Sure, I'd been able to leave the house without anyone noticing, but bringing a strange boy into the kitchen definitely attracted attention.

My mother cut herself off in the middle of her tirade to gawk at me and Andersen with wary eyes. "Emil… is this your boyfriend?"

I felt my face heat up, unable to find words, and Lucia's snort of stifled laughter didn't exactly help.

"Ooh, wait," Mom added, suddenly very interested in my sister's soulmate, "tall, blond, handsome, a few freckles on your nose…."

Cripes, I knew exactly where she was getting that description from, and I didn't like it.

"Berwald Oxenstierna!" Mom exclaimed happily, firmly shaking Andersen's hand. "Emil's told me all about you over email! You're-"

"He's not Oxenstierna!" I shot back, incredulous.

Andersen, no longer able to help himself, started giggling like this wasn't an outrage, doubling over in stitches and squawking something incoherent that sounded vaguely like "emails his mom about his crushes!" that was definitely offensive enough to justify punching him in the arm.

That seemed to snap him out of it. "No," he replied as he wiped at the corners of his eyes, "actually, I'm Berwald's older brother."

Mom gave me a sly smile and she looked like she was going to say something else, but I interrupted her.

"He's nothing like him, though! We're not dating."

Was I lying? No. Would my words have convinced anyone of that? Probably not.

But, luckily, Andersen finally decided to be helpful. "In fact, I'm a bit more interested in Lucia, to be honest."

Wow, and he even remembered to use her full name in front of my mother. Smooth.

"Ah. I see," she turned back to Lucia, who was sitting at the table in a blue hoodie with her face covered as she tried to look smaller than she actually was, and gave her a look. "Well, maybe you can get her to talk then."

Lucia started and I caught a glimpse of her panicked eyes under the hood, but Andersen looked unfazed. "Actually," he said, "that's exactly why I'm here."

With that, he walked over to the table and took a seat right next to my sister, taking her hands in his own and rubbing them gently as he continued. "See, I kinda screwed up and she got hurt in the process. I figured that she and her family deserve to know exactly what happened—including you, Ms. Jensen. 'Course, I know Lucia here would rather keep it a secret, but I know from experience that it'd really be best to let you know."

Then, he flashed Lucia a mellow, disarming smile that aimed to soothe her trembling hands and bewildered eyes.

"God, you didn't knock her up, did you?" Mom asked, arms crossed over her waist.

The tips of his ears tinged red, but Andersen shook his head. "No, I didn't get her pregnant. Believe me, I haven't even slept with her. Lu, wanna tell her?"

Even with her hood, I could see that Lucia looked like a deer in the headlights, staring at Andersen in confusion, at a loss for words. Her soulmate continued to rub her shaky hands and she involuntarily leaned into the touch as she turned to look at me, an obvious question in her eyes. I nodded and she bit her lip before sighing and saying, "fine," in a clearly masculine voice as she drew her hands away from Andersen to pull down her hood. "Mom, this idiot turned me into a boy."

Heh, just like removing a bandage: rip it off quick and deal with the damage.

My mom had to do a double-take. Scratch that, she had to do a triple-take. "Umm… what?"

I saw her wobbling, so I gently led her to a free seat across from Andersen. "You might wanna sit down, Mom."

I took the final seat at the table and shot Andersen an angry glare (you started this mess, dude) as Mom and Lucia both fumbled for words.

Those two had never been able to communicate effectively. My mom was an ambitious, bubbly businesswoman, and Lucia was an uptight, introverted sorceress—not exactly a winning combination.

"How- but you-"

"Well…" Lucia rubbed the back of her neck. "I'm a sorceress. Surprise?"

Nice try, Lu, but if I have to call you storebror now, you ought to start calling yourself a sorcerer.

"I always thought it'd be Emil."

"What?" me and Lucia yelped in unison.

She… she knew that magic was a thing?

Mom shrugged. "Well, yeah, I mean, he's the one with the purple eyes. Just like your father, you know." Without giving either of us enough time to even consider asking another question, she turned to Andersen. "So you're a sorcerer as well?"

Andersen gave me a shit-eating grin that said I told you so, then meekly replied, "no, I'm a werewolf."

He flinched at the word 'werewolf', likely expecting some negative judgment from my mom, but she just nodded. "Okay, but then how did you do this? And, more importantly, why? Just for aesthetics? Lucia does make a handsome boy."

