He was quiet for a second, as if he knew what she was doing. Reminding him that they were just friends. "She's good. Adapting."

"Good," Kylie said. "I met her briefly the other day. She seems nice." And very pretty. She bit down on her lip.

"She is nice," he said.

"Yeah. Well, I'm happy for you." Kylie wasn't sure how true it was, but she wanted it to be true, and for that reason it didn't feel like that big of a lie.

"I told you we're not really together," he said, sounding frustrated.

"Yeah," she said, and when he didn't say anything else, she decided to do the right thing. "I need to go. I'm supposed to call Holiday."

"Okay," he said.

She disconnected the call and pushed away the melancholy. She did need to call Holiday, and then she had to figure out what the ghost had meant her to learn from the vision.

* * *

Even though she was sleep-deprived, Kylie called her mom first thing the next morning. She had to know what happened.

"So?" Kylie dropped back on the bed.

"So, what?" Her mom sounded as if she were still sleeping.

"Was it a business lunch or a date lunch?"

"Oh. It was..." Her mom's pause told Kylie more than her mom probably wanted to share. "It was fun."

"How fun?" Kylie tried not to let her emotions leak into her voice as she knotted a handful of sheet in her hand.

"Just fun. I enjoyed myself, that's all. I don't mean ... It's not as if ... Look, baby, we had a good time, but I'm not sure anything will come of it."

"He didn't ask you out again?" Kylie petted Socks, who had jumped up to get some attention.

"He said he'd call. But you know men always say that. And they never do."

Kylie tightened her hold on her phone. "If he calls, will you go out with him?"

"I don't know," her mom said. "Oh, someone's knocking on the front door. I'd better run." The line went dead.

Kylie sighed. She had a sneaking suspicion nobody was at the door. Her mom just didn't want to talk about it. Not that she could blame her.

Seconds ticked by, but Kylie didn't move. She just lay there, stretched out on her twin mattress, staring up at the ceiling. Ambivalence filled her chest. Did this mean her mom and her stepdad would never get back together?

* * *

A quick shower later, Kylie walked out of the bathroom with a towel around her to find Miranda standing attentively in the hall, as if waiting on her.

"What's up?" Kylie asked.

"I'm your shadow," Miranda announced proudly.

"I thought Della-"

"You don't think I can protect you?" She held out her pinky. "I have powers, girlie."

Actually, Kylie had doubts about Miranda's protecting abilities, but she wouldn't dare say that. "No, I just remember Burnett saying it was Della this morning."

"She went to her sunrise ceremony and I'm supposed to get you to the office, where Della will meet us in about five minutes. So let's go."

Kylie looked down at her towel. "Can I get dressed first?"

"Someone's not a morning person this fine day." Miranda made a funny face, and Kylie took off to her room to get dressed.

A few minutes later, they walked out the cabin door. Miranda turned back to the door, waved her arms around, and began to chant. The last time Miranda did that, she felt unwanted visitors; it turned out Mario and Red had been hanging out, watching Kylie.

"What are you doing?" Kylie asked. "Do you sense someone's here again?"

Miranda frowned. "A little." She pinched her right thumb and forefinger together.

"A little?" Annoyance snaked through Kylie. "How can you sense someone here just a little? I mean, they're either here or not, right?"

"Don't wig out on me," Miranda said. "I just got a feeling and I thought it couldn't hurt to do a protection spell."

"Have you told Burnett?" Kylie asked.

"I was going to but I'm kind of scared to talk to him alone after..." She flushed. "You know."

The memory of a marsupial Burnett hopping around the dining hall, dodging Clark's fireballs and Perry's dragon breath, flashed across Kylie's mind. Hence, part of the reason Kylie doubted Miranda's ability to protect her.

"Anyway," Miranda went on, "you said Holiday would be back today. So I figure I'll just tell her then."

Kylie rolled her eyes and wanted to point out that if Miranda was right and there were intruders, Burnett needed to know ASAP, but she bit her tongue. A few hours probably wouldn't matter all that much. Besides, Miranda had a point; she was in a bad mood this morning, and it wasn't fair to take it out on Miranda.

As for why Kylie was in a bad mood, well, she figured her bad mood probably hinged on the fact that she was running on only a few hours' sleep. She and Holiday had spent almost an hour on the phone talking last night. They'd discussed everything from Holiday's aunt's passing to Kylie's vision and what it could and couldn't mean. When Kylie asked her about the healing powers and the whole "giving up a piece of her soul" issue, Holiday suggested they wait until they could talk about it when she got back today.

Kylie had almost told Holiday about her misgivings with Burnett over the FRU library card issue but decided to wait and discuss that in person, too.