuckup. Not really. I’ve learned, over the last few months, that sometimes you just need other people, and you know what? You’re right, you were abandoned, and maybe that’s not fair. Tori had to live her life, but Riley was your daughter too. Maybe we could have checked in on you, or maybe…I don’t know. Maybe we could have done more than we did. But, no more Max. From here on out I’m going to help you, and hell, maybe I can get Rylee or Marcus over here to help.”

“I’d…rather not have people see this mess,” Max admitted. “It’s just…”

“We are well that point,” Fiona scolded. “Do you want your shit cleaned up, or not?”

“I…I do…”

“Then rent the dumpster,” Fiona snapped. “And get ready to work. From now on, no one’s abandoning you.”

---

“This is going to bruise,” Ariel ran her hand over Rylee’s arm, meeting her eyes and acknowledging a slight wince as she touched the affected area. “You slammed it pretty hard on that bleacher.”

“I was there,” Rylee smirked.

“So just bullies?’ Ariel craned her neck, looking over Rylee’s shoulder toward the far side of the bleachers where Sheila, Cathy, and her friends had been exiled.

“Yeah,” Rylee nodded, pulling her arm away and scooting back a few inches from Ariel on the bleacher. “Doesn’t matter.”

“Mattered to her,” Ariel nodded to Izzy who was now a few seats down and being fawned over by Kelly and Carrie Ann. “You did a good thing.”

“She should have been able to get herself out of that,” Rylee grumbled. “She showed up at school trying to transition, didn’t have any friends…or maybe she did before…you know. But she came here like that and those girls just…scooped her up I guess.”

“People suck,” Ariel wrapped her arm around Rylee, giving her a partial hug. “So what if you think she’s dumb? Stepping up for her says more about you than about her. I’m proud of you, little sis.”

“Yeah, thanks,” Rylee said, looking first to Izzy then out to the field where the scrimmage was still on. “How long do these things last anyway?”

“Not as long as a real game,” Ariel assured her. “They had these all the time at our old school.”

“They did?” Rylee frowned. “I never-”

“Rylee,” Ariel interrupted. “You missed out on a lot of things.”

“Yeah,” Rylee hung her head, deep in thought. She had missed a lot of things, in fact, it was another, invisible world that co-existed alongside her own back in Woodhaven, and she was just now hearing about it. Football games, fundraisers, bake sales, pep rallies, field day. All things that had been in plain sight and yet she’d failed to notice. Now, here in Ohio, she’d not only discovered this whole different world, but had been thrust into it. High school was nothing like she remembered, save for the bullies. “So…what happens now?”

“With the game?” Ariel frowned, looking out toward the field. “Well it’s a scrimmage so Kenton Ridge will probably win…”

“I mean with us,” Rylee said apprehensively, looking away from Ariel as she spoke. “I mean…you…live in MIchigan and everything and you have a job. Are you going to go back? Are you going to stay here? I…I just…”

“I don’t know, Rylee,” Ariel said quickly. “There are…a few things I do know, and the biggest one is that you have to stay here. If I wasn’t convinced yesterday then I was this morning. What you have going on at Tori’s house is the way your life should have been. I don’t know how you stumbled face first into it, but this is your home now.”

“You changed your mind on that awful fast,” Rylee pointed out. “You said you wanted to take me back to Michigan with you.”

“I’m just getting good at recognizing good things when I see them,” Ariel smiled halfheartedly and looked away, toward Kelly and Carrie Ann for a moment, watching them comfort a shellshocked Izzy. “Tori’s as good as it’s gonna get. That nurse lady is a little scary, though.”

“Fiona.”

“Fiona,” Ariel echoed. She looked back over to Izzy and nodded her head in that direction. “That situation is seriously weird. Who just…comes to school like that?”

“I did,” Rylee reminded her. “It wasn’t exactly my choice but…”

“It’s different with you,” Ariel explained. “You just…I don’t know…I can’t tell with you. But like, imagine if you’d shown up at school, as Rylee back then?”

