Her mom gave her hel for it, too.

"You lied to me," her mom had accused.

"No, I just let you believe he came."

"Same thing. And ... and ... you can't get mad at your dad," she insisted.

"Why?" Kylie asked. "You're always mad at him."

Then her mom got her panties in a wad because Kylie's dad insisted on coming out this weekend. At first, Mom had said she wouldn't come. Now she was back to being furious, and saying she was coming and that they were just going to take shifts visiting. Guess who she expected to take care of al the scheduling?

Right. Mom expected Kylie to do it.

The only positive thing happening was that Soldier Dude hadn't returned. Kylie wanted to believe he was gone for good. Holiday wasn't convinced, though. Then again, Holiday wasn't in the best of moods lately. When Kylie asked what was going on, Holiday just shook her head and said it would work itself out.

Kylie had also asked Holiday about Lucas. The camp leader let out a big sigh of frustration and said she couldn't talk about that. Kylie had to bite her tongue to keep from tel ing Holiday that trust was a two-way street. It would be nice if Holiday wouldn't be so secretive. The tension Kylie saw in Holiday seemed even more pronounced in Sky, which struck Kylie as odd. Because so far, the werewolf leader seemed immune to the frustration brought on by the FRU's constant visits. Kylie got the impression that Holiday and Sky were having problems. If that wasn't bad enough, the tension from the two leaders seemed to be having a bad influence on everyone else. There had been another fight, this one between a witch and a fairy.

"Told you witches and fairies don't get along," Miranda had said the day she, Kylie, and Del a stumbled upon the fight being broken up by Holiday.

"What are you going to do if I discover I'm part fairy?" Kylie asked Miranda.

"Damn," Del a said. "Did you just say what I think you said?"

"What?" Kylie asked, clueless.

"Are you final y admitting that you're not al human?"

With everything else going on, Kylie hadn't given the whole human or not human issue a lot of thought. And strangely enough, it didn't even seem to matter anymore. Okay, that wasn't true. She stil wanted to know, but if she did find out she was supernatural it wasn't the end of the world. As a matter of fact, it was the idea that she might not be "special" that seemed to bother her more.

"So?" Miranda asked her.

"I am whatever I am," Kylie said.

Miranda started to say something and Del a held up her hand. "Shh."

Kylie and Miranda paused and listened. Al Kylie could hear was the background noise from the wildlife park.

"What do you hear?" Kylie asked, almost worried Chan had returned.

"The animals," Del a said. "They are seriously pissed."

"At what?" Miranda asked.

"Like I would know," Del a said. "But I've never heard them so ... angry."

Right then, Helen came up beside Kylie and leaned in to whisper, "It worked. I asked if he had a girlfriend and it was just like you said happened to you. He asked me why and I told him I was thinking I might like him. And now, we're going to go on a picnic tomorrow, just to get to know each other better. Thanks."

Kylie gave Helen's arm a squeeze. "That's great. Come by before the date and Miranda can fix your makeup. Won't you, Miranda?" Kylie looked over at her friend.

"I'd love to," Miranda said.

"Thanks," Helen said, and ran off.

* * *

Saturday morning, Kylie stood back from the crowd waiting to hear who they'd be paired with for an hour and finished her conversation with her dad. She'd final y given in and cal ed him on Friday. He'd acted like nothing was wrong, never even said anything about not coming last week, or about her not answering his cal s or e-mails. He told her he was looking forward to seeing her on Sunday and then he started talking about a trip he was taking to Canada in a few weeks.

Kylie explained that her mom was also coming tomorrow and that they would have to take shifts. Kylie was positive that her dad would tel her that whole shift thing was stupid, that they could both just visit her.

Maybe deep down, a tiny part of her hoped they would both come at the same time, and then, miracles of miracles, maybe they would take one look at each other and decide they'd missed being together.

That's the thing about miracles. They didn't happen that often. Her dad didn't cal the shift thing stupid. As a matter of fact, he seemed just as adamant not to see her mom as her mom was not to see him.

"How about I show up after lunch?" he asked. "And I'l cal first to make sure she's not there."

Kylie bit her lip to keep from asking him where her real dad was. Every since a divorce had been mentioned, her father had changed. Completely, wholeheartedly. Parents weren't supposed to do that to their kids. She was certain it was written in the parents' rulebook.

"Fine," Kylie said. And if you don't show up, don't worry. I don't think it will hurt as much the second time. "Later, then," she said, and closed her phone.

"You ready?" a male voice said from behind her, leaning in close to her ear. "I got your name."

Kylie recognized Derek's voice. She'd managed to evade him al week. Not to be mean, but out of a basic need for sanity. Her life was already a friggin' mess. She didn't need to add anything else to it. Besides, he had a girlfriend who was probably more than happy to spend time with him. She turned around. "You already had my name," she said.