"Stop that," Lucia muttered, pushing that one unruly lock of hair behind her ear, only for it to stick out again. "He had someone cast a spell to get rid of his soulmate. I assume you know what a soulmate is?"

Mom smiled, "of course I do! I'm not kidding when I say I still feel a special connection to Gunnar."

Gunnar was my father, by the way. And… my father was apparently a sorcerer? Sweet. Either way, what she had claimed was definitely in line with what I'd heard about this soulmate nonsense—after Dad died, their bond wouldn't have gone away; it would have left a little piece of him inside my mother's heart to carry with her forever.

Or, uh… some romantic crap like that. It wasn't like I'd specifically done research on this.

Then Mom got this contemplative look on her face that made her forehead scrunch up and her lips pull into a tight line, and she squinted at Andersen. "So you're my daughter's soulmate?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

"And you wanted to get rid of her?" she bawled, suddenly furious.

My mom is subject to maddeningly quick mood swings. Beware. Lucia always says I inherited that trait from her, but I beg to differ—she can go from cheery to enraged faster than I can even comprehend.

"It's not like that," he promised. "Like I said before, I screwed up. That's the other reason I'm here: I never told any of you why I did it."

No one dared interrupt him as he told us about his brother's kidnapped soulmate (which I'd already heard about, but Mom needed background), the man who'd threatened him, and his ultimate decision to have Arthur cast a spell to get rid of his soulmate.

After he finished, Lucia furrowed her brow. "So, the person who has Tino, whoever he is... he's after you as well?"

I noticed that Andersen had finally stopped holding my sister's hands, opting instead to anxiously drum his fingers on the table. "Yeah- or, at least, he was at one point. I think I'm probably in the clear now, since I cast that spell."

"But, what happens if you break the spell?" I blurted out and I had to keep my foot from tapping on the hardwood floor. I wasn't supposed to be nervous, was I? This was just Andersen. Why should I have cared if he was kidnapped?

"Well," Andersen shot back, tongue-in-cheek, "when we break the spell, I don't really know what happens. But, does it really matter, so long as we rescue Tino and take out the kidnapper like we were planning in the first place?"

I couldn't argue with that. "True. I guess this doesn't change things too much from the original plan. There's just a little more at stake."

Originally, I'd just said that for politeness' sake, because I was still secretly hoping I'd gain the ability to hate Andersen completely, but as I looked back at Lucia, the words found new meaning. She was looking at Andersen's left hand, still rapping on the table, and she took it with both her own, putting it to her lips.

Andersen didn't draw back, but he definitely looked bemused and not the least bit flustered by her.

This wasn't just his life at stake—it was Lucia's, too. I couldn't afford to forget that.

Finally, Lucia gingerly set his hand back down on the table, smiling softly as she turned to her left. "What do you think of all this, Mom?"

Mom blinked, as if she had forgotten that she existed for a few minutes. She gave Andersen a stern look that was hard to read, then turned to Lucia. "I think your soulmate's an idiot."

I stifled a snort. Sometimes, even after living under the same roof as her and, y'know, being her son, I still forgot that underneath her cheerful exterior, she was just as cold and blunt as the rest of us. It was kind of refreshing to see that side of her, actually. This side wasn't quick to anger or make fun—it just stung a bit.

"I can't deny it," admitted Lucia, her little smile giving way to a full-on snarky smirk. She looked at Andersen, as if expecting him to argue.

"What?" he asked with a shrug. "I can't, either. You don't wanna know how low I scored on that internet IQ test last week. Berwald told me I should probably get my head checked."

I couldn't help it, I started laughing. Luckily, I wasn't alone; Lucia let out a low chuckle as well. "Look at it this way," I protested as I tried to catch my breath (my chest was still heaving involuntarily, and I could hardly speak). "At least he's self-aware."

"But is a self-aware idiot really an idiot?" Andersen asked.

"You'd have to be an idiot to think otherwise," Lucia answered, matter-of-fact. "But really, Mom, you're okay with all this?"

"Don't see why not. Just don't get yourself killed, and we won't have any problems."

Those words were probably the best support we could get from our Mom, so Lucia and I accepted this. I finally excused myself from the room to finish my homework, but not before Andersen asked me to show him to the door (as if he couldn't find it himself).