“I think Dad would have killed me before the other kids did,” Rylee met her eyes briefly and then looked away, wringing her hands.

“Someone’s going to kill her if she’s not careful.”

“Yeah,” Rylee said flatly, following a long pause. She’d wanted to say something more, offer some kind of argument to Ariel’s brash statement, but her sister was right. Izzy had stepped into a world she knew nothing about, and not just the world of being a woman. Being transgender, in the world, had so many implications that she hadn’t been ready for. “I can’t judge her though.”

“No?”

“Bad things happened to me too,” Rylee shrugged, her eyes becoming distant as she recalled what seemed like a distant memory but was, in all honesty, far too recent. “It’s hard to live like this. Maybe it’s good that she’s trying.”

“But you’re worried?”

“About everything,” Rylee let out a long breath and then nodded to Ariel as she stood and headed over to the others. Off in the distance she could hear the marching band beginning to play the school’s fight song, and the coach shouting at players on the field. People had started to trickle out of the field, the bleachers emptying as the gray evening sky transitioned to darkness.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Kelly said as Rylee approached. Rylee glared.

“According to you, I did. You kept pushing me to do something.”

“Yeah, well, you didn’t have to,” Kelly reiterated.

“She okay?” Rylee peered over Kelly’s shoulder to see Izzy sitting between Carrie Ann and Alissa; a number of other girls had taken up a position behind her, talking excitedly while others consoled her.

“Yeah,” Kelly nodded. “She’ll be fine.”

“Cool,” Rylee turned, stepping away from Kelly and fishing into her purse. She wrapped her fingers around her cellphone, pulling it from her purse. Ariel quickly stepped over and took her hand.

“What are you doing?” Ariel demanded, looking from Rylee’s eyes, down to the phone in her hand, and then back.

“Calling Tori to pick us up,” Rylee said defensively. “I don’t want to be here for this.”

Rylee nearly jerked backward as Ariel snatched the phone from her hand and dropped it into her own purse.

“No lifeline for this one,” Ariel told her sternly. “Do you know why Tori sent you out here? So you could socialize, and learn to do things on your own. Go talk to your friends.”

Rylee stared at her sister in disbelief as she tried to come to terms with the idea of actually dealing with this situation rather than running; Ariel understood that it was in stark contrast to how their relationship had worked in the past, but things were different now. She watched, almost in amusement as Rylee turned and walked toward her friends.

---

Addy switched off the ignition and stepped out of her car, the engine still beating beneath the hood even as she stepped away. Cool night air hugged her all the way up the front walk, until she used her key to open the front door and stepped into her mother’s house.

Muggy darkness greeted her at first, until she switched on the foyer light and the room was bathed in a dim luminescence that was easy on the eyes but bad for the mood. The entire house was a bit outdated; wood paneling stretched from the foyer, to the kitchen, and the living room beyond but it was the mess that really got to her.

After spending so much time at Anette’s house, she was starting to get an idea of just what kind of squalor she lived in. No, not squalor per say, but as her eyes traveled from the threadbare couch, to the piles of papers, mail, and other odds and ends across the home’s various surfaces, she couldn’t help but feel as if something was amiss.

She walked past the stacks of mail, the random displaced items, stepped around a discarded green dumbbell near the back of the couch, and made her way to the refrigerator. Inside, a drumstick in a small tupperware container stared back at her; she pulled it out and immediately headed over to the microwave. The whirring of the motor, the dull light from behind the plastic window, and the spinning tupperware within, all of it contributed to her immediate disassociation as she contemplated what this house had once been, and what it had become.

If she cared to turn away from the microwave, she would once again lay her eyes on the dining room table and if she stared long enough, she could recreate a scene from times long past. Ten year old her, sitting at the table with her older brother across from her. Mom and Dad, sitting at the ends. It could have been lunch, or dinner, depending on the day; they would be talking and laughing, or sharing details of their week. She could hear her older brother laughing, and she could see her father listening in contemplative silence. Mom was a different person back then, too. She was quiet, like Dad, but she had a sense of humor, and she loved to sing.

