Warning for death of a sibling, corrupt bosses, and harsh prison conditions.
Inesa Amelija Prapuolenienė (10) is the girl Josie is falling for. She has two older siblings but unfortunately can’t see them in person: her 26-year-old brother is dead and her 24-year-old sister is in jail — and no, her sister did not kill her brother. Unfortunately they’ve had a tough upbringing with their low socioeconomic status and Inesa’s parents had actually emigrated from Lithuania before she was born and when her brother was 10 and her sister was 8. Both Inesa’s siblings worked in jobs for very little pay while their bosses had a lot of money. Inesa’s sister couldn’t handle it and had embezzled money and stole from her work and had been caught and jailed last year. The prison conditions were a nightmare. The health care was bad, the food was disgusting, the beds were uncomfortable, and she felt extremely scared of prison. She noticed some people there were violent and she avoided them as best as she could but also there were people there, especially minorities, who were in for low-level offences. There were even some people there who were completely innocent of the crimes they were convicted for. Just a few months after the imprisonment of Inesa’s sister, her brother died after a work shift. He has complained about headaches but his boss insisted he get over them quickly and keep working. Turns out he had a brain bleed and passed away. The family even tried suing the business but again the law failed them and they lost on the technicality that it was a pre-existing condition as opposed to him hitting his head at work. Ironically, it was actually caused by severe stress from overworking. Inesa’s sister was unable to attend her brother’s funeral due to her sentence, to her deep regret. Inesa used to dislike her sister but now genuinely pities the woman and since she’s almost released, she wants to have a real conversation with her. But Inesa truly doesn’t know how difficult it will be for her sister to open up about what things were really like.
Inesa has become stronger and has been a great friend to Josie despite what the girls’ families have gone through. Inesa adores Tuck and enjoys when she sees Josie and Tuck. She had been going through so much stress that she’s kinda forgotten about love and she’s never really had true love since she’s only 10 but she’s experiencing new types of attraction. When she was 5, she secretly crushed on all the boys in her grade and the boys and even some girls thought she had cooties. But from age 6 to age 9, she was the complete opposite and never had crushes on anyone and denied what she was like when she was 5. Now she’s been pretty much uninvolved in crushes but is mutually attracted to Josie but isn’t really in touch with that yet. Josie is the first female Inesa has fallen for and she wonders what her true sexuality is but just wants to take it easy. That being said, she’s also pretty outspoken against hate and she wants Josie and some other girls to tell off this boy on the playground sometime.