Demon invites Fast Forward to the Fourth of July party at June and Emmy’s, hoping Fast Forward can somehow help the increasingly strung-out Maggot. Fast Forward arrives with Rose and a tiny, loud, rich outsider called Mouse, who rides in Demon’s lap and gapes at the poverty around her. Maggot is visibly jittery, and Demon notes Maggot’s pattern of stimulants and dealing-related errands, worried about what Maggot is sliding into.

At June’s, the party is already huge and chaotic: fireworks, keg beer, and reckless behavior in the woods. Demon tries to locate June and keep an eye on his friends, but Fast Forward and Mouse disappear into the crowd while Maggot bolts to his goth clique. June briefly takes control with a blunt safety warning, reinforcing her no-driving-drunk rule and her nurse’s view of how people die in Lee County.

Demon drifts through familiar faces and notices Fast Forward’s star power drawing attention. He also watches Fast Forward flirt-laugh with Emmy, which stings. Inside the packed house, Demon discovers an upsetting shift: Emmy is now openly “with” Hammer Kelly, wearing a garnet ring Hammer gave her. The Peggots treat it as a joke and a victory—Hammer has finally worn her down—while Demon feels a sharp, break-something jealousy and displacement.

Through a window, Demon sees Fast Forward and Mouse leading people to the wrecked cabin. He follows enough to realize Mouse is selling small black disks out of a Pringles can while Fast Forward supervises like a boss, which makes Demon’s unease spike; he backs away. Later, after dozing alone while watching fireworks and thinking about his dead father, mother, and brother, Demon returns to the cabin and finds the aftermath: passed-out bodies and needles and kits on the ground, with Mouse and Fast Forward gone.

Back at the bonfire, Demon confronts drunk Maggot, who mocks Demon as a “SpongeBob” compared to Emmy and Fast Forward’s “Britney” world, and riffs on Hammer’s new access to the Peggots. Fast Forward comes over, careful about appearances as people watch him, and soon decides it’s time to leave; Rose makes a cold, tactical move to insert herself by bringing Fast a beer. Demon retrieves Mouse from a conversation with June and Ruby, and the group heads out while Mouse and Fast Forward trade contempt about Lee County. A buried M-80 “kyarn blow” explodes nearby, and Demon ends in bitter reflection about being mocked as a hillbilly: the jokes land because people like him can hear them.