Disclaimer: Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends and all associated or other characters belong to their respective creators and owners, not me. I receive no compensation whatsoever for this story.

Prologue: A bad year.

Frankie was tired, more than tired. She teetered on the edge of exhaustion and there was little chance of rest in the near future.

It had not been a good year at Foster's Home or for her personally. First Mac had left. His mother had moved him and his brother to the other side of the country. The stated reason was that Terrance needed help that was not available locally. There was a special school for boys with delinquency problems. There was also an opportunity for a promotion at work if she relocated.

Frankie knew that there was more to it than that. Mac's mother had never reconciled to her son's spending so much time at the Home. Frankie remembered her last conversation with the boy's mother and being called "An unhealthy influence" still stung.

Maybe because it was true… but in ways that the boy's mother never suspected ("Thank God!").

Bloo had gone into decline, nearly faded away before allowing himself to be adopted. She had seen him on the street with his new little girl recently. He didn't remember her. Or Foster's Home. Or Mac. In fact, he was a hundred percent sure that his little girl had created him. He seemed happy.

Mac's mother carefully monitored his emails to Frankie, texting and video chatting were forbidden. Really, their communications were limited to "How are you? I am fine." Once a week at first. Then less often.

The last time she had heard from him was a condolence message… "Sorry to hear that Madame Foster has passed away… How are you? I am fine."

She knew that as he got older, he was forgetting her. "Probably all for the best," she knew.

No, it had not been a good year at Foster's Home."

Frankie was working all day every day to organize the Home's finances into something more manageable. She soon realized that there was no way to accept every orphaned Imaginary Friend and survive. What's more, Friends could not stay in the Home forever. Tough choices needed to be made.

Some of the surrounding property had been sold to pay back taxes and finance the remaining limited operations.

Somehow, they survived that terrible first year. And the second. Third. More

Disclaimer: Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends and all associated or other characters belong to their respective creators and owners, not me. I receive no compensation whatsoever for this story.