Cassie stood in her room, rubbing her sand crusted eyes as she stood over her dollhouse in the pitch blackness of her bedroom. Why she had to have her sleep interrupted was a mystery until her fatigue addled brain put two and two together.

She had tried to ignore it, willing her ears and mind to push out the anguished cries that turned her sweet dollhouse into a haunted house whenever those howls came from forth. Eventually she had to give in and investigate. Either that or spend the remainder of her sleeping time with her pillow pressed over her head, teeth gritted and hoping for the storm to pass. After what felt like an hour, it didn’t even sound like it.

 Cassie knew what or more precisely, who was making the sound. Wendy was crying and although this wasn’t the first time Cassie had heard her cry, this was different. Whereas her first one was the result of Cassie’s intimidation, this had no discernable cause.

 Taking a deep breath as she prepared herself for what would come, Cassie announced her arrival with a gentle knock on the roof.

 “ Wendy, are you ok?”

 “Go away Cassie! This doesn’t concern you!” Wendy sniffled loudly, inhaling stalactites of mucus and wiping her tears on her drenched makeshift felt blanket, one of many dollhouse accessories. Bad enough to be crying in a dollhouse, worse to have Cassie find out about it. Wendy blamed herself for that, not being to muffle her own crying.

   “ Yes it does, you’re a friend and that’s what I’m here for,” Cassie knocked again, Wendy not even responding to it.

 “ No, some things aren’t for you to help.”

 Cassie didn’t take no for an answer and if Wendy would not come out, she would come to Wendy. Easy enough when Wendy lived in a dollhouse Cassie owned, a dollhouse that could be opened up like a book.

 Feeling the house with her car sized hands, Cassie groped for a long straight groove distinct from the shallow and smooth plastic exterior. Her polished and filed nail dragged along until she felt a little gap. She let out a satisfied gasp before slowly opening the house as if it were an antiquated book, revealing Wendy.

 Even this did not deter Wendy, diving beneath the covers to avoid Cassie but the Titan girl had it all figured out. She simply grasped the bed frame with her fingers and pulled it before lifting the blanket off. What was left was Wendy , crying and covering her face.

 “No! I don’t need you to console me! My life is screwed as it is!”

 “Wendy,” Cassie’s stomach was all knotted up from seeing her friend like this, a complete mess.

 “What’s wrong?” Cassie asked. The mood in the room ever since they went to bed had been overcast, Cassie forced to abandon the girl talk after Wendy torpedoed  it with a string of one word answers.

 Cassie didn’t blame her for that, the poor girl had much to feel aggrieved about.

 Wendy got off her bed, moving into the pale moon square portion of the table, light streaming in from the window. She clutched her stomach, it wasn’t hurting but she just felt a need to do so.

 “ What’s wrong?” Wendy looked up, her face a total mess. Bloodshot eyes, a runny nose that still ran as she looked at Cassie, masked by the dark, still standing over but not for long as Cassie sat in her chair, bringing her tanned forearms into the light.

 “ Everything!” Wendy shouted, it felt exhilarating to get that out. She seemed to be the only one feeling a loss here. Kicked out by her own mother and forced to live in a dollhouse while Alvin and Cassie got to move in together, it was like meeting the in-laws. Everyone won, except for Wendy who had to wind up homeless with nothing.

 “ You! You and your perfect family, that’s what’s wrong!” Wendy violently kicked out at the bed, the plastic accessory moving forward a few inches, the unfortunate bed bearing the brunt of her physical venting. Verbally it was a different target altogether.

  “ You’re all so happy and sweet to each other and I can’t take all that sugary shit right now! I need to be alone,” She said, feeling sickened by all of it.

 “Oh Wendy,” Cassie eyed her with sympathy, worried by what she saw. How had she missed it? She had nothing but condolences for their situation but she should have known that Wendy would take it harder than Alvin. Alvin never ever gave the impression he even got along with Patricia.  Wendy though, that was different.Bad as she may be, Patricia was still her mother and there should have been some sort of bond.

“What can I do to help?” She wished there was something she could, Wendy to her had been through enough hardship to last several lifetimes.  She deserved better.

 Wendy, feeling a sense of uneasiness in her stomach walked to the bed and slumped down, back supported by it.

  She quietly buried her face in her palms as Cassie loomed above, waiting for an answer.

 “I don’t know,” She answered , feeling defeated .Defeated by everything she had come across so far.

 “I don’t think you can Cassie,” She looked up at her, her cheeks stained by her tears.

