I laughed a bit, then waved as the new people came over.

Nico leaned closer and asked me if I was okay.

I nodded, but I was getting tired. I didn't know how much more I could do, though I supposed the event had to end eventually.

A guy came up. "Hey, I hear you know my buddy, Johnny Cahill?"

I smiled and nodded. "He's a friend of ours."

"Dude, tell me he isn't the quarterback there too?"

I shrugged. "Alright, I won't."

He groaned. "Seriously, that dude just can't resist it."

I laughed. "Yeah, he's definitely got mad people and leading skills."

He shook his head. "Does he still talk about taking over the world?"

"Of course he does," I answered. "But it gets more joking every day. Yet, every day we believe it more."

Nico nodded. "He's in a politics class right now. It's kind of entertaining."

He shook his head. "Of course it is. Tell him Brett says 'Hi'."

"Will do," I answered.

Brett waved and then moved on to the next person.

I looked around, then glanced at my watch. "I'm going to have to take a break." I told Nico, showing him my shaking hands.

He frowned, and nodded. "While there's a gap."

I got up and took the leash from Nico, heading out the door Paul had led us through. I sat against the wall, petting Batman for a while.

Nico went to the end of the hallway to stand guard. Making sure I wasn't disturbed.

I did my best to sort of calm down. "How much longer do you think this will last?"

He glanced back and shrugged a little. "Can't be too much longer."

I nodded.

"You ready to go back?"

"Yeah, I guess so."

He helped me back to my feet, then got the door for me. "I'm ready to crash too."

"It's been going on for three hours. It has to end eventually. Or am I just supposed to say that I'm leaving and leave? I didn't cover this part."

"Well, Jacob was supposed to be back by now, otherwise we could ask him."

I nodded. "Lorraine held him for questioning."

"Fantastic. Great chaperone."

"Travis is my chaperone, you're my companion, and Batman is my therapy. And he's a good therapy baby." I fed Batman a treat. I had been doing pretty well. Sometimes I just didn't notice the symptoms or the reasons for my reaction to things and it was really frustrating.

Paul came down the hallway. "We're getting ready to wrap up, but there's a big crowd still wanting to talk to you."

"How big?"

He made a so-so gesture. "About half the crowd."

I felt my eyes widen. "How am I supposed to talk to that many people?"

He handed me a list of questions. "We realized that they all wanted to talk to you so when they entered the room we encouraged them to write down their questions for you. You're not dyslexic, correct?"

"Right."

"Read through them quickly, if there's an overall theme, you can just address it one time, and then answer some of the smaller questions. I'm sure there are a lot of similar questions. Other questions that we run out of time for…you can take with you and answer them later?" He guessed.

I nodded slowly. "Okay, I can do that." I started glancing through the questions.

"Youve already been here longer than we thought anyone was going to be, so we'll cut it off in about half an hour."

"They suggested longer, didn't they?"

"You're welcome."

"Thank you," I said. Most of the questions were along similar themes to other questions so I could put those aside. Others were completely off-topic and others were just funny. "Okay. I'm just talking about them in there?"

"No, we're telling anyone who asked you a question to come back into the auditorium so that you can answer questions all at once without interruption."

I nodded, and got up, following him and Nico back to the stage. "I thought I was done with this kind of thing for today."

"Sorry," Nico said, not sounding like it.

I went out on the stage with Paul, leaving Batman with Nico.

I could see people hurrying to their seats.

"Alright, Ms. Dellaro is going to answer as many questions as she can in the next fifteen to twenty minutes and then we have to let her get back to her life."

Cheering.

Awesome.

I glanced at the list. "First question was whether my boyfriend was real or not. Yes, yes he is. And yes, I have a type. Second, I'm sorry, I cannot go out on a date with you, because I have a boyfriend. A bunch of you asked how you can start a good-decisions group at your own school." I paused and looked around. "Guys, look around you? Each of you are here either because you were forced to come, or you chose too. There were at least twenty different people asking about how to start the alternative group, so anyone who asked me that should just meet on the far right side of the auditorium after this and then talk to a teacher about being the moderator or whatever. This is a great place to find like-minds. Birds of a feather."

