Jason had always wanted to be a teacher of some kind.

He wasn't just bit by the teaching bug, he was full on mauled by it, and by the time he was heading off to college, he had his future planned. He'd skipped a few grades - not something he was proud of, exactly, as it offset him from his peers - and soon he was a professor at the local community college, working his way up. He loved ethics. He loved teaching right from wrong. That was why being a parent was something that appealed to him so greatly; the chance to get to raise a child of his very own, and teach them right from wrong? It sounded like heaven. So where did things go so off the rails? When had his own ethics broken down? That was the question Jason was faced with now, as he laid on the bed, looking up at the ceiling of his new fancy apartment, an apartment a teenage girl was paying for, a teenage girl he was murdering people with.

Yes, when had ethics become so very easily ignored?

That was the difference between him and Kelly, however, was she never once questioned ethics. Right and wrong meant nothing to her. That wasn't to say Kelly didn't have much of a conscience, but she sure as shit didn't seem to care about the little conscience that she had. As she sat in front of her vanity mirror that very morning, brushing her hair and thinking about her plans for the day, the last thing to cross her mind would've been the ethics of her decisions. She was perfectly fine with being what the world considered "evil". After all, society's opinions of teenage girls were low enough as it was, she felt, so why not just kill people too?

                                                                          ***

"You here alone today?" Fawn asked as she stopped by Jason's table, where he was seated with his coffee and a small box of pastries.

"No, I'm waiting for someone," he said.

"You look better than usual," Fawn said.

"Do I normally not look good?"

"No you generally look like shit," Fawn replied, the both of them laughing.

"Yeah, well," Jason said, pushing his bangs from his eyes, "I've come into a bit of luck recently. Things have started to get better for me, which is nice. I'm even going to go bac to school soon, find a new career path. I think I have your coffee to thank for part of that."

"Oh really?" Fawn asked, "what makes you say that?"

"It really gets me going in the morning," he said, smirking at her, "Nothing helps you face the day like a decent cup of coffee."

Just then Kelly appeared by the table and slid into the booth across from Jason. Fawn smiled at her politely, then excused herself while Kelly looked at the box of pastries on the table and then looked at Jason, who just nodded at her, smiling warmly.

"Please," he said, "Breakfast is on me today."

Kelly smiled back, then opened the box lid and reached inside, pulling out a bear claw and biting into it, her braided pigtails swaying back and forth gently as she chewed. Jason lifted his coffee cup to his lips and sipped from it, neither one of them saying a word for a bit, instead just enjoying one anothers company. After she'd finished eating, she went back in and picked out a donut hole, popping it into her mouth and chewing.

"What's your plan for the day?" she asked.

"I was thinking of looking at college courses," Jason said, "Try and find something I might like to do. You got any ideas about what you might wanna do with yourself after high school?"

"Never really think about it," Kelly said, shrugging; she seemed off, distant and morose, which was unusual for her as she added, "Frankly, much to my parents chagrin, I'll likely not go to college. Opt for something else instead."

"Well, you're rich, so I guess you can do that at least," Jason said, "More luck to you in that regard."

"I'm not rich, my parents are rich. Just because I was born into wealth doesn't mean I accumulated it. There's an inherent difference there," Kelly said sternly, "I just take advantage of their success like some kind of tick, leeching off its host."

"Geez, alright, no need to get all emo on me," Jason said, which made her smirk a little.

"Sorry," she said, "I had a bad weekend."

She didn't elaborate on that, and Jason felt like it was weird to ask her to. Whatever was going on in her life, it was none of his business unless she decided to make him a part of her business moreso than she already had. But it was true, this had been a particularly rough week for Kelly Baker, and it all started with a girl named Amanda.

                                                                           ***

"I'm having a party tonight," Amanda said to Kelly last Friday night, sitting in study hall; Amanda waved her hand like it was nothing, adding, "it's okay if you don't wanna come, but I think everyone would like it if you did. You're Miss Popularity after all."

"Well, much as I appreciate the title and the adoration that comes with it, I'm not sure I'll be able to make it," Kelly said, "What time?"

"Around 8pm," Amanda said.

Kelly had always liked Amanda. Of the girls her age, Amanda was one of the few that didn't come off as bitchy for the sake of a personality. She had auburn hair and deep blue eyes and she knew how to dress well. Fashion was one of the things that had made the girls sort of friends, considering Kelly's fathers business and Kelly being a snappy dresser herself.

"I'll try and stop by for a bit," Kelly said, "I personally like to spend my Fridays alone, but it could be fun to come over and see what everyone's up to. But don't hold me to it, alright?"

Amanda nodded, grinning. She was just happy Kelly was even considering it, because she'd long since wanted to be better friends with her, but not for the reasons Kelly would've thought.

                                                                              ***

"So you started looking into some courses?" Kelly asked, sipping her own coffee now, still seated in the booth.

"I have, but I haven't really come across anything concrete just yet," Jason said, opening a pamphlet and spreading it out fully as he sighed; he continued, "I just...I don't know what else I wanna do. I like to teach. I guess I don't have to go back to the same stuff I was teaching, but I also doubt anyone would hire me to teach after what happened."

Kelly nodded. She looked around the cafe and sighed.

"I don't see any kind of future for me," she said, "People take advantage of me too much for me to trust them, except for you I guess, but even you're on a trial basis at the moment."

"Understandable," Jason chuckled.

"...I just wish I were capable of trusting people, but everytime I seem to open myself up, someone uses me. They come along and they take me for everything I'm worth, and it hurts, and it makes me feel like people aren't worth my time. Maybe I'm just not meant to be around as an adult. Maybe I'm one of those people who's only meant to exist for a predetermined amount of time, you know?"

"Hey, that's dark, come on," Jason said, looking up from the pamphlet now, chewing his lip, "don't say shit like that. You're an extremely bright person, you have charisma to spare, you'll find something you're good at and you'll succeed in spades at it."

The problem was, for Kelly, she'd already found the thing she was good at. She'd found it years ago. It just wasn't a viable career path. She sighed and put her coffee back to her lips, sipping again. As she felt the warm liquid go down her throat, she couldn't help but feel like she'd gotten in a rut, and she needed to get out of it, and quick. If only she had something to take her mind off things, like a social event. But not a party.

Not after last Friday.

                                                                             ***

Kelly did in fact show up to Amanda's party.

She was dressed in a tight black dress, her makeup flawless, bright crimson red heels. She looked fantastic, as she always did, and of course, when she entered the house, she turned heads. Not that this was anything surprising, she'd been turning heads since the time she was a child. Always the cutest kid, and eventually becoming an attractive young lady, she'd caught the attention of more men than she would prefer. And not even men her own age, sick to say. As she strolled through the party, heading to the kitchen, she couldn't help but feel out of place. As popular as Kelly was, she was also surprisingly introverted. She didn't mind socializing, but she also really hated having to be 'on' all the time. It exhausted her, and she found better uses for her energy. She stopped at the kitchen island and sunk her hand into a bowl of chips, slowly eating what she pulled out one by one until Amanda sidled up beside her.

"Glad you came!" Amanda said, touching Kelly's shoulder.

"Oh, yeah hi, well," Kelly said, chewing a chip, "I don't know, I didn't have anything else to do, so I figured I should make an appearance. Your house is beautiful, by the way."

"I mean, it's my parents house, but thanks," Amanda replied, making Kelly chuckle as they both turned and started walking back to the living room; Amanda began heading up the stairs, Kelly right behind her as Amanda said, "I wanna show you something, come with me."

"Alrighty," Kelly said.

As they walked up the flight of stairs to the second floor, passing hanging family photos on the wall by the steps, Kelly couldn't help but glance over at look. Amanda as a child, doing dance recitals and horseback lessons, Amanda and her family on vacation in various popular spots. Kelly smiled at these, because she rarely saw happy family photos it seemed. The girls reached the top of the stairs and headed to Amanda's bedroom, Kelly reaching out and touching the hallways beautiful floral wallpaper with her fingertips.

"So what is it you wanna show me?" Kelly asked as they entered Amanda's bedroom.

Amanda pulled open her closet and stepped inside.

"I'll be out in a second," she said through the door, "I just want your opinion on something."

"Well, I'm happy to help," Kelly said, seating herself on the side of the canopy bed, looking at the wall decor and thinking she should redo her own bedroom. After a few minutes, the closet door opened back up and Amanda walked out, in a beautiful swimsuit. She put her hands on her hips and did a little twirl, as Kelly tried to take in what she was seeing.

"What do you think of this bathing suit?" Amanda asked, "I bought it because I wanna be a swimsuit model this summer, and I thought it would look good on me, but you know your dad better than I do, obviously, so I figured you'd be the right one to tell me what he'd think."

Kelly dug her nails into the bedspread, her teeth gritting.

They always fucking wanted something from her father.

