“Actually, the first time we met, you accused my of being a spy. The second time we met, you accused me of being a spy and THEN tried to kick me in the head."

"I stand corrected." Madison liked the warmth of Heda's hand. It was another kind of intimacy that she wanted to experience more of.

“I'm just so afraid that if I move in that . . . that it will turn out like before. I know that you and Joanna and the others aren't Trojan Horses, but I still keep waiting for that shoe to drop. You know, where everyone says, ‘Ha, joke's on you'?"

"I swear that I will never do that to you," Heda replied, meaning it.

"I Like being around you. I think it would be great if we both had our own spaces, but if those spaces were just a thirty feet away from each other --"

"It would be kind of . . . Wait, I don't even own a bed!" Madison's brain just took a mental leap.

“We'll find you something. Maybe a futon. Or you could just sleep upside down in your closet."

Madison shook her head.

"Sure, go with the bat jokes. Those never get old."

Heda stroked the back of Madison's hand. Despite having a "productive" year of sexual exploration in Europe, having a relationship with a girl was a little new to her. What was she supposed to say or do?

“Are we okay?" she asked at last.

"Yeah. I'm sorry about how your day went."

Heda grimaced.

"It's not over yet. I still need to call Mom."

"Go ahead, before it gets too late." Madison got up and opened the door, letting Edgar and Billy both stumble in after they had been listening at the door.

"She needs to make more noise when she walks," Edgar said, picking himself up off the ground.

"Okay boys, Heda needs to make a phone call." Madison looked at her friend.

"You can stay in here, and we'll wait outside. You need privacy, but we can't just let you go wandering around outside alone now can we? Sweet, delicate flower such as yourself --"

"Now you're just being snotty," Heda replied.

Madison handed her the “instruction” sheet.

"No, this is snotty."

"You are so very very gross." Heda waited until the snot paper had been tossed and her friends went outside before making the call that she dreaded.

"Sweet!" Joanna shrieked as she raced into the house that she would now be sharing with her friends. Peter's uncle had moved quickly on the property, including having a top-notch security system installed.

The bodacious blond was now in direct competition with her fellow shifters for finding the best bedrooms, the whole notion of "fliers upstairs and ground shifters downstairs" completely abandoned.

Basically, Madison had been given the basement and that was the only thing settled. Well, that and Kevin and Peter were already trying to figure out how to wire the entire house so that Madison could pump the tunes anywhere within its walls. Bill and Sasha were actually going to cohabitate in a first-floor room, so they picked a large one. No one minded, since they were collectively taking up less space than if they each had a bedroom.