"I think Evelyn would know what the right things to say to them are and what the wrong things are - The healer asked if my parents hit me with snakes, and I told her that they only hit me with sticks and hands like normal people and that is when she started asking about my brothers and sisters - I don't know why she asked me if my parents hit me with snakes, it was a very strange question."

"That is a very weird question. They didn't ask me that one. But Evelyn usually understood what they meant with the questions, which wasn't what the actual question was. They asked me if I got so angry I wanted to throw things, and I said nothing I was angry at was flying. and Evelyn said they just meant that - just as sometimes even though it's unwise for a slave to speak they might be so angry they are tempted to speak anyway, and Americans sometimes are tempted to throw things when angry even though it is a bad idea, and it is not asking if throwing things will solve your problems but if you want to throw things knowing it won't."

"Why can they not just ask the questions they mean to ask?"

"I don't know!! I have never tried to run an interrogation. Maybe it actually works better to ask questions that are stupid and confusing so people get confused and admit that while their parents don't hit them with snakes they do hit them with sticks."

"Well it worked."

"It's probably okay. Even if they found Sarkoris how would they possibly find your family?"

"I don't know! Maybe that is why they want our blood!"

"Oh, that's fair. That does seem like the sort of thing you could do with blood."

They are efficient box-packers and actually have all the work done before Evelyn arrives to pick them up. The volunteer coordinator says that everyone's free to just relax and compliments how hardworking the girls are.

Iomedae could really do without the part of being a slave where everyone tells you how well you are adjusting to it but she smiles and nods.

She is a normal amount of hardworking for an older girl. She thinks this is just the thing the migrant workers noticed where Americans are all very lazy.

Evelyn enjoys her glorious almost-three-hour break, which she's pretty sure she very badly needed. She hadn't even realized until she was alone in blissful peace how ragged her emotional equilibrium had gotten. (This is totally normal for the first week of a new placement, she reminds herself, and right now she's in the first week for two new placements. It's going to get better.)  

Evelyn didn't even have very many errands to run - they're good on Costco groceries, and covered on fresh produce for a few more days, so she can go on Thursday when the girls do their second food bank shift - so instead she spent a very therapeutic hour browsing Goodwill. Evelyn has a hard-won ability (that her friend Pat calls 'nearly supernatural') to guess a child's shoe size correctly after seeing them barefoot a couple of times, and she's now obtained comfy, sturdy, nearly-new sneakers for both girls for less than $20 total. She's slightly torn on whether to admit to this or imply they were in her used shoe cupboard all along, but - probably the first one, Iomedae has a whole thing about honesty and Evelyn feels vaguely bad deceiving her about things. 

That still leaves an hour and a half to kill, so she goes home, and has the longest shower she's had in six months, and then spends a while on Google looking at martial arts studios and asking on various foster parent Facebook groups she's a member of about the best "practical" martial arts classes available for a very strong, very fit teenager who grew up in a high-crime area and is very worried about self-defense. (Evelyn has a firmly engrained habit of anonymizing requests and leaving out any detail that isn't absolutely necessary.)

She's now pretty sure that what she wants is "krav maga", and there's a studio in the area, yay! ...It's inconveniently on the far opposite side of the city, apparently a 30 minute bike ride away. Evelyn would absolutely not subject most kids to a 30 minute bike ride each way with a martial arts class in the middle, but it's honestly probably good for Iomedae?

...The second issue is that the introductory adult classes (which do fortunately specify "14 and up welcome") are 7:30-9:00 pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Which means there's one tonight (yay!) if Iomedae is interested, but also means that it's riiiight around Lily's bedtime. Iomedae is not going to be safe to bike there on her own until she's had more practice - and has, like, bike lights, it's dark by 9:00 at this time of year and the days are only going to get shorter from here - and Evelyn would have to be there anyway to sign her up. And probably also wants to be on-hand the entire time for Iomedae's first lesson, in case there are...problems.

(This is the point at which Lily's bus arrives, and Evelyn is distracted for twenty minutes getting Lily a snack and settling her in front of the TV. She doesn't even feel bad about the using-screens-to-replace-parenting. Lily gets home from school very exhausted and Evelyn is pretty sure it's actually good for her, and helps her have a better evening later on, to rewatch episodes of a cartoon she's seen half a dozen times.) 

Evelyn calls the krav maga studio and confirms she can show up and register a teenager for a free trial lesson if she arrives by 7:10, and then...considers the problem of Lily's bedtime for a moment, and decides that probably the best strategy is asking either Jeremy - who's police checked and on her file as a backup caregiver - for babysitting, or calling in one of her foster carer friends. 

