01 November 2013 – Old Littleton Road, Harvard, Massachusetts

Sabrina tried to relax while on her date with Moose but found that she couldn’t. Nothing about her date had her anxious – normally the Halloween costume party at Moose’s house would have been fun – but she was constantly keyed up after the incident two weeks ago. The frank talk her parents had with her after the meeting at the State Police barracks, and the meeting itself, did nothing to allay her fears.

Through the partially open door of the interview room at the barracks that day, Sabrina heard a State Police detective admit to Josh Abernathy that the slavers likely wouldn’t let things go. She wasn’t sure which news bothered her more – that or the fact that the Petersham officer had been killed outright as she watched. The men she followed killed five kidnapped girls in the basement of the house before coming out guns blazing. Hearing the girls were all close to her age only added to her apprehension over the events of that day. That those men had been killed helped only a little.

“Sabrina?” Moose asked. “You okay?” He knew the real answer, though he expected the answer he got.

“I’m fine.”

“I haven’t dated all that much, Sabrina, but I know enough to know I should be scared if I hear that answer from my girlfriend.”

Sabrina gave him a weak smile. Moose was trying, she had to admit. She’d noticed the concerned looks from all of their friends as well as Moose’s gentle treatment since that day. She’d deflected all questions about the incident ever since, but she couldn’t continue keeping them in the dark.

“You’re right, Moose,” she sighed. “We need to get everyone in a group. I need to tell you all what’s going on.”

It took about ten minutes to find their friends and a quiet room for them to sit in. Sabrina shut the door to the room before she stood in front of them.

“You’ve all picked up on my mood since about the middle of the month. You’ve all asked at one point if something is bothering me, and unfortunately the answer is ‘yes.’ I’m sure everyone saw the news stories about the Petersham officer’s murder two weeks ago, and the ones about his wake and funeral last week?” Her friends nodded that they had. “I witnessed that murder.”

Everyone’s jaw dropped. Shawn’s face went pale. As a police officer’s son, the death of a police officer always hit him hard regardless of where it was. Hearing that one of his friends had witnessed such a thing shocked him and brought back the feelings from that day.

“What?” Shawn croaked. “How?” Sabrina cocked her head and he suddenly knew how. “Right, your flying lessons. Never mind.”

“I was orbiting over the traffic stop and saw him fall when he was shot,” Sabrina muttered as she wrapped her arms around herself. “I saw him lying on the ground while his killers sped away. Alex had loaned me his camera that day to get some foliage shots, and we used it to get pictures of the getaway car and its license plate. We didn’t need them in the end, of course.”

Moose pulled her into his lap and hugged her. She returned it with much relief at finally being able to tell her friends what was going on. She had to tell them the rest, though.

“There’s more, guys.”

“More?” Erica asked while gripping Tommy’s hand.

“Yes, and you can’t tell anyone else. This is technically an active investigation even though everyone involved in the shooting is dead, and I don’t want this all over school. I mean, you can tell your parents, but that’s it.”

Her friends all looked at each other before nodding in agreement.

“The two from the car who died shooting it out later? They were human traffickers.”

“Holy shit,” Tommy breathed into the silent room after a few moments.

“They had two girls in the car with them when that cop pulled them over. They were ‘storing’ three more back at the house where the police surrounded them.” Sabrina took a deep breath to steady herself. “They killed all five girls before shooting it out with the cops.”

The others couldn’t speak again after that news.

“The State Police have no hard evidence that the people higher up in the slavers’ organization will be after me or Hamish, nor any soft evidence, but they believe that they will. That’s what has me on edge. Mom and Dad have been spending a lot of time reminding us to be extra vigilant in watching our surroundings, to ensure that there’s no one following us when we go out, but the bad guys only have to be right once.”

“What can we do?” Naomi asked.

“Just be patient with me for now. I’ve been on edge since that day. Also, like they’re saying these days, ‘If you see something, say something.’ My family can’t see everything all the time.”

“We’ll do what we can,” Tommy promised.

Life drifted along through the first half of November without any apparent hiccups. Hockey practices started up a few days after Moose’s party. Not having to wait for the MIAA-mandated start date for high school hockey was nice. Sabrina was able to focus on playing hockey while at the rink and not worry about things in real life. But the doors to the rink slamming shut sounded like gunshots and Sabrina jumped every time she heard it.

