After finished my stew, I piled my bowl on top of the others in the sink. Going into the living room, I saw the girls gathered around doing each other’s hair before bed. I sat down on the rug in front of the fire and watched it flicker across the wood. The urge to stick my hand into the blue flames at the very bottom grew the longer I sat there.

“Fin,” said Mrs. Haywood. “Fin, scoot back. You’re too close.”

My head fell back. “But I’m cold.”

Gwen threw a blanket at me. “There.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “You don’t have to be so mean about it.” I moved so I could lean up against the couch.

“Maybe you should try knocking.” She pursed her lips at me.

I rolled my eyes and faced the fireplace. It wasn’t like any of them had anything I wanted to see. Girls were just weird and blew things up way bigger than they needed to.

Jewels sat behind me and started running her fingers through my blond waves. “You have such pretty hair.”

“Wasted on a boy,” sighed Mrs. Haywood as she tied off Bridgette’s black braid.

The young girl pulled the long braid over her shoulder and moved so her birth sister Hannah could sit down to have hers done.

Jewels started to twist my hair back into some weird thing.

I slapped her hands away. “Don’t.”

“Come on, Fin.” She hugged me from behind and pulled a strand of shoulder length hair out of my eyes. “Just let me play with it.”

I turned around and locked eyes with her. “No.”

“Mrs. Haywood,” she whined, “I’m not going to hurt him.”

“Fin, just amuse her for a bit,” breathed our caretaker.

Folding my arms, I slumped back against the couch as Jewels started pulling on my hair. I hated that Mrs. Haywood was always on their side. It was bad enough the four of them ganged up on me all the time. Now I had to have my head ripped around to amuse one of them. It wasn’t right.

Mr. Haywood and Reese entered the room. Gwen quickly moved out of the way and went to sit with the younger girls on the smaller couch. Reese sat down in the corner and gave me a smirk. I lurched forward only to have Jewels yanked me back.

“Mrs. Haywood, tell him to stay still.”

“Fin,” she said firmly.

Jewels tied off the end of a braid. I ran my hand down the side of my head to find it tightly woven back. I went to move, but she stopped me again.

“Let me do the other side.”

“That’s enough.” I knocked her hands away.

“Fin.” Mrs. Haywood eyed me. “Don’t make me tell you again, boy.”

I turned and scowled at the wall. Reese gave me a big grin.

“Shut up,” I hissed at him.

“Is this really necessary?” asked Mr. Haywood.

“It’s not hurting anything, Paul.”

“Still,” he leaned back in his rocking chair, “let the boy retain his dignity.”

“I’m not making him go to town with his hair all done up,” shot back Mrs. Haywood. “Besides, it’s good practice for the girls, and it keeps them busy.”

He groaned. “Girls.”

“Watch it,” she replied, throwing a comb at him. “Or you’ll be cooking your own meals from now on.”

I grimaced as Jewels pulled the braid way too tight. My eyes were going to start watering if you kept this up. “It hurts. You’re doing it too hard.”

“Stop it.” She batted my hands away.”

Mrs. Haywood shook her head. “We really do need to cut it. It’s starting to get out of hand.”

I looked out of the corner of my eye at my caretaker. I didn’t really care what she did. If she cut it all off, it just meant these girls couldn’t torture me anymore. The fire flickered making me smile to myself. I turned toward the fireplace. I’ll never understand how I’d never noticed its beauty before. If there was a job that meant I could play with fire all day, that would be one that I wanted.