Because she still couldn't find her new winter coat, Josie walked home in the dark after work in her baggy green t-shirt and ice-cream stained jeans bundled up in in three sweatshirts and a sweater under Uncle Mike's Carhart work jacket, "The Ballad of Resurrection Joe and Rosa Whore" blasting through her ear buds via the used iPhone 5 Aunt Raina gave her last summer.

Mama, Puck, was… unpredictable. Sometimes stuff you just KNEW she'd explode over, didn't.

Then, once your guard was down, she'd blow up over the weirdest shit.

Like this morning.

More than ready to go back to school since the…

Since the…

…well the shooting incident. Josie was folding the laundry in the living room proudly wearing the first Lolita dress she'd made for herself that ALMOST compared to the fabulous bundle of clothing and accessories Draculaura dumped on her from Baby the Stars Shine Bright along with a random collection of earrings and hair bows she'd found in between her dad's downtown office couch cushions ("Daddy says I have too much stuff!")

Okay, so Josie's latest creation wasn't exactly something you'd find in 'Stars, but while the adults wangled over when the school should be re-opened and Uncle Mike and yeah, Mama's, new bodies were being made, Josie'd picked out the fabric and notions herself, so that with little or no help from Clawdeen, Josie had made herself a brown plaid dress with a fluffy white blouse, almost all by herself (Collars were a bitch. And cuffs! And zippers? A pain!). Last night, after carefully pressing even the tiniest tucks and gathers, she'd got out her Mary Janes and polished them military style just like Uncle Mike had shown her, and then she'd tacked extra lace onto the cuffs of her favorite pair of ankle socks.

Ummmm, and a hair bow.

Followed by matching wristlets… from leftover scraps from making the dress… and some spats…but nothing over the top, just icing, right?

(No, rainbow sprinkles!)

Ready to make an entrance after carefully dressing and nervously arranging and then rearranging her new sister locs "just right" before the rest of the household was even stirring and Uncle Mike and Aunt Raina were back from stocking shelves at Costco, Josie minced into the living room with her violin, brand new bunny rabbit backpack and mirror-bright shoes, feeling f.i.n.e., FINE!

And an hour early.

Anticipating getting to ride to school on the back of Fugo's green scooter, (Not to mention holding on when Fugo sped up so they wouldn't be late...) Josie decided to pass the extra time folding laundry, quietly listening to music on her bunny rabbit earbuds.

Halfway through folding towels, Puck, in her new body, flew into the room and tore Josie's hard work into cat box filler.

Furious, Josie fought back, only to find herself on the living room floor, arms protectively covering her face while mama screamed insults before slamming her way out of the little house after spitting in Josie's face.

Face wet and hard work in tatters Josie pulled herself up by the ironing board, trying not to cry, trying not to puke.

She should've seen it coming: last night Puck threw a plate at Josie's head while she was dancing in the living room as she ironed her new blouse. Then mama stormed out the back door, only to lean back in for one final insult, blue wolverine claws retracted behind her knuckles: she splashed the sticky brown dregs of Aunt Raina's second shift hot chocolate in Josie's face, splattering the pristine white blouse which had taken a full day's of work using the double needle setting on Josie's borrowed sewing machine.

It had taken over an hour of careful handwashing followed by a long session with the family's communal blow dryer followed by a second careful ironing to salvage Josie's work.

Yeah, Josie should have seen this morning coming, but in her excitement about getting to see everybody again, she'd chosen to ignore it, knowing she'd finally get to unveil her creation at school, and the squeals and coos of appreciative envy she knew her boos would give her.

Now it was little more than something Uncle Mike would use to polish his and Aunt Raina's Harley Davidsons like he did every Sunday.

Grand entrance canceled, Josie wore her work clothes to school. They were clean, and nothing to get jealous about.

At lunch, Clawdeen looked Josie and her work clothes over. Nostril's flaring, the werewolf girl's eyes narrowed; giving Puck the stink-eye for her fashion hate crime as the cat girl walked past, Cleo joining in, the entire Boo Crew table following her lead as Maggie stared down at her tray, biting her lip in the already tense post-shooting environment.

Puck flipped everyone the bird, and turned her back to them, sitting by herself at the loser table.

It didn't make up for the destruction of Josie's pretty dress; but it was nice to know somebody cared.

Huh? Did Josie just see something?

Josie hurried up in the cold, wishing she'd called Mista, or Aunt Raina, or Uncle Mike to come get her after closing the little hamburger stand that funded her dressmaking for the night. But she wanted to be alon…no, there it was again.

Oh!

Just some big black bird on an overhead streetlight.

Just a bird, a big ol' black bird.

Well, that's okay.

Nothing to be afraid of.

Josie sped up. There was only half a block to go before she was home. RAD or not, it was stupid for a girl to be out after dark, even in as safe a town as Salem.

The tall, thin man in a black suit stepped from behind a nearby gatepost, unseen in the darkness.

The raven, blinking all three eyes, flapped down from the top of the street lamp to land on his shoulder as he watched Josie scurry towards the Stein house on its gentle hill.

Yes, perhaps it was time to collect his master's property.

He looked down, distracted, as one of Cleo de Nile's cats chirruped, doing figure eights around his perfectly polished shoes. He knelt, running his hand across the cat's back with the same appreciation as a car buff would the gleaming fender of a perfectly restored Rolls Royce Silver Ghost.

Still, it wouldn't hurt to make his master wait a little longer.

Waiting was good for the soul.