  “We can talk, we can always do that.”

 Wendy chuckled mirthlessly, they did that a lot. In her eyes, a lot of talk but little action. Nothing would come out of it.

 “Yeah, we certainly can,” She nodded dejectedly.

 “ About what though? How my life has been a series of failures? How I’ve hit rock bottom?”

 “ You’re no failure, you just got unlucky. That’s all Wendy.”

 “Really?” Wendy clenched her fist as if to crush an imaginary egg in her hand. What did Cassie know about failure? Her life was nothing but success.

 “Maybe we shouldn’t talk about mine. My life would make Cinderella’s look like a paradise.”

 Wendy clenched and slowly unclenched her fists repeatedly, imagining that egg again. There was so little she wanted to talk about right now but she just needed to get something off her chest.

“Lets talk about yours Cassie, lets hear about that A you got on your last test or your last date.”

“ Lets not. Yours is just as interesting as mine, if you can look beyond what you’re seeing right now.” Especially not her last date, Cassie thought to herself. The last said about that, the better.

 “Really? You mean it?

 “Yes,” Cassie replied, almost as if she were begging Wendy to see her view.

 “ Name something I did right.”

 “ You stood up for Alvin. The old screwed up Wendy would never have done that.You’d have sided with your mother.”

“Bah!” Wendy flippantly waved her at arm at Cassie, dismissing her point.

 “ Look where that got me. I’m a hobo because of one stupid moment and I don’t even know if I’ll stay this nice to him if you’re not around.”

 “Okay, you’re not a hobo. You’re living in my room.And no one said doing the right thing was easy. You’ll get used to it.”

 Cassie leaned in to Wendy, looking down at her like a benevolent queen looking upon her weary subject.

 “ And you’ll be good to Alvin even when I’m not around. I have faith in you and you should have some faith in yourself too.”

    “ What if I never go home? You can’t want me here forever, I’ll be a burden to your parents. I should go back and beg to be let in. Probably bring Alvin too since my mom can’t cook. Probably looked at the pots and pans like its some weird alien device. ”

  Cassie slowly extended her hand and brushed her finger against Wendy tenderly, hoping that act would give her some comfort.

   “ We’ll work something out and no, you’re not a burden and you’re not begging that hag for anything.”

  “You say that now but a week later and you might change your mind.I don’t have a job or life, I’m just a girl with plenty of baggage.”

 She shot Cassie a guilty look, her knees pressed against her chest , arms wrapped around them in an attempt to feel some solace.

 Cassie wasn’t going to let that be the end of the discussion.

 “Come on Wendy Mathers, you’re an amazing girl. You’ve made it so far and to throw all of that away right now would be stupid. Why would you want to let your mother have the satisfaction of knowing she beat you?”

 “Yeah, I wouldn’t. I’d rather she come crying to me. For once,” Wendy chuckled to herself, that little piece of schadenfreude soothing her jaded self. Ironic, the thought of Patricia standing over and cackling like some witch actually made her want to stand and fight. It didn’t matter to Wendy.

 “For once I’d love to see her know how much hurt she has caused me.” Wendy slowly moved off her butt, rising up.

“To know that she is not the only victim out there.” Now she standing, Cassie watching her proudly like a flower spreading its petals.

“Acting like the world is against her, pushing her down. No ,Mom, you’re wrong! ”

 Wendy stood up with the fire burning bright in her eyes , staring at Cassie.

 “Thank you Cassie, that was quite a pep talk. No wonder you are cheerleader captain.”

 Cassie giggled, “ That’s one reason.”

  Cassie grinned and scooped up Wendy, the latter sitting right in the middle of her cupped hands.

“ That’s a lot better from you,” Cassie exhaled heavily, feeling a little maternal right now.

 “Hey, you can sleep next to me on the table. I’ll get the bed and you can just curl up inside?” She titled her head to the side, playfully pleading with Wendy to accept.

 Wendy nodded.

 “Ok.”

 Placing the little bed complete with bedsheet, on her bed, both girls climbed inside their own. Cassie lay on her side and got as close as she got to her bedside table, looking over at Wendy who did the same.

“You want to have that girl talk now? To make up for the one I screwed up a few hours ago?” Wendy asked, she didn’t what they could talk about but she imagined it would be different from the conversation Wendy had with her girls.

 “ I’d love to but…”

 Cassie yawned, loudly with her mouth hanging open as her sculpted hand came up to cover the sight of her gaping maw.