She and Moose grew closer despite her anxieties. Her dad didn’t try intimidating Moose at all, which was nice if a bit unexpected. Sabrina came down the stairs before one date to find Moose in her father’s office laughing up a storm with him. She eyed both of them closely, but they didn’t seem to care or notice. Jeff clapped Moose on the shoulder before kissing Sabrina on the cheek. She gave her father another look before stepping through the front door.

That night was Moose and Sabrina’s first extended make-out session. They intended to catch a movie and grab a burger afterward, but the film they wanted to see was sold out. None of the other movies interested them, so they grabbed some fast-food burgers and found a secluded spot.

Moose was very much the gentleman that night, much to Sabrina’s dismay. Her feelings for him had ramped up and she was ready. The next time they went out she attacked him. After ripping open his shirt she all but pulled him into his car’s back seat by his ear. Once there she clawed at his belt and fly.

“Sabrina, are you su – OH, SHIT!” Moose’s head started spinning at what she did, and that was the last thing he remembered clearly for a while.

“Sabrina, I’m sorry,” Moose said as he drove her home.

She sighed. “Moose, you have nothing to be sorry about; or ashamed of, either. Look, I attacked you tonight, not the other way around. You tried to slow me down, remember?”

“Well, no, not really,” he admitted. “My brain has only just reset. Are you sure you’re okay? You’re bleeding.”

“You remember what they taught us in health class about a girl’s first time, right? And it’s not like I didn’t want it. You did nothing wrong, Anders.”

“‘Anders?’ Only my grandmother calls me Anders, Sabrina. Even my parents call me Moose these days.”

“I called you that to get your attention.”

“You did earlier, remember?”

Sabrina smacked his arm. “I’m trying to be serious, here!”

“Yeah, I get that. I’m trying not to be.”

“And why not?” she asked with her arms now crossed. “You don’t think the first time we have sex is a serious subject?”

“Of course it is, Sabrina! I’m trying to keep you from adding to your worries, you know, like you’ll regret this in the morning or something.”

“You think I’m going to regret this, Smolinski?”

Moose grimaced. He’d prefer being called Anders over hearing that tone of voice again.

“I don’t know,” he answered truthfully. “You seem like you are already.” Her glare was back. “Look, your first time was in the cramped back seat of a car in the middle of November in Massachusetts. Not exactly a nice, warm bed with candles scattered all around, on the beach in the moonlight, or some field under the stars.”

“You’ve been reading too many romance novels, Moose. From what I gather most girls’ first time is exactly like what we just had. Dad’s first time was in that nice, warm bed, but Mom’s wasn’t.”

“We’re all over the place,” he muttered, shaking his head. “Look, I’m just trying to make sure you’re okay, Sabrina, that you’re not bleeding for a different reason than you were a virgin.”

“I’m okay, Moose. I’m not hurt or anything.”

They drove in silence for a few minutes before Moose spoke again.

“You were pretty wild tonight. A bit frantic, if I’m honest.”

Sabrina looked out the passenger’s side window.

“I suppose I was. The thing from last month still has me wound up – totally wired. The heavy bag in our home gym has been getting a hell of a workout, as well as my family’s weapons at the range. Dad says I have to temper my training so I don’t lose my edge, but I can’t seem to calm down if I don’t beat on the workout equipment.”

“You’re telling me your hits and slap shots during hockey haven’t helped? You’re not able to blow off steam by wailing on the puck or other players? It seems like you’re trying to.”

“I am but it’s not enough.”

“And the wild, monkey sex we just had? Did that help?”

“Depends on how you mean. Was I super horny and want it? Sure. Did the sex help with that? Yes. Did it help me stop being keyed up? Not in the least.”

Sabrina started to see people lurking in the shadows.

There was no one there, of course. No strange students appeared in her classes, no strange substitute teachers materialized out of thin air. Still, the apprehension remained.

The start of the Shockers’ games was a welcome distraction. Keeping her head in the game had always come easy for her, and the ability to ignore things outside the rink while playing was welcome. Once she walked out of the rink that’s when the dark thoughts crept back in.

Her teammates didn’t notice any difference in her on-ice performance. If anything, her play improved through the use of her nervous energy. The Shockers started the season by winning their first two games with ease. Their third and fourth games were tougher, but they did win them.

