I yank out the candles and shove the whole thing into the garbage disposal, letting the blades abolish any evidence of my deluded idea that Funfetti could fix a family.

Unable to take away the hurt, I stand helpless in the hallway in front of Cora’s closed door.

An insurmountable wall of wood and pain between us.

13

“Please tell me you’re kidding,” Piper says as I fill her in on drama club on our way to class Monday morning. “You’re a backstage crewpie?”

I stop at the door to Piper’s math class.

“Crewpie?”

“The curtain dwellers who don’t have the guts to try out.”

“Wow, you really are a drama diva.”

“Was. Was a drama diva. And I’m just saying stage crew is not what we agreed to, and you know it.”

I shift my weight from side to side as other kids file past us into the room. Nobody says anything, but a few of them smile faintly as they step around Piper’s chair, which she’s parked smack in the middle of the doorway.

“Technically, backstage is still on the stage. I think I’m going to like it.” It’s been me, myself, and I for so long I nearly forgot how good it feels to be part of something bigger, to be part of a crew. “And one of the guys—”

“A boy!” Piper leans forward dramatically, resting her chin on her hands and batting her eyelashes. “I want to hear Every. Last. Detail.”

“No details to tell.” Based on Piper’s overreaction, I decide immediately not to mention Asad’s name. “He was nice. That’s all.”

Piper swats playfully at me.

“Oh, stop. This X-rated talk is making me blush!”

I sling my satchel over my shoulder and start to leave, but Piper grabs my arm.

“For real, I want all the juicy gossip at group tomorrow.”

I sweep my hand toward my face, showcasing my scars.

“This face gets no juice.”

“Well, if there’s a boy involved, then I guess crew is better than resuming your post as dungeon master. It’s not like I’m going to be spiking volleyballs between filling water jugs.” Piper smiles up at me as the bell rings. “Look at us being normal teenagers. I’m on a team again, you’re in love—”

“I’m not in love.”

“Pretty soon we’ll be going to football games and loitering at the mall. Dr. Layne will be so proud.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” I say. “Besides, it’s new normal, so it hardly even counts.”

“Ava!” she yells after me as I start to walk down the hallway. “My new normal sucked before you got here.”

“News flash: it still sucks,” I say just loud enough so she can hear me over the loud pack of football players walking between us. “But yeah, mine too.”