She doesn't think she could stay calm enough for that to be a good idea.

"Then don't. I'll come back after and tell you about it."

Thanks.

"You're welcome."

May works on the diagram, drafting version after version to make it fit nicely in a compact shape, until dinnertime, then goes off to get dinner, then goes into the council meeting.

She's back at the park at eight thirty.

Dusk is there, working on a big abstract cartoon painting; it seems to be doing a passable job of distracting her. Enough that she doesn't notice May right away at least.

May sits on the bench and waits to be noticed.

It takes a few minutes, but Dusk comes over when she notices.

Hi.

"Hi. I convinced 'em not to ship you to the wilds, uh, by agreeing to continue to check in on you now and then, so, if you wind up on the news again I'm in trouble, please don't."

She won't; do they really not get that that wasn't on purpose?

"They are several people with each their own understandings of the situation. In aggregate, if I had to summarize them as a single being, I'd say they realize it wasn't on purpose but don't admire your recovery and find your lack of contrition disturbing."

Ugh.

"Guy who brought you in got an award."

That she has no problem with, that was a really scary situation and he handled it really well.

"Mmhm. Uh, they'll probably stay off your back if you don't do anything really attention-getting anyway, but if you wanted to buy a little goodwill you could make a point of formally thanking him and his cousin and the lady who drew your coverup webcomic - did you see the coverup webcomic or just learn the name of the character somehow -"

She saw the webcomic. She can do a thank-you letter; it'll look kind of boilerplate 'cause she can't really write one but she can do it.

"They're not expecting Pulitzer work from somebody your age."

Okay. She'll get started on it tomorrow, then.

"They're describing how things went with the Bakers as 'they said kids should be in school and you started threatening to kill yourself'."

It's more complicated than that but not a lot more complicated. She still doesn't know why the council though it was a good idea to try to stick her with some random adults without even talking to her about it, of course that freaked her out.

"They didn't have a lot of options among full time Avalon residents who were willing to even think about taking in a strange teenager."

Even if they didn't have a choice about what to do they still had one about how to do it.

"...sure. Anyway, you're set if you just keep living in the park like you have been, I can eBay your goods so you can get restaurant food, and I'll have a first draft of the spell by the end of the week."

All right. And she'll keep on with the pearls and things; May can let her know when she starts running out of room for them. She's sorry this has been so much trouble.

"It's okay. You're the most interesting thing that's happened since I got my medallion."