“Bee! Where are the extra dishes!” Wilder hollers over the sound of rummaging through cupboards.

  “I don’t know, maybe we used them for dartboards,” Bee suggests.

  “Well then we have to buy more! Get up you slacker, and run down to the market!”

  “Nah,” Bee says. “Mino, run down to the market.”

  Mino frowns. “There isn’t enough time to get all the way down the hill and then back up again before they get here,” she says. It has been a few hours since meeting Lonnie, Riel, and their parents. Mino has been helping clean her home as Wilder and Iris prepare food—though Iris left the kitchen a few minutes ago to look for the dishes.

  “Take your bike.”

  “That would be even slower coming back up!”

  “It doesn’t matter.” That was Iris’s voice.

  Mino pushes the flowers from her face. Iris is coming down the stairs, holding a stack of plates. “They were under the guest bed, Wilder. Oh, and some of our friends are arriving now.”

  Mino runs to the front door and hops up on her toes to peer through the window. Sure enough, a group of people are arriving in the front yard. She flings the door open and waves, the sound of bickering brothers fading into the background.

  “Hi!” Lonnie exclaims. He runs forward and jumps into Mino’s arms. They both fall to the ground, laughing. Mino brushes a few flowers aside and looks up to see Riel, Ethel, Alaric, Janos, and Torin. They all look happy, though Riel looks a little nervous, actually. Alaric is carrying a covered dish.

  “Hello, Mino!” Ethel says. “Mind if we come in?”

  Mino pulls herself out from under Lonnie, and the two stand. Lonnie brushes himself off and Mino beckons the others inside.

  Riel lingers in the yard a little longer. She’s wearing a thin sleeveless tank top and baggy shorts with big pockets, which she’s digging around in. Is she alright? Mino approaches her.

  “We brought this for you,” Riel says, shoving a small box at Mino. She decides to open it before checking on her friend.

  “They’re padded clips, for your flowers,” Riel says. “To help you see. Lonnie thought the padded ones might not hurt them.”

  Mino touches her chest, clutching the box tightly. She reaches out, hoping Riel will accept a hug. She does!

  “Thank you,” Mino says. She tests one of the clips right away. She can still feel the pressure on the flowers and their stems, but they don’t feel like they’re being crushed. She clips three more bunches around her face. Some of the flowers can’t be moved easily, but she can see much more than before!

  Mino tucks the small box in her pocket and asks, “How are you?” She’s not sure if Riel will answer.

  Surprisingly, the girl only hesitates a little bit before responding. “I’m a little nervous,” she says. Her face goes a little pink, but much less than Mino remembers. “There’s gonna be a lot of people here.”

  Mino nods sympathetically. “If it gets too loud you can go in my room,” she offers.

  “Really?” Riel asks. “Maybe. But I want to try to have fun,” she says. She seems much more confident than when Mino left. Mino smiles, happy that Riel hopefully isn’t struggling so much.

  Mino hears Ethel’s voice behind her. “Is everything okay?” Her voice is quiet, compassionate. Riel nods.

  “I was just giving Mino her present,” she says. Mino waves her head back and forth, showing off the clips.

  “Sweetheart? Where’d you go, could you carry this out back?”

  Mino slips past Ethel and takes a large platter piled with fruits and veggies from Bee’s hands. She navigates through the kitchen, family room, and the open back door. Torin, Iris, and Alaric are already in the backyard. Torin and Iris are setting the picnic table while Alaric carefully unfolds another wooden, collapsible table. Mino climbs up onto the picnic table bench and carefully places the platter in the middle of the table.

  She looks back at the back door, but now Janos and Wilder are just inside, chatting about something. She’ll go the other way. Mino skips through long, soft grass and squishy moss to the side of the house, where there is a narrow path between the wall and a tall, chain-link fence overgrown with greenery and vines. She brushes her hand over the plants and taps her toes onto protruding roots as she walks. A slight breeze brushes past her face.

  She comes out into the front yard and steps through the garden. The front door is still open, and she can hear Bee and Lonnie in the kitchen.

  “I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before,” Lonnie is saying. Mino leans her back against the wall, out of sight. She looks up into the air and imagines that the fog covering the Underground’s ceiling are clouds.

  “I mostly stick around Finlow, kid,” Bee says. “You ever been here before?”

