After some time had passed he got up, understanding his mother was coming home soon. Paul returned Katelyn to her smallhouse; he knew she would get cleaned up and dressed, and then eat her own dinner while he ate his. He cleaned himself up and changed his clothes to more comfortable attire before heading downstairs and waiting for his mom.

  Before his mother came home his sisters showed up. Annoyingly, both were carrying their companions; Sarah with Barney and Brie with Patrick. There was nothing indecent about holding your companion in private company—usually it was considered bad manners to have them at the dinner table, though—but Paul always felt uneasy watching them react. He didn't like to bring out Katelyn in front of the girls; they used to tease her when they were younger and that had greatly upset Paul, so he stopped.

  “How did it go with your girlfriend?” Brie teased.

  “We're just friends,” Paul said, embarrassed.

  “Sure you are,” Brie said.

  “You should bring her over for family dinner sometime.” Sarah suggested. “Mom knows about Jen through her dad, I'm sure she'd love to meet her.”

  “I don't know...” Paul said, his embarrassment deepening.

  “Then we can start planning the wedding,” Brie oozed sarcastically.

  “Stop pretending Jen and I are together just because you're jealous no one's interested in you!” Paul snapped. He could see in the shocked and hurt reaction from Brie that he'd crossed a line.

  “Really, Paul?” Sarah asked angrilly as Brie composed herself, and started to shout at Paul.

  “You know how fucking hard it is for a girl to find a man right now?” She yelled. “You wouldn't know, because even a dork like you has girls throwing themselves at him. And I don't even need a man. I have my soccer team, I can almost support myself, and I have everything I need.”

  “I'm sorry...” Paul said, but Brie smacked him angrily on the arm.

  “Don't 'sorry' me.” Brie said, storming off. He was left with Sarah, who glared at him.

  “You know that's a sensitive issue with Brie, bringing that up?” Sarah asked.

  “I know, I just--” Paul sighed. “Things have just been getting to me lately.”

  Sarah looked like she wanted to tell Paul off some more, but she sighed and calmed down. “Look, I'll try to smooth things over with Brie before mom gets back. But I won't lie to mom if Brie's still upset and she asks what happened. And by the way, before you start, Charlie and I have been dating almost six months now.”

  “I didn't ask.” Paul said bitterly under his breath as Sarah walked away to talk to Brie. He slunk slowly into the kitchen. He felt bad about hitting Brie in such a sore spot like that, but at the same time he was still angry about her teasing. He just really hated the idea anyone thought of him and Jen dating. Jen wasn't terrible, and she certainly wasn't bad looking, she was just...well...

  “She's a ditz” Would be Hannah's way of putting it. A smile came to Paul's face as he thought about his best friend. Hannah loved taking the piss out of Jen; she couldn't stand the girl, and was the only one who didn't think her advances on Paul were very funny. Paul had known Hannah as long as he could remember; though neither of her parents were in Parliment like Paul's mom or Jen's dad, they were fairly well-placed and ran in the same circles.

  The question had come through Paul's mind as to whether he felt he wanted to be more than friends with Hannah. She was kind, pretty, and the two of them always had great chemistry. But it was always hard to think of her that way just because they had been close for so long. Paul had long suspected Hannah may feel a certain way about him but she was not the type who would make the first move. And at any rate openly dating while still in high school was frowned upon in this day in age.

  Paul thought he might set the table before his mother came home. That would at least make up for some of the drama he had caused. Paul's mom sometimes cooked but she was usually too busy and picked up something from the cafe on the way home. The girls were always around for dinner; even though they each had their own place they still practically lived here. Hannah had recently made a comment that cut like a knife: She said that the only reason Doris paid for her two daughters to live on their own—neither made enough money to support themselves, especially Brie—was so that their Tiny-owning operations were out-of-sight, out-of-mind, therefore distancing herself from her daughter's activities because it would be politically inconvenient for her. It was cynical, but Paul had a sneaking suspicion it could be true.

  Doris arrived home a few minutes later with two bags filled with delicious-smelling food. Brie and Sarah emerged; Brie acting completely normally and even offering to help her mom take the food out of the bags. Sarah shot a quick look at Paul as if to tell him you owe me before making her way to the table herself.

  As they ate the three females talked quite a bit, Doris mainly informing her daughters about the gossip going around at the Capitol. It was quite inane and Paul didn't have much to say about it. But when Doris mentioned the name of Jen's father in passing Brie took the opportunity and pounced on it.

  “Oh, Paul's been seeing his daughter a lot lately.” Brie said, her smug eyes flashing to Paul.

