"They're coming for me, Kathryn." Theo's face is streaked with tears as she looks out at me. There's blood dripping down her forehead, and she's scared.

"No!" My own voice is wobbling. "Theo, I can't lose you."

She reaches out and takes my hand. "I'll see you again on the other side...wherever that is." Her hands shake in mine.

"I won't let them take you away from me!" My voice rises to a scream.

A dagger flies through the air, just missing her head. A second follows, and this one hits its mark. Theo screams and collapses, blood pouring faster and covering her face. She holds my hand tighter. "Kathryn, before this ends, I need to tell you something."

"Anything, Theo, anything!"

She pulls me close to her, lifting my chin with one bloody hand so that our eyes meet. "I'm the one who killed your mother." Then her eyes close, and she falls backwards.

"Cut! That's a wrap!" Harriet closes the video camera. "Good job, you guys. Sorry for missing with the first dagger- plastic is slippery."

Theo sits up and grabs a washcloth off my bed. She wipes the fake blood off of her face. "That was fun!"

"Speak for yourself. I've got a blood beard now." I steal the washcloth. "Will that be enough for your class, Harriet?"

"Mr. Hoffman only said we had to film a death scene. Thank you for helping me." She flops on the floor.

"Any time, my dear." I join her on the floor, my ear pressed against the hardwood. I can hear John and Alex downstairs, and if I listen carefully, I can hear what they're saying.

"-deserves to know, Alex!" There's John.

"I don't know, what if-" Alex is cut off by a rustle as Theo sits on Harriet.

"She would have told us."

"No, she wouldn't. Kids usually don't. I just want to-" Another rustle, this time from Theo falling off.

"I know, honey. I know."

"I guess you're right."

I sit up when I hear feet on the stairs. Alex opens the door and pokes his head in. "Hey, Kathryn. I'm going to drive your friends home a little early, alright?"

"Do you have to? We're having a lot of fun." I look up at him with the sad-dog eyes, which always work.

"I'm sorry, honey, but your father and I have something important to talk to you about."

I stand up, then pull Theo to her feet. She helps Harriet up, and we collect the various tubes of fake blood and plastic daggers. They all go into Harriet's red-spangled backpack, and that goes on her back. Then, everyone walks outside, and we drive them home.

********

Back home, I finish cleaning up our carnage that we created in my room for a set, sponge fake blood off of the floor, and change out of my stained shirt.

"Kathryn?" I can hear John calling out to me from their room. "Can you come in here, please?"

I finish doing up the buttons on my shirt, tuck a curl behind my ear, and then walk into their room. Alex and John are both sitting on the end of their bed, and they look very serious. I bite my lip nervously.

"I tried to bring up my math grade, I did extra credit and everything-"

"What are you talking about?" Alex frowns a little.

"I thought my progress report came in with a bad grade. I haven't been doing very well in geometry class lately."

"We'll definitely have to talk about that later. That's not what we're talking about now, though."

"We have to tell you something really important." John levels his gaze with mine.

I feign shock. "You bred raptors?"

John falls off the bed, laughing silently. Alex looks at first me, then him in confusion. I'm crying from laughter, and John is actually rolling on the floor.

"No. There were no raptors involved in this discussion either. Also no lightsabers, magic wands or staffs or rings. No poisoned apples, no extract of llama, no rodents of unusual size." Alex looks fairly unamused.

John wipes his eyes and returns to his seat. "Sorry, babe."

Alex shakes his head. "Kathryn, we have an important question to ask you, and we need you to answer honestly."

I nod, sitting down on the floor. "Fire away."

"Your birth parents...were they abusive? I noticed you have that scar on your eyebrow. Was there a reason you were put in the foster system?" Alex extends a hand and pulls me up onto the bed with them.

I shake my head. "No, never. My mom was only a teenager when I was born, so she did the right thing and put me into foster care. You want to know how I got these scars?"

John bursts out laughing again, but Alex nods solemnly. "We're listening."

"I walked into a tree. I did not even fall out of a tree, I walked directly into one. I was talking to my foster dad at the time, Mr. Lake. I didn't look where I was going, and then- SMACK!" I clap my hands together, right in front of Alex's nose. "I got treed."

