Mormor, in typical, stoic Mormor fashion, waved at the monitor. “I knew it was a girl. Larssens have girls. Do you have a name figured out yet, Sara?”

“Cass,” I said, without hesitation, surprising me as much as everyone else in the room. “Cassiopeia.”

Chapter Twenty-Five

Chapter Twenty-Five

“What about Cathy?” Mormor suggested. “Catherine, Cathleen. It’s a lovely, traditional name. You could pick—C or K.”

I sat in the back seat with Devi while Mom guided the car into the fast-food line at McDonald’s. Mom answered the call of the wild—aka my needy kid growling inside of my stomach—with the golden arches. Mormor sat beside her in the front seat clutching her handbag.

“I like Cass,” I said.

“Agnes is a traditional Swedish name. I had an aunt named Agnes. My mother’s name was Iris. That’s pretty, too.”

“I like Cass,” I repeated.

“Two double bacon—two, Sara?” Mom asked from the front seat.

I nodded. “Yes, please.”

“Make it three. I’m going to solidarity-eat bacon,” Devi said. “You can nail me to this cross. Soz, Christians. Too soon?”

Mom and I weren’t practicing anything so we didn’t care. The only one who went to church was Mormor, but she was too caught up in the baby-name debate to defend her Lutheran savior.

“What about Brita?” Mormor pressed.

“That’s a water filter, Mormor. No. I like Cassiopeia, like the constellation.”

Mormor looked appalled. “That poor child is going to have to spell that in kindergarten.”

“Leave it alone, Ma. Sara figured out how to spell her name eventually. She was sixteen, but I’m still really proud of her. Do you want anything?” Mom asked.

“I want her to name my great-granddaughter something normal.”

“Okay, that’s not really your call. A cheeseburger, however...”

“No. I don’t eat this garbage. I could make you a perfectly good cheeseburger at home.”

“I’m sure you could. Sara’s hungry now.” Mom rolled up to the intercom. Fortunately, after Devi and I acquired our newest round of hot grilled garbage, Mormor was sullen and stopped talking. I was okay with that. The cheeseburger was far more pleasant, anyway.

Back to the house we went, Devi in tow so she could do my makeup pre-date. Mom didn’t ask many questions about my plans with Leaf beyond what time I’d be back—which was midnight, I promised, and no later. She accepted it without another word, which was weird. Normally, she was all up in my business, giving me warnings to protect myself from all sorts of awful stuff, but not this time. Maybe she figured there was less to lose with me already knocked up? Except that wasn’t true at all. I could get diseases or abused by weird dudes on the bus or mauled by bears if I wandered too close to the zoo.