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reasonable course of action. We don’t freak out, Kerwin.”
    I actually have to turn my head to stare at her. She sounds like she’s been reading something self-help. She shrugs again.
    â€œYoga,” she says. “And meditation. And tai chi. And a therapist. I had to keep Magonia a major secret, but still. Ballet and gymnastics weren’t enough to deal with this. I had to do something or I was gonna spend all my time staring at the sky. No one else has that problem, I’m sure.”
    She gives me her own version of a Significant Look. It’s not fair.
    â€œI have a new place I’m working out. You could come too, you know. Like, leave your computer behind and see the sun. Stop thinking for up to ten minutes at a time.”
    I’m not sure how I got roped into a friendship with my girlfriend’s little sister, except that she was the only one who understood the loss and return of Aza. No one else can talk to me about it. Her parents are way too sensitive, and it’s a secret from the rest of the world. Eli and I have a survivor bond. But since when does she get to shame me for being housebound?
    â€œYou’re looking badly pitiful. And pallid,” says Eli.
    â€œPallid?” I say.
    â€œI thought I’d speak your language,” she says. “Today I can actually see your brain oozing out your ears. It’s not a good look. Also, you have wrinkles in your forehead that’re new. You didn’t have those three months ago. You look way, way old. You’re acting like somebody’s dad.”
    I sigh. We’re in the parking lot.
    â€œWhy’d she walk?” I finally ask.
    â€œBirthday nerves,” Eli says. “Neither of you are in good form today. But you’re going to have to deal. There needs to be cake later, and candles, and it needs to be amazing. Not for you, for my parents. I know you love my sister, but you aren’t the only one. And you can’t just worry about her all day long. You’re going to make her feel suffocated.”
    I wince at that word choice.
    â€œShe didn’t say that, did she?”
    â€œYou’re supposed to be her boyfriend, not her bodyguard. Get yourself together.”
    Then she’s out of the car and into the building. I stew a moment longer.
    I’m allowed to be worried. Aza’s still technically dying. Just differently, wearing a degrading skin stolen from off a Magonianship, and who knows what, or who, this skin was meant for? Beth Marchon—the identity Aza’s had since last year—is an exchange student from London in America staying at the Boyle house for the next couple years. Little Women reference on purpose. Aza decided Beth March, who died before her time, wrapped in a blanket she didn’t ask for, should get another chance at being alive. Beth March marches on.
    And if Beth happens to have a voice very much like the voice of a certain deceased Aza Ray, the London accent disguises it. There are other differences too, pretty major ones on the disguise front. Aza Ray Boyle was fish-belly white tending toward pale blue. Beth Marchon’s skin is brown. As a result the past year has been full of a uniquely earth-based brand of bullshit, people reacting to her in ways I’d never have imagined.
    It’s been a bad education in the way the human world still sees things. Particularly bad if you’d had delusions that humanity might be okay accepting someone from Magonia. Nope. Humanity isn’t even okay accepting someone from earth .
    People have had a few things to say about the fact that we’re dating. Nothing I could pin down closely as a Basic Racist Comment, but still, it’s there. You can feel it. And it’s not like I’m from some clueless zone. My mom Eve is black, and when I was little, walking around with her—
    Let’s just say I thought the world had gotten better since then. Mind you, I don’t actually know which of