If she looked to the living room, she could see them gathered around the television, watching TGIF, or the movie of the week. A thousand phantom scenes could unfold around the house, depending on where she stopped to look. Some of those memories were crystal clear, others were muddled, but the one thing she knew, was that there had been happiness here at one point.

Father was gone; he’d left as soon as mother had gotten sick. Her brother, Rick, had gone too, off to California to live his life. She hadn’t heard from him in years.

The microwave dinged.

Her mind returned to the present and the ghosts of the past faded as her fingertips graced the sides of the tupperware container; a wince crossed her face as the heat burned her skin, and the vessel slipped from her hand, clattering against the microwave platter.

“Just where the hell have you been?” Her mother’s voice demanded. Addy spun around, less than surprised, but still upset that she’d somehow made enough noise to attract her. “Young lady, do you know what time it is?”

“Don’t you know I’m nineteen years old?” Addy demanded back. “I have work. You know I have work.”

“When I tell you to be back before a certain time-” Her mother’s voice was raised now, and her glare came from hateful, sullen eyes accented with dark circles.

“Have you been drinking again?” Addy accused, looking to her mother for any sign of intoxication.

“Why don’t you mind your own business?” Mother demanded, still glaring. She was thin, almost absurdly so, and almost a caricature dragging her oxygen tank along behind her. “When you live in my house-”

“Yeah, I get it,” Addy snapped. “Your house, your rules. Do your rules involve letting me eat my chicken?”

“Your chicken? I cooked that,” Mother growled, taking a step closer. Her eye twitched and her expression grew accusatory. Addy turned slightly to look at the chicken leg sitting pathetically in its melting, plastic container within the grease-spotted microwave. “I do everything around here, and what do you do to replay me, exactly? Nothing! Nothing at all! You stay out till all hours with your little friends, then you come back here, eat all my food, dirty all my plates, run my electric bill up! Ungrateful fucking child!”

“Mom you didn’t cook that chicken,” Addy said firmly, her voice projecting an upward inflection. “That’s a fucking rotisserie from Wal Mart. You know that, you were with me when we bought it.”

“When did you turn into such a liar?” Her mother spat, shaking her head and rubbing the side of her face; the nasal canula shifted, and she squinted. “This isn’t how I raised you.”

“Jesus fucking Christ, Mom,” Addy shrieked. She snatched the chicken from the microwave; the container cool enough to touch now, and slammed it against the floor. “You want the fucking chicken? Eat the fucking chicken. God, I’m so sick of this! Don’t you ever have anything positive to say?!”

Addy’s last words came out as a scream; the rage inside her had reached a boiling point as she glared at her mother, the anger nearly incomprehensible. Here was the woman who had raised her, the woman who had laughed with her, cried with her, taught her everything, and now she was just reduced to this…hollow shell of a person. Wasted away by alcohol meant to dull the pain.

I don’t recognize you anymore.

“So you’re going to just break my rules, stay out with your stupid friends, come home and make a mess of my clean kitchen?” Her mother shouted, pointing accusingly at the chicken leg now lying on the stained and filthy kitchen floor. “How dare you? How dare you?!”

Addy refused to move as her mother stepped forward and swung her open palm, landing a blow against her cheek. Addy cried out, stumbling backward as she took another blow, then another, then again. Tears flowed from her eyes as her cheeks turned red and she threw her hands in front of her face to ward off the onslaught.

“Mom! Stop!” Addy screamed, stumbling into the kitchen counter and sobbing. “Mom!”

“Ungrateful little bitch! Get out of my house!” Mother slapped her again, her eyes filled with rage and the nasal canula ripped out long ago. Her lips were curled in anger, and she showed no signs of stopping. Addy stepped away from her, moving away from the kitchen counter and toward the door.

