Luna stood in front of her closet, surrounded by discarded outfit options. What did you wear to babysit for the sister who didn't know she was your sister, in a life she didn't know you'd lived before?
"Sweetheart?" Papa poked his head in. "You've been staring at those clothes for an hour. It's just babysitting."
Luna held up two nearly identical cardigans. "The blue one says 'responsible babysitter' but the green one says 'good with kids.'"
"They both say 'overthinking it,'" Dad called from the hallway. "And you're going to be late."
"I just want to make a good impression," Luna muttered, finally choosing the blue one. Both her dads exchanged looks she pretended not to notice.
"You already made a good impression at Target," Papa reminded her. "That's why they hired you."
+25 points: Caring about others' trust
Luna slipped on her rainbow sneakers - the ones that had first caught Emma and Olivia's attention. "Right. Just babysitting. Totally normal Friday night."
"You know," Dad said carefully, "you seem awfully nervous about this particular job."
Luna forced a casual shrug. "The Chens are important clients. Dad works with Sarah, and they live in our neighborhood, and..." She trailed off, realizing she was rambling.
"And?" Papa prompted.
"And I just want to do a good job," Luna finished lamely. She grabbed her backpack, already packed with carefully chosen picture books and simple crafts. "I'll text when I get there."
As she walked the few blocks to the Chens' house, Luna tried to calm her racing thoughts. She'd been working toward this moment since she'd chosen this life, spent points on exactly the attributes she'd need. But now that it was actually happening…
The Chens' house was beautiful—modern but warm, exactly what Luna would have expected Sarah to choose. Before she could ring the doorbell, she noticed movement in the window. A black cat sat on the sill, watching her with familiar yellow eyes. This wasn't unusual - animals had always been drawn to her in this life, another carefully chosen attribute paying off. But this cat...
Luna's breath caught. "Grim?"
But when she blinked, the window was empty.
+50 points: Remembering your purpose
David opened the door before she could process what she'd seen. "Luna, right? Come in! Sarah's just helping the girls finish dinner."
Luna stepped into what looked like organized chaos. Sarah stood at the stove in her elegant black dress, stirring mac and cheese while trying to keep her skirt away from splashing milk. Both girls were already in their pajamas - Emma, the methodical seven-year-old, carefully setting the table with plastic plates in perfect alignment, while three-year-old Olivia, a tiny chaos agent in unicorn pajamas, systematically removed each fork as her sister put it down, giggling at her own mischief.
"Here, let me help," Luna offered, moving naturally to the stove. "You'll want to get that dress away from cooking toddlers."
Sarah's relief was palpable. "Are you sure? I've got about ten minutes to finish their dinner and somehow get my makeup done..."
"Go," Luna said firmly, taking the spoon. "I've got this. My dads work late sometimes, so I'm basically a mac and cheese expert."
+25 points: Easing others' burdens
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Sarah hurried upstairs while Luna finished dinner, deftly preventing Olivia from climbing the counter while simultaneously keeping Emma from "helping" with the hot stove. By the time David came downstairs adjusting his tie, both girls were seated with perfectly cooled mac and cheese.
"You're a miracle worker," he said, watching Olivia actually using her spoon instead of her hands.
The peaceful moment shattered when Sarah reappeared, stunning in her completed outfit. Olivia immediately burst into tears, clinging to her mother's legs with mac-and-cheese-covered hands.
"No go, Mama!" she wailed. "Stay!"
Before Sarah's dress could be completely ruined, Luna pulled out her secret weapon - a set of sparkly new coloring books and thick, toddler-friendly crayons.
"Hey Olivia," she said softly, "want to help me make something pretty for when Mama comes home?"
The toddler's sobs hitched as she considered this offer. Luna opened to a page of unicorns frolicking with butterflies.
"We could color this one rainbow," she suggested. "Like my shoes..."
Olivia's grip on Sarah's legs loosened. "Rainbow?"
Ten minutes later, both girls were contentedly coloring while their parents slipped out the door, Sarah mouthing a silent "thank you" as they left.
While the girls were absorbed in their coloring, Luna had a moment to study the living room. The photos that had caught her eye earlier told a story - but one with conspicuous holes. Here was Sarah graduating college, but the image was oddly centered, as if someone had been cropped from the left side. There were recent photos of Sarah with her parents, but older ones seemed carefully curated to show only single subjects, never groups.
Luna tried to remember what she'd looked like as Piper, but the memory was frustratingly vague - like trying to recall a dream after waking. She was certain she'd recognize herself if she saw her own face, but there was no trace of Piper anywhere in the house. It was as if Sarah's sister had been carefully edited out of every frame, every memory.
+75 points: Understanding the weight of past choices
"Can we color the unicorn's wings purple AND blue?"
"Of course we can," Luna smiled, pushing aside the mystery of the missing sister for now. "In fact, I bet we could make them rainbow..."
This sparked two hours of non-stop activity. The coloring evolved into building a blanket fort ("No, Olivia, we need that blanket for the roof!"), which became a magical castle where they played endless rounds of Candy Land. Emma approached each game like a tiny strategist, carefully plotting her moves and remembering where each special card had appeared in previous rounds. Meanwhile, Olivia bounced between activities with the attention span of a caffeinated hummingbird, more interested in making up stories about the candy characters than actually playing the game. She mostly just moved her piece randomly and squealed "CANDY!" at appropriate intervals, while Emma took the game seriously.
"The rules say you have to go back when you get the licorice," Emma insisted as Olivia happily moved her piece toward the castle, having completely forgotten whose turn it actually was.
"Sometimes the littlest princess gets special magic powers," Luna improvised, watching Olivia beam and Emma try to hide her smile behind an exaggerated eye roll that was pure Sarah. "Like skipping past licorice."
+50 points: Finding ways to include everyone
Between games, Luna read stories, doing all the voices just as she'd practiced with her own siblings. She caught herself wondering if these girls had cousins their age, if there were other children in their extended family. The questions sat on her tongue, but she swallowed them back. These precious little ones weren't pieces in some cosmic puzzle to solve. They were her nieces - even if they didn't know it - and they deserved her full, genuine attention.
"Again!" Olivia demanded as Luna finished "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" for the third time, bouncing in place with the limitless energy only a toddler could possess. But her eyes were getting heavy, and even Emma was yawning between turns at Candy Land, though she was still insisting she could finish "just one more game" like the determined oldest child she was.
"How about one last story in the fort?" Luna suggested. "A special one about a rainbow unicorn who loved her baby sister very much..."
Emma perked up at this - she always loved stories that reflected her role as big sister, even when she pretended to be too grown up for "baby stories." Olivia had already curled up against Luna's side, thumb in mouth, her other hand absently twirling her sister's sleeve in that peculiar self-soothing gesture that was uniquely hers.
As she tucked them into their beds later, Olivia already asleep and Emma fighting to keep her eyes open, Luna felt a surge of love so strong it almost hurt. She'd missed so much of their lives already - their births, their first steps, their first words. But she was here now, and she would be the best aunt they could have, even if they never knew the whole truth.
+100 points: Loving authentically despite circumstances
Through the nursery window, Luna caught a glimpse of what looked like Grim sitting on a tree branch, his yellow eyes glowing in the darkness. But when she looked again, there was just a shadow of leaves in the moonlight.