Welcome to Gaia! ::

Laney had never had any siblings. If she had, she thought she'd like to have a sister like Gemma, who really just needed a good shot in life, as far as she could tell. She was still young -- she still had so much potential.

"Any time! You should head back before it gets late, though."

"Be safe!" Laney called after her.

She sat there a little while after Gemma had gone -- emailing reminders to herself to call the courthouse, doing Google searches about what the procedure was for these things -- but no matter how long she sat, she didn't feel much better about the situation. Gemma was a young girl alone in a difficult world: she deserved better than a high-school dropout who didn't even know how to do an income tax return.

She deserved a lot, in fact.

The world wasn't fair.