                                                                             ***

"People are scum," Kelly said, "They pretend they're not, especially when sizing up others, because they need that self esteem boost, but they are. Even if they don't wanna admit it, they are. Whatever it was you might've done, I guarantee they've done equally if not worse things. But we all have to put on a facade, pretend to be better than one another, more moral than eachother, so they never admit to their own sins."

"Jesus," Jason whispered.

"I say to hell with that, and go back to teaching. Sure, don't teach the same thing, do something different, but don't leave the field you love behind simply because of the opinion of others. Do whatever you want. Everyone else fucking does."

"Are you okay?" Jason asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

"...like I said, I had a bad weekend," Kelly said softly.

                                                                           ***

"You...you want my opinion?" Kelly asked, now slowly standing up from the bed, "You want my unbiased opinion? Really? You sure you want that, you goddamned starfucker?"

Amanda's eyes widened in surprise. She certainly hadn't expected this sort of response, but Kelly was fed up with people using her to get to her father, and thus, his assets and connections to the modeling and fashion industry.

"I...I just thought..."

"You thought fucking wrong," Kelly said through her teeth as she approached Amanda, backing her into a corner, adding, "this was never about me, about our friendship, or even about this party. You just wanted to make me feel like we were friends, like I mattered somehow, so you could - like so many others - use my dad as a way to make headlines in the business. It's people like you that are making my life so goddamned difficult."

"I'm sorry, I just thought you'd know best and that maybe you-"

Kelly didn't wait for her to finish. She grabbed the pearl handle letter opener from the nearby desk and stood there, gripping it firmly in her fist as Amanda cowered to the floor in the corner of the room. Kelly wanted to hurt her. Kelly wanted to do even worse than hurt her. But...she couldn't. Strangers, or people loosely related to their lives, those were fine. But not someone she went to school with. Not someone people would notice she was around, and wonder what happened as a result. That was too close to home. Instead, Kelly knelt down and pressed the letter opener to Amanda's cheek, her voice lowered.

"Let me make this perfectly clear to you," Kelly said quietly, "if you ever come near me or my father again, for any reason whatsoever, you won't have a face worth modeling. And if you think you can go to someone, try and have me investigated for threats of violence, let me remind you just who my father is, how much money we have and how easy it would be to ruin your pathetic little life. So do yourself a favor, Amanda, and keep your stupid mouth shut, alright? Because, believe it or not, I don't wanna hurt you, but if it comes to it, I will have someone do just that. Understood?"

Amanda nodded slowly, her eyes watery.

"Good," Kelly said, standing upright again, putting the letter opener in her dress pocket and heading to the door. As she pulled it open she looked back at Amanda and smiled, saying, "For what it's worth, it's a nice swimsuit, and you look good in it. It emphasizes your figure perfectly."

And then she left.

                                                                            ***

"There's nothing you wanna do?" Jason asked, "I have all these different pamphlets for various colleges, and you're telling me that you have no interest in anything?"

"I like what I do already," Kelly said, smiling as she raised her coffee cup to her lips again and sipped, then saying softly, "and I'm sick of pretending I'm not."

Jason raised an eyebrow, but, unlike most of the people she'd come into contact with, he'd learned pretty quickly not to question Kelly Baker.

It was a Saturday morning.

Dodie was sleeping at Nona's, Palmer was at college, and Regina had had the house all to herself. She opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was Adam lying in her bed. She smiled and put her hand on his chest, then closed her eyes again. When she'd dropped Dodie off last night at Nona's, she immediately phoned up Adam, told him she had the place to herself for the weekend and he raced over with dine in and a twelve pack of wine spritzers. They talked, they played a few card games and they eventually went to the bedroom. Regina hadn't felt this comfortable in ages. Adam stirred, reaching up and wiping his eyes before rolling onto his side and looking at her. She smiled, which in turn made him smile.

"I'll make breakfast and coffee if you go get the paper," he said.

"You read the paper?"

"No, I just wanna see if the horses I bet on won," Adam said, "That's the only reason. I could care less about the news, honestly."

She laughed, then leaned in and kissed him before climbing out of bed and tugging her robe on. She walked down the hall, to the foyer and opened the front door. She reached down to grab the paper and sighed, feeling the warm Saturday morning sun on her face.

"Jeez, I was wondering if you'd ever get up," a voice said nearby, causing Regina to scream as she turned to the porch swing and saw a woman sitting there. The woman, with her messy black hair and her emerald green eyes, put her cigarette out and reached down, grabbing the handles on her luggage.

"Emily?" Regina whispered.

"What? You not excited to see your sister in law?" she asked.

                                                                           ***

Palmer was sitting in the library with Anita and Arthur, studying for something. She was chewing on her pencil and tapping her fingernails on the tabletop. For the last few weeks now, it seemed like Palmer had been in an excellent mood, though neither Arthur nor Anita knew about her blossoming relationship with Sarah. She simply wasn't ready yet to go public with that sort of thing, not that she thought her friends would be bothered by it in the slightest anyway.

"You know, when I came to college I was under the impression that getting into it was the hardest part. I was never once informed that I'd have to continue putting in effort," Anita said, making Arthur and Palmer chuckle.

"I didn't even know if I was gonna go to college for a while," Arthur said.

"Really?" Palmer asked, genuinely surprised.

"Yeah, really. I always liked school, but I also always felt like I was smart enough to make it on my own without the help of a degree. Guess it wouldn't hurt to have it to fall back on, but I still don't think it's a necessity, but I also suppose it depends on what you intend to do with your life, career wise."

"I always wanted to go to college," Palmer said, "Ever since I was a little girl, I loved school and I couldn't wait."

"Nerd," Anita said under her breath, making them laugh again. Just then the librarian approached the table and gently tapped Palmer on the shoulder. She turned around and looked up.

"You have a phone call," she said, and Palmer got up and followed her to the front desk. Palmer took the phone and put it to her face, lowering her voice a little.

"Hello?"

"It's Dodie," Dodie said.

"Are you okay?"

"You have to come home," Dodie said, "Something weird is going on. Nona and I came over to get some stuff to play with and mom is locked in the bathroom and Adam is here and also aunt Emily is smoking all over everything."

"Aunt Emily is there?!" Palmer asked, her voice rising a little, "wha...why in...wait, who's Adam?"

"Like I said, you need to come home," Dodie replied.

                                                                              ***

Emily, seated at the kitchen table and eating the breakfast Adam was continuously cooking - because he didn't know what else to do in light of the present situation at hand - hadn't been to the Hurks household in ages. In fact, perhaps the last time was when Dodie was only one year old, and even then the visit had been shortlived, thanks to her uncomfortable relationship with her brother, the girls father. Adam plopped some more bacon down into the pan as Dodie hung up the phone in the living room and then headed to the kitchen table.

"Can I have some juice?" Dodie asked, and Adam winked at her.

"You got it, kiddo," he said, heading to the fridge and pulling a carton out, then grabbing a glass from the nearby cabinet. While he poured, Dodie looked across the table at Emily.

"Why don't I remember you?" she asked.

"Why would you? Last time I saw you you were barely a baby," Emily replied, "your father and I didn't really get along, and that's been the main reason I stayed away for so long. Plus your mother. But now that he's gone...ya know, I didn't even come to the funeral."

Adam walked to the table and put the glass down in front of Dodie. She thanked him, picked it up and took a long sip as he began to clear the table of unnecessary dishes. He then headed back to the stove as Emily whistled at him, catching his attention.

"Hey, you my sisters live in chef or what?" she asked.

"...yeah, let's go with that," he said, focusing back on his cooking. Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Regina was lying in the bathtub still in her robe, afraid to come out. She hadn't seen Emily in years, and she was afraid to now. She and Emily had never gotten along, not since...well...not since the wedding. No. Not gotten along is not the right way to put it. They got along too well was the problem, and it made the girls father uncomfortable. Regina sighed and looked up at the black stain on the ceiling overhead. God. When had things gotten so complicated? Just mere months ago she'd been a happily married woman, normal suburban housewife, and now she was sleeping with her grocery clerk and dealing with her 3rd graders rapidly declining mental health. A knock on the door. She looked over and waited until she heard the person walk away again. She went back to looking at the stain, unaware that in a few short hours, Palmer would also be home, and things would get even worse.

                                                                             ***

Palmer could barely contain her ire.

Could there just be a single week that does by this year where something didn't change in her life? First her fathers death, then her loss of virginity, then her sexuality awakening and now her aunt Emily is back? And who the FUCK is Adam? Thoughts of every kind on every spectrum swirled around inside her head as she drove back home. But, before she stopped home, she pulled into the driveway of another house. She got out, walked up to the door and knocked. The door swung open and Sarah, surprised to see her, stood there.

"Oh! What...what are you-"

Palmer didn't wait. She just hugged her and buried her face in Sarah's chest. Sarah blushed and stroked her hair.

"Are you okay?" she asked softly.

"Will you come home with me?" she asked, "...something's wrong, and I'm afraid to go alone."