“Mom stop it!” Addy cried, but her Mother came at her, full speed, landing another blow across her face.

“Get out! Get out! Get out!”

Without another word, Addy bolted toward the door, pushing through the screen and heading out toward her car. It took a moment of fumbling, but she managed to get her key into the ignition and backed out of the driveway; she was rewarded with the sound of breaking glass and a horrific crunching sound as she slammed into the mailbox at the end of the driveway. Cursing, she threw the car into Drive, moved forward a few feet, and then backed out, missing the broken mailbox and nearly spinning out on the main road. The engine roared as she sped down the road, taking the twists and turns through the looming dark and the thick forests flanking the road on either side.

The tears flowed freely as she drove; sob after sob erupted from her lips and her vision blurred. At some point, visibility of the road disappeared and she took the twists and turns, allowing muscle memory to guide her. Finally, she emerged onto Upper Valley Pike, sailing through the intersection and pulling into a gas station. She threw the car into park and continued to sob, now slamming her fists against the steering wheel.

“God dammit!” She shrieked, hitting the wheel again and again. “Dammit, dammit, dammit! Fuck! Fuck!”

It had been downhill since the diagnosis, ever since the pain started. “We’ll get through this together, as a family,” Father had said. And for a while, he stuck it out. God he’d been there through everything else, why the fuck had he left now?

“You fucking weak motherfucker!” Addy cursed the father that could no longer hear her as she slammed her fists against the wheel again. It was hurting now; pain gripped the edge of her hands and radiated outward. Her screams continued until they changed into sobs, then weaker sobs, and finally, she sat there in the driver’s seat, her vision blurred, her eyes stinging as her hand throbbed.

Breathing heavily, she managed to regain control of herself and threw the car into drive. Taking a left onto Upper Valley Pike, she came again to the intersection and then turned right onto Troy Road. She passed Bechtle and drove into one of the many residential areas of Springfield, passing Ferncliff Cemetery and ‘Video Outlet’ until she turned into an all too familiar driveway.

The lights were still on in the brick house; she could see movement behind the curtains, and she swore she could see someone peeking out just as she switched her lights off. It didn’t matter. She killed the engine and stood up, making a bee line for the box truck still parked in the driveway.

Quietly, she gripped the bottom of the door, held open a crack by a block of wood, and lifted it just enough to slide inside. With her phone’s flashlight, she found Marcus in a sleeping bag near the front of the truck.

“Addy?” Marcus said sleepily as she unzipped the bag and climbed in.

“Hush,” She told him. “Just scoot over.”

---

“Who’s in the driveway?” Anette called out from the couch. She looked over to Ariel who sat in the recliner, legs pulled up beneath her in a ‘criss cross’ position, dressed in a pair of pink pajama pants with a white t-shirt.

“Addy,” Tori called back, closing the curtain. “She went into the truck with Marcus.”

“That’s not obvious at all,” Anette remarked. She watched Tori turn from the window and walk over to the couch, sitting down heavily and looking over to Ariel.

“How was the scrimmage?” Tori asked her.

“Um well…some shit went down?” Ariel gritted her teeth as Anette looked up from her book and Tori raised an eyebrow. “Look, I feel kind of bad about it, okay? I know the whole reason you sent her out there was to let her socialize or whatever and-”

“Ariel? Breathe,” Tori said firmly. “She was your sister long before she was mine. Look, she’s adorable, I love having her around, but she does dumb shit from time to time. It’s no one’s fault.”

“What kind of dumb shit, exactly?” Ariel inquired. Anette snorted and Tori shook her head.

“We could start with the crime spree she went on that landed her here,” Anette suggested. “I’m not sure how many places she robbed.”

“She didn’t tell me she was trans for three months,” Tori said with a sigh, shrugging her shoulders. “It doesn’t change my feelings about her but god damn, that was a nasty surprise.”

“Jumped off a Ferris wheel,” Anette added.

