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"Didn’t she have anything lessrealtory?"

"Um, you’ve met our mom, haven’t you?" I said

"Briefly She’s the one who’s always yelling at us, right? Short hair? Occasionally seen on billboards?"

I shuddered "We’ve got to talk her out of those this year"

"Good luck with that Those billboards are payingyour tuition And Walt’s," I pointed out "And Ian is probably going to be the first college student in history to get paid to play I’ to need those billboards to help pay for college"

That wasn’t self-pity talking; it was truth My brothers had used up all the natural athlete genes, leaving ood, but not the star Bad nehen your brothers had shrines dedicated to them in the athletics hall

Archie’s face softened "Hey, don’t give up on playing in college so soon I saw huge iaed I was in way too y of a mood for a pep talk "Unless I bloith Ian"

"You won’t You’ll just be with Lina, and Ian will beI don’t know Being Ian"

Being Ian It was like its own extreher intensity than everyone else "Do you have any idea why Ian wants to come to Italy with me? Because I don’t think he even likes Lina She lived with us for sixto torture ed "Little Lina? I’m sure he likes her She’s funny and kind of quirky Plus, she has all that crazy hair How long has she been gone again?"

I wanted to say the actual number of days, but I knew that would sound neurotic "Since the beginning of June"

"And she’s staying in Italy permanently?"

My shoulders rounded in on themselves "Per for the school year Her dad, Howard, is a serious traveler, so they go all over the place In October he’s taking her and her boyfriend to Paris"

Lina’s boyfriend Yet another thing that had changed Over the past year, Lina had gone through a lot of changes, starting when her nosed with pancreatic cancer A fanited in ht about Hadley She had been special, no doubt about it--creative, adventurous, chaotic, and just the right a to make you feel cared about but not smothered

Sometimes I felt like I’d experienced Hadley’s loss twice--once forLina out of the grief she was floundering in--to the point that I’dback old feelings of helplessness to refocus on Archie and the trip "It makes way more sense that Ian would choose to visit all the castles and other sites you guys are seeing this week Aren’t you going to the castle where Braveheart was filmed?"

Archie perked up, just like I kneould Every single one of my brothers could recite thatto the Braveheart castle Walt brought face paint so we can do so to love that "See? Ian loves thatto Italy just to bug me"

"Maybe he just wanted a little quality ti so much time with uing with my sarcas college application essays and driving around on otten involved with Cubby and brought our relationship to a standstill