“Hm…. Well, I know what happens when I try to interrupt that,” replied the boy, sounding like he was half-joking. “You don’t wanna come down, though. Everybody’s waiting for ya.”

“What for?” Karen was surprised how hurt she sounded when she added, “So they can yell at me some more?”

There was a pause then, before Karen felt her mattress compress. The boy was sitting next to her. “Um…. You wanna talk about it?”

“No, I don’t.” After a moment, though, the girl did opt to at least show herself, sitting up from under the blanket and then letting it drop down to covering only from her chest down.

Then she got a look at the boy in question. No immediate recognition besides a strong resemblance to her father, but after a moment of studying some of his features she let out a somewhat loud,