It was an attempt at a joke, as she turned to her sister in the seat beside her. Nobody really laughed, though, and the silent disapproval of the people sitting around her seemed to drive things home, because her nervousness amplified tenfold. Her mom reached over to rub at her arm and shoulder.

“I don’t speak for everyone. I definitely don’t. But I’ve hurt and cried a lot over the past year and I’m glad you came here and you did this. Thank you. I don’t expect others to but I forgive you.”

There were noises of discontent. People couldn’t shout down a child, but they could make it clear they didn’t agree.

“Thank you,” the court proctor said.

“Everly?” Rain asked. “That was your friend? With the red hair?”

“Yes. And Sarah was the other. How do you know that?”

“I see and hear them every night, in my dreams,” he said. “Sarah had the blonde hair then.”

“Yes.”

“I’ve memorized the faces,” Rain said. “I’m so sorry.”

“I don’t blame you for them dying,” Staci said. “The people who set the fires were the ones to blame.”

“I didn’t save them.”

“You were scared.”

Rain had wet eyes. “I was so stupid.”

“You didn’t have a chance to know better.”

The noises from Rain’s detractors grew louder. Things dissolved from there, with the officers trying to keep order. Staci ducked out, her parents providing a bit of a shield. They left through the door.

The man with the nice hair announced, “The court would like to take a brief recess. We’ll give Staci and her family a minute, and then we’ll leave. There are refreshments out in the hall. Rain’s acquaintances can stay, as they wanted to provide their testimony regarding his character in private, without giving up identifying details.”

The room emptied. The court personnel, minus some guards that went to the hall, Rain, Rain’s lawyer, and our group remained.

“This is hard,” the gruff man with the white, messy hair and beard said. “We’re short on heroes.”

“I know,” Rain said. He wiped at his eyes. “I’m not much of a hero. But I’ll be one in the future, given a chance.”

“But you’ve expressed a desire to go to prison,” the gruff man said.

“This kind of thing can’t be something where nothing happens,” Rain said. Sveta’s sentiment.

“Prison isn’t there solely for your absolution, Rain,” the frumpy woman said.

“I know.”

“You reported one attempt on your life. Do you think you’ll be safer if you’re in custody?”

“No,” Rain said. “Probably the opposite.”

“We’ll do what we can. Your friends. We will have some questions for the record, but to start us off, do we have any arguments against a stay in the juvenile prison while we wait for the courts to process the young man?”