"I've crossed it off my list and I'll tell the PTO's secretary!"

"Thank you. Will I see you at the mixer?"

"Indeed."

"I look forward to it."

Davy almost relented when he saw Millie dressed up for the reception.

"Que linda eres! Maybe I should go along to fight off your admirers."

She kissed him, then pushed his hands away as they strayed toward her bodice. "If you want. If it's like any PTA meeting I've ever seen, they will be talking about school budgets and pushing for donations and volunteers to run fund-raisers. You want to run a bake sale?"

He shuddered.

"There is an open bar, though, unlike any PTA meeting I've ever been to. I will be dulling the pain by drinking heavily, so your chance of getting laid afterward goes way up."

He brightened. "How about I just lie in wait until you stagger home, then take advantage of you?"

"That works."

The Resplendent was a restaurant/bar two blocks off Main Street. Millie had lunched there after accepting the invitation to the mixer, to acquire a jump site. She was extremely glad she'd done so. Though it had stopped falling, the streets were still under a foot of snow.

Her jump site was inside, behind a large ficus in an alcove near the restrooms. Shrugging off her long coat and hanging it over her arm, she bypassed the restaurant's receptionist and checked in with a diminutive woman wearing a sequined pantsuit and holding a clipboard.

"Ms. Mendez, I presume?"

"Darice, please. Mrs. Ross, right? Had to be you, I know everyone else. That's a gorgeous dress. How did you get here without freezing to death?"

"Just Millie." Millie shook the woman's hand. "I just avoided the snow as much as possible. Striking pantsuit."

"Thank you." Darice leaned closer and whispered conspiratorially, "Long underwear! My car wouldn't make it out of the driveway. Had to walk six blocks and change my shoes here."

She pulled a preprinted name tag off the clipboard and held it out, looking for an appropriate place to pin it, but the lines of Millie's dress defeated her.

"Here," Millie said, holding up her clutch purse. "Pin it to this."

Darice did.

"Great. Check your coat over there. Bar is there, and the chairman will be giving a presentation at that end in about a half hour."

Millie didn't have to go to the bar. Three different men offered to fetch her a drink before she reached the crowd surrounding the bar.

She accepted the third offer, from the man standing with his wife who introduced herself after reading Millie's name tag. "I'm Misty Chilton. That was Tom. Your daughter's been hanging out with our girl, Jade."

"Ah! And Tara-the Krakatoa homework club. Is Cent being a bad influence? She's always wanted to be a bad influence."

Misty laughed. "In a way. I understand she does her homework weeks in advance. She's badly diminished the procrastination quotient at their homework sessions."

Millie shook her head. "I am sorry to hear it. Whatever happened to waiting until the last minute?"

"Or 'my dog ate my homework?' There are honored traditions in our educational institutions, for goodness sake!"

"Kids these days," agreed Millie.

Misty introduced her to the two men who'd also offered to get Millie a drink. "Stay away from these bums, especially my colleague Dr. George here. He's newly divorced and desperate. Leon, here, is happily married but he'll still try and look down your dress."

Leon looked amiably affronted. "Hey, I don't grab, like some." He glanced across the room toward a cluster of men talking at the end of the bar.

Misty looked less amused and sighed. "No, dear, you certainly don't." She changed the subject. "So you moved here from out of the country," she said to Millie. "And that's why you've been homeschooling your daughter?"

That and the people trying to kill or capture us. "Yes. But she wanted to finish high school in an actual school. So here we are." She smiled brightly. "Where's my drink?"

Tom Chilton arrived shortly and handed Millie her gin and tonic and his wife a white wine. "I think I deserve a medal. They're about to declare martial law over at the bar. I'm sure I was nearly shot several times."

Misty kissed him on the cheek. "There, there, dear, I'm sure our health plan covers psychiatric care. We'll get you a nice therapist and you can suck your thumb on his couch."

Tom smiled at her and didn't look the least bit traumatized. "Just get me through Bob's pitch and I'll be happy."

"Amen to that," said Leon.

"Bob?" said Millie.

"Bob Chanlee. He's the chairman and the biggest contributor to the PTO," said George.

