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It wasn't really secret in the Darnell family that Jack was Jace's favourite person: the love she had for her mother was tumultuous and desperate and they both tended to rub up against each other five times per day. They were too different and too similar at the same time: she would have died rather than admit it but her one goal in life was to make M.B - Mama Beatrix, definitely not Mom - proud of her, look at her maybe the way she would look at Antony in class after he presented his perfect homework with no eraser jimmies.

After another fight, whereupon she had been sent to her room for the umpteenth time, Jacoba packed up her things in her marker-and-wite-out covered knapsack and snuck out of her room and - helplessly, to keep her from sobbing out loud at the new fresh loss of her big sister - gave Wisp a chocolate-chip cookie to shut her up for five seconds, making sure it was one with big chocolate chips so that she would be preoccupied picking them out to eat them last. Thwomp was out with M.B in her room, so she ducked out as quick as she could before he noticed her vibrations and her fear. This time she really was going to move in with Uncle Jack and maybe he could be her dad, because he was the only one who actually loved her. M.B had Wisp. That was all she really needed.

She dug around in her pocket for the change and caught the bus down a couple streets, and commenced walking the rest of the way - she never got tired, that was the best thing, Jace never got tired at all.

There. She was going to live with Uncle Jack, she decided, walking up the long street to the big and worryingly pink house, ambling up the pavement and not seeing Mr. Shade (who was totally cool) and maybe he could even teach her magic. Then maybe they could travel the world and she could see all the totally awesome stuff that he had seen, not like her mother who made her go retarded places like the Science Store. Instead of rapping on the door she went and opened the side fence to go to the backyard: better to go in the back way and maybe pack her stuff in before Jack tried to take her home.

Iggy knelt backwards on the chair stolen from the desk, his tail wagging a bit as he also watched intently. His hands curled over the back of the chair and he leaned forward a bit more. As the mouse neared the snake, however, he wrinkled his nose and twisted abruptly to peer out the window. "Hey, Antony? You didn't tell me you'd asked Jace over to play."

Before his friend could answer, Iggy had slithered from his chair and padded to the window where he waved vigorously to the small red-headed figure below.

"Duchess--" which, yet again, wasn't really the snake's name, but Antony was sure she didn't care, "is mine," he said. "And she's a bit busy at the--" he glanced over, groaning as he saw the lump in the snake's throat. "We missed it," he said with a sad little sigh. He had wanted to show Iggy the unhinging jaw thing, it was SO cool! "Let her digest before you try to grope her."

He waved his hand, turning away from the aquarium. "I'm afraid I don't remember inviting you over," he said. In other words he meant, "why the hell are you here?" But was too polite to put it in those terms.

"But she's not white," argued the ever-literal Ignacio and even his contradiction was painfully cheerful. "And Jaws was a shark. Dad let me watch that movie the other week. It was cool. Sharks must be able to eat anything." He looked at his friend and tilted his head. "And you didn't tell me she was moving in. Is Jack gonna make her a room, too, like he did you? I thought the other room was gonna be for Callista and Evie when she got bigger."

"Yep," said Jace, trying her best to look totally unfazed, though she made a mental note to give Antony a look so dirty that he never felt clean again. Talk about your total little jerk squealers. He was dead. "The me and M.B. thing isn't working out so I'm moving in with Uncle Jack. I'll share a room with Evie. I don't eat a lot and I'll leave school so I'll pay rent and stuff."

"And besides, it's hard to get a job without an education," Shade said, stepping out of his room. He was wearing a pair of jeans and nothing else, not that anyone in the group would care. "But I don't see why you can't stay over for the night. Iggy was planning on it, right? It could be a sleepover."

"But--" Antony said. "She's a girl," he said.

Jack sighed heavily and stepped closer, unfolding his arms and holding them out. "C'mere, kiddo," he muttered. "You can stay over tonight but I'm gonna tell your mom where you are. We'll figure it out from there." He looked up at the young boys. "You don't mind, right?" he asked but his tone clearly indicated that they should not mind in a very serious way.

While he was not necessarily picking up on the clue, Ignacio nevertheless grinned and nodded. "No way. Jace's cool. I'll share the floor 'cause Antony totally gets the bed. It's his bed, anyway."

That unholy misery combined with Antony demanding she have the bed wrecked her: Jace pushed herself into Jack's arms, face in his middle, muttering incoherently into his stomach. "M'not going back," she muttered. "I'm gonna stay with you."

She pushed herself away lest she do what she wanted to do least of anything in the whole wide world - cry in front of Antony. "Well, if I'm a girl, I get to sleep where I want," she said. "So I want the floor with Nacho."

Time enough to investigate whether Antony's movie taste was good or retarded.