The Protectors and a number of the bachelor women are sitting about on low lying logs, that have placed in a square around the fire. There is somethin... being passed around in a jug and Bunyan is strumming on his guitar. The air is subdued. I am a little surprised that they did not wait for Holiday to come back, but maybe he said he didn't want to participate. Who knows.I entered the circle with my usual aplomb. I move among them, quietly touching shoulders and saying greetings. Gunga Din waves. Her icy smile said only, Please don'truin the two days of happiness we've had. I thought about the awfuldays when I had to call her Miss Marilyn and she had cruelly ordered mearound. I had felt not only humiliated but also completely distant frommy own beloved sister.I closed my eyes. Trying not to cry."I also think it would be sweet for you to cut some more flowers and putthem in a vase, one each for Angie and Jennifer. That would be verypersonal, and a very nice way to thank them for. ”“Why?”“You went shopping without me! We must go shopping together. A girls’ day out!”“I hated shopping as a guy, but yesterday was fun. But it would be more fun with you.” Dakota showed Hailey all she had picked up. Hailey was envious of a couple of her thrift store finds and threatened to steal them. Dakota’s only saving grace was that she was a little smaller than Hailey and many items wouldn’t fit her. ____________________The school term continued with Dakota showing up to class as a male. Then she opened the manual and flipped through it, her eyebrows furrowing.“What?” I asked her, a tiny prickle dancing on my thoughts, not as bad as the last ones.“It says the halo contained nanomachines that have bonded with your mind. It gives you the power to project your brainwaves onto another person and control them.” She looked up at me. “Why would they send this to you? I mean, you're my brother. You're nothing special or important.”“Because I'm a nerd,” I said, shrugging. What game was.