"Yeah, sure, of course," Sarah said, "I wasn't doing anything anyway."

The girls piled back into Palmer's car and headed to her house. When she pulled up, she didn't see a car, but then thought perhaps a taxi dropped aunt Emily off. Palmer parked and got out, waiting for Sarah to join her. She took Sarah's hand and, together, they walked up the driveway and in through the front door to a sight not unlike Dodie's description. Aunt Emily was indeed sitting at the kitchen table, chain smoking, while Dodie did a coloring book and ate bacon of a plate full of what looked like a million pieces of bacon, and, weirdest of all, was a young man she'd never before seen standing behind the stove cooking.

"Uh...hi?" Palmer asked as she entered the kitchen.

"Palmer!" Aunt Emily shouted, standing up and hugging her tightly, "Oh baby, it's so good to see you, you look so beautiful! How is college?"

"It's....uh....what's going on here?" Palmer asked.

"I've turned the kitchen into a nonstop breakfast machine," Adam said.

"And you are?" Palmer asked.

"That's Adam," Dodie said, "Mom's boyfriend."

Everyone stopped dead in their tracks as Adam rubbed his face with his hand, half laughing, half terrified. Dodie lowered her head and went back to coloring.

"...mom's what now?" Palmer finally asked.

"There's a lot you don't know," Adam said, "Your mother's locked herself in the bathroom, follow me."

"Watch my sister," Palmer said to Sarah, who agreed and seated herself with Dodie while Palmer followed Adam down the hall.

"...I'm just...SO confused," Palmer said as Adam undid his apron and tossed it over his shoulder.

"Yeah, you and everyone else," he replied, "Uh, look, I...I don't wanna come in between a family, alright? That's the last thing I wanna do, especially to someone as great as your mom, so if I need to leave I will. I was only sticking around to watch over your sister while your mom hid, cause your sister trusts me, but I totally get it if-"

"Are you fucking my mother?" Palmer asked.

"Wow. Direct," Adam said, scratching the back of his head, "Uh...that's a little personal I think, but-"

"...dad never made us breakfast," Palmer said quietly, "Sometimes he'd take us out to breakfast, but he never MADE breakfast. Do you make breakfast a lot? Do you make my sister breakfast? Do you make my mom coffee?"

Adam stood there, uncertain of why she was asking these things, and then he finally nodded.

"Yeah, yes, I do. Often. Whenever I get the chance," Adam said, "Your sister likes pancakes so I make specialized pancakes quite a bit. I used to be a line chef at a greasy diner, so, I know what I'm doing. I know how your mom likes her coffee. I know that she prefers it black with a sugar cube in it. Yeah I do."

"Dad NEVER cared," Palmer said, "Dad NEVER made us breakfast, dad NEVER got her coffee. Everyone talks about him like he was this wonderful father, but only because he wasn't outright abusive. But doing the bare minimum, or just below that, doesn't make you a wonderful person. It just makes you not as bad as everyone else. Why am I the only one capable of seeing him for what he was?"

"I...I really don't know," Adam said, "Maybe because you got away for a bit, because you managed to distance yourself. Distance will do funny things to your brain. It clears out the fog. Once you're no longer around someone all the time you can kinda actually analyze them and your interactions with them and-"

"Please don't leave," Palmer said, "...please don't...don't leave. Please stay. Please keep making breakfast."

Adam smiled and patted her on the shoulder.

"Whatever you want," he said, before knocking on the bathroom door and saying, "Reggie, it's me, your daughter is here. Your OTHER daughter. Your very enlightened, too smart for her own good daughter."

Palmer laughed and Adam smirked. The door unlocked and Palmer went inside while Adam left, heading back to the kitchen. Palmer saw her mom sitting on the edge of the tub and she sat down beside her. Neither one spoke. Palmer pulled her back up in a ponytail, then exhaled deeply.

"I don't like swearing around you, but what the FUCK is going on?" Palmer asked, "Dodie calls me up at school, tells me I need to come home because a man I've never met is making breakfast in our kitchen while you've holed yourself up in the bathroom and Aunt Emily, of all people for some reason, is here. Mom what is-"

"I am so happy he's dead," Regina said quietly, "your father, I mean. I'm happy he's dead, and it's taken me so long to admit that. I wasn't happy. We weren't happy. We were still cordial towards one another, but neither one of us wanted to be together anymore. In fact, I think the only reason we ever were together was to have you girls, and that was it. And that's fine. That makes me happy. My life would be nothing without you and your sister, but divorce would've been painful, and one of us would've taken the blame, and that wouldn't be fair to you girls. But death? That's unavoidable? That's life itself making a decision. Can't blame me for that."

"...mom..."

"I'm glad he's dead. I didn't have to choose and now I can move on. Adam is great. Your sister loves him, and I...I think I do too, honestly," Regina said, "So much of this past year has been about reassessing our lives, ourselves, and choosing who we want around us and I just can't help but want to do the same that you're doing. You know who you are now, and I wanna do the same."

Palmer leaned over and hugged her mom, patting her on the back. She'd never expected this sort of admittance from her mother, but it really did put a lot of things in perspective, especially about her father. After the hug, Regina pulled away and wiped her face with a hand towel.

"I'll be out in a bit, just...just make sure things stay okay out there, alright?" she asked.

"Okay," Palmer said.

Palmer exited the bathroom and headed back down the hall. She found Adam still in the kitchen behind the stove, while Dodie and Sarah continued to color. She looked around and noticed the back door was open. Palmer headed into the backyard and found Aunt Emily sitting on a piece of lawn furniture, lighting up yet another cigarette. Palmer sat down nearby and Aunt Emily smiled at her.

"Adam told me to take it outside," she said, "I like him, he's a cool guy."

"He really is, actually," Palmer said, "Why are you here?"

"Because my brother's not, and now it's safe to see you guys again," Emily said, "...my brother was...frustrating, to put it politely. He didn't want anyone intruding on his family, so I think to see his wife with another man is pretty god damn satisfying to say the least."

"How long are you staying?" Palmer asked.

"As long as I want, or as long as you guys will let me," Emily said, shrugging, "Not like I have much to return to."

A moment passed.

"I'm glad you're here," Palmer said, making Aunt Emily smile.

"Thanks, it's good to see you all grown up."

The door slid open again and Adam peeked out, holding a lunchbox.

"Is this Dodie's?" he asked, "I was gonna clean it for the upcoming school week cause it's got a funky smell in it, but there's no name in it. It just says 'Doodlebug' on it. I'm assuming it's hers?"

"Yeah," Palmer said, just as Aunt Emily said "No." The two stopped and looked at one another, Palmer furrowing her brow in confusion.

"What?" she asked.

"That's not your sisters. That's yours," Emily said, "I mean, maybe it wound up as your sisters hand me down, but I remember clearly from when you were in elementary school, that was yours during kindergarten. Doodlebug was what your father used to call you."

Palmer couldn't breath. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"Wh...what do...you...mean?" she asked, "How do you know that?"

"Because I'm the one who helped him pick it out," Aunt Emily said, "and it's what he used to call me growing up."

Palmer looked back at Adam, who merely shrugged, unaware of the severity of what was happening. Palmer felt like her entire worldview was collapsing. She was Doodlebug? This entire time? The lunchbox had been hers, and a hand me down to Dodie? Why didn't she remember this? How could she have blocked this out? She finally looked back at Aunt Emily, who smiled and blew smoke into the air.

"What?" she asked, "You didn't know that?"

The front door to the apartment opened, letting in a nice breeze and the warm air. Kelly and Jason stood in the doorway for a moment, just taking it in, before walking inside, Kelly shutting the door behind them. Jason turned around, almost in awe, as he looked at every inch of the place. Kelly walked into the nearby kitchen area and admired the cabinets and their handles.

"This is...can you do this?" Jason asked.

"Don't worry about what I can and cannot do," Kelly said, smiling, "You can't stay in my dads love nest forever, nor should you be living in your car. I said I'd repay you handsomely for your help, and this is just a part of that."

Jason stopped, hands on his hips, nodding.

"This is....wonderful," he said, "Hell, this is better than the place I was living before everything in my life went to shit. Do your parents know you're-"

"They know what I want them to know," Kelly said, walking away from the kitchen and back into the living room, putting her hands on the walls and feeling the dried paint job, continuing, "but no, they are not aware that I've done this. My father gave my access to his bank account a few years ago, on the off chance I needed money to fix my car or for school related purchases. He has so much money he won't even notice some missing monthly."

"This feels wrong...I feel like I can't accept this," Jason said.

"Oh, you don't have a choice," Kelly replied, laughing, "I need to know where you are and you need a place to stay. This is what's best for both of us."

