Just crossed 50k and verified! Though technically this novel isn't anywhere near finished. It's nice to have a good chunk of the word done.

Jason Star Catcher didn't think that anyone would stand up for him. When he was being honest with himself it was because he didn't think he deserved it. Only people who were valued had other people defend them; he'd seen it in every place he lived no matter how short the duration.

Here, in the most unexpected of places, Jason had value.

Liesl stood up for him. Jerry guaranteed him that she'd take full responsibility for anything that happened, even knowing what it could do to her place in the commune. Curtis and Madelyn had become like siblings, willing to lay everything down to help him and protect him.

His father had told him that Liesl would take good care of him, he just couldn't have predicted how good.

Jason had lived on fragile ground for too long. So often he'd been ready to slip loose the mortal coil and see what else the universe had in store for him, only on the other side, the side that he hoped wouldn't hurt so much as this one. The cabin in the woods and the people who lived inside of it had changed all that.

Home had managed to sneak up on him while he was busy looking for other things.