  “No,” Lonnie says. “I saw you somewhere else.”

  Bee chuckles. “I doubt it.”

  Things are quiet for a moment, and Mino almost goes inside before:

  “Why were you following us?” Following who? Was Bee doing something… wrong? Mino frowns and tugs at the collar of her shirt.

  After a moment, Bee sighs and lowers his voice. “I wanted to make sure she got to the Door safely.”

  They’re talking about that, so long ago? Bee followed them?

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  Was he that guy that they had seen near the Door?

  “I noticed you on the air rail leaving Whitegrass,” Lonnie says. “I realized that I had seen you in town. I thought it was a coincidence, but you got off in Sundra like we did and then I saw you the next morning when I was getting food. You stayed out of Mino’s sight as much as possible, I don’t think she noticed you until the end. But I saw you.”

  “You’re sharp, kid.”

  That actually makes Mino feel a lot better. She wasn’t really worried about what had happened back then anymore, but it had been strange when they realized they were being followed. If it was only Bee… Mino wants to laugh. He was silly for following in secret instead of just coming with her!

  “You really just wanted to take care of her? You didn’t make her come back here?”

  “We didn’t know she was back until she knocked on our door.”

  Mino has heard enough, and she thinks that Lonnie feels reassured. She walks into the kitchen and closes the front door behind her. Bee and Lonnie separate—Bee casual, Lonnie a little awkward.

  “Anything else I can do?” Mino asks.

  From the family room, she hears Janos’s voice. “Riel, help me get this table out here.” Riel moves to help Janos, and Mino watches over the counter as the two struggle to drag an old, collapsible wooden table into the yard. Torin and Ethel follow them: Torin carrying one chair, Ethel carrying three.

  “I think everything is outside now,” Bee says. “You could go see if they need anything, or you could stay here and keep me company.” He hugs her, nuzzling his nose into her hair. Mino giggles silently and squirms out of his grip. The excitement has come back after having a quiet moment, and now she doesn’t want to stay still.

  “I’m gonna head out and help set up those tables,” Lonnie says. He hops across the kitchen table into the family room and bounds out the door. Through the windows, Mino watches as he joins Riel and Janos. The three of them pull at the table, muscles straining, until they finally get it to spring open. A chorus of cheers floats through the door. Mino grins and bounces in place.

  Mino steps into her room and looks around for any toys or games she could bring outside. She finds a few. When she emerges from her room, Iris, Wilder, and Alaric are back inside, Wilder going on about “defending his and Iris’s honor” from Alaric. The poor man. Wilder seems to have taken his gift of food as a full on challenge. Bee is overseeing the shenanigans from the top of the refrigerator with a large, silly grin.

  “Fio’s crew is here,” Bee announces to the room at large, and only moments after, very enthusiastic pounding sounds from the door.

  By the time Mino gets halfway to the door, it’s already bursting open to reveal Fio, Basia, and Serra, carrying bowls and a very large variety of snacks with them. Basia carries a bowl filled with e-sims*.

  “Hey, scoundrels!” Fio shouts. “Are you ready to start the fun because now it is here!”

  “I don’t know,” Iris calls with a teasing tone. Mino looks to she what she’s doing, and sees her gazing at Wilder. “I think it might be getting a little too hot in here,” she says, pinning Wilder to the counter behind him and lifting his shirt up a little.

  “Oh. Oh!” Wilder says, blushing terribly. Mino glances at Bee. He looks furious. Mino giggles as Bee hops down from the top of the fridge and steps forward. Wilder quickly pulls his shirt back down over his thin hips and holds his stomach protectively. He’s still blushing. What a lovestruck fool. Mino bites her lip hard, barely managing to keep her amusement contained.

  “I see,” Fio muses. “This is obviously a challenge meant to determine which couple is the most canoodley. I will not lose.” She drops the snacks she’s holding and sweeps Basia into her arms, planting a big smooch on her cheek. Mino is gasping in silent laughter, a few tears squeezing from her eyes. Guess she’s watering the flowers now.

  Serra scoots up to bump into Mino.

  “Hi!” Mino says cheerfully, wiping the tears from her face.

  “Wanna know a secret?” Serra asks, waggling her eyebrows. Mino grins and nods. Serra leans forward to whisper in Mino’s ear.

