"Hurry it up, asshole!" Mista bellowed in his backyard, "They're gettin' heavy!"

"Well excuuuuuuuuuse ME!" Narancia hastily scrambled across the Wolf's lawn towards his best friend and pack leader as Clawdine selected the music on her phone.

"Three, two, one!" she called and began recording

Mista knelt, allowing Narancia access to his right shoulder, Giorno settling on his left.

Clawdeen stood next to Maggie, who was armed with a school camera. Anyone could take a photo of a cheerleader or a Homecoming queen dipped in orange spray tan, but only a REAL artist could capture the energy of boys being boys.

"Nice for you to join us, Narancia!" Josie giggled, teetering upright on Mista's shoulders, greeting the boy with an unsteady fist bump.

"Wait, WAIT! Got room for one more." Mista grunted, "...Fu-GO, get your ginger ass over here!"

"Sorry, not into that shit." Fugo said, releasing a long, derisive puff of cinnamon flavored vapor where he leaned against the Wolf's back door.

"Oh, come onnnnnnn!" Maggie cajoled, "I neeeeeeeed this for my assignment!"

"Nope."

"Don't be lame, muchacho!" Narancia shouted from his perch. "If we fall, and you're not part of this, you'll miss out on maybe like, getting a broken bone with the rest of the pack – we maybe get a bulk discount at the Emergency Room or a free helicopter ride from Josie's aunt to the hospital, or something. You know some shit like tha— Whoops— yipe-yipe-yipe!"

(thud)

"Ow."

"Yeah, c'mon!" Giorno hollered, helping Narancia back onto Mista's broad shoulders, "Or are you scared?"

"Fuck. OFF!"

"Dude, stop fuckin 'round an' move it. These dickhead's 'r heavy!" Mista grunted.

"Fugo!" Josie called, "C'mon. Always room for one more!"

Clawdine shoved her iPhone into the back pocket of her hand-embroidered jeggings. Editing her TikTok of Narancia's chaotic tumble and abrupt landing on her dad's lawn could wait. "Fu-GO! Fu-GO!" She chanted, waving two of her younger sibling's plushies like pompoms.

Feeling some sort of scared, Fugo nervously rattled one of the chains draped over him like so many other boys wore on TikTok. Layers of stripes and chains kept people at a safe distance. Better yet, it pissed off his parents almost as much as him personally serving them with emancipation papers last weekend.

"Fu-GO! Fu-GO!" Josie held out a hand as Clawdeen, caught up in the moment, did a backflip, waving the plushies before doing a Vanna, framing Josie with her arms like some sort of really great but unobtainable prize on the "The Price is Right" or some shit like that.

"Oh, all right. Fuckit!" Pocketing his Juul, Fugo trotted to the rest of the pack's chaotic attempt at a cheer pyramid while Clawdine dropped the plushies and started a new recording.

"Sit on my lap?" Giorno suggested.

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Fugo exclaimed as he scrambled past Giorno, "No, I will NOT sit on your lap!"

"Yo, pendejo, sit on Josie's!" Narancia said loudly, ruffling Fugo's messy copper locks with the toes of one long, bare, and very dirty foot. "She's got the best lap in the pyramid, muchacho!"

"Hey!", Squealing, Josie flailed at Narancia and missed. Narancia stuck his tongue out at her, waggling it suggestively until one of her hands connected loudly with his face, "Duuuuuude, that HURT. I was just funnin'!"

"Dumbass MOTHERFUCKER!" Fugo snarled, getting a collective laugh. He swatted Narancia's nasty foot away from his head, "You all SUCKKKKKKKK!" he bellowed up at wall of clouds approching from the Cascades before settling on Guido Mista's broad, sweaty shoulders and holding on tight, to Josie's hand grumbling, "Better get an A out of this assignment, Maggie, or one of these nights I'll sneak into your Aunt and Uncle's yard and eat something you don't want me to. Maybe that lame ol' dog of yours!"

On the count of three, Guido grunted, heaving upright to stand sweating and swaying beneath the weight of his pack plus one so Clawdine could finish her TikTok and Maggie snapped pics.

"Okay, buttheads, fun's over!" Mista abruptly dropped to his knees, flopping onto the frost-killed grass, shedding Giorno and Fugo with Josie and Narancia rolling off his shoulders in a giggling mass while a raven loudly chortled to itself high in a nearby spruce.

Rising with a groan his old man could have let out at the end of a long day's work at the garage, Mista adjusted his tiger-striped pants and little sister cropped Rugby sweater, smiling at Clawdeen, "Didja get a good TikTok, babe?" Linking arms, they headed for the driveway, Mista twirling his truck keys.

"Maaaaaaybe?" Clawdine said, coyly holding the phone out to Mista as not far behind, Giorno tidied his hair by practiced feel. "Mags, get what you need?"

"Mmmmm-hmmmmm…" Maggie said absently, flipping through the memory of the school camera, "Gotta check these on my Chromebook to be sure I got everything in focus – got dinged five stupid points on my last assignment because SOMEBODY couldn't hold still. Right Mr. "I Have Ants in My Pants"?"

Narancia, ratty black crop top covered in paint splatters topping his usual baggy knee-length cutoff sweats that sagged in the back under what looked like an orange skirt he'd swiped from one of his little sisters, paused mid-stride, crossed his eyes and stuck his tongue out at Maggie, exclaiming, "Only for you, Zorrita. Only for you!"

Maggie rolled her eyes, returning Narancia's gift with a well-manicured middle finger exactly like Aunt Raina said to.

The light was just just about reaching the point of golden despite the approaching storm. If they hurried, there was a great patch of grafitti under one of the bridges over the Willamette River. That is, if Mr. Tepes, Draculaura's dad, a vampire who liked his city tidy, hadn't already sent a work crew out to remove it. Taking a chance on it still being there, they piled into Mista's truck, Fugo bringing up the rear on his green Vespa.

Puck slunk unseen past the Wolf's well-kept back privacy fence, pissed at the world and not understanding why Josie, or anybody else for that matter, could be so happy when SHE wasn't.