Her mom, Jeff, and Toby got home soon after she had finished dinner.

"Hey honey, did you order a pizza?" her mom asked.

"Nah, I wasn't in the mood. I had a salad instead," Ashley replied.

"A salad, how...healthy of you. Unfortunately, we didn't make quite as good of a decision, nutritionally. We had burgers. I thought all teenagers were supposed to be crazy about junk food?" Jeff said, teasing her.

"Well, usually. But not always," Ashley replied.

"What's the band aid for, Ashley?" Toby asked, pointing out the one thing Ashley didn't want to talk about. He really had a knack for that.

"I cut myself chopping up the veggies. Its no big deal, I washed it out," she replied, mostly to reassure her parents.

"Oh, well, as long as it's okay now," her mother said, still a little concerned.

"Yeah, it happened like, and hour ago. I'd even forgotten it happened," Ashley said.

"You kids have any homework to do?" Jeff asked, taking on the role of responsible parent.

"Nope, I finished it in school," Toby said.

"I have some left. I think I'll work on it upstairs, where it'll be quite," Ashley said, wanting to get away from everyone.

"All right, but if you need some help, let us know," Jeff said.

"Yeah, thanks," Ashley said, making a quick escape up to her bedroom. She needed some time to think, and she definitely didn't want to do this kind of thinking in front of anyone. Mom and Jeff always got a little nervous when she brooded for too long. They knew a bit of how school life was for her (although she didn't tell them all of it), and although they knew she had Ellie as a friend, they were still concerned. They had an almost paranoid fear of her becoming depressed.