I looked over the questions. "Yeah, I'm old fashioned in the way that I honestly put my life before my relationship with my boyfriend, which is fine because we've both agreed to do it that way. We're both intellectual people who want to make sure we make the most of the education and time we're given at this young age. I don't think dating at a younger age than fifteen is good. Honestly, if I hadn't met my boyfriend when I did and liked him so much I wouldn't be dating at all because I think it's stupid. I think it's stupid to waste time on someone that you're probably not going to spend the rest of your life with. You don't stop growing as a person, you don't stop changing. And every adult I've ever talked to says that you don't know who you are until you're at the very least, twenty-one. Is that the case for everyone? Dear Goodness, no. There are always exceptions. But I see people my age throwing their lives in the toilet for boyfriends or girlfriends and I think it's a crappy way to live. I will not be defined by my relationships and who I'm dating. I define myself and the way I learn to do that is by being alone with myself and getting to know who I am. Does that sort of negate my fear of being alone, it's complicated. I can be alone without being alone, okay? Anyway, it's all a matter of perspective. Some people I know will be perfectly happy with the people they are dating right now at our ages as they would be if they had met in college and will continue to be so. I'm halfway a realist and halfway a cynic. It just depends on the topic."

I looked over the list. "Oh yes, my family believes in guns and weapons and defending ourselves. Nothing will change this. Batman is half Great Dane, and Half Mutt. Parker is our kitten and she's like a blonde color and was named after the character from Leverage played by Beth Reisgraf. You're right, I haven't said my sort-of adopted brother's name out of respect for his privacy. My half-brothers are virtually identical, so if you see one it might be the other and no they will not talk to you because they're suspicious people and they have bad experiences with strangers coming up to them. Will I ever publish another book… possibly but right now it's not likely because I have school and school."

"Breckenridge!" Nico hollered from backstage.

"Shut up, don't talk about that," I said, giving him a reproachful look. "Um, will I ever drink alcohol? It's highly unlikely. Maybe champagne, but I still have to be twenty-one so until then I'm just going to stick to sparkling grape juice and sparkling apple juice, or lemonade. Have I ever tried drugs? No, but they were forced on me, in an overdose and I stopped breathing and was in the hospital for much longer than I actually wanted to be. What are some charities I'm working on building? That's a tricky question to answer. Um, I have a few things in the works but I can't talk about them just yet because nothing is solid. That said, most of the money I've donated to charities is actually from a charity fund my mom had set aside. No, I don't sing. Not really. I can carry a tune and that's about it. Mom was a much better singer than me. I blame my father, because he's not around anyway. My favorite sport is dancing. Um, I do hip hop, some ballroom, and swing dancing. I don't really do any other sports. I mean, archery and some broadsword is taught at the summer camp I was at, and rock climbing. But all of those are a little difficult with my arm being stupid and going numb under stress. Jacob is pretty much my father, but he isn't. It's complicated, as is most of my life. My favorite color is…blue. I think. Maybe. I don't know. It changes from day to day, week to week, month to month. And the context. It really depends on the context. Do I dye my hair? No. I've thought about it because it is just brown. But the closest I've ever gotten is chickening out of highlights and some temporary blue hair dye when mom's book came out last year about this time."

Paul came back out. "That's all we have time for now, so please give Ms. Dellaro a warm thank you and have a nice day."

There was clapping, but there were also a lot of disappointed sounds.

I waved and signed thank you, then hurried off-stage. "Finally. I can go home. I'm so tired."

"Can we get food on the way home?" Nico asked Travis, who had reappeared.

"Actually, Sally invited us to have pizza with them."

I nodded. "That's fine with me. I just need to get away from these crowds."

"We'll have to sneak Batman in."

"I'll shadow travel him in." Nico scratched behind Batman's ears.

Travis nodded and put an arm around my shoulders, leading the way out and to the car.

There were people out there already and some of them saw me and came running over.

I waved, but ducked behind Travis as he politely told them we had to leave and blocked them from getting to me.

Nico took over and got me the rest of the way to the car, and we hopped in and locked the doors so that no one could follow me in like a freak.

Travis managed to get to the vehicle and get in without anyone else getting in. Thankfully after that the crowds dispersed a bit.

I shook my head. "That was crazy."

Nico nodded. "I'm exhausted and I was just keeping you company."

Travis shook his head a bit. "Let's not do that again."

"Where were you?"

"Taking a call from Jacob. He had to run over to Boston. He said he might not be able to make it back."

I nodded. "Business. I get it. Should we wait a while so Paul can get home first?"

"He said to just head over. Sally and Percy are home."

I closed my eyes and murmured something that sounded like okay. I was still holding the list of questions. I'd have to answer them later. At least it would give me something to post on twitter.

AN: Remember, a bunch of posts in honor of Cassie's birthday tomorrow!