While Sabrina’s performance wasn’t surprising to anyone, her being named an alternate captain was, if only to her. Her teammates applauded with gusto when Coach Savard announced that before their fifth game. The equipment manager handed her a new jersey with the ‘A’ denoting her status stitched prominently on the front for everyone to see. Jeff gave her a big smile and a thumbs-up from his front-row seat when she took the ice.

If she could have heard her father’s thoughts, Sabrina would have heard comparisons to himself as a young player. Jeff was known as a leader early on in his playing career, and as a teammate who worked hard to give others the chance to score. Her role on the Shockers as a winger was different in that she was expected to make plays and score more often. The others still considered her a selfless player, as evidenced by the number next to ‘assists’ in her points total.

Sabrina continued to research application requirements for the Air Force Academy as her sophomore year progressed. She couldn’t formally apply until March 1, 2015, but keeping up her grades was something that would occupy her entire high school tenure. Her job and playing sports seemed to be important to the academy as did her ‘character,’ which meant the award from the Youth Citizenship Foundation would be important in the future as well.

Something which didn’t count for academy admission but was very important to her was her group of friends. She and Erica often found themselves laughing together over some silly joke with Naomi and Ruby. Shawn didn’t have a girlfriend – which surprised Sabrina – but he never seemed like an outsider to the rest who were all in relationships. Moose took Sabrina out just about every weekend, but they always made time for the others as well.

“I can’t believe it’s less than two weeks until Christmas!” Ruby commented.

“Blows your mind, doesn’t it?” Shawn asked.

“No, that’s what Naomi does over the weekend.”

“Look, Red, could you not put those images into the head of the person who is not in a relationship?” Ruby’s hair wasn’t red, but her given name made the choice of her nickname easy. “Not that I wouldn’t pay to see that. Oh, don’t give me that surprised look, Red. You know you two are good looking.”

“It’s still nice to get the validation. Thanks, Shawn.”

Shawn rolled his eyes.

“How are things with you and Moose, Sabrina?” Naomi asked to get the spotlight off her.

“They’re okay.”

In reality the night they first had sex slowed things way down. They were back to the petting, second base stage of things – both were hesitant to experience a repeat of that date.

Shawn and Tommy, being boys, missed the tone of Sabrina’s voice. Ruby, Naomi, and Erica didn’t and pulled her aside for some private talk. Shawn and Tommy shrugged at each other when the girls all disappeared and went back to eating their lunches.

“Sabrina? How is everything with young Anders?”

“You’re never going to get used to calling him ‘Moose’ are you, Mom?”

“Do you see that as a likely occurrence, Sabrina? In any event, you are evading my question.”

Sabrina squirmed. She didn’t like talking about this issue in her relationship with her friends, let alone the possibility of doing so with her parents. Her mother’s gaze, while not threatening, was expectant and Sabrina knew her mother would wait as long as needed to get an answer. Sabrina gave her mother a half-hearted shrug.

“Sabrina, you know I dislike that sort of answer. Is something wrong?”

Sabrina sighed. Her mother was tenacious when presented with a mystery like this one, and there was no way around having this conversation.

“Things are… okay, Mom. We’ve hit a bit of a rough spot, that’s all.” The look was back combined with a raised eyebrow. “Ugh! Did you use that look on your students at school?”

“Perhaps it is a shame you never experienced it at home or while practicing karate. Yes, I used it often in my classroom, often enough with your brothers as they grow older, and occasionally with your father. I should record the date for this is the first time in my memory I have used it on you. What is it, daughter?”

Sabrina sighed again. “Mom, Moose and I… we…”

Keiko’s eyes went wide. “And there was a problem when you..?”

“Had sex, yes, Mom. It didn’t go well.”

“In what sense?”

“I was too aggressive – frantic Moose called it – and it was over very quickly.”

“‘Aggressive?’ Did you injure yourself, Sabrina?”

“No… well, not much.” Another raised eyebrow. “I was kinda sore the next day, and there was some blood as you’d expect.”

“All of that is to be expected if that was your first sexual experience, Sabrina. May I assume it was a consensual act?”

“MOM! Yes, it was consensual!”

“Sabrina, I suspected that was the case. Your father and I like Anders and do not believe he would do such a thing, but one can never assume. I am sure you can quote what your father would say about making assumptions?”

Sabrina rolled her eyes. She could quote her father’s saying in her sleep: ‘Don’t assume, because it makes an ass out of you and me.’

