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“Well, I’m kind of the black sheep of my family”

She frowned “Oh, how so?”

“They’ll all passionate, creative types Music, to be exact My er, my dad is a composer, and my brother is the vocalist in a famous heavy metal band”

“And you don’t like music?”

“Oh, I like it fine I just don’t really have the same depth of passion for it that they do, ya know?”

“I do, actually Both my momma, Dixie, who you met, and my daddy were really into art Like crazy into it They were outstanding artists, too I like looking at it fine but couldn’t draw a stick figure to save my life Still can’t Yet I tried to fit in Lots of art lessons, but it was no use I just had no skill for drawing or painting”

“A lot like thelessons I attempted, all of which turned out to be — ”

“Futile torture,” Diane said, seeing where I was going

“Exactly”

We couldn’t help but laugh over our shared foolishness as well as our status as the weirdos in our faht just, finally, approve of me

Belly full of quite good leftovers — Diane’s skills clearly laying in the culinary —departht Basking in her gentle war more than to be able to experience it for the rest of my life

Before long, I was drifting to sleep, the weight of Diane’s disapproval finally lifted from my mind I realized that she was really just concerned for her daughter, having been mislead by Ellis, who could be pretty daot to know her

The next day, packing went pretty quickly We had packed pretty light on purpose, figuring ouldn’t needfor us downstairs I shook hands with Chester and got a surprisingly waroodbyes

“Be good,” Chester said, hugging her tight

“Always”

“Goodbye, o”

“What did you do to my mom?” Shae asked as alked to the car