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leaving his stereo on even when he wasn’t home.
    “What?” he yelled.
    I opened the door a few inches. “Mom wanted me to make sure you were home.”
    “Why?”
    “She said we were going to have a family meeting after dinner.”
    “What about?”
    “I don’t know.” I shrugged.
    “Maybe they’re getting a divorce,” he said. “That’d be great.”
    “That’s mean.”
    “Whatever.” He rolled his eyes at me. “It’s not like you wouldn’t jump up and down for joy if they did.”
    “That doesn’t mean we should say it.”
    “Why not?” he asked. “It’s the truth.”
    “It’s still mean.”
    “Oh, yeah, I forgot I was talking to Little Miss Goody-Goody.”
    “I’m not a goody-goody,” I said.
    “Whatever,” he retorted. “Just go away, Twerp. I’ve got shit to do.”
    I shut his door and retraced my steps down the hall to my room. Like my mom had suggested, I took advantage of the opportunity to get started on my homework. It was a lot easier to do math problems when I wasn’t exhausted. By the time Mom yelled that it was dinner time, I’d made it through most of the problems Mrs. White assigned.
    As soon as we finished eating, Chris and I sat down on the couch and waited for Mom to call the family meeting to order. The twins played on the floor in front of us and James turned on the news.
    “James, why don’t you turn that off?” Mom asked as she walked in from the kitchen and sat on the arm of his chair.
    “The weather’s almost over,” he answered, waiting until the weatherman finished his report before hitting the power button on the remote. “Sorry, Honey, I just wanted to catch the five-day forecast.”
    “It’s okay.” Mom smiled.
    Their atypical civility worried me. For months they hadn’t been able to be in the same room together without fighting. Now, they were talking sweetly to each other and using pet names. When they both turned to look at Chris and me, my stomach twisted into a knot. Terrible news was going to spew out of their mouths. I could feel it.
    “Kids, there’s something your father and I would—”
    “He’s not our father,” Chris said under his breath.
    “All right.” Mom inhaled and started again. “There’s something James and I would like to tell you.” A huge smile stretched across her face. “We’re pregnant.”
    There it was. The perfect ending to a terrible day. I knew my mom expected me to be as happy as she was, but I wasn’t. I couldn’t even pretend that I was. After the twins were born I had gone from being the center of my mother’s world to a footnote. I felt more like the help than a member of the family. Another baby wasn’t going to make things any better.
    “That it?” Chris asked.
    “Yes.” Mom nodded.
    “Great.” He got up and walked toward the door. “I’m going to Becky’s.”
    “Don’t you want to talk?” Mom asked.
    “No.” Chris shook his head. “What’s there to talk about? You guys are having another kid. That’s great. I don’t really care.”
    I looked at him. How could he not care? Didn’t he understand that we were about to be figuratively orphaned? Was he just going to fade into obscurity without a fight?
    “Hold on there.” James rose from his chair. “You’d better check your attitude, young man. This baby is going to be part of this family and if you want to remain a part of it, you’d better start acting like it.”
    “I haven’t been a part of this family for a while,” Chris retorted. He grabbed his letter jacket and headed out the door before anything more could be said.

Four
    “Oh, my God, Tori!” Kennedy squealed. “You will never believe what happened.”
    “What?” I sighed. It hadn’t been the best morning and I was sure whatever had gotten her so excited didn’t matter.
    “Jason called me,” she said. “I gave him my number last week, but I didn’t expect him to actually call.”
    “What’d he say?”
    “He wanted to make sure we were going to Camber