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The day he meets Vanya and Nadim is the best day of his life.

She's a little dark skinned ghoul with shimmering scales and two tails that lash back and forth agidly, and the first thing he ever says to her is, "It needs a river."

"There's no water," she points out immediately, and then Nadim cannonballs into the sandbox, whining loudly about how much it hurts his ******** butt.

They laugh, and then they make a fake river with his jacket, which is blue. It looks real, *** thinks.

When he meets her - her, the pretty girl with the pale face and bouncy brown curls and too-wide red lips ("It's natural," she says, and smiles like he's the sun, which is exactly how she smiles at everyone else) and the wide, just-died eyes - he knows she's the ghoul he wants to ask to the homecoming dance.

"Hey," says Nadim. "Hey, ***, you coming?"

He's coming, of course.

They run skittering along the sidewalk, two boils headed somewhere they've never been. It's the first time either of them have been let out with just a curfew and a maximum radius to do whatever they please and so they hop the fence into the park even though the tall spindly gates are wide open and they nearly get mistaken for vandals. It's still worth it.

Candace would kill her if she found out. Roland had already gone in, and who knew how long he'd last before he was found out too? This was dangerous . . . reckless really. Impulse had taken control because she had been alone too long, and idle hands were the devil's playthings.

But she had done it and came out on top, no? The Haunted House wasn't as frightening a place. Trainees should not go alone the text said, but . . . She showed her, huh?

She was strong. If Candace ever found out, then she could at least give her that much, right?

Nevertheless, *** felt awful when she came back. She had risked it all, and for what: to prove she could handle herself to some screaming witch? Now someone would have a vendetta, her and others . . . the circle would only continue.

She tried her best not to think about how it had cursed her before it died.

[ side blessing 7 reflection ]

"Why hasn't he called yet?" *** asks.

His mother shakes her head and turns away. "He lost reception," she says, patient. If he comes closer and peeks, he can see that her brow is still furrowed resolutely.

"That's what you said an hour ago!" *** fidgets by the telephone. His mother walks over to their bedroom and pulls out the board games - Scare-opoly today.

"Come on," she calls. "I bet you can't beat me!"

He stampedes over and plays.

The same thing happens the next day, and the next, and after that she tells him she's glad they got to say good-bye, and that's how *** learns his father won't be coming back.

Mrs. Megiddo Jones who lives two streets over owns a little dog minipet. It's the sort with sleek, barely-there hair, the sort that thumps its tail on the ground at the same time as it scratches its ear with its hind leg, belly exposed, in the middle of the sidewalk while she's walking it. Mrs. Jones, tall and radiant and probably wealthy, thinks it's the funniest thing, even (especially) when it runs between ***'s legs on his way to the corner store - especially, especially if he's in a hurry.

She always tosses her hair, blows kisses at the dog, and turns to scold him for his lack of manners.

Of course, then, it's an accident when he steps on the leash - just so, so it doesn't slide up between the cleave of his hooves - when he asks to pet it the next week, and of course it's an accident when he scratches its belly - belly! - a little too hard and it scrambles back up and starts barking. There's no blood, and he says, apologetically, that his mom's little swamp dragon (with his tough little hide and scales all over his body, which he doesn't mention but she knows) has never been so sensitive.

When he turns the corner he breaks into a gallop anyway. The farther away he's ever from Mrs. Jones, the better.

He knocks his father's block tower over one Tuesday because he's not building it the way Mommy would: she likes towers (three of them, always) and symmetry and seeing wild array of colors blend into each other, and here he is with blue and green and brown in little rows, building a regular little building, the sort that leases out space and collects rent every month.

He considers himself lucky that his father took it in stride.

Before they grow up it's always four of them - Nadim and Nadya and *** and Vanya. Her mother thinks it's funny because their names all match. They just like spending time together.

Vanya stops talking to them the day after her mom sees them in the town hall meeting listening to the mayor - Nadim and Nadya and Vanya all gossipy over ***'s slow nods and closed eyes and smiles. She has to learn respect, she says, and so do they, before they can talk again.

After that, he only ever sees her in passing.