I took a bite of the perfect, tan toast with a touch of melted butter.

“Yeah, a rich guy donates money, but it has to be used to give us life skills. I think he does it in honor of someone. I forget the story they told us.” She crunched her toast.

“That sounds awesome.” Dad was long gone. I saw an empty spot where his car normally was. “Where’d Dad go?”

“He drives Willa to work. He walks her dogs, too. He’ll be back in an hour or so.” She started pushing her eggs onto her fork.

“So he’s really into her, huh?” I added a bit of pepper to mine.

“Yeah. He’s into her, you're into your new guy, and all I have is a dumpster. It went on fire once, too. I took a picture in front of it.” She tapped her phone until she could show me the picture of her standing in front of the flaming dumpster.

She had some text underneath:

My life in one picture.

“You’re a funny kid.” I rolled my eyes as she tucked her phone into her lap.

“I got jokes for days, sister.” She held out her fork and I toasted it with my own.

I was going to spend more time with her—that was a promise I was making right now.

* * *

It came time for me to go back to school. Dad had questions about where I would be staying. The Loveville police told us that Roberta would be facing charges, as would her boyfriend. That was good, but I wasn’t looking forward to a trial, if it came to that. I got ready to go back and it seemed silly but I did all the same things as I had before. I packed a bag, made sure I had my charger. Took the ride. All like I hadn’t watched Endgame take his last breath.

When Dad parked the car in the metered spot, we had about a half an hour to do the transfer. Austin had asked me to meet him at Parker and Tinsley’s place. Axel and Parker rounded the corner and instantly picked up the pace, whether Parker wanted to or not. Axel barreled at Raven. She braced herself like she was the bottom of a cheerleading pyramid and Axel launched himself at her like a rocket.

She caught him and I caught her. Dad steadied me.

“You big meatball. You’re going to knock us all down, then who's going to feed you?” I petted his big thick head.

Raven captured him in a hard hug. He licked her whole neck and face in response.

Parker put his hands on his knees and breathed quickly while we all got acquainted.

Eventually, he reached out a hand for my father.