It's now 4:15 pm, less than an hour before she needs to leave and pick up the girls.

She calls Jeremy, doesn't get through probably because he's in class, texts him, and gets a response within five minutes confirming that he would definitely be willing to babysit and put Lily to bed if it's in service of Iomedae getting to do epic martial arts, and also that's a bit rushed, does she want him to head over as soon as he's done class and help with dinner and stuff? Evelyn responds that YES she would like that, though to be clear she's not actually sure Iomedae is interested yet, she just wants to make it possible for Iomedae to go tonight if she agrees to it. If not, they can have a nice evening at home. Also if Jeremy can be here before 5 pm, she won't have to take Lily in the car with her, which is preferable. 

Jeremy is there by 4:55. 

- it's not until she's in the car on the way back to pick up the girls that she remembers she forgot to check if the krav maga studio has a uniform. She....can probably just give Iomedae some comfortable workout clothing from her ottoman of spares, and if they do want you wearing a uniform, arriving at 7:10 should give her time to buy one? Hopefully that will be less of a fight with Iomedae if it's a rule for the self-defense lessons studio...? 

Evelyn arrives back at the food bank, smiling, at 5:15 pm, handbag on her arm. "How was it? - oh, are you all done already?" 

"The small-president did not give more work when we had doed it all."

Evelyn is just going to ignore all the ways in which that's a mildly concerning thing to say. "Yeah, I think they only get so much food delivered that needs packing. I can pick you up earlier on Thursday."

She would clarify that they don't have to go back if they would rather not, but Iomedae looks more relaxed than Evelyn has ever seen her before, and Evelyn is pretty sure that this was a very positive experience for her and she should have more of it. It's mildly unfortunate that the volunteer shifts are on the same days as the krav maga beginner classes, but - well, maybe Iomedae will be advanced quickly to the intermediate classes? Those are on Mondays and Wednesdays. 

Evelyn will try to catch Margaret's eye, if Margaret is around, and ideally do a brief checkin about how that went? 

Margeret is effusive. "What sweet girls! And they were so diligent, too, they just zipped right through all the boxes. A lot of the kids these days, you know, they just want to be on their phones and talk to their friends."

The reasons why Iomedae and Alfirin are…like that…are not un-concerning reasons, but that isn’t the point right now. And Margaret is very sweet. Evelyn always likes making new friends and this feels like a friendship in the making.

Evelyn beams. “I know! Aren’t they just. - Thursday, right, same time?”

"Absolutely! See you then!"

Then Evelyn will cheerfully usher the girls out to the car. 

"I have some good news! I found a," neither of them is going to know the phrase 'martial arts class', "- a teacher that teaches people how to defend yourself without weapons, and I think they're a good teacher, I asked some people for advice and I read the," they will also not be familiar with website reviews, "things people who went there before wrote on the Internet about how it was for them. I think you could both go, if you wanted, but Iomedae definitely can. There's a lesson tonight in a few hours and I've figured it out so Jeremy can watch Lily, if you want to go?" 

"I want to go!"

"Yes! I want to go, it is important I learn how to defend myself."

"Oh good! I'm hoping it's useful for learning how to fight without a knife, but," at the very least it's got to be a workout, which Iomedae needs, "I'm sure you'll learn something." 

She drives in silence for a little while, there's a tricky intersection here. ...Probably it's fine for Alfirin to go? Evelyn...is not actually sure what age they put down in Alfirin's paperwork...but she definitely has the maturity of a fourteen-year-old, and the studio is probably flexible, Evelyn didn't even specify an age when she called and they said it was fine.

"It's also possible to bike to!" she says brightly. "I looked up the route and it's - far, a long way, eight miles I think - it would take half an hour if you're fast on a bike - but you can get there on roads that aren't too dangerous for a bike. ...I'm obviously going to drive you over tonight, since you don't know the way yet and I need to be there anyway to talk to the teacher. I asked Jeremy to come over and put Lily to bed." 

Alfirin is...plausibly not up for an eight-mile bike ride both ways with a martial arts class in the middle, and also hasn't even started learning to cycle...but Evelyn will handle that later, once they find out if the girls even like the class. 

"It is also important I learn how to go places with a bike?"

"Half a hour is not a long time to get to a fighting teacher."

"Only if you want to!" Evelyn says to Alfirin, trying to catch her eye in the rearview mirror. "I'm always happy to drive you, and there are buses too - buses are like really big cars, that go at regular times on the same road and take lots of people - though they, uh, take even longer, and I don't know if you could get home that way since it ends late. I do think you could go more places on your own with a bike, and you might like that better?" 

"I will try to learn, learn how hard it is?"