• Rayne put down her book and sighed. "What?" she demanded at the boy who was staring at her. "Mm, I was trying to see what book you were reading. Feeling rather annoyed, she retorted, "Why in God's trousers do you need to know what I was reading?" The boy puffed out his cheeks and then deflated them by sighing. "I go to school with you..." he began. "What?" Rayne asked. If he went to school with her, she would've remembered (she hated to admit) a boy that striking. "I'm from school," he stated. "Hi, From School," Rayne said. Instantaneously, she felt regret for being childish. The boy laughed anyway. "Actually, the name's Jason," the boy said. "I'm Rayne," she said. "Rayne's a cool name. Does it stand for anything?" Jason asked. Rayne fought back tears. Her runaway dad named her Rayne cuz it was raining during her birth and he claimed she sounded like gentle rain on her first cry. "R-A-I-N is to masculine. R-A-Y-N-E is good and girly," Rayne's dad had said.
    "No," she said, forcing her voice to be strong. Rayne stood up and almost ran to the play-area. Jason trailed behind; Rayne scooped up a fair-haired toddler who, just a moment ago, had been eating his on boogers. "Ewww Teddy. Boogies aren't food," Rayne said scooping him up.
    Rayne tried to walk a dignified walk while getting out of the library. She wrestled the squirming toddler into the booster seat, and strapped him in. "Rayne, wait," Jason called. Before getting in the car, she flipped him the bird.
    Rayne walked into her house and set Teddy down. Her mom was talking to someone, so Rayne glanced around the corner to see who. JASON??
    It couldn't be...not unless he grew four inches. But the young adult looked sooo much like him. "Rayne!" her mom cried warmly, hugging and pulling her into the living room where the Jason look alike was. Rayne's mom, Ms. Lewis, sat on the sofa, and Rayne followed. "This is Mr. Kurt. He'll be staying with us for a while," Ms. Lewis said. "No need with the formalities. Call me Josh," he said, sticking out his hand. Awkwardly, she shook his hand. "Rayne, where's Jason?" Ms. Lewis said with a half glare half smile. "Erm, well... I didn't know what he looked like or that he was staying here," she lied. "I called you!" Ms. Lewis exclaimed. Rayne took her phone out of her pocket and turned it on. Sure enough, a Missed Call message glared at her. "Mrs. Leporman is really strict. If your phone goes off, you have to reshelf books for a year!" Rayne said. "Fair enough. Well, we could call him," Ms. Lewis said. "Where's your phone? I'll give him the address," Josh said. "In the kitchen. Shouldn't be hard to miss," Ms. Lewis said. "Is that Jason's brother?" Rayne asked after Josh left. "No. His father," Ms. Lewis said without emotion. "Bio-father?" Rayne asked, feeling faint. "Weeelllll, Jason's a comin'!" Josh said. Just looking at Josh made Rayne nauseous. "Hey, Little Lady, want to help unpack?" Josh said. Rayne shrugged, not saying how much packing she had left or how sick Josh made her feel. But it was an opportunity to pry.
    "So how does it figure that you have a son my age while you yourself are young?" Rayne said halfway through unpacking. They were in the ex-owner's child's playhouse. (Literal playhouse. Complete with a bedroom, playroom [Jason's bedroom] and bathroom) "It was a crazy teen-night of partying. Landgraab's parent were out, and so we had a party. We were all drunk as hell, me especially, being one of the youngest. I was fourteen." Josh stopped and looked at Rayne, for Rayne was fourteen. "Due to Landgraab's sneaky ways, he had nicked his parents finest, and strongest, liquors. On the due fact of that, my girlfriend and I found a bedroom (Landgraab's unfortunately) we started simply with intense snogging, until, somehow, we were doing the full monty--in bed. In our pure drunkness, we forgot the rubbers in the bedside drawers that Landgraab had stocked and....well....” Josh stopped. In the time it took him to tell his tale, they were done. Josh had a subtle English accent Rayne didn’t notice before. “Why do you call Mr. Landgraab by his last name,” Rayne asked. Josh looked at her, and said, “Langraab doesn’t deserve a name. His parents came home early, the day after the party. His parents were aghast. Him? They’re darling Geoffrey? Having a party? Landgraab was a sneaky creature and said, ‘Oh no darling Mother. I tried to stop them, but the young Kurt boy took your finest liquor and passed it ‘round. I didn’t do anything.’ And right then, my brother woke up. Well, actually he was awake, he just feinted it to see who he blamed.
    “Mr. Langraab was lucky he had a lot of money.” Rayne was amazed. “Your brother stood up for you?” she asked, open mouthed. “Yeah. But it was the black cloud with silver lining,” Josh said bitterly. “A couple of nights after the whole party fiasco, my girlfriend felt constant nausea.
    “I convinced her to take a test. She got the cheapest, and of course it said positive. (They seem to be programmed on positive, don’t they?) So months later, I was a father. She hated him. After the rest period, she shoved him in my fifteen-year-old hands. I explained this to my parents the instant I saw the bump. I warned them of a miscarriage (I studied a lot to be a good dad), but they-nor I-expected me to care for it. My brother, Jake, calmed our parents enough to convince them to help me,” Josh finished. “Why didn’t she get an abortion? And why didn’t Jake help you?” Rayne asked. Josh smiled weakly. “An abortion is a sick, painful thing to do. And Jake got murdered when Jason was a year old,” was Josh’s slow reply; he looked like he was going to cry. Rayne surprised herself, and gave Josh a big hug, just as Jason walked in. “Jason!” Rayne cried, and flung her arms around him. “Um, hi?” Jason said. Never had he expected to be hugged by a Goth girl nor by a girl that flipped him off. “I’m sorry,” Rayne said, pulling out of the hug. “Me...too?” Jason was quite confused. He did that cheek thing he did in the library, and thought, Girls. Rayne said, “I decorated your room for you. I hope it’s okay.” Jason followed Rayne to his room. He hated to say it, but it fit Jason like a glove. “It’s okay, I guess,” Jason said, before he was enveloped in another hug. Rayne abruptly pulled out of it, however. “Dinner’s gonna be soon. We better go,” Rayne said.
    The three of them walked the acre it took to get to the farmhouse villa. Inside, they heard a bit of screaming on Teddy’s side. “No! No! No! No! Icky, icky-poo. Wan candy!” Rayne ran in and said, “Teddy, no num-nums until icky-poo is finished.” Teddy pouted but ate his baby food anyway. After they all finished their macaroni-and-cheese, Ms. Lewis said, “Well, we had a late dinner, and it’s time to retire to our bedrooms.” At that, Teddy started crying. “Me want num-nums! Ate icky-poo bad bad!” he sobbed. “I’ll get him,” Rayne said. “You two go off to bed,” Ms. Lewis said.
    After giving Teddy heated chocolate milk (It’s like hot chocolate minus the caffeine), Ms. Lewis and Rayne chatted. “Mom, why did we move here? Sunset Valley was great, but Riverview is just a Hick town,” Rayne said. “Your dad took everything, and left us with little money. Then Grams died and gave us her country summer home and all her money. How could we say no?” Ms. Lewis said. “We did. We took the money and sold the house!” Rayne cried. Ms. Lewis pushed some hair out of her eyes. Rayne noticed how tired she looked. “We could’ve gone to Seattle, or Yellowstone or even Walnut Creek,” Rayne cried. Ms. Lewis laughed when Rayne said Walnut Creek. “What and go to a Walnut-worshiping creek??” Ms. Lewis giggled. Rayne scooped up Teddy, tucked him in, and went to the loft in the garage (her room).