“They’ll have food at the party. Besides, Lucy is already there, and if I show up any later, everyone will be talking in their little groups and I’ll end up getting ditched on the couch all night with nobody to hang out with,” I say. Except Finn, but I leave that part out. My parents get weird when anything to do with dating comes up.

Dad appears next to Mom with his arms crossed. His jet-black hair is sticking up all over the place, and there are splotches of dried ink and marker on his fingers.

Whenever certain superheroes go off the radar, they let their beards get all wild and untamable, like they can’t be bothered interacting with the real world anymore. I think that’s what Dad’s trying to do, except he can’t grow a beard—just really fluffy boy-band-looking hair. Also, Dad isn’t exactly a superhero; he works from home in our basement creating graphic novels about superheroes.

“Sounds like a weird party to me. If your friends are ignoring you just because you show up late, I’m not sure they’re really your friends,” Dad says with the straight-to-the-point voice he always uses. “Are you sure you want to go?”

“Takeshi,” Mom says like a warning.

He blinks innocently. “What?”

She waves a finger at him. “She’s not staying home to watch The Lord of the Rings with you. I told you already—nobody should be wasting twelve hours of their life on the same three movies every single year.”

Dad lets his arms drop. “The extra footage is important for the character development! It’s an experience, Claire.”

Mom tuts, scrunching her freckled nose. “Yes, a painful one that the rest of your family shouldn’t have to endure.”

“You were trying to get her to stay home too,” he points out. “How is food any better than Tolkien? Besides”—he looks at me like he’s hoping for backup—“Nami likes Legolas.”

I shrug like it can’t be helped. “Elves are cool.”

Mom’s face softens. “Is that the pretty one?” She sighs. “They should have given him more scenes.”

Dad lifts his hands up like the answer is so obvious. “Extra. Footage.”

I rummage through my bag to find my keys, laughing at the way they seem to be sizing each other up. “I really have to go. But wait—why are you both trying to get me to stay home?”

Mei appears at the bottom step with her cell phone firmly in her hand. “They’re freaking out about you going to college. Mom was crying all day about it.”

“Don’t tell her that,” Mom hisses, and then looks back at me with her brown eyes full of embarrassment. “We’re just going to miss you, that’s all. And we know we’re on a time limit now.”