"You're ridiculous," Alex says, laughing.

"I am, I am. Why did you ask?"

"Well, we got an email recently from a woman named Vanessa. She claimed to be your birth mother, and asked to see you." John is the one looking solemn now.

"Okay. I don't really remember her. She could be fantastic, or she could be awful- I wouldn't know." I tuck my legs up against my chest. "As long as you guys are with me."

"Of course. We would never let you go to something as important as that by yourself." Alex kisses my forehead. "Maybe we could all go out for lunch on Sunday?"

I'm incredibly nervous as I say, "Okay. Sunday it is."

*********

On Sunday, I don't think I've ever been more nervous in my life. I braided my hair, which took about an hour. I'm wearing a dress, and there are new laces in my nasty sneakers. Those laces are only because Koopa peed on them yesterday. John is in a collared shirt and clean jeans for once, and Alex has fixed his little ponytail about a thousand times. Despite the air conditioning, the restaurant feels like it's smothering me.

The door opens, and a fairly short woman walks in. She has skin like mine and long, straight hair that's nearly black. She looks to be in her late twenties, and she's dressed simply, in a yellow dress and boots. She walks over to us tentatively, tucking her hair behind her ear the same way I always do.

"A-are you John and Alex?" Her voice is low and pretty.

"That we are." Alex adjusts his tie. "Are you Vanessa?"

"Yes, sir. That's me." She smiles softly.

"Please, call me Alex. It's nice to meet you."

I take a deep breath. "Hi, Mom."

"Just call me Vanessa, please. I may have been your mother, but I'm not your mom." She reaches out an arm to me shyly, and I hug her. She smells like cinnamon and soap.

"Okay. Should we go sit down?" For some reason, I don't want to let go of Vanessa. I can't explain it, but I felt some sort of bond with her the minute we locked eyes. It might be all in my head, but somehow I think she feels it too.

We find our table in the restaurant, and I sit next to her. Alex and John trade mildly confused expressions, but shrug it off.

"So, Vanessa, what do you do for work?" John sips his water.

"I work at the salon in my neighborhood. My friends Daniela and Carla work with me." Vanessa smiles. "Where do you go to school, Kathryn?"

"I'm at Odom Acadamy, the performing arts school." This is a source of pride for me, it's a pretty hard school to get into.

"Oh! That's fantastic. What are you studying?"

"Dance. I'm a ballerina." It's a funny experience, stating the most basic facts of my life to someone who both knows me better than I know myself and also knows nothing about me.

"Dance is really interesting. I'm proud of the girl you've become." Vanessa looks a little sad, as if she's imagining what might have been.

John looks at her. "May I ask, why make contact after all these years?" He doesn't sound upset or disturbed, just mildly curious.

She takes a deep breath, gathering her thoughts. "I saw her on Washington's press conference, way back in September of last year. She looked a lot like me, and I was a little curious. I got in contact with a woman named- was it Miss Peregrine?"

"Miss Falcon," I correct, laughing.

"Yes, that's it. She looked up your records after I explained my situation, and asked if she could meet me in person. We met- she's a lovely woman, by the way- and she discovered that our stories matched up. She gave me your email address, so that I could contact you. This was all back in October and November."

"It's March now. Why wait so long?" Alex takes John's hand.

"I had the email address in my phone for three months. Every day, I would start to draft an email, but I always lost my courage. Finally, I just reached out and hit send one day. I'm glad I did."

It's so easy to talk to Vanessa. I can feel every fear I'd had about today evaporating by the second. She's put me at ease, with her smile and gentle voice. If she had been my mom and not just my mother, I think I would have been perfectly happy.

Before I know it, it's time for us to head home, because Vanessa has to work. It's strange, but I'm saddened by the idea of leaving her. When she stands up to go, I give her a gigantic hug, and she laughs before wrapping her arms around me as well.

"Is it okay if I come and visit every so often?" Her long hair brushes my forehead.

"Of course! Come any time." I smile up at her. Looking at her like this, I can see where I got my eyes and the shape of my face from. Her smile is like mine, and she's also got a little spot in her eyebrow. "Where did you get that?"

Vanessa touches a finger to her eyebrow. "Oh, this funny little spot? I was about your age. I ran into a tree."