I opened it for him as he put his shoes on, distantly wondering what he was going to say to me—and he was definitely going to say something to me, because honestly, why else would he call me out here? "Night, Andersen," I mumbled as he zipped up his jacket.

"Are you really still using my last name?" he asked with a pout. "It makes me sound old. Why not just call me Matthias?"

Well, technically, I was still trying to hate him, but I was quickly giving up on that goal. "Fine. Night, Matthias. Anything else you wanted to say?"

"I sounded really confident back there, but I really don't know how well this spell-breaking thing is gonna work out. I… I'll try, but she's already starting to make me a bit uncomfortable. Douchebaggery was my last defense."

"Well, even if you were threatened, you're the jerk who got us into this mess," I replied with a fake smile as I held the door open and motioned for him to walk through. "You knew the consequences when you underwent that spell."

He walked out onto the porch. "Yeah, I know. Like I said, I'll try. See you tomorrow, Emil."

"Night, Mat."

And then I slammed the door and ran upstairs before anyone could call me out on using a goddamn nickname on Andersen, holy crap.

But, as I was leaving the entryway, I swore I saw something twitch out of the corner of my eye, and had I actually been listening, I might have heard a stifled sob.

I hadn't been listening, though, so I didn't, and I wouldn't hear of it for a long while later.

"Emil, you're not part of the vampire hunt," Lucia said resolutely as she zipped up her black jacket, which was a bit tight but otherwise perfectly fine. She made her way to the doorway, where she put on an old pair of men's hiking boots we'd found in the closet a few weeks back and began to lace them up.

I rolled my eyes. That day at school, Jan had specifically told me to meet up with Andersen at some point today, but of course no one had informed Lucia of these plans. "Yes, I am. I'm their head strategist. You can ask Matthias or Jan if you don't believe me."

"Uh-huh, yeah, sure," she replied aloofly as she pulled out her phone and began texting, probably to disprove my claims. Satisfied, she stood there for a moment with a small smirk on her face, looking at me like I was just as cute as I was completely incorrect (ha, right), then her phone buzzed and she looked back down.

Her face fell. "When you were out yesterday and you came back with Matthias… you were hunting vampires?"

Noting her concern, I tried to backpedal at least a little bit, "well, hunting is a strong word. See, Jan's a pacifist, so-"

"But, you were in close proximity to a vampire?" Her hands were on her hips, and with her larger-than-usual stature, I felt myself wavering.

Of course, my only defense was teenage sardonicism. "Duh. You obviously weren't gonna help me, so instead, I gave Matthias my number yesterday and he got me in the group."

I had wanted to say more, but she cut me off there, "you gave Matthias your number?" The look on her face was suddenly frighteningly smug and she look uncannily like Mom had last night when I'd introduced Matthias.

Averting my gaze, I replied, "yeah."

Lucia pocketed her phone then took a step closer and narrowed her eyes at me as I tried not to wince. "Are you sure you don't have a thing for him?"

God, why? I almost choked on my spit as I spluttered for something dignified to say. Unfortunately, all that came out was, "eww, gross," which wasn't the most convincing argument (though, I promise, I definitely didn't have a thing for Andersen, I was way too classy to fall for someone with hair that stupid).

"Yeah, sure," Lucia agreed, though now she seemed uninterested in whether or not I had the hots for her soulmate. "Well, I guess if you have to be on the mission, lead strategist isn't so dangerous. Do you really have to come with me right now, though? I was really just gonna hang with Matthias, do some homework, and maybe talk about vampires a bit."

Though I didn't disbelieve her, and I was almost ready to just give in, I remembered Matthias' uneasy words last night. Even if Lucia didn't think I was doing them any favors by being there, I might as well try to keep them from embarrassing each other—or worse, themselves. "Trust me, you want me with you."

"Oh, well…" she seemed to consider this for a moment, skeptical but not closed-minded, before she gave me a shrug. "I guess you can come. Just don't gag when I'm in the same room as him. Or swoon."

This seemed fair, so, realizing it was only twenty degrees out (though there was still no snow), we both fetched our hats and mittens. We made our way outside, stealing Mom's little red convertible and heading off towards Andersen's house.