Jason couldn't really argue with someone giving him free room and board, especially fancy free room and board such as this in a high class apartment complex. God, he thought, he'd be able to do his laundry for the first time in weeks without having to beg for change first. He walked over to the deck door, pulled it open and stepped onto the balcony, looking out over the tenants sitting in the pool area. Maybe he'd go for a swim. He noticed Kelly walked up to the rail beside him and they glanced at one another.

"You got a swimsuit?" he asked, and she smirked.

                                                                           ***

What did it mean to be a good person? Well, that's the question. A question Jason Tulridge often struggled with. Standing in front of his class, he pulled his glasses off and sighed, rubbing his face.

"Morality isn't decided by your actions, but rather the decision to act upon those actions," he said, "To make the choice, not fulfill it, that's what decides your morality. Acting upon it is superfluous, you've already made the decision to do so and now you're just following through. It's making the decision at all that renders you moral or immoral. Contrary to popular belief in this field, there's no such thing as a grey area. You're either moral or you're not. Some are less moral than others, certainly, but there's no grey area. Your decisions define you and your morality."

He scratched the back of his head just as the bell rang, releasing the class of college students. Jason waved them all goodbye, and stood by his desk, organizing some papers for his next class in a few hours. He thought about going to get some coffee first, fuel back up for the remainder of the day, but before he could do that, he heard her voice behind him.

"The hypocrite in you is off the charts," Emily said, "you know that, right? To stand up here and preach about morality when you yourself are immoral."

Jason smirked and turned back around, looking into her eyes.

"I do know," he said, "That's why I'm working so hard to ensure you and your fellow classmates don't follow in my footsteps. Gotta pretend to be a good role model at least, right?"

Within minutes, Jason and Emily - his brightest student - were in his office, fucking on his desk. Jason knew it was wrong, even though she was of legal age at 21, because not only was he taking advantage of his position as her educator but also because he was married. And yet...he couldn't help himself. Emily had far more interest in him than his wife had had lately, not to mention how young and beautiful she was. Her amber hair and her chocolate brown eyes and her perfect skin, and her figure, god her figure, the kind of figure you only get between the ages of 16 and 23, without even having to try. He just couldn't resist. Men were sick creatures, he knew of that, he know of his genders immorality, and that he himself had fallen prey to it.

But when he had her bent over his table, pulling her hair, fucking her from behind, he didn't care about morality anymore. All he cared about was feeling good. He reached up and put a hand over her mouth so she wouldn't alert any other teachers in nearby offices with her wild moans. She grinned at this gesture, which only made him like her all the more.

Morality be damned. You only live once.

                                                                          ***

"What's it like to be spoiled rich and get everything you ever wanted from the youngest age imaginable?" Jason asked, treading water in the pool rim, looking up at Kelly as she sat in a lounge chair in her two piece with her sunhat and large sunglasses over her eyes.

"It's pretty great," she said, laughing, "people say money makes you a bad person, but I don't that's true. Money doesn't make you inherently evil. You're evil with or without the financial inclination. Some of us are just born bad, all there is to it. Money only helps further those ambitions."

"Certainly seems to help further yours," Jason said, making her laugh again.

"You're benefiting from it as well, don't forget," she said.

"How could I," he mumbled to himself, before asking, "So...got any work coming up?"

Kelly lowered her sunglasses ever so slightly, raising an eyebrow.

"Are you starting to enjoy what we do?" she asked, sounding surprised, "I may have something on the horizon, but I need some more time to figure things out. Can't go in half cocked. Always need to have everything planned to a tee before executing these sorts of plans."

"I get it," Jason said.

Jason swam away from the poolside and dunked under the water. When he came back up, he slicked his hair back and looked back towards Kelly, who was finishing putting sunscreen on her legs before picking up a book she'd brought with her and opening it, reading. Jason couldn't lie, at first this whole situation had seemed sickening and reprehensible, but now he couldn't imagine going back to his car. Money sure does change people, whether Kelly admitted it or not.

                                                                             ***

Lying in bed, Jason couldn't help but listen to his wife snore quietly. He rolled his head on his pillow to look at her, and could see the moonlight peaking in through the window dancing on across her face. Her eyelashes, they seemed to sparkle. He still loved her, so why was he doing what he was doing? He sighed, climbed out of bed and grabbed his cell phone off the table, walking into the living room. He dialed a number, and was surprised when she answered.

"What's up, it's really late," Emily said.

"I didn't wake you, did I?" Jason asked, sitting on the couch and speaking softly.

"Naw, I'm fine, I was up," Emily said, "Everything okay?"

"...can we meet somewhere?" Jason asked, "Not...not for anything, ya know, like that. Just to talk."

A pause, and then Emily said okay. They agreed to meet at an abandoned drive in nearby. They parked side by side and both laid on their cars respective hoods, looking up at the night sky overhead. Lying there with Emily, Jason felt so much more comfortable than he did lying in bed with his wife at home, and that only made him feel all the more sick.

"...maybe I'm wrong," Jason said, "Maybe morality doesn't matter. I mean, we all wind up dead and gone at the end of the day, so what really makes something right or wrong when we inevitably don't face consequences after a certain point?"

"You're looking at this far too broadly. Morality is a human creation, dictating how we define one another or ourselves. It has nothing to do with the afterlife or anything like that," Emily said, "some of may believe it does, believe that Heaven and God play a part, but it's not true. It's simply a way for us to gauge one another and thus judge ourselves against those who do things we either like or don't like so we can feel superior in our own decisions."

"I just...I refuse to believe that you can believe in morality but not partake in immoral things," Jason said, "So many religious people, for example, perform the most horrible atrocities. You can do both. You can believe and still do the opposite. I still don't believe there's that area of grey, but I also don't believe it's black and white."

"What do you believe then?" Emily asked, sitting up and looking at him.

"...I don't really know," Jason said, "All I know is that, for some reason, being moral hasn't made me feel like a better person, nor has it made me any happier by extension. Ethics are...they're just like laws or commandments. Shit we made up to try and control one another. There is no right and wrong because everyone has a different viewpoint. Okay, sure, there's right and wrong on the level of 'don't hurt others' like being racist, but like what we're doing...you're of legal age, so nobody is actually doing anything technically wrong here."

"I bet your wife would differ on that," Emily said, chuckling.

"Well, what she doesn't know won't hurt her, right?" Jason asked, the both of them laughing.

Emily crawled across the hood of the car and rested her head on his chest. He reached down and stroked her hair. It was nice, having someone understand him like this. His wife certainly didn't. But the thing is...that's what all men facing down the barrel of eventual middle age think. They think nobody understands them when in reality they aren't complex in the slightest, and everyone understands them all too well. They simply use that way of thinking to justify their actions.

If only he'd known then what she would do to his life, maybe it all could've been avoided.

                                                                                ***

Kelly pulled into the driveway and parked, stepping out of the car and heading up the walk to the front door. She loved coming home. She'd always loved coming home, because home was the only place she ever felt safe, like nothing could touch her there. As she entered the foyer, she didn't hear anyone, and just assumed that her mom and dad were still working, so she got herself a yogurt from the fridge, ate it while watching a reality show on mute and then finally headed upstairs to her bedroom.

She took her clothes off, got into the shower and bathed. Afterwards, now in her silk robe, she sat on her bed and thought about her situation with Jason. She had him wrapped around her little finger, and he knew it, which only made her feel better about it. She was glad to have an accomplice, because doing what she had been doing by herself had begun to get difficult. She put on some music and sat on the bed cross legged as she pulled a bottle of mint green nail polish from the bedside table and started doing her fingers.

Her phone rang and she put it on speaker.

"Hello?" she asked.

"It's me," Jason said, "Sorry to call, I just...I feel like I never properly thanked you for getting me this place and whatnot. Today was a nice much needed break from hell."

"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself," Kelly said, tossing her hair from her face as she continued to paint her nails, "but you know, I don't want you to think you're on easy street as a result. Sure, I'm giving you a place to live, but I do still want you to try and get on your own feet again while we do what we do, you understand?"

"Of course," Jason said, "Can't go back to what I was doing before, so I'll have to find a new line of work, but still, be good to get my life back on track in some capacity."

"Exactly," Kelly said, "My dad's always said that our future is our most valuable asset, and we need to prepare for it even if it's difficult."

"Your dad sounds like a smart man," Jason said, "Anyway I'll see you tomorrow, sleep good."

"You too, goodbye," Kelly said, hanging up, thinking about her father and her future. She hated parroting what her father had told her, mostly because she didn't believe it herself. She didn't see a future for herself. In all honesty, she didn't see much of a future at all. She sighed and kept on painting. When she was done, and her nails were dried, she laid on her back and looked up at the ceiling, at the pretty cloud in the dark stars her dad had helped her put up when she was a little girl. She reached over and pulled her stuffed bunny closer to her, squeezing it tightly.