  “Fio and Basia are gonna get married,” she says. “I saw Fio had a ring and she hid it from me but I saw. And I’m gonna be a flower girl!”

  Mino claps her hands together excitedly, beaming. Serra smirks. “There’s no way Basia will say no,” Serra says, and Mino privately agrees.

  Mino hears a knock on the doorframe. “Hey hey,” a voice says. Lev is here!

  “Hope I’m not late,” he says as Mino pulls him inside. His hair is shaved short on one side. Mino tilts her head, looking at it questioningly.

  “Yeah,” he acknowledges, sheepish. “I just singed it, so I had to cut some off. Otherwise I would have been here earlier.” He waves his fingers, small sparks dancing and flickering out.

  “Like me!” Mino says. He grins and nods.

  “You’re not late,” Serra informs him. “We just got here. I’ll show you where the party is.” She takes his hand and leads him through to the backyard.

  All in all, it takes everyone a little while to settle down before dinner actually occurs. Wilder carries the rest of the food outside, and the others follow. Janos and Riel have apparently built a firepit in their absence(with Ethel’s supervision of course). Lonnie is helping them gather some wood to burn from the woodpile and from the variety of dead twigs lying under their trees.

  “Careful now,” Basia warns as Lev begins lighting the fire. She then can't hold back a suspiciously delighted grin and says:

  “We wouldn't want to get smoked out.”

  Fio perks up, her face showing absolute, unrestrained delight. Wilder makes a face. “You two are a menace to—”

  “Babe, that was a pretty decent one. But I bet I can burn it down.”

  Wilder groans in exaggerated exasperation.

  “Alright, settle down now. Let's eat,” Alaric suggests.

  Mino sits at the picnic table. Riel and Lonnie sit next to her, and Janos, Lev, and Torin sit across. Ethel, Iris, Wilder, and Serra sit at the other table. Fio pulls Basia into her lap and sits on the third table. Alaric shakes his head and takes a seat with them. Bee lays down on the grass with a bowl of chips, grinning contentedly up into the air.

  They eat, talking happily amongst themselves and across tables all evening. Several times people switch seats until Mino no longer knows who was where in the first place, and has stopped trying to keep track. Janos keeps the fire going, and as the day fades into night, the flames and the strings of hanging bulbs become their sources of light. Eventually everyone migrates from the tables to spread out blankets on the ground, circling around the source of heat. Fio carries Basia over, sitting down with her still in Fio’s lap. Janos, never one to be shown up, apparently, tries to do the same with Torin. Torin is too wiggly, resistant, and they both end up falling down in a heap.

  Bee carries Wilder over, and even though Wilder is a good foot taller than him, he does it easily. Alaric looks at Ethel, holding his arms out, but instead she picks him up and plops him down with everyone else. Serra jumps up into Iris’s arms, and they both pose dramatically as Iris catches her. Riel attempts to lift Lonnie up after some goading from Mino, but Lonnie and Riel are about the same size, and though Riel is strong, it doesn’t work out too well. Mino lost track of Lev in all the chaos, but when she looks around, he’s right at her side, smirking as a little flame dances across his fingertips.

  As the bonfire begins to die down, everyone heads inside with dozens of fluffy blankets to set up the e-sims and dig into the snacks. Mino trails behind the others, lingering just outside the door as they all settle down in one big, cuddly pile. Riel seems to have relaxed enough to lay her head in Lonnie’s lap and let him play with her hair. Mino smiles.

  The food and dishes have all been cleared away, piled in the kitchen for later cleaning. The fire has been fully extinguished, no longer exuding any of those small trails of smoke that curl up and up. Mino looks up into the air, knowing she won’t see much. Sometimes the thought is enough.

  She hears laughter and shushing from inside as an e-sim starts, quiet chatter and the munching of snacks. Good food, good friends, this will be a good life. Mino knows that she will continue to remember some things from before waking up some months ago, confused and afraid. But she’s already come so far, she’s already built so much of a life here with Bee and Wilder and all of her friends. Mino touches her chest, feeling the wholeness of her heart. It’s brimming with love and joy. She’s so happy she could cry. Around her feet, little flowers and weeds begin to sprout and take bloom.

  She looks into the dark room, all the people she loves gathered there, and she thinks she can nearly see stars.