Olive stood outside the door, debating whether or not to knock on it. It was really late, almost two in the morning, and she shouldn't be bothering Eli. She knocked anyway, and felt very sorry as soon as she did. She stared at her feet until she heard the door open. She looked up, expecting to see him annoyed or angry, but he just looked tired. And very, very sad.

He was still wearing all his clothes, and even his shoes. He couldn't have slept yet. Olive had gone to bed at nine thirty. He knelt down in front of her to be about her height. "What's wrong, Olive?"

She sniffed. She had been crying. "I had... I had a dream I don't like."

"A nightmare?"

She shook her head. "No, no, it wasn't a nightmare. I just... I don't like it."

Quietly, Eli shut the door behind him and picked her up, carrying her back to her own bedroom. She hugged him tightly and cried into his shoulder. He nudged her door open with his boot and said, "You're lucky you're naturally small. I wouldn't be able to carry you like this otherwise." He sat down on her bed and plugged in the string of Christmas lights she had taped up on the wall. She continued to hug him, but rubbed her eye. He sighed. "What was your dream about?"

With one last sniffle, Olive rested her head against Eli's chest. "Julia."

Eli felt a knot form in his stomach, and his throat seemed to fill with invisible liquid. He couldn't speak. Olive was awake for the same reason he couldn't sleep. She started to cry again. "Eli, I miss Julia. I miss her a lot." She wiped her eyes. "Where did she go?"

Blinking to stop the bitter tear forming in the pit of his eye, Eli just hugged his sister. He had no answer for her. There was a reason she didn't know the truth.

"Eli," Olive said softly, "Why aren't you sleeping?"

Eli shook his head. He swallowed hard. "I miss Julia too."

Olive hugged him again, and then moved out of his embrace and onto her bed, lying her head on her pillow. "Come sleep with me."

"I don't think—"

"I don't want you to be sad, Eli."

He slowly laid his head against a pillow, turned to face her. She rubbed her eyes again. He grabbed a blanket and pulled it over her shoulder. "I'm not sad when you're around, Olive."

She smiled. "Me neither."

After a few minutes of quiet, Eli shut his eyes. Olive was almost asleep, when she said, "Maybe you should call Julia sometime."

Eli tensed a little. "Maybe someday we'll go see her."

Olive reached around for a stuffed animal. She found a stuffed lion, one that smelled like lavender, and handed it to Eli. "I love you Eli. Good night."

With a smile, Eli accepted the lion. "I love you, too."

Cece didn't bother to wake her kids up the next morning. It was Saturday, after all. They would, without a doubt, probably have a camp out, go get ice cream, or visit the library. Something like that. She passed by her daughter's room quietly and went downstairs to make breakfast.

Inside, Olive opened her eyes slowly. She yawned and stretched her arms, rolling over to look at her clock. Seeing it was almost ten thirty, she rolled back over and brought a fist down gently on her brother's chest. It fell with a thud, and he woke suddenly in shock, making her giggle. He rolled his eyes at her. "Ha ha, Olive." She continued to laugh and rested her head on his shoulder. "That's the last time I bunk with you," he said, yawning, "I can't believe you would wake me up with violence."

Olive shrugged and scratched her head, before Eli uttered, "Then again, you are a girl," which earned him another thump, on his head. "Ow Olive!"

Since he had just woken up, he was slow, and Olive was long gone before he could retaliate against her. When he found her, she was armed at the table with two forks and the stuffed lion on her head. She pointed a fork at him and snarled. "Come no closer, evil one!"

He grabbed a weapon of his own, a single spoon, all he could find immediately, and smirked. "You think I'm afraid of you?"

"You should be!" She stood on her chair. "All you've got is a spoon and fluffy bed head!"

Resisting the urge to be self-conscious and pat down his hair, Eli lunged forward with the spoon, only to be interrupted by his mother. "Stop, stop! Jeez, you two. You've been awake, what, five minutes?"

They both sat down quietly as Cece put a pancake on each of their plates. She sighed and shook her head. "How did I ever raise such wild children?"

Olive smiled. "It's Eli's fault. He's the wild one."

"That's because he's a teenager, sweetie," Cece said, winking at her daughter.

"Hey!" Eli rolled his eyes as they laughed together, and proceeded to cut up his pancake with great difficulty. He was, after all, using only a spoon. He glanced up at Olive, who was violently tearing hers apart. "I guess someone doesn't want to go to the library with me today."

