VERA

DCF badge on weekdays. Bar rag on weekends. Hard to say which crowd knows her better.

Vera's got a standing spot on her calendar for the Rayshall house at this point — not officially, her supervisor would never approve that, but her GPS starts suggesting the address before she's even finished typing.

She's on a first-name basis with every kid, knows which excuses come from which parent, and could probably fill out the paperwork from memory if the union let her.

Weekends she trades the clipboard for a bar rag, pouring drinks at her brother's bar. Off the clock she's less DCF and more life of the party — and more than a few of the people she investigates during the week are the same ones she's doing shots with on Saturday night.

She'll drink with someone Friday and open a file on them Monday, no hard feelings either way. Nobody on Twisted Terrace can say for sure anymore whether Vera showed up for a welfare check or a cookout — most weeks it's honestly both.