"And our biggest problem," said Misty with a lowered voice. "Wants all our support to go to the football team." She smiled fondly at her husband. "Tom's the PTA president this year. We're here to remind people that there are other places their money could go."

Tom sighed. "If we could serve alcohol at our meetings, I bet we'd get more donations for the library and teaching budget."

Millie looked at Misty, doubtfully. "Football? I came out in this snow for a fund-raiser for football?"

Misty nodded.

Millie said, "I'm going to need another drink."

"So, how much money did we donate to that PTO thing?" Davy asked, some time after she had returned home.

"Nothing."

"Really? I could've sworn that wasn't your intention."

Millie settled deeper into the sheets, her thigh across Davy's bare belly. "We did donate to the PTA, though, six thousand. It's going toward teaching assistants in the more crowded classrooms."

"And what would it have gone to at the PTO thing?"

"Football equipment. Maybe an assistant coach."

Davy winced.

Millie said, "I had them take our name off the list."

"Did I ever mention what a good wife you are?"

"Well, you just showed me."

"I could show you again."

Millie pretended to study a nonexistent watch.

"I guess I can fit you in."

"Good answer."

TWELVE.

"Good reflexes!"

I snowshoed to school.

While the county had plowed the roads, the path through the woods was still buried deep. I could've jumped to the edge of the woods, but if someone backtracked me it would look weird, my footsteps appearing out of nowhere. I figured I could establish a trail and then, barring more snow, anyone backtracking me would see the path.

I left a half hour early. Breaking a fresh trail always takes more time and energy, but even though it was predawn gray, the woods were gorgeous and I enjoyed it.

The smoking crowd was at the bleachers, including Caffeine. It was cold but the air was still so they were more spread out. I moved wide, shuffling along on the top of the snow. Caffeine saw me coming and moved out to intercept me, but the minute she stepped beyond the snow packed down by the smokers, she sank thigh deep.

I heard her swear and grinned involuntarily. I tried to take my face back to neutral, but she'd seen my smile. The expression on her face was poisonous. She climbed back onto the packed snow and headed across toward the door, but I was out of the bindings of my snowshoes and inside the school before she got there.

It was a bit cramped, getting my outerwear and the snowshoes into my locker. I'd made good time so I was the first one into biology class, beating even Mr. Hill out of the teachers lounge. Tara came in five minutes later and spent some time admiring my phone.

Brett didn't show up until almost second bell, nipping in at the last minute. His seat was near the back on the other side of the classroom. I was looking at him as he came in, but he didn't even notice me.

I didn't know whether to be relieved or mad. I was hoping to exchange phone numbers with him. He was late, but when class was over he was out the door before I'd even picked up my backpack.

Tara joined me at the door. "You okay?"

"I guess. Why?"

She shrugged. "You looked a little upset there."

"Really?" I shook my head. "I will wear my heart upon my sleeve for daws to peck at."

"Oh, so you were upset? What are daws?"

"Some kind of bird, I think."

"What does that have to do with wearing your heart on your sleeve?"

"It's the entire phrase. Iago says it in Othello."

"Daws. Huh. So, did you want to talk to Brett?"

I winced. "I thought I did. Maybe not."

She nodded. "Donna probably wouldn't approve."

My stomach twisted. "Donna?"

"His girlfriend."

"He has a girlfriend?"

"Duh."

"Why didn't you say something about that yesterday? When he was hitting on me?"

"He's a guy. Just because he's flirting doesn't mean he isn't taken. Besides-guys. Being in a relationship don't keep them from seeing other girls."

I could feel my ears getting hot.

Tara raised her eyebrows.

"Homeschooled, remember?" I looked away. "See you at lunch."

Later, in the cafeteria, Tara and Jade looked at me warily, but I smiled and said, "Sorry I was such a spaz this morning."

Tara said, "I'm sorry. I didn't think about the homeschooling thing. You haven't had much experience with boys?"

I blew out through closed lips. "You don't know the half of it. Raised in isolation, that's me. I'm not very good at people of any gender."

"I looked up daws. It's short for jackdaw, member of the crow family."

They'd both bought the cafeteria lunch but I pulled mine out of my backpack.

"Oh, wow," said Jade. "Where'd you get the bento box?"