Disclaimer: This story is completely original. All characters, settings, and events are spawned from my own mixed up little mind and may not be used, copied, or adapted without my express written permission. Do not steal my story!!!

3.

"The paper moved?" Dominic regarded Toby skeptically.

"Yes! Like, into my hand!" She hadn't said anything about the voice, because she wasn't even sure she'd heard it herself, but now she was starting to regret even mentioning the paper itself. They'd just gotten off the bus and were walking past the brown fenced pastures down the long dirt road to Toby's house. Dominic lived just over the hill, but usually came home with Toby because his mother was almost always visiting Toby's mother.

"Forget that, it was probably just a stray breeze. I'm more worried about the fact they're bullying you in front of the teachers and the teachers aren't doing anything…" He hooked his hands behind his head, exhaling.

"The teacher wasn't there," Toby said, not sure whether she was trying to defend herself or relieve Dominic's frustration at being unable to help her.

"Anyway, this 'princess' stuff has gone too far, Tobes."

"Whatever. They'll eventually get bored of it," she said, shifting the weight of the books in her arms. She'd have put them in her backpack, but she was afraid that the spaghetti sauce was going to get all over them. Besides, she didn't want to have to open her backpack in front of her mother and clue her in to the fact something had happened at school.

"Then they'll come up with something else! You've got to stop just taking it. It's… it's wrong."

"It's only wrong because it frustrates you," she muttered rebelliously, annoyed that he wouldn't drop the subject. "I don't know why you care so much, it's not like we're little kids on the elementary school playground anymore. You can't just hit them with sticks and make them leave me alone anymore."

"Well—"

"Dominic!" He grinned down at her and she shook her head, climbing up the stairs of the porch to the front door. She paused at the sound of music thudding through the aged wooden walls, pressing her ear to the door to listen. "Oooh. '60's music today. What do you want to bet supper is milkshakes and hot dogs."

"Your mom is so weird."

"So is yours!" She snorted at him, then opened the door, stepping into the house. Her mother, true to Toby's suspicions, greeted her enthusiastically, dressed in a poodle skirt and with a fluffy pink bandanna around her neck.

"Tobydoby! You wouldn't believe what Edna's cooked up. Doesn't it smell fabulous? … why are you in your gym clothes, sweetie?"

"Spilled milk on myself," Toby muttered, ignoring the look Dominic gave her. Instead, she dumped her books on the kitchen table which she could barely see under all of the glasses filled with milkshakes of various colors and consistencies... and, apparently, ingredients.

Dominic lifted one up and sniffed it. "…vanilla cucumber?" he guessed.

"Nope! Vanilla celery," his mother corrected, sweeping out of the other room. She was dressed like Toby's mother in a poodle skirt that looked like it'd been in storage for far too long, her ebony hair back in a stylish swing. It wasn't hard to see where Dominic had gotten his good looks from; Edna had been a model on her way to the top when she'd met Dominic's father, deciding to settle down with him and have a family instead of pursuing more fame and fortune.

She'd met Toby's mother, Lynne, in a widows' support group three days after her husband and Dominic's father had finally succumbed to lung cancer. Lynne's husband had died two months earlier in a car crash. The two had hit it off and become nearly inseparable, even going so far as to raise their kids together. Even though Dominic was two years older than her, he was still about the only person that Toby ever really spoke to.

"So!" Lynne trilled, lacing her fingers together in front of her. She never looked quite as drab standing next to Edna as Toby would have expected. There was a mother's beauty to her gentle brown eyes and her graying auburn hair. "We figured a great dinner would be hot dogs, fries, and milkshakes! Doesn't that sound wonderful?"

Toby shot Dominic an 'I-told-you-so' look, then shifted her bag on her shoulder. "Sure, Mom," she said. "Call me when it's ready." Then she turned and headed for the safety of the stairs.

Behind her, Lynne folded her arms over her chest, looking over at Dominic with a concerned air. "…did something happen at school today?"

Dominic glanced at the stairs and then turned to his mom and Lynne. "Yes…"