She'd never been able to imagine a future. Even as a child, she'd never been able to think about herself growing up, and now that she was about grown up, she had trouble thinking about herself being even older. She didn't want to do anything with her life except hurt people, but unless you joined the military that wasn't a viable career choice. She sighed and shut her eyes. At least she had a friend in Jason. Maybe, she thought, if she could get Jasons life back on track, then she could feel a bit better about her own life eventually flaming out. At least perhaps one of them would get a chance at redemption. At good living. Because, as far as she was concerned, she never would.

For someone who acted so resilient, so in charge and decisive, underneath this facade, Kelly Baker was still just a child.

A very, very angry child.

Dodie hated the card wall with a passion unlike anything else.

The card wall was a space on the wall in her classroom where each kid had their own card, and whenever they were in trouble, or had a warning, they had to switch to a different color. Green meant you were a good student, while yellow indicated a warning, and red, of course, meant you'd gotten into some trouble. Dodie had never been anything but a green card, but that was no longer the case after today, and she wanted to do nothing else but run home and cry but she had to wait for her mom to come pick her up and talk with the teacher. Sitting in the hallway right outside the classroom, Dodie recognized her mothers jingling keyring instantly and looked up to see Regina approaching her. Regina knelt down in front of Dodie, reaching out and touching her face.

"Are you okay?" she asked softly, "What happened?"

"I don't know," Dodie muttered, "I got in trouble."

The classroom door opened and Dodie's teacher, Ms. Spink, peaked outside and smiled upon seeing Regina.

"Mrs. Hurks, please, come in," she said, stepping aside and allowing Regina to stand back up and enter the classroom, shutting the door behind them. Regina squeezed herself into one of the kids desk chairs and put her purse on the floor beside her while Ms. Spink walked back around to her seat behind her desk and pulled it out, sitting down in it. She glanced up at Regina and raised an eyebrow.

"I feel like a giant," Regina said, making the both of them chuckle; she cupped her hands on the desktop and looked at Ms. Spink, asking, "So...what's the situation? Why have I been called in?"

"Dodie's always been a great student," Ms. Spink said, "She's polite, she's studious, she's friendly, and as a result she's never once had to swap her card on the board. But after today..."

"What happened today exactly?" Regina asked and Ms. Spink sighed, shaking her head.

"I know it's been a hard few months for your family, given your husbands sudden death, and I know this has hit Dodie in particular extremely hard," Ms. Spink said, "but this afternoon, your daughter punched another girl in the mouth on the playground, and turmoil or otherwise, we simply cannot allow violence at the school of any kind from anyone."

Regina didn't know what to say. Dodie had never once acted out or been remotely violent, and she was shocked to hear this. She didn't even know how to respond. In fact, she was simultaneously mortified and surprised when she started laughing, not that Ms. Spink found it funny.

                                                                            ***

"Boy you really like horses," Palmer said as she laid on Sarah's bed, the both of them looking up at the posters she had pinned to the ceiling. Sarah just shrugged and laughed.

"It's an illness," she said, "I need a horserectomy."

Palmer cracked up and then rolled onto her side, looking at Sarah as she reached over and put her fingers in Sarah's hair. Sarah blushed and rolled onto her side as well, facing Palmer.

"I hope this okay, I'm really new to this dating stuff," Palmer said.

"You didn't date in high school?"

"I went on one date and it was for a friend because he didn't have one to a party," Palmer said, "Otherwise no, I stayed home, hung out with my sister, chilled in my room, whatever. I've never been too big into the whole social interaction thing."

"It can be exhausting, you're not wrong," Sarah said, "but I think you're doing okay."

"...does your family care at all?"

"What, about being queer? No," Sarah said, "They've known longer than I have I think. If anything, I think they're relieved, I think they were getting worried at one point that I was gonna be the sole lonely cat lady of the family. Well, horse lady, but you get the point."

Palmer chuckled and rolled back onto her back, looking back up at the ceiling, surprised when Sarah suddenly mounted her, sitting on her and looking down at her. Sarah bit her lip, grinning, before leaning down and kissing Palmer, who happily kissed her back.

"I'm sorry I'm so awkward," Palmer whispered after, "it's been a strange year."

"I understand."

"I'll be okay with being more public with things once my father's been gone a while longer, but...I just...I don't wanna put too much change on my mother as it is, you know?"

"I get it, it's cool, you don't have to explain yourself to me," Sarah said, leaning back in, kissing her again, letting her lips trail up Palmers neck to her ear where she whispered quietly, "I like you with or without the explanations."

Palmer had never felt so appreciative of another person.

                                                                         ***

Regina was driving home, Dodie in the backseat, after the meeting. All she could think back to was the moment she lost her cool in the classroom, and how awkward she felt. She sighed, rubbed her forehead and then pulled over to the side of the road, near a fast food place.

"Why are we stopping?" Dodie asked, pulling her headphones off cautiously.

"Doodlebug, I need to ask you something," Regina said, turning around in her seat, "...why did you hit that girl?"

Dodie shrugged.

"No," Regina said, "no, that's not an answer. Ms. Spink says it was because of something she said, so what did she say? What did she say that was so awful that made you feel the only course of action was to physically punish her for her words?"

Dodie sighed, rolling her head as she looked out the window.

"...she said dad died to get away from us, because we're losers," she finally said.

"...Dodie," Regina said, reaching back towards her, putting her hand on Dodie's leg, adding, "I just...I want you to know how proud I am of you for standing up for yourself and your father and...and even though I am proud, what you did wasn't okay in the grounds of being at school and cannot happen again, understand? Yes, you should never let someone be that cruel to you, but you should also never physically attack them when they do so."

Dodie and her mother locked eyes and Dodie slowly nodded. Regina patted her daughters leg, turned back around to face the windshield and smiled.

"Let's go get some ice cream," Regina said.

                                                                           ***

Palmer, true to her word, had never been in a relationship. Much like she'd never had sex before that time a few weeks prior, she'd also never dated someone regularly. It wasn't that she didn't have crushes or romantic inclinations, it was also that she just, as she had flat out said to Sarah, didn't have much interest in social interest with her peers. Even now, in college with Arthur and Anita, she always felt like the odd one out, much as she did appreciate their friendship.

But sitting here at the dinner table, with Sarah and Sarah's family, Palmer couldn't help but feel that sense of warmth that came from being with people who loved one another. A feeling she hadn't felt in ages, long before her father died. Last time she'd felt this was maybe when she was in 6th grade. As Sarah's mom, Roberta, piled more broccoli onto Palmers plate, Palmer thanked her politely before putting her napkin on her lap.

"How's your mother doing?" Sarah's father, Allen, asked.

"She's actually doing alright, it seems, all things considered," Palmer said, "My sister, I think, is the one being hit the hardest."

"How are you handling it?" Roberta asked, seating herself beside Allen and digging into her food.

"...I...I don't know, nobody's ever really asked me," Palmer said, "I guess I'm...angry? I'm not sad, and I feel bad for being sad, but I'm just not. Dad and I had a weird relationship, especially the older I got, so I think that sadness gave way to anger and resentment, you know? So now I'm mad, both that he's gone and that I'll never get the chance to fix things with him."

"That makes perfect sense," Allen said, wiping his mouth with his napkin and nodding, "It's understandable for some people to get lost in the shuffle when something like this happens, so I'm not surprised you're not being asked. My father had a heart attack when I was in my third year of college, and, same as you, we had a complicated relationship and I didn't even attend his funeral as a result. People were outraged, but I did what was best for me."

Palmer smiled. She appreciated Allen's kindness and understanding.

"You girls have any plans for tonight after dinner?" Robert asked, spearing a piece of chicken with her fork and raising it to her mouth.

"I was gonna take her to The Hidden Library," Sarah said.

"Where's that?" Palmer asked.

"Well, telling you wouldn't make it hidden now would it?" Sarah replied, all of them laughing.

Oh yes, it wasn't her family, but Palmer felt more accepted here than she did at home these days, and that was something she desperately needed and was eternally grateful for. Indeed, after dinner had finished, the girls got their jackets and Sarah drove them to a place called The Hidden Library, and, much to Palmer's surprise, it wasn't just a cute name, it actually was a library and it actually was hidden. The Hidden Library was put behind an old record store right next to a park, and tucked away in the very back of the shopping complex with trees hanging over it. They parked and walked across the lot into the building.

"This place is so cute, I've never even noticed it," Palmer said.

"Most people haven't, which is weird cause it's been here forever," Sarah said, "Like, the only reason my mom knew about it and showed it to me was because she worked here as a teenager in high school. It's always been special to me, but now you're special to me, so I wanted to show it to you."

Palmer blushed, but tried to hide it, which only made Sarah giggle harder. Palmer was not used to being treated so well by someone, and certainly not used to accepting compliments. They kept walking through, simply perusing with their eyes.

"It's really quiet and cozy in here," Palmer finally said, and Sarah nodded.

"It is. It's one of the few places besides the stables that I feel completely at ease within," Sarah said, taking one of Palmer's hands and adding, "Come on, I'll show you where they keep the horse books."

