1. Aaron

1

AARON

" I don't waaaaaaant to go to piano lessons," Aaron said in theatrical despair. He knew that it was theatrical even as he was doing it.

Bingo thought that all drama was wonderful and bounded around them yelping his head off.

"Practice and going to lessons are the only way you'll get better," Clara said, picking her way around an early-autumn, leaf-clogged mud puddle in Aaron's back yard to get to the swing set. She didn't seem to realize how snotty she sounded, sometimes, and Aaron and Trevor exchanged a tolerant look behind her back.

Then she added, "But I don't want to go to my dance lessons, either. My tights itch and my hair is too tight, and it's a really long, boring drive to Madison." She fluffed her aforementioned hair around her face until she looked like a dandelion going to seed.

"Tell me about it," Aaron said, laughing. He drove to Madison almost every weekend to see his mom and stepdad, Juan. They couldn't live in Green Valley because his mom said that everyone blamed them for breaking his dad's heart. If his dad still had a heart, maybe Aaron wouldn't have to go to piano lessons, he thought sourly. "I'll push you first, Clara."

There were only two swings on Aaron's swing set, plus a seesaw that they'd nearly outgrown, and a slide that was fun to climb up backwards but not at all fun to slide down.

"You have to leave soon for your piano lesson," Clara countered. "You go first."

Aaron knew that she was just being polite, but he also wasn't going to turn down the first swing. Trevor took the other seat and Clara alternated pushing each of them, until they were all out of breath and laughing and shouting and Clara wasn't being careful about her shoes and the mud any more. Bingo played with them until he got yelled at for being underfoot too much and went to flop down on the porch.

"Five minutes until you have to go, Aaron!" his dad called from their back porch.

Aaron pumped his legs even harder, like he wouldn't have to go if he couldn't hear him because of the wind whistling past his ears, or like he could stop time if he went fast enough. He mistimed leaning back and Clara's hands jammed hard in his back as he heard Trevor dragging his feet in the dirt to slow himself down.

"Ooof!" Clara said, staggering back at the impact. "Careful!"

"I'm going to jump!" Aaron declared. "I'm going to do it!"

He and Trevor always said they'd jump, but then they always chickened out when they got too high. Clara was too smart and cautious to say she'd do it, even though she'd probably do it the best because she was such a good dancer; she could do one-handed cartwheels and walk on a balance beam. Aaron dragged his feet on the ground until he was slow enough to hop off, knowing that it was anticlimactic.

Trevor tumbled after him, landing dramatically on his knees. Aaron sourly wondered if he wasn't trying a little too hard to look clumsy. Ever since he learned how to shift, he was extra goofy and always pretending he couldn't do things.

Aaron climbed the wrong way up on the slide and sat down on the tiny landing. It wasn't a very tall slide, but it had seemed much higher and more terrifying when they were younger. It was still a good place to go and pretend that no one could find you. Aaron hadn't practiced piano all week and he dreaded Tawny's gentle disappointment.

Trevor followed him with a noisy clatter and Clara came up the proper way, on the ladder.

They squashed together in the tiny place, Clara standing primly in a corner looking out over the yard and Trevor laying on his back drumming his feet on the railing.

"Do you think we'll all be friends when we're grown up?" Clara asked wistfully.

"Yes," Trevor said emphatically, just as Aaron said, "No."

"It's not that I wouldn't want to be," Aaron said quickly, lest his despondence start an argument. "But we probably just won't know each other then. Grown-ups don't really have friends. They just get married."

That earned him a quick kick from Clara. "Gross."

"I don't want to get married," Trevor declared. "I'm going to be a firefighter scientist doctor lawyer."

"That wouldn't leave a lot of time for being married," Aaron agreed.

"I'm going to be a teacher," Clara said .

"I thought you were going to be a dancer," Trevor said, pausing his feet on the rail.

"Well, yeah," Clara scoffed. "I'm going to be both. If Trevor can be a scientist doctor whatever, I can be a teacher dancer."

"You're going to be late!" Aaron's dad was on the back porch again. "Aaron, you'd better get over to Tawny's right now ! Lessons cost money!"

Aaron heaved a sigh. "Okay." He didn't slide, but tromped daringly down the slide on his feet. The end was a panicked whirl of running. Bingo met him at the bottom of the slide, his tail wagging like Aaron had been gone for a week, not just at the top of the slide for a few minutes.

"Bye!" Clara and Trevor called in unison from the top of the slide, but they didn't offer to come with him, which felt keenly unfair. They got to keep playing in his yard, even though he had to go to piano lessons.

Bingo went with him to the edge of the lawn and when Aaron told him to stay home, he looked blankly back and then sat down to scratch at his collar like he didn't understand a word of it.

Aaron made the walk next door last as long as he possibly could, scuffing his feet and stopping to tie his shoes and throw leaves into a puddle in the road.