“But Addison’s not here anymore, so…?” Nina folded her arms.

“We still talk,” Vi said like that was obvious, and picked up her phone as if to check for Addison.

“Right, but she’s not here to see what’s going on? Or our progress?” Nina fought back.

“But I update her,” Vi went on.

“So she’s still the team captain then, basically.” Dan took a swig of Gatorade.

Vi pushed forward. “Let’s get started.”

“What do you think your specialties are?” Nina asked, swiveling in her chair to address Marianne.

“Yeah, what are you into?” Dan joined in.

What was she into? What did that mean?

“Physics? Biology? Astronomy? That would help us,” Nina went on. “Like, the other day I totally blanked on how many moons orbit Mercury? It just doesn’t stick for me.” Nina chewed on a pinky fingernail, though it looked like there wasn’t much left to bite.

“Don’t planets have one moon?” Marianne asked. If she thought about it, she knew they didn’t.

“They should,” Dan said. “Keep it simple.”

No, she wasn’t into any of that. She was into hours spent doing crafts with Skyla. She had just started to learn how to make rugs out of old T-shirts. She liked cuddling with Possum while she listened to Lillian sing. She liked long drives to her grammy’s trailer home in Battle Creek, listening to music and watching the farms go by and wondering about the people who lived there. She was into helping Lillian with her winter bake sales and making her family her special lemonade in summer, the real kind where you have to perfect the sugar and lemon balance to get it just right. Could these kids do that?

“Civics?” Nina continued. “I mean, we all know the term of a US senator, right? But can you recall how many representatives there are? I always get those details wrong. To be fair, it constantly changes. But I should still know it.”

Vi was taking notes. Marianne wondered what on earth she could be studying right then.

“Hmm, I’m not sure,” Marianne said, trying to stay casual. “Maybe we should just start some practice? See how it goes?” She knew she wouldn’t get any right, and the more they grilled her on her “specialty,” the worse everyone was going to feel.

“Yes, but Nina is right. We need a sense of your strongest areas, so we know where to begin,” Vi said to her while still writing.

Nina and Dan looked at Marianne expectantly. Vi must have known that Marianne would draw a blank.

And Marianne couldn’t admit to them that she wouldn’t be answering any questions right, anyway. That wasn’t the plan.

“I know some animal stuff,” she said. She could only imagine how that sounded to these kids.

“Zoology?” Nina happy-squeaked. “Great!”

No, she didn’t know what zoology was, but she figured it meant “animal stuff,” and so she smiled and nodded. “And I like music,” she said, thinking of Lillian and her guitar.