"Happy to have made you laugh."

Erase, erase, erase.

Erase, erase.

Art class ends, they spray their drawings with fixative and put them into portfolios, and off they go.

Darren and Savannah have to clean the charcoal off of their faces, but then, off they go.

The next day, the entire school has been informed of Bella's mother - how they act differs, but the twins run interference as promised when anyone gets too intrusive. Of the two, Darren proves to be the most helpful, helping Bella get caught up with any classes she's behind on, including math. Savannah's not exactly unhelpful, but sometimes she doesn't have much tact. It leads to some awkward moments sometimes.

Darren introduces Bella to Angela, after he gently informs Angela that Bella is hurting and she should proceed accordingly. He himself seems happy to have Bella as a friend, and content to not bring up her mom or ask her how she's doing, or anything intrusive. He lets her be, and tries to cheer her up when applicable.

Bella and Angela are soon also friends.

Bella doesn't talk about her mom much. (She writes about her, constantly: she was halfway through a fucking crossword puzzle or she was dating that baseball player and maybe they would have been happy or if she were here she'd tell me to cheer up, that it's all part of life. Angela doesn't peek, Darren doesn't; Savannah peeps once and gets a glare and then defends the notebook like it's her own from others' attention.)

She catches up on the schoolwork. She makes dinner for Charlie. She writes and writes and cries sometimes, alone, and writes.

One day she is in the grocery store, dropped off while Charlie gets a haircut, looking for lemons.

And she thinks she sees Renée.

She knows it is not Renée. She knows Renée is dead. The funeral was open casket. She knows there is no reason to follow this person in the long - is that a rain poncho? that'd make sense - just because they walk the same and have the same chin and same height.

She also knows she's not going to get arrested for trying to get a closer look at a person in a grocery store, and that it's going to bother her if she doesn't. The bother will take longer to dig out than the check will take to make. If she circles around the stand with the avocados -

The lady with the poncho drops a necklace. Bella picks it up (it gives her a little static shock); that's a better excuse than she expected to have to get a look at her, convince the animal parts of her brain that it's not Renée. "Ma'am?"

And then the lady rounds the endcap with the Mountain Dew and Bella walks as briskly as she dares and the lady's gone, and Bella's still holding the necklace.

"Ma'am?"

But she's nowhere in the entire store, to collect her necklace or to satisfy Bella's botheredness.

Well, it's not such a huge surprise that someone could outpace Bella, even indoors. She considers giving the necklace to Lost and Found, but - no. She likes the necklace. She's going to keep it.

Charlie picks her up and takes her home.

It's a nice day. They're rare. She goes out, necklace 'round her neck. Finds a clearing in the wood.

And passes out.

From where he's perched at the window in his house, Darren flinches.

.... What the hell was that?