"Look at it this way," I explained half an hour later as I pointed at a map of the city. I was holding an uncapped red Sharpie, and it left a big inky dot on the thin paper as I spoke. "If we put a pound of garlic here—" I lifted my Sharpie and made another large dot a few blocks over— "and we put a pound of garlic here, then we can corner it right here." I circled a large area between the two dots, and turned to look at my sister and her soulmate.

Matthias clapped (facetiously, perhaps? Who knew), but Lucia looked nonplussed. "Wouldn't we have to find a way to block off the other cross streets? And what if the vampire isn't even within those bounds when we set up the garlic?"

"That's where we come in," I replied, ready for her badgering. "There are two cross streets and one dead end between Point A and Point B." Realizing I hadn't specified what points A and B were, I quickly labeled the two dots accordingly. "That means there are five conceivable exits for the vampire. I propose we find the hardest three to guard and have Matthias, Vlad, and Jan take those. You can take another one, and I can take the easiest one (heavily armed, of course). That way, you don't have to worry about my safety, and the chances of escape are lower."

"Are you suggesting that I'm not as good at guarding a street as those three numbskulls (no offense, Matthias)?"

"None taken," Matthias said with a smile, though his teeth gritted as he waved his hand dismissively.

I twirled my marker as I replied, unimpressed, "Lucia, you've never even seen a vampire before."

She sighed. "Fair."

"Anyway," I continued, "to answer your second question, we'll have to keep watch every night we can until we hear a victim within that vicinity. Given the statistics, it should only take three to four attacks maximum before it strikes there again. I made sure to pick its most popular feeding spot. Its feeding habits are becoming more regular, so we know it'll attack once every three days. At that rate, we should catch the vampire within two weeks. Any objections?"

Lucia smirked. "Yeah. Are you done yet? Matthias and I were gonna study."

"C'mon, Lu," Matthias chided mirthfully, though the way his eyes darted toward me cried for help, "there's no reason why he can't do homework with us as well. He's taking the same level classes we are anyway." He turned to me. "How's AP Physics going? I took it last year, it was a lot of fun."

I ignored Lucia's indignant huff, replying, "just fine, no help needed. I could use a bit of help with my German homework, though."

Matthias' eyes lit up at that. "Well, lucky for you, I'm fluent in German. Whatcha studying?"

The conversation continued like this for another hour or so, reviewing and studying and doing bits of homework. All of us were in Precalculus, —Lucia was on an honor's track, and I had tested out of Algebra entirely—and as such, we all had the same homework for that class. As I finished up question #17, I looked over to notice that my sister was moving right next to Matthias and pointing ot his notebook, the crown of her head lightly grazing his chin. Matthias was chewing his pencil, answering each flirtatious question and flamboyant remark she shot his way with steadily increasing anxiety.

Begrudgingly, I realized that he was right: his fuckboy persona really was the only thing holding him together.

Trust me, I hated him—was trying to hate him—but I was also starting to feel bad. Lucia was more than a little overbearing, and whatever dark magic was working in her head and heart certainly didn't make her any less intimidating. Not to mention that like this, she was bordering on clingy.

Matthias finally seemed to get his nerve when Lucia made something that sounded sort of like an innuendo (though I couldn't be sure; I'm not exactly an expert on sex jokes and euphemisms). Setting the pencil down with white knuckles, now battered with bite marks, he opted to chew his lip instead, pulling very obviously away from Lucia and moving closer to me. He flashed me a small smile, nothing like his normal confident ones, and asked me how to find a limit as X goes to infinity.

Luckily, I knew limits like I knew the palm of my hand, so I rattled off the answer while I spared a glance back at Lucia. She was staring down at her notebook, knees folded and arms crossed as though she was trying to make herself as small as possible.

After I finished, there was a long, awkward silence. No one spoke for about ten minutes, and after I wrote my last response to the last question of my math homework, I excused myself. Both Matthias and Lucia gave me something that I could only define as a longing gaze, but this only made me more uncomfortable. Katyusha was probably going to summon me soon, anyway, I reminded myself as I backed out of the room.

It made me think, though, as I stole the car keys from Lucia and drove back home. If they were so perfect for each other, why did they need me so badly? Shouldn't they be able to sort this out themselves?

What they really needed was some damn communication, not that either of them would go for that. Lucia was shy and tended to hide her true thoughts with scathing remarks and relentless teasing (which was probably why she'd been so forward with Matthias in the first place, no matter how this soulmate thing affected her reasoning). Matthias definitely seemed to be more on the evasive side of the spectrum, and though he was completely willing to admit his imperfections to me, he wasn't about to do so with his supposed soulmate.

