How to Make Friends with the Dark

Content Warning: This section discusses themes of grief, parental loss, and trauma. It also mentions self-harm, suicide, suicidal ideation, and domestic violence.

Tiger lies awake in the morning, listening to the other children bicker at breakfast. She texts Cake, but she then gets angry when Cake asks if she is okay. Tiger heads downstairs and asks LaLa how she can get to school, but LaLa reveals that she and Tiger have some other things to take care of that day. When LaLa leaves to drop the little ones off at school, Tiger wanders the house and looks through the other rooms; the older boy, who is still not back, has put up music posters in his room.

LaLa returns and says that they have to go to the funeral home to make arrangements for June. Tiger reflects on how the “girl-bug in the jar can barely breathe. She covers her face with her wings” (104). LaLa suggests that Tiger change out of her cream lace dress, but Tiger refuses.

Rhonda is at the funeral home when they get there, and she greets Tiger with a hug. Some of the parents from school have gotten together to cover the costs of the funeral arrangements, and an overwhelmed Tiger realizes that she should probably choose the cheapest option.