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She stopped after that, because she had to, and once she did she realized she couldn't hear the sound of footsteps behind her anymore. That was a bit odd, so she turned around to look. She saw Leo squirming in the grasp of the man who was supposed to be minding them. The man was putting a hat on him. It was one of those stupid looking bucket hats, with a duck's face on the front. It looked pretty funny.

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She didn't like the way that the man was treating her brother, but as soon as he got the hat on, he let Leo go. She watched as Leo wiped at his cheeks, as if trying to scrub off the feeling of the man's hands on his face. The man handed him two pairs of sunglasses and said something that Vivi was too far away to hear. Leo looked down at them for a moment, then nodded a little bit, and put on a pair.

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Then he ran off to join Vivi. He didn't look really upset or anything, so Vivi thought he must have been okay after all, even though the man had grabbed him. She still didn't like the man for doing that, but in this case she understood why it happened. Leo had to wear a hat to hide his horns. They weren't very long, and sometimes his hair could hide them fine. If no one got close, they usually didn't even notice he had any.

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But once they did notice, there was almost always trouble. Sometimes they could say it was just a headband toy, but one time they'd said that and another kid tried to yank them off. Of course they couldn't actually come off, since they were real horns growing out of Leo's head. You couldn't yank them off, just like you couldn't yank off someone's hands or feet. Or maybe you could, but it would really hurt, and then you couldn't put them back on, that was for sure.

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And she didn't want that to happen to her brother. He'd probably never stop crying if something like that happened, and it would probably hurt a lot.

After they tried, and the horns wouldn't come off... Actually, the other kids thought it was cool for a while. But then some of them must have told their parents, because Leo and Vivi got really dirty looks from the grown-ups after that, and all the other kids said they weren't allowed to play together anymore.

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They had to change preschools not long after, and then a few weeks later Mother started paying a tutor to teach them at home instead.

Vivi didn't like it. She thought it was stupid that they had to hide the way they were. She didn't have horns, but she had a tail, and she always had to make sure it was tucked under her pants or her skirt or whatever. It hurt after a while, like if you hold your arm in an uncomfortable position for too long.

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But she could manage it for short trips, and it was better than staying cooped up inside absolutely all the time.

As much as she hated it though, Vivi understood that this was necessary. Every time someone noticed her brother's horns, bad things happened. Their eyes looked a little weird too, though people didn't always notice that as much. Still, the man was giving them sunglasses to hide that too, and now Leo was handing over a pair to her.

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"Here," he said. He didn't explain why. They both knew. They were red with stars on them, and they looked okay. She put them on and pretended like she was a movie star, instead of a little kid who had to hide the way her eyes looked because people were stupid.

It did also feel better. She hadn't realized how bright the sun was until she put on the sunglasses, but it was a little easier to see now.

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They weren't so dark that it was hard to see where she was going, and they did turn everything a bit brown, but she felt like she could open up her eyes all the way now.

"Thanks," she said to Leo, who nodded in reply. She was about to keep running, but she looked around and realized she had no idea where she was going. She looked back to see their minder walking towards them. He wasn't running, but he was walking pretty fast.

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He was probably mad. She sighed. She knew they were going to have to stick with him to get to the beach, since he knew how to get there and they didn't, but she wished they could just go on their own.

Maybe they could next time. She would have to work hard and try to remember how they got there this time around.

As the man got close to them, he said, "Agatha, you can't run off like that! What if something had happened?"

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"I'm not Agatha," said Vivi pointedly. "And also it's not my fault you're slow." She had been trying to ditch him, but it wasn't like she could actually admit it or anything.

The man frowned, but Leo spoke up. "If you don't stop calling her that, she's just going to get worse," he said quietly. "You have to call her Vivi."

Vivi wondered if he was actually going to do it. She hadn't known him for too long, but he seemed pretty stupid so far.

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So maybe he would be dumb enough to be stubborn about it, and insist on using the name she hated. But after a moment, he sighed and said, "Okay. If calling you that will get you to listen, you can be whatever you want." It still wasn't a nice way to say it, since he was making it sound like she was being silly about it, but if he didn't call her 'Agatha' again, that was better than nothing. "Now stay put, and I'll call a cab."

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"A cab? We can't walk there?" said Vivi sharply. It hadn't looked that far when they were just looking at it from the window in their room.

"You want to--- No," said the man. He didn't just sound mad this time. "We're not going to walk there. You can say whatever you want to your mother, I'm not having you both in the hospital for heat stroke." She eyed him, seeing if he would cave under the weight of her glare.

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But it looked like he wasn't going to change his mind.

Vivi sighed again. "Okay, fine. Call a cab," she said. It wasn't like she had really wanted to walk there that badly, but if they had to take a car to get there, then it meant that she and Leo probably wouldn't be able to go by themselves, at least not until they were much older than they were now. How old did she have to be before she called a cab by herself?

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It didn't look that hard, and she knew how to use the phone. She even had some money of her own, though not as much as she would have liked. For anything that was more expensive than maybe twenty or forty dollars, she had to go through the help to buy it.

They did mostly buy what she asked for, but it was still a hassle to have to go through them every time, especially since she didn't get along with them too well to begin with.