  “Is that so, Paul?” Doris asked with a little inquisitive smile.

  “We just go to class together, that's all.” Paul said, feeling uncomfortable. “We're just classmates, it's not like we're dating or anything.”

  “That's good,” Doris said, her tone of voice clearly betraying that she didn't really believe him, “You should just be focusing on your studies right now. There will be plenty of time for dating later.” Doris looked back towards Brie as she spoke the last sentence, implying this message applied to her as well. Brie looked slightly embarrassed, and it was Paul's turn to feel smug.

  The conversation turned back to more inane matters and soon supper ended. Brie offered to help clean up as well, which struck Paul as being overly nice. Brie was never this helpful, and Paul knew there had to be an angle, and while they were washing dishes together it came out. Brie had steered the conversation towards her soccer team, and as subtly as she could, she dropped the bomb.

  “...and I really think it's the lack of good center is what's keeping the team from reaching their full potential.” Brie wormed. “I want to trade mine in for a better one but Centers are really expensive now; mine's not worth much and there's no way I could afford a top Center.”

  “You have many players, why not just sell off the ones you're not using?” Doris said.

  “Eleven makes a full team! I can't sell any!” Brie whined. “And even if I could, they wouldn't cover the cost. Can you loan me the money to get one? I'll make the money back with victory payouts in a matter of weeks.”

  “No, I won't do it.” Doris said adamantly.

  “Why not?” Brie whined, her voice raising. “It's not that much money to you, and it's my dream to win the Gettysburg Men's Cup!”

  “Do you know how problematic is would be for me to buy any tiny right now, let alone a top tier soccer player?” Doris snapped. “You're just going to have to make do with the team you have, or maybe you can actually put in decent hours at your real job and buy him yourself!”

  “But I need to be there to oversee the team!” Brie whined, getting more and more heated. She and her mom continued going back and forth, Brie getting more whiny while Doris became more and more stern. Sarah took Barney out of her pocket and started to fiddle with him idly while waiting for the storm to pass. Paul used the excuse of needing to work on homework to get out of there and head back to his bedroom.

  Paul flopped on his bed and closed his eyes, exhaling deep and long. The sun was going down outside so the room was nice and dim. Paul laid there for a few minutes before opening his eyes again. He looked up and to the left—just as he expected, Katelyn was there, peering over the edge of her smallhouse with concern.

  “Brie wants mom to buy her a soccer player, mom won't do it.” Paul said in one long disinterested breath.

  “Oh dear.” Katelyn said. Paul just sighed.

  “It doesn't matter.” Paul said. “It's just stupid drama, it doesn't affect me.” For another several minutes Paul just lay there, watching Katelyn's tiny legs dangle over the edge of her house. Finally, he sighed and sat up. “I guess I really ought to get started on homework.”

  Paul opened up his bag and sat down at his desk going over the trigonometry homework his teacher gave him. It was really annoying and he had the distinct impression that he would never use this in his life. Still, he had to do it. As he worked Katelyn sat cross-legged on the other side of his papers, not interacting with him but merely being a calming presence. Doris had long-ago forbid Katelyn from helping Paul with his homework. While many tinies were either illiterate or barely literate Katelyn was actually very smart and could read better than many Bigs Paul knew.

  One day when Paul was a kid his mom accused Katelyn of doing Paul's homework for him and actually confiscated the companion until the work was done. Paul had cried and cried but eventually forced himself to do the work. For months Doris would take Katelyn until he could prove he had done his work until eventually she would let the companion stay as long as she didn't say a word while he was working. They kept up that pattern until today; even though Paul was sure he could get away with letting Katelyn help, most of his homework was now beyond her grasp, especially anything to do with numbers.

  Finally done, Paul sighed as he lay his pencil down. Katelyn looked up at him. “Doing all right?” She asked.

  “Yeah,” Paul said. “Just tired, that's all. Got to get up for school tomorrow.”

  “Yeah,” Katelyn nodded sympathetically. Tentatively, she suggested: “Need anything, like maybe a massage?”

  “I think I just want to go to bed.” Paul said. “I might take that massage tomorrow, though.”

  Paul got up and got changed for bed. He lifted Katelyn into her house and up to her bed, pulling her little sheets over her and tucking her in. Tucking in your companion was considered something little girls do and no doubt Paul would be ridiculed no end if he was ever caught doing it, but he had tucked in Katelyn since he was a little boy and never saw the need to stop.

  Paul got under his covers and turned out the light. He lay in bed for a short while thinking about school, his future, Jen, Hannah, and Katelyn, before he started to fade and soon was fast asleep.