At dinnertime, their foster mom was not feeling well. She said she had to throw up, even though she had not been on a single roller coaster or had any cotton candy. Their foster dad took her to find a bathroom. Nova and Bridget sat and waited for them at a picnic table, eating hot dogs and fries.

“Listen, Nova,” said Bridget. “I know I’ve been telling you since they took us away that it’s only you and me, right, but these two? They’re cool. I overheard them talking to that social worker about what’s gonna happen to us next. They sounded real worried we’d end up separated. They don’t want that to happen. So I was thinking, maybe they’re gonna ask to adopt us? They said we have something important to talk about, right? I think they want to be our forever family. Remember that girl at the last home who kept talking about wanting a forever family? And I told her that was stupid because there’s no such thing? Well, maybe I was wrong, okay?”

Nova almost dropped her hot dog. Bridget was never wrong. About anything. Ever.

“If that’s what they tell us tonight, if they say they want to adopt us, I’m gonna say it’s okay. Okay? But only if you want me to. ’Cause I’ll be a teenager next year but you’re gonna have more than ten years with these people, right? So it’s only okay if you say it’s okay. Think it over. Is it okay?”

Nova swirled a fry in ketchup. She thought it over.

“Kay-kay,” she said finally. Bridget squealed and hugged her, which made her drop the fry, leaving a grease-and-ketchup mess on her overalls. Bridget cleaned it up.

The foster mom and foster dad came back. It was time to go.

In the car on the way home, they did not tell Bridget and Nova they wanted to adopt them.

They told them they were having a baby.

They told them it would be too much work, having three kids.

They told them a new social worker would be coming the next day: Mrs. Steele.

They told them they’d be moving someplace else.

They told them they were sorry.

That night, before bed, Bridget cried. Bridget never cried. This made Nova’s tummy hurt too.

“I was right,” Bridget said as she tucked Nova into bed in the room they shared. “There’s no such thing as a forever family, Nova. You and me, that’s it! We’re our own forever family. No one else. You got that? No one else. I’ll always take care of you the way I’ve always taken care of you, just us. You and me and NASA Bear, our space shuttle, and the moon. Okay? Okay.”

“Nova?” It was Mrs. Pierce’s voice, not Bridget’s, interrupting her memory. “Nova? Is there something wrong, dear?”