 “ Sorry, that was rude but maybe tomorrow night.”

 “ Okay sure. Good night Cassie.”

 Wendy threw her blanket over her and turned away from Cassie.

 “Good night Wendy, stay strong.”

 “Thanks.”

Wendy felt a hard lump in her throat as she went off to sleep, like a baby this time.  

**************

   The next afternoon saw Patricia at her appointment with Allen, the Summer’s long time accountant, her last meeting with him taking place several years ago as Daniel took her there in the midst of his losing battle with cancer.

  “ Welcome back Patricia, it's been too long since we last met,” the lanky pale curly ginger haired man grasped her hand and shook it firmly.

  “ It definitely has but I need help. You’ve seen my papers, how bad is it?” Patricia could have sworn she saw a light go out in Allen’s eyes there, those dark portholes to his soul flickering as he sat in his generic plastic office chair, chosen by the firm  because the manufacturer claimed it was ergonomic and their logistic department thought it was cheap enough to get the greenlight from finance.

 Allen  tapped his fingers repeatedly against a stack of papers in a caterpillar motion while preparing himself for the deluge of bad news he had to deliver.

“ I wish I could say I had seen worse finances and I could say that but really, this cuts it pretty close. You’ve got no job, no source of income since then and you spent fifty grand on luxury items that you can’t pay off.”

 Patricia held up her hand as if to  stop him, still keeping her cool with a thin smile on her lips.

“ No need to tell me how bad it is, you and I both know that. Just tell me how I can fix it.”

 Allen chuckled, realising only now how bad things truly were. She came to him like this was a leaky faucet to repair. Good Lord things were even worse than he thought.

 “I can’t fix this other than to tell you to get a job and start working it off. I’m not some magic genie you bring out whenever you need a quick fix.”

He sat in his chair flabbergasted by Patricia’s financial harakiri, this had to be deliberate but he couldn’t think of a reason why a single middle class parent would even consider doing it.

“ You’ve handled the family’s money, did Daniel leave anything to me? Something that I didn’t know about at all?”

   Allen shook his head slowly, letting Patricia down but there was nothing he could do.

 “ Nothing, he told you everything when you were there during the amendment of his will. Everything you were supposed to get was given to you during the reading of the will. Nothing else.”

He stood up, ready to show her the way out since the meeting was done. Didn’t even take ten minutes but he would at least get a tidy sum for it, even if that was his hourly rate.

 “ Nothing I’m afraid. Good thing Alvin is going to be eighteen soon and then you can access his trust fund. Plenty of money there.”

 He extended his hand forward for a farewell handshake but was lefting hanging by Patricia’s girlish squeal of joy, “ That is what I’m looking for!”

 She slammed her palm down on the trouble proudly, assuming it would be in her hands. It took only a moment for clarity to breakthrough and remind her of the problem with that idea.

 “ Glad I could help.” Allen adjusted his tie and coughing once.

 “ Good thing too. Seventy five thousand dollars will more than pay off your debts and good thing too or your kids would be homeless.”

 He shuddered, head vibrating with his lips flapping about.

 “ A thought I can’t even stomach. Can’t imagine how a mother like you must feel if that ever happened. Your kids living on the streets without a roof over their head. Awful, just awful.”

“Yeah it is,” Patricia answered as she quickly shifted the conversation back to the trust fund.

 “Could I access it now? Maybe pay it off before Alvin turns eighteen in about two weeks? You know what they  say, best to strike while the iron is hot.”

 Allen shook his head again, kiboshing that idea.

 “Daniel was very clear about it, only Alvin could access it. Unless he died before coming of age then it goes straight to you. But we wouldn’t want that happen would we?”

 “Are you sure? I want to see the will” Patricia retorted, there had to be a loophole somewhere.

 Allen took out his white Samsung Galaxy Tab Twelve, named for being the twelfth member of its line and also for having a twelve inch screen. He opened a folder and found a pdf file of the will, opening it. He scrolled down, pinching the screen with his finger as the paragraph he wanted came into view before passing it over to Patricia who was peeved by this blockage.

She read the paragraph, then read it again. She scrutinized every word and punctuation within but it held up tighter than a mermaid’s brassiere. Patricia needed Alvin or she’d lose everything when the repo men came around.

“Thank you,” She handed the tablet before shaking Allen’s hand.She left before he could say his own goodbye. Patricia didn’t care for that as she broke into a brisk walk, her 3 inches stilettos clicking against the parquet flooring.

She needed to go home and find her money or lose everything she had.