“No, Mom, what would Dad say about that?”

“Do not get fresh with me, Sabrina. That is your father’s job.”

“And my brothers’.”

“You have a valid point. Returning to the subject, do you regret your decision to take such a step with your boyfriend?”

“Not with Moose, no, but more the reason behind my decision. This thing with the traffickers, Mom… those girls were all about my age! Two of them went missing from widely different parts of the country! And … and …”

“‘And,’ Sabrina?”

“Two of them were virgins, Mom.”

“Yes, I remember that portion of the State Police briefing. Did that factor into your decision?”

“Maybe? Partially? It wasn’t the whole reason, but it was a reason. I wanted that to at least be on my terms and not someone else’s.”

Keiko gathered Sabrina into a hug. “But you care for Anders, correct?”

“I do, Mom. He’s a good person. Odds are against us getting married, but I’ll never forget him as my first… despite how it went.”

“I certainly wish I could forget my first such experience,” Keiko muttered which drew a concerned look from her daughter. “It was consensual as well, Sabrina, but I was nothing more than a certain number of points in a fraternity pledge’s scavenger hunt. I allowed alcohol to impair my judgment during a party my freshman year at UVA. I believe the parting comment that person made before he walked out of the room was: ‘SWEET! TRIPLE POINTS!’”

Sabrina cuddled into her mother’s arms a little more.

“At some point, you will try alcohol, Sabrina. I hope you will not allow it to override your good judgment, especially where intercourse is involved. Regardless, always try to keep your wits about you.”

Keiko and Sabrina hung the ornaments on their Christmas tree while Jeff and the boys handled putting the candles in the windows. The family hadn’t been home together for a full weekend in a while, so they were taking full advantage of a pre-holiday break in the Shockers’ schedule. Jeff went to get the tree from the farm over a week ago while there was still a selection. He’d kept it in a bucket of water in the garage until now so it wouldn’t dry out in the interim.

“You guys glad to finally be out of school?” he asked the kids once the tasks were completed.

“Dumb question, Dad,” Ryan snorted, answering from the other side of the living room.

“You know you still have at least five and a half years of school left to go, right?”

“One step closer, Dad.”

The ringing phone cut off Jeff’s retort. He frowned, but he picked the handset up anyway and pressed the answer button.

“Hello? … Hello? … Hello?” He shrugged and hung up. He’d barely put the handset back on its base when the phone rang again. He picked it up again.

“Hello?”

Sabrina watched her father’s face go from joy to shock to sorrow as he listened to the person on the other end of the phone. He grunted a few times, said “Of course,” and hung up again. He leaned forward in his chair and hung his head.

“Dad?” Sabrina asked after a few seconds. Her father looked up with reddened eyes.

“Grampy Tom,” he croaked. Keiko reached over and hugged him tightly.

After a subdued Christmas at the house in Lancaster, the Knox clan found themselves standing in a funeral home in Greenwich instead of at one of Sabrina’s games the following week. She and her brothers stood next to the Pelley brothers – Jeff, thirteen, and his little brother Kevin, who was seven – in the receiving line at Tom Cavanaugh’s wake. They stood with the family receiving condolences, not as people offering them. The women of the Cavanaugh family had insisted.

Sabrina looked back down the receiving line toward the grown-ups. She hadn’t seen Grammy Alice much since she moved to Florida with Grampy Tom five years ago. She looked so frail now, so small. Grandma Jane stood stoically next to her mother, her snow-white hair a sharp contrast to the black pantsuit she wore. On their suit coat lapels, Uncle Tommy and her father both wore unit crests from the 504th Parachute Infantry, the unit in the 82nd Airborne they and Grampy Tom once served in. Her mother stood quietly beside her father while Aunt Heather still wept from time to time as someone shared a memory of her grandfather.

This was Sabrina’s first experience with death in this manner. She and the twins were too young to be at the wakes when Grandpa and Grandma Keiolis died in 1999 and 2006, respectively. She wasn’t quite sure how to answer the people who said they were ‘so sorry’ at the death of her great-grandfather. Technically, Tom Cavanaugh hadn’t been her relative, though some of her earliest memories were of him.

