"Uhh--" she doesn't have that lever she is a master of the English language and she has all the levers. "I don't bother Evelyn about the stuff she only does because it'd be illegal for her not to, and then on other stuff I can usually get what I want? Like, I have weird complicated food preferences and she buys the groceries I want and doesn't bug me to eat stuff I don't want, and she legally has to send me to school in the fall but I think I'll be able to get a school that sucks less than usual, stuff like that."

Shrug. "You're a nice kid and you're cute and you don't want anything only a bad kid would want. S'different for bad kids." 

"What do you want that you think is bad?" There are a lot of bad ways to get good things but most people's terminal values are good.

Teagan sets her phone down in her lap and turns to look at Miranda for the first time. 

"Look, no offense or anything, but you're, like, in kindergarten. I'm already getting kicked out of the last place for," she puts up air quotes and a shrill voice again, though she's speaking quietly, "'being a bad influence' and 'giving the other kids ideas.' And they're, like, twice your age." 

"I'm sorry, I'm being a nosy parker and I should stop." Poor kid. And no good way to explain that Miranda has already had a thousand of the relevant kind of idea.

(Incidentally, thank whatever powers there may be for the fact that her sex drive is weak enough to be trivially ignored and none of the people she's met have registered as attractive.)

"Nah, you're cool." Kick kick kick. "I mean, don't get me wrong, you're a fucking weirdo," though her tone is impressed more than anything, "but it's not your fault they're sticking me in kid prison." 

"Thanks. And guilty as charged on the weirdo front."

That actually gets a small smile. 

"What house rules did she tell you? They're all different, you know, and then they lie and say it's the law and not just their opinion." 

"Uh, don't cuss, that's obviously not a legal thing, don't go in other people's rooms without permission, don't eat in your room, I'm not supposed to go in the room with the power tools but that might not apply to you, I'm not supposed to go places alone but that probably won't apply to you . . . what else . . . no theft or violence or being loud when people are trying to sleep. And she reads my browser history, which'll probably be more annoying for you than me." (Whether fortunately or unfortunately, she's not enough of a hacker to confidently offer to get Teagan some privacy so she doesn't have to decide whether she should. Anyone can install TOR; the trick is hiding that you installed it on a computer with unknown amounts of monitoring software already present.) "I think the only annoying stuff she's said is the law is school and none of the doors having locks. Oh, that's the other one, leave the bathroom door open when you're not using it so people can tell it's available."

Teagan's nod is almost sympathetic. "The no locks thing sucks. It's, like, half of them? I think it's an actual policy thing, otherwise for sure they'd put locks on their own doors. - though the ones that do have locks can be pretty bad too, there was a kid at one home who used to lock himself in the bathroom when he was mad, and the parents didn't trust us to use their ensuite, so then I just couldn't shower or pee. And if he was really mad he'd block the toilet too, they had to get an actual plumber in once because he tried to flush my hair straightener." A small crooked smile. "Learned not to leave my shit in the bathroom after that, at least." 

"Wow, that sounds super annoying! It's just me and Evelyn and her son Jeremy right now so your hair straightener will be safe."

Teagan raises one eyebrow (the pierced one.) "Haven't had a foster sibling like that before? How long've you been in care, anyway?" 

"Only a few weeks. Evelyn's my first placement."

Teagan doesn't actually say 'oh you sweet summer child' but her expression is clearly that kind of sentiment. "Mm-hmm. Well, I'm glad she's not terrible. - what's the biokid like? Jeremy, right?" 

(Honestly valid; Miranda is aware of the depths of both human evil and human incompetence, but it's the intellectual awareness that comes from reading history and not from personal experience.)

"He's cool. About to graduate high school and move out, mostly focused on that right now. He'll hang out with you if you want to hang out and not if you don't."

"Hmmph." 

A pause, then, grudgingly, "guess it says something if he's cool with a tiny weirdo like you." 

"Yeah, a lot of guys his age would either ignore me or treat me like a pet and he's been--if I say very civilized that sounds like damning with faint praise. Friendly and courteous and doesn't make things weird, which is more than I can say for myself, hah."

This does get a slight snicker. "Bet he's a real goody-goody though." 

"I have never known him to spread chaos but if he did he would probably conceal it from me to avoid awkwardness. But my guess would be that he is genuinely disinclined to."

"...Boring, then. But I guess there are lots of worse things to be." Shrug. "And it's not like I have a choice about moving. Unless you hate me. If you tell your nice foster mom you hate me, I'm sure she won't inflict me on you." 

"I don't hate you, you seem cool and I have no problem sharing a house with you. Uh, if you really don't want to live with us I guess I could try to steer for that? I'd rather not lie though."

That gets her a surprised, faintly impressed look. "...Thanks, but nah. If they decide I'm any more of a bad kid they'll stick me in a locked unit. Which, I mean, it's all kid jail but there's some upsides when they're pretending it's not." 

"Yeah, for one thing Evelyn's cooking is way better than jail food," she quips, because she can't productively engage with that statement on a serious level right now.

Smirk. Teagan kicks the grass some more. 

"So whad'you, like, do for fun?" she says after a minute. 

"Reading, computer programming, embroidery. Sometimes I cook." She shrugs in acknowledgement of her boringness.