Demon says that after Mrs. Peggot refused to keep him, he feels on his own. Miss Barks places him with the McCobb family—Mr. and Mrs. McCobb, their grade-school kids Brayley and Haillie, and screaming twin babies—where money panic dominates the household and the foster check is treated as income.

Demon quickly learns the McCobbs’ “DSS-approved” bedroom is a showpiece for visits; after Miss Barks leaves, Demon is put in a smelly, unsafe back annex used as a dog/utility room. Mr. McCobb frames everything as “fair and square” and even asks Demon to “chip in” for extra groceries, then pushes Demon to find work despite Demon being eleven, while using Demon for unpaid “enterprise” labor stuffing envelopes.

Food becomes Demon’s main reality: dinners are small and rationed, snacks are controlled, and weekends are brutal. At school Demon keeps free lunch but scavenges leftovers and watches classmates waste untouched food, while his friendship with Maggot continues mostly in passing after homeroom reassignment; Demon lies that foster life is “awesome” to avoid pity and trouble.

Demon avoids complaining because he has already tried telling Miss Barks he is hungry; the McCobbs deny it and Miss Barks urges Demon to be pushier, which Demon believes is dangerous in foster care. Demon also rides with Mrs. McCobb on weekend pawnshop runs—selling off jewelry and baby gear in secret from her wealthier parents—and is forced to be the one who goes inside shops, leading to a public confrontation with a pawnbroker who recognizes “Eva McCobb.”

By late January Demon starts sneaking food at night, carefully taking small amounts, but the snack boxes vanish from the top of the fridge and reappear as hidden stashes for the McCobb kids. Demon coaxes information from Haillie, who finally offers to bring him Oreos but warns him not to eat in the annex; she points out a baby-monitor camera aimed at the laundry area, revealing Demon has been watched.