"I do!" Olive smiled, her mouth full. "Please please please Eli! Please!"

Sighing, Eli wiped his mouth with a napkin. "After my shower and whatnot."

"Good, because you smell really gross!" Olive giggled, and Eli stuck his tongue out at her. Excitedly, Olive grabbed her lion and started out of the kitchen.

"Olive Winter!"

She stopped and turned her head. "Yes Mommy?"

"Clear your place at the table, then you can do your hair." With a smile, Cece helped Olive clear the table, and then scooted her up the stairs.

Eli dressed and continued to rub his hair with the towel, eventually making his way back into the bathroom, where Olive stood in front of the mirror. The wide array of hair accessories in front of her was overwhelming. She grabbed a red elastic band and made a knotty bun on one side of her head, then used a blue elastic to make a second bun on the other side. Although her hair wasn't long, she could still do whatever she wanted with it. She used barrettes of all kinds to hold down stray hair and just for decoration. She had a few favorites; a purple bow on a black clip, a little pair of black-rimmed glasses, and little plastic hearts with fangs. She put them in her hair in random places, in superfluous quantities. Eli loved how much she just didn't care. Finally, she put a headband around her head – a thin band of black lace – and was done. She turned around to see Eli standing in the doorway, and smiled at him. "How do I look?"

He smiled back. "You're the prettiest girl in the world."

"Aw," she said, turning back towards the mirror to put all her accessories back in her little makeup bag (that contained no makeup because Eli wouldn't allow her to wear makeup until she was twelve). "You too."

It was only when she turned to face him a second time that he realized what she was wearing. "Olive," he said with a smirk, "you have to stop wearing my Dead Hand shirts. They're too big for you anyway."

She simply stuck her tongue out at him. "I don't care."

Eli remembered that last time Cece came home from one of those parent-teacher-conference-things, just a week or two before. She said that Olive's teacher told her about a couple days before that in class, when the share topic was what you wanted to be when you grow up. He smiled, remembering that Cece told him Olive said she wanted to be like her older brother. She wanted to be "a girl version of Elijah." He supposed stealing his shirts was her way of showing it.

Smiling, she gently brushed past him, and headed down the hall. He called after her, "We're leaving in ten minutes! Grab your due books!"

She turned back and smiled at him before ducking into her bedroom and closing the door, doing who-knows-what until it was time to leave. Eli stepped into the bathroom and studied himself in the mirror. The dark circles under his eyes were almost becoming a characteristic, just another piece of him that was always there. He hadn't hardly had decent sleep in weeks, weeks, and when he did sleep at all it was for a few hours maximum. He was thankful, though, that Olive had bothered him the night before, or he may not have slept at all. He shook his head, thinking of how that one little girl was becoming a savior for him; she smiled and everything was okay.

Deciding against eyeliner for that day, Eli leaned against the wall outside his bedroom, not daring to enter. He stared for a moment at the lock on the door, hanging there, mocking him, until he heard Olive's door open, and saw her emerge with a small back pack, no doubt full of books she'd checked out the last time they visited the library. She noticed the look on Eli's face and sat her little pack down against the opposite wall. "Why don't you take it off?"

He broke his gaze and looked at her. "Hm?"

She walked over and sat down in front of him, just squatting in the middle of the hall. "Why don't you just take off the lock?"

"It's not that easy, Olive."

She sighed. "I think you would be happier if you didn't lock it."

Eli tilted his head. "Why?"

"I think locking your room up like that traps you. I think you feel trapped inside. I know I would." She poked at her hair in thought. "I know you don't even like it in there Eli."

"You know, Olive," Eli said, putting a hand on her shoulder, "You are the only other person who is allowed in there. And there's a reason for that."

Olive looked sadly at his hand on her shoulder. "Maybe someone else could help you."

Shaking his head, Eli smiled a weak, forced smile at his little sister. "I don't need it."

She gazed at him with confusion, and he stood up, helping her rise as well. He grabbed her backpack and handed it to her. "I promise."

Grabbing his hand, Olive dragged Eli down the stairs. She hugged their mother before pulling him excitedly out the door. Of all the people Eli could talk to, she was his favorite. Olive didn't know that he wouldn't talk to anyone else about anything; about his room, or about Julia. Sometimes he felt sorry for her, but then he would listen to her laughing, or see her smiling, and be reassured.