“Dived into a flood zone and broke her arm.”

“You’re really painting a picture here,” Ariel allowed the tiniest smirk to tug at the edge of her lips as she considered the havoc Rylee must have wreaked in her absence. “I’m starting to see why you don’t let her make her own decisions.”

“Temporarily,” Tori reminded her, raising a finger. “It’s only temporary.”

“Anyway, at the scrimmage-” Ariel started, but then stopped as Anette raised her hand and shook her head.

“Don’t care,” Anette said. “Ariel, we love Rylee, but not every conversation has to center around her.”

“Yeah but-” Ariel started again and was quickly cut off by Anette.

“Did she kill anyone?” Anette asked. “Did anyone kill her? Is it something that’s going to get her kicked out of school or arrested? No? Then let’s talk about something else.”

“I can hear you,” Rylee said as she entered the kitchen from the back hallway and went to the refrigerator. Opening the door, she immediately reached for a can of coke, only to halt when Anette cleared her throat.

“There’s coffee made for you, Rylee,” Tori told her. “Just pour some out, no sugar.”

“Coffee, this late at night?” Ariel raised an eyebrow, turning toward the kitchen and peering at Rylee, who had already begun to pour a cup. “She has school tomorrow, doesn’t she?”

“She has ADHD,” Tori explained. “Caffeine has the opposite effect; puts her to sleep.”

Ariel eyed Rylee as she sipped the coffee and moved around the counter, heading over toward the couch and gripped the mug with both hands. She slowly, took a seat on the couch next to Tori, who instinctively wrapped her arm around her. Rylee leaned into Tori, laying her head on her shoulder while pulling her legs up beneath her. Ariel couldn’t help but grin as Rylee naturally snuggled up to Tori, eyes closed and body relaxed in a way that she’d never seen. Tori took notice of Ariel’s grin and nodded to her, mouthing ‘I know’ and returning the smile.

“So, Ariel,” Anette said, breaking the onset silence. “I printed you off an application to Clark State today, it’s the college downtown. If you’re interested in staying, I could grab you one from Wittenberg too.”

“I…I don’t know,” Ariel said. “I mean, I like it here, with Rylee, you guys are great, but I have my best friend in Michigan, and you know, we’re roommates so I don’t know what she’d do…”

“She’d figure it out,” Anette shrugged. “You guys are young, just give her thirty days notice and be done with it.”

“Why do you want me so bad?” Ariel asked, suddenly. “Like…what is it I can actually do for you?”

“Why do mothers want daughters, Ariel?” Anette met her eyes, her expression stern, but somehow soft as she gave Ariel a moment to think. “The real question is why you don’t feel worthy.”

“I…I don’t know what you mean,” Ariel admitted, her eyes moving to Rylee who had fallen asleep on Tori’s shoulder, the coffee cup still clenched in her hands as it rested on her lap. There was another brief pause with Anette quietly crossing the room and gently peeling Rylee’s fingers back so that she could move the cup to the coffee table.

“You’re a lot like Rylee,” Tori said to her; she chuckled a little before leaning over and giving Rylee a quick kiss on the top of her head. Rylee stirred a little before shifting and ultimately dozing back off. Tori eyed her for a moment, making sure she was actually asleep, then refocused her attention on Tori. “Look, your parents sucked, you had to fight to survive, mentally or otherwise. You think everything is transactional, that you have to give something to get something. Maybe it’s true, in some ways, but in this case, you’re enough.”

“I’m enough,” Ariel repeated, turning the words over in her head. “I…I still don’t get it.”

“Let yourself have it, Ariel,” Anette spoke up. “and let us have it, too.”

Another silence; Ariel leaned forward, placing her elbows on her crossed knees and burying her head in her hands as she tried to work it out. A long, hard breath came from her nose, and she rubbed her eyes with the tips of her fingers. She took another deep breath, her diaphragm contracting, and then expanding quickly in almost a huff as she pulled her head away from her hands and looked up, first to Tori, then to Anette. It was strange to her, that they both wanted it so bad. It was all so foreign to her, so alien that someone would want her just because she was…her; though maybe she had Rylee to thank for that. Maybe.

