As Sarah and Jill waited on the porch, they could still hear muffled outbursts from Finn's raised voice inside the house. Sarah sighed, feeling a bit guilty for not intervening earlier, but she figured it was best to let them cool down first. Finn stalked out and stacked another box on the porch, this one was just marked "clothes." Alexa came right behind him, holding a standing lamp. They both turned and went back inside without a word to Sarah and Jill, although Alexa started laughing as she shut the door behind herself.

"Thanks for coming to help, Sarah," Jill said, breaking the silence outside. "I'm sorry I gave you crap about being late. I don't think it was you I was actually irritated at."

"No problem, Jill. I did sleep in, so you shoulda yelled a bit. Besides, I wouldn't miss helping out, I should have made sure everything was plugged in. I'd yell at myself worse if I blew this off." Sarah smiled at Jill, but she heard more of Alexa's mocking laughter inside and turned to watch the front door. Sarah said, "I probably shouldn't, but I am going to go check on them. Hang out a minute?"

"Sure," said Jill.

Sarah got up and let herself into the house, grabbing a donut for Alexa. She found Alexa in the bathroom, putting little makeup bags and other arcane bottles and cans into a cardboard box. She was taking her time, looking at each item and stacking it just so inside the box. Meanwhile, Finn stomped back through the hallway, carrying a box labeled "novels." It wasn't terribly large, but he was handling it as though it was heavy so Sarah stepped out of his way. If the box really did hold books then it was probably heavy, even if Sarah wasn't sure why Jill would be moving to college with a whole box of novels. She was barely half an hour away, so why would she need a month's worth of entertainment? Plus, Sarah had never seen Jill reading anything that wasn't for class.

As soon as Finn was past, Alexa dumped everything that had been in the box back onto the bathroom counter.

"Ok, what's going on?" demanded Sarah.

"Oh, nothing, really," said Alexa.

"Nothing? You two seem pretty upset for nothing," said Sarah, handing the donut to Alexa.

"Nah, I'm just giving him a hard time. There isn't really much to do, but Finn's insisting we get everything all the way ready for whenever the truck gets here. He got real snotty, insisting I come inside and carry stuff with him instead of just waiting." Alexa used her arm to push everything off the counter, dumping it into the box. She went on, "So I told him he could take the heavy stuff and I'd put the last odds and ends into boxes."

"Which is stupid, because she can carry way more than me without breaking a sweat," growled Finn as he came down the hallway.

"But why not just wait? Just handle them once when we've got the truck to put it all in?" asked Sarah, trying to keep her voice even.

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"Yeah Finn, why not just wait," chimed in Alexa in a singsong tone.

"Why not just do it now? We've got to carry it outside eventually, so now is as good a moment as ever," he said. He wasn't even glancing at Alexa, instead, he stopped and leaned against a wall to talk to Sarah. "Plus, with a job like this, it's kinda nice to do it halfway and rest before finishing."

Alexa responded, exaggerating her enunciation to make every word clear, "Right, we can put the boxes in the driveway or walkway so it's in the way when we move the bed and dresser. Because that's so very much smarter."

Sarah pinched the bridge of her nose. "Alexa, if you don't want to help now, then fine, but don't make it worse, ok? Go sit with Jill, or come carry, but be nice, ok? Maybe eat some donuts, and get some sugar in you. Finn, if you'll just stack up boxes for me, I'll bring them outside. I saw that hand truck in the garage, I can use that easily enough. I'm sure we can find somewhere to pile them in the driveway that won't be in the way."

Without waiting for either of them to answer, Sarah spun on her heel and hustled back outside. Jill was looking at her phone and nodded at Sarah as she walked by. The dolly had been pulled out into the middle of the garage, but it wasn't clear why no one was using it. It had been painted red at some point, but it was scratched and dirty enough to dull the color into a sort of grey maroon. The tires were a bit flat, but otherwise, it seemed perfectly useable to Sarah. She grabbed and dumped in a handful of blue light, filling the steel and rubber up to the brim, firming up the tires so they would roll easily. The little bit extra went into Cuddles. He really was working nicely as a power sink, and Sarah really liked the way he looked coiled around her arm. Sarah ran a finger under him, feeling Cuddles flex against her. She'd need to come up with something else eventually, at some point, he'd fill all the way up and stop being so useful.

With a single hand resting on one of the handles, Sarah pulled the dolly behind her back into Jill's room. The room was oddly bare, with patches where things had been moved and other patches where they'd been untouched. Most of her pictures and posters were still on the walls, and some shelves still had all their odds and ends. Other shelves were empty and clean, and there were a few squares of bright color where something had been taken off the wall. Jill's mattress and box springs were leaned against a wall, the disassembled frame laying nearby. Finn had already stacked a few boxes into a single column, and there were enough boxes for one more. Still, with just one hand, Sarah let the lip of the dolly slide under the boxes. It leaned back, lifting the boxes off the ground, and Sarah followed it outside holding the single handle.

She dropped off the boxes at the far end of the driveway, next to the garage. Sarah looked around, they wouldn't block the garage if someone opened the door, and they wouldn't be between the front door and anywhere the truck could park. With a nod she turned and went back inside, one hand on the following hand truck. Finn was waiting for her when she got back inside.

"Thank you," he said. "For taking my side."

"You're welcome," she said. "But it was kinda a dumb fight. You were both wrong. I mean, look around, other than the bed we're done in here. It'll take maybe two minutes, would have taken five total all by yourself. You could have gotten the dolly yourself, and then it would have been really easy."

She let the dolly grab the last boxes without any input from her and rested her hand on it to follow it back out. Finn trailed behind her.

"Yeah, well, thanks for the help," said Finn.

Before Sarah could explain to him that it would have been less work to just do it than it had been to fight over help, the sound of a truck pulling up in front of the house caught their attention. Jill's mom had arrived with the U-Haul.