The Catholic funeral rites weren’t something she was familiar with. Her upbringing had been a mix of Greek Orthodox, Japanese spiritualism, and agnostic. The church service was a ceremony she watched with detached interest from a new experience standpoint. The service at the graveside was an exercise in not freezing in the cold January wind. Despite her father’s warning she still jumped each time the men from the Veterans of Foreign Wars honor guard fired shots as soldiers folded the flag covering Grampy’s casket.

A couple of hours later Sabrina sat perched on a stool overlooking the gardens behind a stately Colonial home a short walk from Greenwich Common. She held a plate with the remnants of her post-funeral meal while her drink sat abandoned on the windowsill. She came here to the mudroom off the kitchen to escape the crush of people in the house, most of whom she didn’t know, most of whom didn’t seem to understand her relationship to Tom Cavanaugh. A gentle hand on her shoulder caused her to turn away from the window.

“Sabrina?” the wizened Cavanaugh matriarch asked. “Is everything alright?”

Sabrina shrugged. “I’m okay, Grammy. I just needed to get away from everyone for a few minutes.”

Alice sat on the bench by the opposite window. “Did something happen?”

“No… there’s this one man out there, though, he’s in a wheelchair and wearing a VFW cap… he keeps staring at me with this look of hatred!”

“Joe Blandisfield,” Alice sighed. “He’s a World War II veteran like Tom was, Sabrina, and he was stationed at Ford Island when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. He lost quite a few friends in the attack.”

“And he hates the Japanese to this day,” Sabrina guessed. Alice nodded that she guessed correctly. “I’m also guessing the fact I was born here in the US to American-born parents almost sixty years after the attack means nothing?”

“Not for some people of my generation, unfortunately. Someone from the nursing home just picked him up so you won’t have to worry about him anymore. Is there anything else bothering you?”

“I’m just missing Grampy,” she admitted. “I mean, I’ve missed seeing both of you as much as we used to now that you’re in Florida, but now I really miss him. Does that make sense? It’s not like we lived next door or saw you guys every day, but he’s the only great-grandfather I remember and now there’s just this hole there. I don’t really remember Great-Grandpa Keiolis very well.”

“Nick was a good man,” Alice smiled. “He was about twenty years older than Tom, but they got along pretty well.” The older woman sighed. “Did Tom ever tell you how proud of you he was?”

“Yeah, lots of times. He called me back around my birthday when I earned my black belt and that citizenship award, too. He told me he was proud of me then, and that was the last time I remember talking to him.”

“He was proud of you and your brothers, Sabrina, but especially you. He often told me you reminded him a lot of Jane and Heather when they were young girls. He told me you were going to take the world by storm one day.”

“I hope I can live up to that,” Sabrina sighed while looking out the window again.

“You will, Sabrina,” Alice said while rising from the bench and taking Sabrina’s arm. “Let’s go work the crowd so I can introduce people to my great-granddaughter and tell them how proud of her Tom was.”

Sabrina fought to dig the puck out of the corner while being harassed by the other team’s defenseman late in the third period. The taller, heavier player kept shoving her head into the glass as they battled, but the five-foot-five spitfire gave it right back to him. She kicked the rubber disc out to her team’s defenseman waiting back along the side boards. Phil Scott fired a wrist shot at the net. Center Phil Schechter redirected it past the goalie and the goal lamp lit. The five players on the ice celebrated the goal while their teammates did so on the bench.

Following another win, the Shockers were fourteen-and-oh and leading the northwestern division of their U19 league. With only two more wins they would secure the team’s second playoff berth in as many years in existence. They wanted to win the league championship, of course, so a first-round playoff bye would be helpful. They would need a bunch more wins to get either of those, though.

The other team’s defenseman stopped Sabrina in the handshake line after the game to make sure she was all right. Sabrina just laughed and assured him she hadn’t taken it personally, that it was just hockey. She also commented that her older brothers did worse to her growing up. The older boy laughed at the memories of what his brothers had done to him before patting her on the shoulder and skating away.

“What are we doing tonight?” Vic Thurmond asked once the players emerged from the locker room. “We going to the Chinese food place again?”

“Works for me,” Moose Smolinski replied. The rest of the team nodded in agreement.

The younger players piled into the older players’ cars for the ride to the restaurant while their families took their equipment home. The restaurant celebration had become a tradition after home wins. They celebrated away wins wherever it was convenient. The hostess welcomed the team and directed them to a series of booths and tables in the main room of the restaurant on the Fitchburg/Leominster line.