Palmer had never really been on a date, but as far as first dates went, she figured this was pretty darn good.

                                                                              ***

"You laughed?" Adam asked, "I'm sorry, you laughed at her? What could've possibly possessed you to do such a thing? Here she is telling you your child has violently struck another child, and your first inclination is to laugh? God you're sick, and that's why I like you."

Regina smirked as she paced in the living room, wine glass in hand while Adam sat on the couch, sipping his own wine. Regina tossed her hair and shook her head.

"It just happened, I can't explain it," she said, "part of it was just general nervousness, you know what that's like, right? Where you just..your body has a bizarre adverse reaction to something you can't control? That's what this was. But..."

"But the other part?" Adam said, and Regina bit her lip.

                                                                                 ***

"What happened today exactly?" Regina asked and Ms. Spink sighed, shaking her head.

"I know it's been a hard few months for your family, given your husbands sudden death, and I know this has hit Dodie in particular extremely hard," Ms. Spink said, "but this afternoon, your daughter punched another girl in the mouth on the playground, and turmoil or otherwise, we simply cannot allow violence at the school of any kind from anyone."

Regina didn't know what to say. Dodie had never once acted out or been remotely violent, and she was shocked to hear this. She didn't even know how to respond. In fact, she was simultaneously mortified and surprised when she started laughing, not that Ms. Spink found it funny.

"Do you find this funny?" Ms. Spink asked, and Regina shook her head.

"No, no I'm...god, I'm sorry, I just...I guess when your family falls apart, you start to have trouble caring about what other places worry about. I mean, my daughter lost her dad, my daughter was in a horrible car accident and somehow survived and now feels guilty that her dad was the one who died, and you're calling me in - me, someone who lost my husband of many years - to inform me that my daughter, probably justified in doing so, hit another girl in the mouth and I'm supposed to care? I know it's wrong, I know I'm supposed to care, but...I have a fridge full of leftovers from well meaning neighbors and friends and two daughters who are struggling to survive day to day life. I am alone, now on a somewhat fixed income, and will soon have to find work to support us because I guarantee what my husband left behind and what the insurance will pay out will not be enough forever, and you expect me to care about a playground spat?"

Ms. Spink's eyes widened. She was surprised at Regina's lack of professionalism, especially when she'd always come off as professional in the past.

"Well, considering it's against school policy, yes I think that-"

"Policy bullshit my ass," Regina said, standing up, "You know what should be against life policy? Taking apart a family and then expecting them to still maintain a facade of 'everything is fine' for the rest of the world. My family is broken, and the school expects us to react accordingly? I know what she did is wrong, I understand that and yes, it should never happen again, but that doesn't mean I'm going to treat it with the upmost seriousness when right now the true seriousness of my situation revolves around the death of my longtime husband and my daughters father. I have been putting up with so much bullshit from various institutions, from insurance companies to now schools, that I've just about had my goddamn fill of it. I'll tell her she wasn't in the right to do it, obviously, but I'm not gonna make her feel bad about defending herself. I refuse to breed fear of defense into my child because a school says I should. You'd think, being a teacher, you would understand that."

And Regina turned and rushed out of the room, slamming the door behind her. She leaned against the wall, covering her face with her hands, trying not to cry. She finally opened her eyes, pulled her hands away and looked towards the chair where Dodie was seated, and smiled.

"Am I in trouble?" Dodie asked.

"Sweetheart, we're all in trouble," Regina said, taking her by the hand and leading her to the parking lot.

Palmer couldn't stop staring at herself in the bathroom mirror.

She looked the same, and yet she didn't feel the same. She sighed, brushed her bangs from her eyes and exited the bathroom, only to find Arthur and Anita sitting at the table in the living room of the dorm, eating from a plate of bacon and hashbrowns together, jokingly arguing.

"It's just weird, right? I mean, we have elongated potatoes in their natural form, then stick potatoes in the form of french fries, then flat potatoes in the form of hashbrowns, but why're there no outright round potatoes? And don't say tater tots 'cause those ain't round," Anita said.

Palmer tried to ignore the conversation and headed to the fridge, yanking it open and peering inside. She'd been unable to concentrate on anything for the past week and felt awful. Classes had been rough, and even her sleep had been poor. Ever since that night with that boy from the student mixer, Palmer just hadn't felt good. She finally pulled a blackberry flavored soda from the fridge, popped the top and started drinking.

"Palmer, are tater tots round?" Anita asked, her and Arthur both looking at her now.

"...I think I need to see my mom," she said quietly.

                                                                         ***

Dodie and Nona stared at the volcano on the kitchen table, afraid to start the chain reaction. Regina stepped backward and, hands on her hips, nodded at her handiwork. It'd been a while since she'd made a baking soda volcano, but she still had it, gosh darn it. Standing there, helping her daughter and her daughters best (and seemingly only) friend do their science project, Regina felt a sense of accomplishment that she hadn't felt in ages. And then the front door opened. Palmer walked inside and flopped down on the couch, whining loudly until Regina came around.

"How are you sweetheart?" she asked, "You didn't even call to say you were coming."

"Mom, everything sucks," Palmer said loudly, making the girls in the kitchen giggle, which, in turn, made her smile a little.

"Everything okay?" Regina asked, sitting down on the couch as Palmer looked over behind them at the girls, and then lowered her voice, leaning closer to her mother.

"Can we talk somewhere?" she whispered, and Regina nodded.

The two stood up and headed into Regina's bedroom, leaving Dodie and Nona to admire the volcano by themselves. As they entered the bedroom, Regina shut the door and turned, watching as Palmer sat on the corner of the bed and slowly pulled her beanie off, letting her long blonde hair fall down to her sides, the sun from the window outside shining through it brightly.

"um," Palmer began, "...god, this is awkward. So, last weekend I went to a mixer with my friends, and...and I just...oh boy. So I went to this mixer, my friend Anita basically pressured me into it, which, I mean, I'm thankful for her for pushing me out of my comfort zone but I also hate her right now for it, because when I was there I met this boy and I..."

Regina leaned against the dresser and just listened. Palmer sighed and pushed her bangs from her eyes again. She needed a haircut. Maybe she'd ask her mom to cut her hair before she went back to the college. She hadn't had a haircut from her mom in ages, it seemed like. She missed that.

"So uh, we hung out and played card games and just talked, and then after a bit, we..." she started again before trailing off once more and Regina smiled, sitting down on the bed beside her daughter.

"I get it, you don't have to finish, I know what the end is. A story as old as college itself," Regina said, "You don't have to explain the rest."

"I have two problems," Palmer said, and Regina's face changed.

"...you're not pregnant are you?"

"God no!"

"Oh thank the lord," Regina said, clasping her hand to her chest and adding, "I mean, I'd support you even if you were, but that is just not something we need right now on top of everything else. Your father's death has been more than enough for the year. So, what's wrong then?"

Palmer stood up and started pacing, playing with her own fingers as she walked.

"I don't know how to explain this," she said, "he...he didn't stay, and by morning when I woke up he was gone. He didn't leave a note. He didn't give me his last name. He never gave me a phone number. He was just...gone. It dawned on me that every man I've dared to get close to, be it dad or this guy, have left me this year and...why do they keep leaving?"

Regina now could see how upset Palmer actually was. She was struggling not to cry as she leaned against the wall and wiped at her eyes with her sweater sleeve.

"why does everyone keep leaving me?" she whispered.

"Sweetheart," Regina said, patting the spot Palmer had been sitting, making Palmer come and seat herself once more as Regina hugged her daughter and said, "It isn't you. Your father didn't die on purpose, and this boy, I mean, maybe something came up, maybe he'll come back around, who knows. All I know is that none of it is your fault."

"How can you sit there and tell me none of it is my fault when dad never liked me much and this guy apparently didn't like me enough to stick around through the night?" Palmer asked, "Apparently I'm doing something wrong if that many people regularly dislike me."

"I assure you, it's not you," Regina said, "your father didn't really like me much either as the years went on. We...we were always friends, but the romance went away pretty quickly once you girls were born. He was a...a weird man, Palmer. And as for this boy, well, it's his loss."

"You have to say that, you're my mom."

"Oh, I assure you I don't have to say anything that would bolster your self esteem just because I'm your mom. Believe me. My mom taught me that much," Regina said, making Palmer chuckle. It was true. Grandma had always been especially bitter towards Regina, and Palmer knew it all too well; after a moment of rubbing her back, Regina asked, "So what's the second problem?"

"Hmmm?"

"You said you have two problems, what's the second problem?" Regina asked, and Palmer bit her lip.

"oh, right," she muttered, "uh...well, I guess that would be the fact that it felt...wrong."

"Wrong how? I mean, the first time is rarely the best, but-"

"Because it..." Palmer started, then stopped.

"What? What is it? You can tell me," Regina said.