Right, because it's not like soulmates were made for this specific purpose or anything. They were totally supposed to be entangled in a ridiculous waltz, trying desperately not to step on their own feet whilst they repeatedly stomped on the others' instead.

Animals, both of them. I guess I had to be the mature one.

But, at this point, I wasn't sure how long my own fuse was. Between vampire hunting, avenging my friend's death, necromancy, and AP Lang homework, I didn't really have any time or energy left for matchmaking.

Doesn't mean you can't try, though, I thought to myself as I pulled into my driveway. Doesn't mean you can't try.

At least this time I was prepared to black out in the midst of my homework. I'd made sure to do the more intensive work first, so by the time I was called upon by Death itself, I was lying comfortably on my bed in the dark with my reading light on, leafing through my history textbook. If my sister happened to walk in, she'd simply assume I'd fallen asleep and leave me be.

Once again, I found myself in a wasteland of ice and snow in the middle of the night, wind blasting white flakes right through me. The building was closer this time, only about two meters from where I stood, three storeys high and smoke spewing out of the tall chimneys. "Welcome back," said Katyusha from behind me in a cold, sullen, and decidedly unwelcoming tone.

I spun around to face her and gave her a wry smile. "Hey. You ready to tell me what's going on, and maybe how I can help?"

"Yes, I think so," she replied as she cast her eyes above my head toward the foreboding building. "Let's go."

And, again, she led me to the recesses of the building, but this time she passed right through the shooting room (since it was empty). "They are in Tino's bedroom," she explained, as we walked through one final wall.

Apparently, Katyusha's definition of a bedroom was vastly different from my own. This wasn't a bedroom—this was a jail cell, with a blanket on a slab of concrete for a bed and no other furnishings. Tino seemed content, though, sitting on his concrete rectangle with his back to the wall as he ran a hand through his hair. Ivan stood beside him, messing with some shiny metal chains on the wall.

Shackles. He was gonna put shackles on him.

"For your own good," Ivan said when Tino raised an eyebrow at him. "It is already October 29th; All Hallow's Eve and the Harvest moon are only a few days away. We would not want you to turn, would we?"

Tino seemed to accept this, and he offered his wrists, which were immediately constrained by the silver cuffs. He hissed in pain.

Well, that explained the scars. But, wait…

"It's not the 29th, though," I mused, thinking back to my essay due tomorrow, the 23rd. "Why would he lie?"

"To make him panic," she replied, eyes narrowed. "He needs to remind Tino that he is nothing but a filthy dog."

Cripes. "That's really what Ivan thinks about him?"

"That's what he thinks of all of them. Most sorcerers do, actually, but Ivan is an... well, a very extreme case. It is not his fault though. He watched me be killed by a pack of werewolves. Then, he killed every single member of the pack for revenge."

The blood on this man's hands…. Now I understood Katyusha's sobriety. She'd never asked for any of this. Still, because I needed to know everything, I pressed her further. "And that wasn't good enough for him?"

Her face fell, and her head slumped down a bit as she faced the ground. I could imagine tears welling up in her ghostly eyes, but none appeared. "No, it was not enough. He has resorted to necromancy, the dark kind, the kind that was forbidden centuries ago."

"What kind of necromancy is that?" I asked, eyes wide with curiosity. Forbidden stuff sounded fun.

She seemed to catch the eagerness in my tone, and she glared at me darkly. "He wants to bring me back to life and he has to destroy other people's lives to do it. The magic of life and death is some of the most powerful in the world, and only one force can override it."

Life. Resurrection. Giving the Dead another chance to walk the Earth.

I couldn't help it, I choked up. Memories that I tried so hard to block out flooded into my head. I remembered every time since I was five years old that my mother had looked out the window, wanting something more, wanting her soulmate... Could I give her that? I met her gaze with a stare that I hoped equaled hers in intensity. "What force is that?"

Katyusha gave me a sad smile, and though the ice in her eyes died down, it didn't melt completely. "Love," she said. "True love."

Needless to say, I gagged. Such an intense buildup, with such wondrous, forbidden forms of magic and the possibility of newfound life, all reliant upon… love?

