"That doesn't even mean anything," snorted Jonah, who had leaned over to read it. Katherine agreed, but something about how… urgently the words were laid out on the paper made her feel oddly uncomfortable.

Chip seemed to feel the same way as her. "What does it mean?" he questioned, squinting.

"Like I said, nothing," said Jonah airily, waving the papers in his hands around to prove a point. "Probably just a stupid prank from the seventh graders- you said they like pranks, right, Kathie?"

"Pranks are funny," Katherine retorted, too confused to even reprimand Jonah for the nickname. "This is just stupid."

"Well, I never said it was a good prank," said Jonah, shrugging.

Katherine shook her head, making a face. "Maybe if it was like… "Missing: one brain cell," or "You are one of the missing… the missing apes from the zoo!" but like…."

Chip laughed. But even though Katherine loved making people laugh and loved having attention on her, something about this letter had really, really unsettled her. You are one of the missing…. that couldn't possibly have anything to do with her being adopted, right? But she had just been telling Chip about it. For all Katherine knew, someone out there really could be trying to find her, "missing" her, even. But then… why such a vaguely worded letter? Surely it had to be a prank.

Her classmates knew she was adopted. She never made it a secret, and in fact a few of the others were adopted, too. But maybe one of the ones who wasn't thought it would be a good joke? Who knew. Katherine really couldn't see anyone besides maybe Haley Rivers wasting this much effort on a stupid joke, and she was adopted, too. But if it wasn't a prank….

Katherine just shook her head. "You're right," She said to nobody in particular. "A stupid prank. Throw this way for me when you go in, alright, Jonah?"

Jonah scowled at being given more work, but he took the paper anyway. But just as he was about to close the door behind him, Chip blurted out, "Want to come out and play with us?" Katherine looked at him in bewilderment, the letter forgotten for a moment. Why would Chip…?

Jonah looked back at him, confused, but clearly thinking about the offer. Katherine could practically see the gears whirring in his brain: Hmm… a chance to show off against the seventh graders, a chance to make sister mad…. Jonah certainly wasn't bad at basketball, for a twelve year old, but he was in no way better than Katherine herself.

Katherine was sure he would accept, so when Jonah shook his head, she was shocked.

"No thanks," he said, shrugging. "Not really interested." He closed the door behind him. Chip looked oddly put out.

Letter forgotten momentarily, Katherine raised her eyebrow and said, "So? What was that about?" Chip had been holding the ball up just fine to that point, but here he almost dropped it in surprise.

"Nothing!" Chip said quickly, "Just… basketball's better with three, you know?" There was a silence after this proclamation, but then Katherine realized.

Katherine felt a grin slide over her face. "You think he's cute, don't you-"

"Shut up!" said Chip, his face going red at a rather impressive rate. Katherine raised her hands in defense. She didn't want to embarrass him, or anything. Well, not about this, she would be fine embarrassing him by crushing him in basketball.

"Hey, I'm not judging-" Katherine paused, then continued, more honestly, "Well, actually I am, because you can do better, but still." Katherine frowned. "Do you have a crush on my brother?"

Chip made a vague shrugging motion that could mean anything from "yes" to "I don't know" to "who cares." Katherine cared, as a matter of fact, because this was her brother.

"Want to keep going?" he asked instead of answering her question, and Katherine decided to repay him by slapping the ball out of his hands yet again and scoring another two points.

But by dinnertime the letter had come back into her brain. She was sitting at the table, chewing her tacos (Mom had been on a Mexican kick recently) silently while Mom and Jonah argued over the newest video game coming out.

"Mom, it's really not that bad- yes, it's rated T, but I'm twelve, that's practically a teen-" Jonah began.

"Jonah, you are not a teenager! And you don't need this game just because your friends all have it!" Mom shot back.

This continued.

Dad and Katherine looked at each other in exasperation. Mom and Jonah often argued over the littlest of things, it seemed. But when it came down to it, they clearly did love one another.

But, almost thankfully, Mom and Jonah's argument was interrupted by the doorbell ringing. Everyone froze. Nobody ever stopped by at dinner. Then the doorbell rang again and Mom sighed. She was already clearly frustrated, and interrupting dinner got her going even on the best of days.

