The next day I go downstairs for breakfast and Stef's just getting in from work, it must still be pretty early.

"Hey, couldn't sleep?" She says.

"Something like that, how was work?"

"Ugh, boring, I'm gonna go get some sleep."

"Night mom." She kisses my head and heads sluggishly up the stairs. I go into the kitchen and Mariana is sat at the table surrounded by a bunch of robotic stuff. I push some of it aside and sit down opposite her. "Hey, what's all this?"

"It's for STEM club," She yawns. "I have to figure out how to build and then code for two separately functioning arms that can lift a ninety-pound robot."

"But it's summer vacation? Why are you up so early?"

"Early?" She glances at the clock. "More like late."

"You've been up all night?"

"If I can figure this out before we go back to school then I can cut the workload in half and we can focus on other competitions too." She yawns again.

"Okay, are you on something?" I laugh.

"No." Her eyes widen. "I swear I'm not going back to that again."

"Back to it? Did you used to be like a tweaker or something?" I can't imagine Mariana doing drugs.

"Not a tweaker, I used to steal Jesus' ADHD meds. Got me in a lot of trouble, but I'd never do it now, it screwed me up."

"Did you ever sleep?"

"When I needed to, Jesus had pills for that too. He doesn't take them now because he wrestles. I'm should probably go to bed, there's no point working on this when I'm tired." She picks up her stuff and takes it away as she traipses off to bed.

I'd never think Mariana would turn to drugs, even if they were pharmaceutical. I get myself a bowl of cereal and eat it in front of the TV. Gradually the others all get up too, Jude sits with me and we play a few video games.

"You know, at Taylor's party?" I ask. He nods. "What you Noah were doing," I whisper. "The weed. Is that like a thing you do regularly?"

"I don't know, I guess."

"Do you do it for fun? Or like, something else?" I think about Mariana with Jesus' pills.

"I guess for fun. Noah gets it because of his anxiety, but he keeps some aside now and then for fun. Why?" He looks at me. "You wanna try it?"

"No, God no, I was just wondering." I think if I tried it, I would probably end up having a panic attack like Sophia did, or just get anxious as Brandon did. I already have too much anxiety for that.

Later that day Mama comes home, and Mom wakes up from her sleep, I decide I should talk to them about what I should to about Freddie, we go into the study to talk.

"So, I was thinking I could round and see him, make sure he's okay?"

"I don't think we'd want you going alone," Mama says.

"Well yeah, I get that but how his he supposed to open up to me with a chaperone there?"

"What do we know about this kid? He could be dangerous." Mom laughs at the idea of someone related to me being somewhat normal.

"He approached you while you were alone at school, Gracie."

"But for all we know, he doesn't have anyone to talk to, his dad just got jailed and he's probably really confused right now! It's not easy to find someone who understands this kind of stuff," I beg. "Just give me like an hour to talk to him."

"Fine, he can come here, for one hour, you can talk out in the yard, and if he says anything worrying you come straight to us. I'll call his house after dinner, set the table," Mom says. Mama seems a little skeptical, but I think she knows that I wouldn't stop asking until they said yes.

The other kids and I set the table, Brandon's over for dinner again, it seems he's always over these days.

"How come you're hardly at Courtney's anymore?" I ask him as I hand him plates.

"Oh uh, she's at work a lot, and Mason's at his dad's, it's pretty lonely eating dinner alone." He seems a little touchy about. "Hand me the side plates?"

"She works every night?" He blanks me. "Okay... Um so Callie, when do you finish school?"

"Next week, I'm almost caught up, then I'm off to Spain with the Quinn's."

"Oh, that's right, Gracie you wanted to go?" Mama asks.

"Not anymore, I'd rather stay here than be in a different country right now." We sit down to eat.

"You were so excited to go; did you fall out with her?"

"No, well yeah but we're fine now, I just don't wanna be away from my family again."

"Awh!" Mariana puts her arm around me. "We don't want you away from us either! Was she mad?"

"She was at first, but we're best friends, nothing can come between us, we've been through too much together."

"So, what are you gonna do this summer?" Jesus through his chewing.

"Ugh, don't talk with your mouth full you pig," Mariana gags.

"Um, I don't know, I have my summer essay to write, that's about it."

"Are you guys still thinking about camping again?" Jude asks moms.

"Yeah, we've discussed it, you all wanna go?" Mama asks us.

"I'm down," Brandon says. We're all a little surprised. "What? I'm still part of the family, I wanna come on vacation."

"I'm bringing bug spray this time, I came home with like a million bites," Mariana says. "I'm itchy just thinking about it."

"Not to mention the lumpy roll out mattresses," Jesus adds.

"Yeah, are you sure you wanna come, Brandon?" Jude laughs.

"Nonsense, it'll be great fun," Mom says.

"So, it's settled, we'll go next week?"