But how could she? She knew her mother was open minded. She knew she wouldn't hate her for it. But how could she tell her mother that it felt wrong because it was with a man?

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Dodie and Nona were still sitting at the kitchen table, looking over all the little details Regina had put into the baking soda volcano. She'd even gone out and bought tiny little model palm trees and put them around the mountain range, to make it appear more scenic, and she'd gone and collected little rocks outside for more detailing. Dodie sighed and sat back in her seat.

"It feels like everything is almost always covered in lava," she said, "that threat is scary. Things are gonna overflow and kill everything in front of them."

"You mean like with family?" Nona asked, and Dodie nodded, resting her chin on the table.

"Like, my dad dying was the explosion, and since then, everything has just gotten worse and covered in lava," Dodie said.

Nona sighed and looked at her friend. She wanted to say something, but was unsure of just what that something was. Instead she stayed quiet and just looked back from Dodie to the volcano. It was a weird analogy, but not a bad one. Back in the bedroom, Regina was still sitting on the bed as Palmer cried, her head resting on her mothers shoulder.

"I'm so sorry," she cried, "I don't know what to do, I don't even know who I am anymore. Dad dying has destroyed my identity because it made me realize I never had one to begin with and now I'm so old I don't know how to make one. I hope I'm not just making this up, grasping at something to make something for myself."

"Honey, if you're gay you're gay," Regina said, "and that's perfectly fine, I don't care. What I do care about, however, is how upset you are. You need to do something to calm down, ease yourself into this. It's a big moment, accepting a part of yourself, but you-"

Suddenly Palmer stood up in a shot and rushed out of the room, leaving Regina confused. As she raced out the front door, Dodie and Nona noticed, but just shrugged as she disappeared out of sight. A moment later Regina stumbled into the kitchen and, hands on her hips, sighed before looking at the girls at the table and, smiling, went back to helping them.

                                                                           ***

Sarah was standing in the stall of her palamino, brushing him down before setting the brush down and picking up a small hose with a squeeze nozzle on the end. She then started spraying the ground, while the horse ate hay from the nearby hanging metal trough. Sarah had headphones on, and didn't hear the doors open, or hear the footsteps approaching on. It wasn't until a hand was on her shoulder, turning her around to face her, that she finally screamed a little and yanked her headphones down.

"Good god mayor of buttstown, don't do that!" she said loudly, making Palmer chuckle a little.

"Sorry, I guess you couldn't hear me," she said.

"What are you even doing here and how'd you know I'd be here?" Sarah asked, brushing errant strays of her walnut brown hair out of her face.

"I had a bad weekend," Palmer said, "Last weekend I made a mistake, or maybe it wasn't a mistake, I don't know yet, and now I'm freaking out and you were the person I had to talk to because you're the only way I'll know and I'm really sorry about both this being a run on sentence and also that I need to kiss you."

Sarah's eyes widened and she laughed, completely taken aback by this sudden admission. The more Palmer looked at her face, the more she realized she liked what she saw. Sarah had a very young looking face, and slightly buck teeth. She had dark walnut colored hair that was in a ponytail and hazel eyes. After a minute of laughing, she finally regained her composure and cleared her throat.

"I'm sorry, I just...that's the most forward anyone's ever been with me," she said, "But, sure, if you need to test this out, may as well be me I suppose."

Palmer nodded, then put one hand on Sarah's shoulder and the other on her hip and looked in her eyes. She'd never once questioned herself. She'd always assumed she'd liked boys, and perhaps she still could. She certainly liked Eric but didn't like the sex. The sun was beginning to set and dim rays of light broke through the cracks of the weathered barn, splashing across Sarah's face. Palmer shut her eyes and leaned forward, pressing her lips against Sarah's, kissing her hard. Sarah kissed her back, she couldn't help it. After a few minutes of kissing heavily, Palmer stumbled, pushing Sarah against the barn wall and kissing down her neck, making her breath heavily.

"Whoa whoa, wait, just," Sarah said, giggling, "This is all very, uh, welcome and hot, but...uh..."

"I'm...I'm sorry, I don't know what I'm doing," Palmer said, stuttering, "oh god I'm so bad at romance and stuff, I never...I've barely kissed anyone in my whole life."

"Really? Cause I thought you did pretty well," Sarah said, "I just...I actually like you, and I wanna help you but I...I can't let myself get involved with yet another straight girl using me to experiment on. I hope that makes sense. So if you're sincere, if...if you're interested in doing this and...and it makes sense to you, then I'll gladly help, but if you just are gonna hurt me, then..."

Sarah glanced at the ground and sighed.

"I've been through it too many times," she whispered.

"I would never hurt you," Palmer said quietly, pushing some of Sarah's hair behind her ear, making Sarah blush as she added, "I'm sorry, I can't believe other girls have done that, that isn't okay. All I know is that before you asked me, I was certain of my status, and once I lost my virginity, all I could think about was what you asked, and...and if all I can think about after fucking a boy is how much I would've maybe preferred fucking a girl, then there's a pretty good chance I'm gay."

"Definitely true," Sarah said, laughing, which made Palmer laugh, finally easing some of her tension. A moment passed, and Sarah fluttered her eyes a bit and looked back up at Palmer, then said softly, "You can keep kissing me now if you want."

And she didn't hesitate to take that offer.

                                                                          ***

Dodie and Nona stood in front of the classroom the following Monday morning, Dodie reading off the cards while Nona poured the baking soda into the open volcanic hole at the top, making everything spew outwards, rolling down the mountain, exciting everyone in class. It felt like a success, but it also felt like what life had become. Everything was breaking down, and there was nothing Dodie could do to stop it but run for cover.

Meanwhile, on the same Monday morning, Palmer woke up to her landline off the hook, sitting on the bed. As she reached for the receiver and put it to her face, she was happy to hear Sarah's voice. They'd talked all night, and had fallen asleep together on the phone. This was far more comfortable than anything Palmer had done with Eric, and she was grateful for that.

As Palmer got ready for her classes, she found Anita and Arthur siting, once more, at the table eating bacon and hashbrowns, once more arguing jokingly. Palmer poured herself a cup of coffee and leaned against the counter, listening until Anita finally looked at her.

"Tell Arthur that he's wrong and that Pork doesn't come in every shape and size," she said, "It doesn't come in a triangle shape!"

"Because who the hell would make triangular pork? That's actually a great name for a band though," he then whispered to himself.

"What's with you?" Anita asked Palmer, who just shrugged, sipping her coffee.

"Nothing," she said, "I'm just having a great morning."

The young man, in his early twenties, went outside to the mailbox and pulled it open. He reached inside and gathered what meager offerings it held, before shaking his head and heading back up the walkway to the front door, totally unaware of the teenage girl watching him from the car just a bit down the street. Kelly jotted something down in a notepad, then exhaled. She reached over, picked her coffee up from the cupholder and sipped it before starting the car again and pulling away.

The thing she'd noticed most while doing this was how little people realize their surroundings. They just go about their day to day business, never once bothering to take in what changes there might be or what differences - mundane or worrisome - might just show up nearby. It was like they were oblivious to such things. Kelly thought that was a terrible way to go through life, so completely unaware of what was happening just around you. This is why people vanish. Why they go missing. Why they get kidnapped. Because, to her at least, they were simply too stupid to prevent it otherwise since they just. never. looked. up.

                                                                             ***

Jason was sitting on the couch in the lovenest, eating breakfast he'd gone out and gotten from a nearby diner with some cash Kelly had left him when he heard the front door open. He heard the sound of her heels walking behind him, but he stayed focused on his scrambled eggs and hashbrowns and bacon, his eyes glued to the news on the television when suddenly a report caught his attention.

"We've just picked up this story about a young woman who had the worst celebration imaginable. In a freak turn of events while celebrating her college acceptance, one miss Lana Plummer caught a firecracker to the side of her face, resulting in the loss of her ear. In the trauma ward for a week, Plummer has since stated that she-"

Jason shut the TV off and leaned back on the couch. He knew exactly who the girl was, and exactly how she'd actually lost her ear. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair as he set his plate down on the little table to the side of the couch while Kelly pulled the fridge door open and pulled out some celery sticks and peanut butter. As she started to put the two together, humming to herself while spreading, Jason looked over at her.

"Don't you have school?" he asked.

"I go to a private school, Jason. They don't care about attendance so long as my father continues to writ them big fat yearly donation checks to keep their other wings open," Kelly said, "I should go, yes, but I had something to do today."

"Yeah, what's that?"

"Keep an eye on someone," she said, biting into one of the sticks and chewing for a moment. Once she was finished she continued, "now get your shoes on, I have something for us to do."

He hated hearing those words.

                                                                               ***

"So who is she?" Jason asked, pulling the binoculars down from his eyes and handing them back to Kelly.

They were sitting on a park bench, watching a somewhat older heavyset woman play with two little boys on the nearby playground. Kelly shifted, crossing her legs and tossing her hair.