“Okay,” Ariel said. “Okay, I’ll trust you.”

Anette nodded slowly and stood up, crossing over to Ariel. Ariel stood to meet her and they exchanged a long, tight hug.

“You’ll be okay, Ariel,” Anette assured her. “We’ll all be okay.”

“We can make some plans now,” Tori said, drawing Ariel’s attention.

“Plans?” Ariel blinked through onset tears. “What kind of plans?”

“You got approved for your loan, right?” Anette asked as she stepped away from Ariel. “For the truck?”

Tori nodded. “Yeah, so I’m going to talk to some vendors tomorrow, get the kitchen set up in the back and whatnot. We should have it set up by next week, and by the time it passes inspection, we’ll have Marcus finish prepping the ingredients for the fridge. I’m trying to think of something for Rylee to do, just a small task. She’s not great with math so the cash register is out. I’m not going to have her do any cleaning, so…”

“Why not?” Ariel asked suddenly. Tori broke her brief concentration and looked at Ariel, her brow furrowed. “Okay look, I get that you don’t want her to do chores and that’s super cool, but this isn’t…a chore for the sake of a chore. Right? You’d be teaching her something useful.”

“And you ask why we wanted you,” Anette snorted. “Tori she’s right, and, it’s really time to start teaching our girl some house cleaning skills. What if she lives on her own someday and doesn’t know how to clean her stove burners or keep her carpet clean?”

“Yeah whatever, I’ll have her dust something,” Tori rolled her eyes. “What else?”

“School,” Anette poked Ariel. “I’ll get the application to Wittenberg too. We’re going to have to go there, physically, and talk to them about scholarships.”

“And I have to go back to Michigan to get my car,” Ariel reminded them. “But…I’m still worried. I mean, what if Amber gets in trouble without me?”

“She’s a big girl,” Anette reminded her. “She can handle herself.”

---

“Chris, get up here, you pussy!” Amber hissed down the ladder, suppressing a laugh as Chris nearly missed a rung. She grabbed his arms as he reached the top and helped to pull him through the trap door and onto the grated platform at the foot of the billboard. Like her, he was dressed in a black zip-up hoodie and a pair of yoga pants, both of which had been pulled from her closet. She hadn’t quite been able to get him into a dress, but baby steps were what it always took.

Instead of standing, he dropped to his hands and knees, hyperventilating at Amber’s feet as she reached into her canvas messenger bag and withdrew a can of black spray paint.

“You climb like a man,” Amber snorted. “Come on, get up!”

He scrambled to his feet, holding onto Amber’s shoulders as he peered out over the railing. The night was black around them, the stars blocked out by the three overhead lights that illuminated the ‘Little Cesars’ billboard. From the edge of the steel railing, Amber could see the occasional headlight passing Michigan Avenue heading toward downtown, and to the left, the plasma donation center. A patch of darkened trees stretched out beneath them, a black floral abyss that had masked their approach and guarded them as they ascended the rickety metal ladder. Ariel stepped away from Chris, steadying him and straightening his hood.

“This is insane!” Chris nearly shouted, stumbling as he made the mistake of peering over the railing and down into the forest. Amber reached out, steading him again. “What are we doing?!”

“Direct action!” Amber announced. “Ariel tried doing it the right way, now we’re going to do it the wrong way!”

Chris watched, wide-eyed as Amber grinned, shaking the paint can and going to work on the billboard.

“A…Amber I don’t think we should be doing this,” Chris stammered, looking at her, and then over the edge of the railing. “I-”

“You were all about it at the house,” Amber reminded him. “Just stand there, and watch for pigs.”

“Why would there be pigs?”

“Cops,” She clarified. “Watch for cops.”