“I like your car,” Kenzie said, settling into the passenger seat. She looked surprised as Natalie draped the blanket over her lap. “Thank you.”

“Heat and fan struggle if I need to accelerate a lot while going up any hills,” Natalie explained. “Let’s get you cozy.”

“I still like it, struggle or not. Ooh, I wonder if I could soup it up somehow. I wonder how I’d do it.”

“Ask before you do anything, please,” Natalie said, as she got belted in. The steering wheel was cool, but not so much that it would be bothersome over the long term.

She drove. The amber of the streetlights swept into the car, followed by a sweep of darkness, lingering just a fraction of a second too long, before the next sweep of amber. It was as though the city had adjusted the spacing to save on resources, and so it was somehow less than what she’d grown up getting used to.

At least the roads were more or less clear.

Another her would have made tonight the sort of night she would have sped down the highway, letting her foot rest more heavily on the gas, letting herself experience the thrill.

She drove the speed limit, sticking to the right-hand lane, only moving to allow ample space for mergers. Hers was the car that other people zipped by.

In the other seat, Kenzie leaned her head against the window, staring not at what was beyond, but at the hypnotic play of light against the glass just in front of her eyes. Light from the dash, light from the city beyond.

No happy smiles, no bubbling vivaciousness, no excitement.

“Are you okay?” Natalie asked.

“Yes. I’m super,” Kenzie replied, her head not moving.

“You sure? You don’t sound super—it’s allowed to not feel super.”

“I mean it,” Kenzie said. The amber light of streetlights swept into the car’s interior. A chance trick of light played off of her eyes, making the natural moisture appear to be glowing yellow-orange. Light passed over the little girl’s face, and there was a line below her eye where it looked like her face was a thick mask, a hole had been cut in, and the glow of the streetlights came from within the mask, not outside.

Kenzie turned her face away, pulling the blanket up so it covered her shoulders, and gripped it from within to tug it close to her body. “I feel more okay than I have since Ashley and Rain turned themselves in to go to jail.”

“Why? Because—”

“Because my friends had my back. I got to spend the day with my favorite person. Did you see the emails? People are cheering for us—for me.”

“It’s good you’re happy. I don’t want to take away from that, but—”