"I'd think the less you know the easier it'd be to get this stuff done, wouldn't you agree?"

"Hey, if I'm gonna do this, I need to know they deserve it," Jason said, "I'm not gonna just do this because you tell me to. There's need to be some common ground here to alleviate my guilt, alright?"

"Okay, fair enough. Her name is Shauna. She was my nanny growing up," Kelly said, "She was a very good nanny. She helped me with homework, she took me to therapy, she did my laundry and cooked dinner for me. This was back when my folks were working a ton, which they don't do so much now. The workload has kinda evened out. Anyway, she was excellent at her job."

"So...why doe she deserve grievous bodily harm done unto her?" Jason asked, raising a brow.

Kelly paused. She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes, then she turned and looked Jason square in the face.

"Because one night, when asking for a pay raise, she told my mother how bad she was at being a mom. How she was never around. How she didn't seem to care that she had a child she should look after. That's never sat well with me," Kelly said, "Then, a week later, she left and never came back. Never said goodbye, never explained her absence. She was just gone. That stung. I don't like being abandoned."

Jason was starting to see that she happened to be targeting people who'd specifically done her parents an injustice, and thusly by extension, herself. This wasn't as random as he'd been led to believe. There appeared to be some sort of method to her madness. He leaned back against the bench and took a bite from the pretzels they'd bought at the cart in the park, chewing.

"So," he asked, "how we doing this?"

Kelly smirked. It was nice working with someone so easily pliable.

                                                                               ***

Shauna Myers was exhausted.

She'd just spent hours watching over two little boys, ages 5 and 7, and all she wanted to do now was to get home, kick her shoes off, drink wine and watch TV. As she pulled into her driveway and parked, she didn't even notice the random car parked down the street, as nobody ever seems to. She got out of her car, gathered her bags and headed into her house, while Kelly and Jason watched from the car. Kelly pulled on her leather gloves and adjusted them as Jason prepared his little toolkit Kelly had put together for him, consisting of a pair of pliers, a screwdriver, and various other tools and instruments.

"They never notice," Kelly said.

"What?" Jason asked.

"Nobody ever notices when things change around them," Kelly said, "They go about their lives, never once blinking an eye to, say, a random car parked on their street that's never been there before. They simply don't question things, because questioning things makes them paranoid and let's face it life is stressful enough without that added issue. So they go about their lives, not noticing people who may be watching them, then acting shocked when they're suddenly abducted seemingly out of the blue."

"...you're not wrong, and that's what's sick. I did the same thing. I went through my day to day life, never once looking up and seeing the cracks slowly forming in the facade," Jason said, "I just...one day everything was different, and suddenly I didn't have the life I used to have. The life I took for granted."

"At least you're aware of it."

"Yeah, only after the fact."

"That's still more in tune than most people will ever be," Kelly said, reaching into the backseat and pulling a small bag to her lap, adding, "By the way, I picked us up some masks. This way it'll be harder to identify us, if some sort of accident occurs where we get sloppy."

She pulled out two plastic masks, one fox and one rabbit, and she looked at them, smiling.

"Got a preference?" she asked, and Jason shrugged.

"I guess I like the rabbit," he said, "When I was growing up, I spent a lot of time on my grandparents ranch, and they had a rabbit hutch. I was always partial to bunnies. Never got to have one as a pet, but I got to spend a lot of time with them there, so that kinda made up for it."

Kelly nodded, then handed him the rabbit mask, which he pulled on over his face. Kelly did the same with the fox mask, and then they looked at one another. She took a deep breath, then snapped her fingers and away they went. They went around the side of the house, finding the side door leading from the garden into the kitchen unlocked, and Kelly twisted the knob slowly and quietly. The door slowly swung open, and they crept inside, but Shauna was nowhere to be seen. They could hear water running, and Kelly assumed she was in the shower.

"Perfect," Kelly whispered as she and Jason entered into the living room. They could hear the shower running down the hall, and Kelly leaned against the wall, sighing. Jason stopped and looked at the photos on the wall. Shauna and her parents, Shauna as a child on vacation, and then one photo stopped him in his tracks. He pulled it off the wall and walked to Kelly with it.

"Look," he said softly.

"What?" she asked, taking the frame in her hands and examining the image, "...so she kept a photo of us together, so what?"

"So she clearly felt bad about leaving," Jason said, "I don't think she deserves this."

"That doesn't mean shit. Like you said, it only alleviates her own guilt. She let me live with abandonment for years. She made my mother feel like shit. She doesn't deserve to get to live in peace just because she kept a photo for herself while I had to go to therapy to deal with being left behind," Kelly said, almost snarling.

Jason sighed and placed the frame back on the wall, just as the shower water turned off and they heard the bathroom door open. Shauna came out, in a robe, and walked into the living room. She stopped and looked at the frame hung slightly askew on the wall and furrowed her brow. Had that been that way for a long time and she simply hadn't noticed? She didn't even hear Jason come up behind her, choking her out.

When Shauna Myers came to, she found she was sitting tied to a chair. She looked around, but it was dark. She couldn't make heads or tails of her immediate surroundings, at least not until the light flickered on. That was when she realized she was in, what appeared to be, a cellar. She saw the two people standing nearby - one in a fox mask, the other a rabbit mask - and she started to feel like she was in a nightmare of some kind. After a moment or two, the fox masked person approached Shauna and pulled the rag from around her mouth and then stepped back.

"What's going on?" Shauna asked.

"Your entire career is based around watching over children," Kelly said, her piercing eyes looking out through the mask eyeholes as she added, "and yet you let some children live with believing they weren't good enough to keep you around. What do you think that does to a childs self esteem?"

Shauna's eyes widened, shocked at this question. Who was she dealing with? What even was going on?

"I...uh...what?" Shauna asked as Kelly pulled a stool across the floor, the wooden legs scraping against the dirt and concrete, and then sat in front of Shauna, mask still over her face.

"How do you deal with knowing that a child thinks less of themself because you left, when your entire job was to be there for them?" Kelly asked, "Children already are so fragile, they're already so...so very scared of the world. Confused by the actions of the adults that surround them, and yet...here you are...just leaving without a word."

"Sometimes it isn't my choice," Shauna said, "Sometimes the parents require me to leave without saying anything to avoid a scene, or because they think the child is becoming more attached to me than the mother. If it were up to me, I'd never leave without saying goodbye."

Jason started to pace in the back of the cellar, unraveling his toolkit onto a table and scanning the items available to him. Kelly snapped her fingers and then held up her index, indicating she wanted a number one. Jason nodded, pulling a pair of pliers from the belt and walking it over to her. He put it in her hands, and she thanked him, then turned back to Shauna as she put the pliers up to her nails.

"For what it's worth, you're a good nanny," Kelly said, pressing the nail between the ends of the pliers before adding, "but you're never better than a mother" and then tearing the nail from Shauna's hand, making her scream.

                                                                             ***

Shauna Myers was left in the cellar until she passed out from the pain, and then they left her on the side of a usually busy road so she'd be found by someone. After dumping her, Jason and Kelly went to get dinner at a little bar and grill. Sitting in the bar and grill, sharing a large chicken salad between them, Jason couldn't help but feel sick. He still wasn't adjusted to this line of work, no matter what he'd told himself. After a little bit, he looked up across the table at Kelly, who smiled at him and cocked her head to the side.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"How do you do it?" he asked, "How do you stand doing something so despicable?"

"I don't think about it," Kelly said, "Everyone has their price, and everyone is capable of doing horrible things, even if they think they aren't. But when pushed against a wall or into a corner, everyone goes down fighting. I just am better at ignoring my actions than most."

"I feel awful," Jason said quietly and Kelly sighed.

"I'm sorry, I know it's hard to get used to, but you will eventually, trust me," Kelly said, "David said the same thing."

Jason just raised an eyebrow, then ignored it, stabbing another piece of chicken and eating it. He chewed for a bit, swallowed and then took a very long drink from his root beer before looking back at Kelly.

"I can't stay in the love nest forever," he said, "I mean, I'd love to, it's wonderful, but eventually your dad's gonna show up and I don't wanna be squatting when that happens."

"I'm already working on that," Kelly said, "and we'll deal with it this week, but for right now I don't wanna talk about things. I just wanna eat. This really builds up an appetite."

Jason nodded, picked his fork back up and continued eating, even though all he could see when he shut his eyes was Shauna screaming as he nails were pulled, one by one, off her fingers. That was a sight he wouldn't soon forget. After Kelly took Jason back to the love nest, she went home and headed upstairs to find her mom in bed. As she entered the room, her mother looked up, setting her book down in her lap.

"Hi sweetheart," her mother, Stacy, said.

"Hi mom," Kelly said as she climbed into the bed and snuggled up to her mothers side.

Stacy stroked her daughters hair and then kissed the side of her head.

"How was your day?" Stacy asked.

"...pretty good," Kelly replied, smiling.