I guess the Beatles were right: all you really need is love.

"It's not so ambiguous as you are thinking," she clarified. "To resurrect one human, one must break the bond between two sets of soulmates. Once a sorcerer can convince two couples to break their bond forever, and he is powerful enough to collect the magic contained in that bond, then he will be able to bring back the life he has lost. You cannot bring someone back from the dead, just because you love them so much."

Wow, okay, never mind. This was still super dark—dark enough that I didn't cringe at her grammar. "Isn't there an easier way?"

Katyusha grimaced. "There is one, but we will not get into that today. Now, is that all you needed to know?"

"I think so," I replied. "So, Ivan's targeting werewolves because you were killed by them."

She nodded. "Yes."

"And he wants to break their bonds because that's the only way to bring you back to life?"

Another nod. "Yes."

This was all wonderful, but how was I supposed to help? I technically wasn't even part of the mission to save Tino, and good luck getting Lucia to believe this story. "Alright, and how the hell do I convince anyone else that this is true?"

Katyusha looked out at Tino, who was lying uncomfortably on his cement slab, trying to find a way to sleep. Ivan gave him one last leer before turning out the lights and leaving him alone in the dark. "Do not worry about that right now," she commanded me, voice low and stern.

With that, she grabbed my hand and lead us over to the next empty room. "Next time," she continued now that we were somewhere quiet, "I will go to your place instead. I need to have you do something. Before then, you will need lilac, mint, holy water, two copper coins, a piece of jade, a moonstone, and a silver dagger."

"What?"

"You will be performing a…" she struggled for a word, before deciding on, "spell."

"Okay," I said.

"It is important to the mission," she added, though this seemed almost insincere.

Perhaps this was how I'd save Tino and help Ivan recover? Maybe it would allow her to pass on? I had no reason to distrust her, even if she was suddenly being awkward, so I tried to recall her list. "Alright. Jade, mint, lilac, holy water, coins, dagger?"

"And a moonstone. Make sure the coins are copper and the dagger is silver."

I'd have to raid Arthur's house and the Magic Club classroom tomorrow. "Got it."

Luckily, Katyusha's stilted unease faded and she actually gave me a smile as she exclaimed, "wonderful! Oh, and also-"

"WAKE UP!" cried a voice that sounded eerily familiar as I bolted up in my bed.

I rubbed my eyes, which felt heavy after being dead for an hour, and looked blearily around my room for someone—or something—that could have made that noise.

"Down here, in front o' ya!" the voice hollered from… on my lap? I looked down, and my eyes met an ill-tempered puffin.

Lovely. "What are you doing here? I thought I told you to go away."

"You were with her, weren't you?" the puffin snarled. Honestly, I didn't even know puffins could snarl (oh, who was I kidding? In a normal world, puffins weren't even supposed to speak!)

And, cripes, there were about 4 billion 'her's that he could have been referring to. "I'm afraid you'll have to be a bit more specific."

"The old Queen!" he yelled, feathers ruffling impatiently. "You don't understand, the bitch is lying to you!"

For a brief moment, I had to wonder, "why would she lie to me? Her brother has gone crazy because of his grief and she needs someone to set things right so that she can pass on."

"That's true, but you don't understand-"

"What, that you can't wait your turn to pass on like a normal person- or rather, a normal bird? I've got priorities and you aren't one of them." I heard my mom call me down for dinner so I pulled down the covers and stood up.

Still, the bird had the gall to keep rambling. "I've been dead for eight years, four months, and seventeen days—much longer than she has. I saw her die and I saw her plan every single move strategically like a game of chess. She was a necromancer, so she can't pass on, Emil. It's impossible for her to, you need to watch out-"

"Bullcrap," I said, though that may have been biased by the tantalizing scent of smoked salmon wafting into my room as I opened the door. "Please leave."

"Just remember this," he admonished as he flew into the hallway, "a necromancer can only resurrect the dead at the cost of his own life."

And then he was gone in a creepy flash of black and white and bright orange.

Good riddance, if you ask me. I'd been wanting salmon for weeks and he was the only thing holding me back.

A/N: Thank you guys so much for the reviews! I'm glad you like my fic, and I'm sorry these updates are taking so long; I'm trying to write ahead so I can update more quickly in the future, but even then... Well, AP Calc is a bear. I shall try though. Positive encouragement is super helpful.