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“Well, the staff and I have this weekend off and then we have a meeting on Monday. I’ll bring it up then.”

Three more days of limbo. I could make it three more days.

“I’ll watch out for that email on Monday then. Thank you for meeting with me.”

“It was my pleasure.” Director Smith stood to shake my hand again. “I genuinely hope we can work together in the future.”

27

JADE

Strawberry Springs Neighborhood Watch

Mark Bell: Welfare check. Any explosions?

Comments:

Atticus Thompson: I haven’t heard from Jade yet.

Kerry Winsor: Are her lights on? @SherriffMike Finch Did you get a call???

SherriffMike Finch: Guys. I bet they’re fine.

SherriffMike Finch: @Jade Clark Do you want to chime in?

Kerry Winsor: SHE’S DEAD! NO! WE LOST OUR FAVORITE ROCK COLLECTOR!

“I don’t like these old movies!”

I gasped and pressed a hand to my chest. “Old? They’re from my childhood!”

“Yeah.” Agnes rolled her eyes. “Old.”

“I like them.” Beatrice smiled. “I’ll watch more.”

Agnes groaned.

After watching the two of them for over twenty-four hours, I quickly realized they argued more than I expected. When they were causing chaos, they were determined to be a united front. However, in other parts of their lives, they seemed to love to argue.

I never had siblings, so I didn’t understand it fully, but I watched carefully, making sure I worked with both of them.

“Listen, you watch my trash, I’ll watch your trash. Finish the movie and we’ll watch Paw Patrol.”

Agnes scoffed. “I don’t watch Paw Patrol!”

“Then what do you watch?”

“Murder. Guts.”

She was so bluffing. “Name one murder and guts movie.”

Agnes was silent.

“Yeah, I thought so.”

“She likes dragons,” Beatrice whispered.

“Now that I can work with. Next, we do dragons.”