“It’s Fourth of July, Rebel!” Josie shouted.

Rebel smiled at the little girl. It was morning, after breakfast, and they were both sitting alone in the front room of the RV. This was a miracle because usually either Phoebe, Sebastian, Kati or Tiana seemed to be fighting for Josie’s time. But they had all gone elsewhere, including Trevor, and it was just Rebel and the little girl left in the RV with the sick patient.

Justin was asleep again, for what seemed like the one millionth time.

Josie was wearing jean shorts, a blue T-shirt and sandals, her caramel hair in a long braid. Rebel was wearing shorts too, and they were her own clothes, clothes she’d carefully packed before she’d left her house in Malibu, and her Nevertheless, She Persisted pink T shirt. Comfortable clothes she liked to wear in her old life. She was so grateful she’d had the foresight to take them. It was one bit of normalcy in her fucked up world.

Although for the first time, today she’d had trouble buttoning her shorts, leaving the top undone, using a rubber band to give herself another inch or two at the waist.

And she couldn’t stop worrying about it. Worrying about what this would mean for her relationship with Trevor. She had to tell him about the pregnancy, but she was scared. Scared he’d show his true colors and disappoint her that much quicker.

Josie had brought along a pack of Uno game cards and was busy dealing out the cards to the both of them. “Tonight we’re having a party and fireworks!” she said, practically bouncing with excitement.

Rebel picked up her cards and started sorting them in her hand by color and number. “Oh, we are?” God, how could she have forgotten about the Fourth of July? She put her cards down and ran her hands through her hair and sighed. Too much on her mind. Last night she’d had that super-serious talk with Trevor, went back to his apartment with him, made passionate love to him and fell asleep in his arms, all in an attempt to make up for her wishy-washy behavior.

She loved him, he said he loved her, but she couldn’t risk staying with him. Even she had to admit it was pretty fucked up.

She glanced over at Josie, who was staring at her eagerly, waiting for her response. Rebel shook her head, trying to forget her worries. She picked up her cards again and pasted on a smile for the little girl. “That sounds like fun. Who goes first?”

“You do, you go first. Rachel says we gotta watch some movie before the fireworks,” the little girl grumbled.

“What movie?” Rebel asked, distracted. She didn’t have any yellows so had to pull a card, already. Damn.

Josie shrugged. She casually put down a wild card, blowing up Rebel’s game like it was nothing. “I don’t know, but there’s singing and it’s about the Fourth of July.”

“Hmmm. I think I know what movie she’s talking about. It was good. I wouldn’t mind watching it with you. Maybe you’ll like it.” Rebel answered as she reorganized her cards.

“No, I won’t.” Josie shook her head emphatically. She put down four cards in a row. Rebel’s jaw dropped.

“Rachel’s like my teacher now. She makes me watch stuff on TV she says will make me smart. I have to read books and do schoolwork,” the little girl huffed.

“Really?” Rebel grinned. “How awful.” She put down two cards, thinking this was a great tactic, but she was so far behind Josie now, it was pathetic.

“Yeah, Rachel used to be a teacher, or was in school to be a teacher, something like that, and I’m in second grade, so now she’s my teacher.”

“That’s cool.”

Josie sighed as if the weight of the world were on her shoulders. She bit her lip, thinking hard about her game play and then drew a card. “Sometimes. But why do I still have to go to school? Why can’t I just…play?”

Rebel was having the hardest time keeping a straight face. Josie sat there with the saddest look ever. It was hilarious. She was so freakin’ cute. “If you didn’t do schoolwork, you think you’d just play all day?”

She shrugged. “Yeah…”

“Wait. Let’s think this through. Tell me, what does everyone on the farm do during the day, you know, when they’re not eating or sleeping, or helping you with your schoolwork?”

“Um…” Josie swung her legs and thought hard for a second, “Work?”

“Yes, from what I’ve seen no one just sits around and plays all day, maybe unless it’s Sunday. If you weren’t doing schoolwork and learning, what do you think you’d be doing during the day instead?”

She brightened. “Playing?”

“No. Working. You’d be working. Like they are. You need to work too. You can’t just slack off while everyone else is working. That’s not fair, right?”

Josie thought about it for a second. “Yeah, I guess so. I guess that’s not fair.”

“But you’re little, so you can’t do the same work the grown-ups do. You might get hurt or do it wrong.”

“I wouldn’t do it wrong. I know what to do!”

Rebel crooked an eyebrow at her. “Yeah, right. Anyway, I think what Rachel is teaching you isn’t so much schoolwork as job training. Each day, the grown-ups go to work, and Rachel is nice enough to give you lots of job training so that one day you can work with the grown-ups, too.”

“Job training,” Josie repeated, like calling it that suddenly made it not so bad.

“If you don’t do job training and learn to read good and do math really well, how are you ever going to learn to take care of the farm when you’re a grown-up?”

“Well, I don’t know…”

“Didn’t think that through, huh?”

“No… I guess…I wish I could play. But I don’t have anyone to play with anyway…” Josie trailed off.

Rebel’s chest constricted. How lonely would it be being the only child left on the planet? Luckily for Josie two more children would be born that year. But they would be babies at first. It was still a long time before she had anyone to play with. Even then she’d be so much older than them, she’d be like their big sister rather than a playmate. “I have an idea,” Rebel said. “How about you and I do job training together?”

Josie gasped. “You’re going to go to school with me? Don’t you already know how to read?”

Rebel laughed. “Yes, I know how to read. But I’m like you, I don’t know how to do any of the work on this farm, and I need to learn.”

“Because you were a movie star, right? You were special, like a princess, and everyone used to do everything for you, so now you don’t know how to do anything.”

Out of the mouths of babes…

“Yeah, that’s about right, Josie. I have a lot to learn.”

“But she’s a fast learner,” a deep voice said from behind them. Rebel whirled around, startled to see Trevor in the doorway.

How long had he been listening?

“Uno!” Josie shouted, slapping her last card on the stack.

“Oh!”