The victory meal was loud and boisterous as the teens reveled in their success. They knew they still had a long way to go in the season, but spirits were high anyway. Coach Savard watched over his charges but saw no reason for concern in celebrating the moment. He knew his players would come to the rink Monday ready to work, and that’s all that mattered to him.

Midway through the party, the hair on the back of Sabrina’s neck started to stand up. She tried to shake the sensation, but she couldn’t. Surreptitious glances around the room revealed nothing amiss that she could see.

“What is it?” Moose asked, picking up on her discomfort.

“Nothing,” she answered. “I feel like someone’s watching me, but I don’t see anything when I look around.”

Moose glanced at the mirror behind the booth and saw nothing in the reflection which concerned him, either.

“Do you want to get out of here? Go for a walk?”

“Where? Around the parking lot? Not a lot of places to walk nearby and the park down the street closes at dusk. It’s nothing, Moose, forget about it.”

“So you’ve been feeling that, too?” Jeff asked Sabrina as they prepared for the shooting simulation at the Rod & Gun Club.

“Yeah, Dad. When the team went out the other night, I kept feeling like someone was watching me.”

“And we’ve been getting those weird calls with no one on the line and no Caller ID information for a few months now. It’s making my Spidey Sense act up.” He shrugged. “We can’t do anything about it right now, so let’s get our minds on what we’re doing here.

“This is a test of our decision making as well as our shooting accuracy. The treadmill built into the floor will sense when we stop walking in reaction to the images we see from the screens on the walls and stop moving. When we start walking again, it’ll start moving again too. Our weapons are training pistols that use these special laser-emitting bullets and will fire fifteen shots before we have to drop the magazine and reload. The magazine holders on our belts contain microchips which will reset the chips in the magazines when we put them back in the holders. Those chips talk to the bullets and ‘reload’ the weapon. We won’t try to do that during the courses – we’ll be doing combat reloads in some simulations – but when we get ready for the next round in the test, we’ll put them back in our belts to ‘top them off.’”

“We’re going to do a course with the M-4s too, right?”

“Right. Ready?” Sabrina nodded that she was. “Okay, Darrell, start the test!”

Sabrina started walking down the street in the simulation with her hand on the butt of her holstered pistol. Rounding a corner, the screens showed a man and woman struggling near a car with the man as the obvious aggressor. Sabrina ordered the man to let the woman go over and over before the man did, pushing the woman away before attempting to point a pistol in Sabrina’s direction.

Sabrina didn’t hesitate. She cleared leather and put two rounds in the center of the suspect’s chest before the man could bring his pistol to bear. Shooting someone in the hand or leg to stop them is so much Hollywood bullshit and has no basis in reality. The suspect on the screen dropped, causing the woman in the simulation to squawk in outrage before trying to pick up the suspect’s weapon. Microphones picked up Sabrina’s barked command to stop and the woman did. Officers failing to give such an order would fail the simulation when the female shot them. In the review following the simulation, officers learned the man and woman were in a domestic argument, one of the most dangerous types of calls police face.

“Good job, Princess,” Jeff said as he walked up. “Let’s see if your old man can match your performance.”

“It’s only the first simulation in the series, Dad, I would hope so.”

They matched each other through the first three simulations before Jeff made his first mistake.

“Shit,” he muttered after shooting a civilian holding a garden hose nozzle.

“Didn’t know lawn-watering bans were so strictly enforced, Dad.”

“You’re not too old for me to spank, you know?”

Sabrina’s mirth lasted until she missed seeing a bad guy in the next simulation and he ‘shot’ her.

“They just have to be right once, honey,” her father reminded her.

“Once? Like the number of times in your life you’ve told a joke that’s actually funny, Dad?”

Their contest remained close until the end of the rifle simulations when Jeff missed one long-distance shot Sabrina made. She started dancing around in celebration.

“You owe me twenty bucks, Dude.”

“Your disloyalty will be remembered, Darrell.”

“Disloyalty? I promised her months ago I’d bet on her when you two finally went head-to-head on these simulations. I stayed true to my promise, which is the definition of loyalty, isn’t it?”

“You’re not helping your case, Darrell.”

“What are you gonna do, shoot me? It’s not like you’d be able to hit what you’re aiming at, apparently!”

Jeff didn’t care if Sabrina saw him giving Darrell the finger. The kids were all old enough to use it on their own, anyway.