Page 42 of One Breath After Another

“Get a leg up on the problem. Get us ahead of it before it turns into something bigger than it already is, and we have to handle that accordingly. I would rather not get to that point, you know? The woman—Penny’s caseworker—is just misguided. She doesn’t know us ... that’s fine, she doesn’t need to. She does need to back off, though. Find something to make that happen for me.”

Luca could do that.

He could find anything.

The only thing he needed to know was ... “Who is the caseworker?”

He could do the rest.

8.

Penny

BY the time Friday rolled around the following week, things had gone well. Or, better than Penny expected, anyway. That said something. Maybe getting her guardian called into the school for a sit-down with the principal wasn’t such a bad thing.

Her teachers laid off. She did make an effort to complete assignments even if a few were a little late. No one complained. As for the other stuff the principal mentioned ... well, she still wasn’t going to pretend like she cared about making friends with the other students or joining in on activities where she had a choice in the matter.

Win some, lose some.

That was life, right?

Besides, the school was the last thing on Penny’s mind as a more important date approached. Roz’s baby shower, that was. It had been on the back of her mind for weeks, and she still hadn’t figured out what to get Roz for the baby ...

Was it silly?

Maybe.

Roz wouldn’t care what Penny bought her for a gift, really. Even she knew that. Still, she wanted to do something ... if not for Roz, then for the baby boy that would soon be someone else in her life to love. Because she did—love him—already, and he wasn’t even born yet. Maybe she cared so much about the baby because Roz had kept Penny informed and included with the pregnancy from almost the second she moved in with her new guardians.

It gave her something to look forward to ... a reason to stick around, even. Not that she ever told Roz that fact. Every doctor’s appointment and ultrasound brought them closer to the day when the baby became real. If that made any sense at all.

Just buying any old thing off the shelf didn’t seem good enough. Not for Penny, anyway. She wanted to do more.

It only seemed fair.

Speaking of the baby ...

While her locker was open and she was changing out her books for one class to what she needed for the next, Penny took a moment to check Roz’s last text. It was a picture of her latest ultrasound. A 3D image, this time. Penny would have gone along to see the baby on the screen in flesh-tone colors with his little face so clear to greet them, but ... she was trying to do better with the whole attendance thing.

Somewhat.

If she wasn’t doing it for herself—because she really didn’t give a shit about this place or the diploma everyone kept saying she needed—then she was trying to do it for Roz and Naz. Hadn’t she already caused them enough shit with the caseworker? No need to give that woman another reason to make a fuss.

Did they want her at school?

Fine.

She was here.

What she did here ... well, that was another matter.

She took a second to enlarge the picture in the text thread, enjoying the sight of the baby’s ultrasound image even if he did look like a funny little demon with oddly shaped skin and red circles where his eyes should be. Roz had warned her that the 3D imaging might be ... funky. But it did give them a better idea of how the baby would look when he was born.

And it did.

Penny texted back, He looks like Naz.

Because he did.