In all seriousness, I was trying to be good. I hadn’t snuck out of the house in almost a week, apart from the time I had to keep black wings off of Josh. I called when I was going to be late, and I was always here for dinner unless I was pretending to eat at Josh’s house. It would get harder, though, if I were fighting off dark timekeepers and trying to save souls.

“All of you are very quiet,” he said out of nowhere, and I jerked my head up. “School okay today?” Crap, he wants to talk about school?

“I’m taking home economics,” Nakita offered hesitantly, seeing me almost panicking.

A faint grimace crossed my dad’s face, but he relaxed, putting an elbow on the table. “I hated that class. Do they have you making book bags this year?”

Nakita wedged the wad of pasta off her fork and started to wind up another spool. “Why would a book need a bag?”

“Uh, Nakita and I are taking photography together,” I broke in, trying to distract him from her puzzled expression. For all my dad knew, Nakita was from Nova Scotia and spoke French as her first language. That the school thought she was living at my house was a bit of angel intervention. No one had bothered to check whether she was. Actually, I didn’t know where she went when she left.

Josh ate a bite of bread. “We’ve got physics together,” he said around his food. “Yay.” I smiled at his lackluster exclamation. “It was great to get back and see everyone,” I said as I wound up another fork of pasta.

My dad smiled knowingly. “This year will be better. Just you watch,” he predicted as he pulled a chunk of bread from the loaf and dipped it in the olive oil and vinegar. “And then college.”

“Can I get through physics first?” I asked with a moan. “At least I’ve got photography this year. That will be fun.”

My dad’s head bobbed. “That reminds me,” he said, glancing over my shoulder at the corkboard by the phone on the wall. “I got a call from your photography teacher with a list of class supplies. Why on earth didn’t she just give it to you when you were at school?”

“Ms. Cartwright?” I asked, feeling a flush of worry, and he nodded. “Um, maybe she didn’t know at the time,” I offered, trying not to lie. Great, I thought as I glanced at Josh, who shrugged.

“Do you need to run out to the mall tonight?” my dad asked, his gaze touching on Nakita’s black fingernails.

“I can take you,” Josh volunteered, clearly seeing a way to get back into the scythe prevention, but my first impulse to say yes died. It would be a great way to slip off my dad’s radar for a couple of hours, but I couldn’t leave until he thought I was in bed.