"Teachers vary," says Julie. "When you need a million of 'em across a whole country some of them aren't gonna be the most passionate and dedicated. Did you think of any questions you have about the school?"

Just the ones they talked about. And will she have time to talk to the kids outside of classes.

"There's time for that at lunch," says Mr. Abernathy. "And there are various after-school clubs, and group projects that mean you have reasons to meet outside of school."

Okay.

"We think," Julie says, "that we could make the schedule work if it turns out this school is best for you and you can get here by nine fifteen, but we're going to look at all the others to see how they stack up, okay?"

Yeah.

"Okay, let's get our pretty tails home." She gets up and waves to Mr. Abernathy.

And home they go.

Dusk goes to get a snack, uncharacteristically, as soon as they get in.

Julie glances at it. "Oh, should we get more of those bagel chips next time somebody goes shopping?"

Not especially, they were just the first thing she found.

"'Kay." She goes back to reading the forum thread she's looking at.

She has another one, but then puts the bag away and goes to read in her room.

Winona comes and gets her when dinner's ready. Dusk receives a slice of storebought quiche and some of the pie from yesterday.

She's more relaxed by then. (She's figured out that she can starscape herself some whole-hand gloves and then get rid of them after, for things that are solid enough. The pie is still messy but she's gotten pretty used to not worrying about that.)

Neither of her future moms care if she gets herself or her clothes messy; both are fixable. "How'd you like the school?" Winona says.

That school is probably fine. It's a little hard to think about, she's still pretty freaked out by the whole idea.

"I'm sorry," says Winona. "I'd like to give you more time but it's probably pretty important to getting you adopted that we be doing something about the educational neglect."

Mm.

"We've got another visit tomorrow," Julie says, "and a day off, and one the next day, and then the weekend."

All right. She can live with that.

"Tomorrow's the high school, which has a more comprehensive special ed program, but I'm not optimistic they'll be able to do anything about the scheduling problem and I'm a little worried you're going to find the special ed atmosphere uncomfortable," says Winona. "Since it might be more like the institution in some ways. Friday's a private school, and there's two more of those next week. If none of these are any good we can try to get you to a farther school, but those won't have buses, Julie won't always be around to tow you, and a carpool would have the problem with seatbelts."

She can probably do other vehicles besides bikes and balloons, if that's the only problem. Like a little plane or something maybe.

"I think you probably need a license to fly a little plane," says Julie. "Actually, I'm not sure you don't need one for a hot air balloon, but I'd be more convincing telling a cop I didn't realize we might. And you still need a seatbelt in a plane."

Bleh.

"Yep. The ones we have appointments for now are all close enough that you can bike to them."