"I'll get it," Katherine said quickly, standing up.

"Tell them to come back later, whoever it is," said Mom, rolling her eyes. "Coming by at dinner…" Jonah was still sitting with his arms crossed and an angry expression on his face, and between the two of them, the temperature of the room could've been 100 degrees, they were so steamed.

Katherine exited the kitchen and made her way to the front door, all the while the doorbell continued to ring. Must be desperate, Katherine thought as she reached the front door and pulled it open.

Chip, of all the people, was standing on her front doorstep, anxiously ramming his finger into the doorbell over and over again. Uh. Katherine thought blankly, not quite sure what to say.

"Hi," she said, and immediately cringed. Chip seemed to finally notice her, and so he stopped jamming his finger. The doorbells still rang for a moment afterwards, though, and Katherine made a mental note to make sure that it wasn't broken later.

"Katherine!" said Chip. Katherine noticed that he looked absolutely awful. His eyes were wide and crazed, and he was panting slightly, looking out of breath.

"Are you okay?" Katherine asked slowly, really wanting to close the door.

"I need your help," said Chip, not wasting any time. He was staring at her so intensely that it freaked her out.

"Okay, okay, hold on for a moment," said Katherine, alarmed. She turned right back to walk into the kitchen, wondering what was wrong with him. "Mom," she said once she came back into the kitchen. "Chip needs help with something. I need to leave."

Jonah blinked. He clearly hadn't been expecting that.

Mom looked confused. Dad looked utterly confused. Jonah looked suspicious.

"It's urgent," added Katherine.

Mom sighed. "Go ahead, I'll wrap up your dinner for you." She stood up, her chair scraping against the floor.

"Thanks. I'll be back in a bit." Katherine could see Jonah squinting at her in suspicion before she turned around and hurried back to Chip.

"What happened?" she asked instantly, as soon as she'd closed the door behind them. The way Chip was acting was incredibly unsettling, considering how normal and calm he'd seemed earlier that day. Was he some sort of axe murderer?

Chip didn't answer for a minute. He was looking around the yard and porch as if there could be someone listening to them. Then, he finally said, "I got one of them, too."
Katherine stared at him blankly. "One of what?"

"One of those letters!" Chip snapped impatiently. He put his face in his hands.

"Calm down," said Katherine without processing the words that Chip had said. When they did finally come through her brain, she blanched. "You got one of-"

"Yes!" Chip stuffed a hand in his hoodie pocket, and produced a paper that looked identical to the one that Katherine had received, except that Chip's had several creases in it as if he'd opened and folded it back closed a million times. Katherine stared at it for a few seconds, gears whirring in her brain.

"How?" asked Katherine, "If it was a prank… nobody would know you yet!"

"That's what I'm thinking!" said Chip, seeming relieved that Katherine had figured this out. "I thought it was just a stupid prank, like you said, so I was happy! I was like, "Yay, the kids think I'm cool enough to prank!" so I went inside to talk to my dad about it because I thought it was funny." Chip closed his mouth, opened it, then closed it again, seemingly unsure of what to say next.

"And…?" Katherine prodded.

"And I went inside and my dad was there, so I showed it to him," Chip continued, his face going hard. "I'm telling him all about this prank and about how you got a letter too and about how you're adopted, and how you were a bit sensitive about it-"

"Sensitive?!" Katherine interrupted, offended. Chip ignored her and plowed on.

"So my oblivious self is talking about how this can't possibly be related to your adoption because I'm not adopted, while my dad's real quiet. See, usually, he'd get his commentary in 'cause he never lets me finish a sentence. But he wasn't saying anything. So then I go, jokingly, 'Unless I am adopted and you both never told me,' and he didn't answer for a while… so I got kinda nervous and was like 'I'm not, right, Dad?' and then Dad said… he said…" Chip cut himself off suddenly, breathing in through his nose. Katherine's stomach dropped as she realized the implications.

"…he said you are adopted," finished Katherine.

Chip swallowed back what looked like tears, and nodded.