"Hey hoes!" Beth Plumber bumped the door of the Williamsburg Diner open with her hip, dropping her backpack beside Earl's table and kissing his cheek. "Hey Earl".
"Hello darling", Earl smiled at the sixteen year old.
"Why are you so much like your mother?" Han wanted to know, putting his hands on his hips.
"Why are you so short?" her eyes sparkled as she shot the retort at him.
"This is unbelievable!" Han threw his hands up in the air.
"She's been taller than you since she was seven", Earl filled in.
"Where is my mother?" she wanted to know, taking the plate that Oleg was holding out.
"no!" max marched through the diner, plucking the plate from her hand and pointing to the booth that Beth had claimed almost ten years earlier. "You've got a history test tomorrow, sit".
"Hi". Beth kissed her cheek and Max smiled at her.
"Hello".
So much had changed since that six year old had marched into their lives, and yet things had managed to stay the same. They were still broke (although Max felt like they were rich, Caroline had never once thought that), they were still at the diner (although the cupcake shop was flourishing, Beth had taken up some of their night shifts)
"You've got a history test!" Caroline barged through the doors, wiping her hands on her apron. "Sit down and study!"
Unlike her mother, Beth was a straight A student. And in her final year of school, Caroline was convinced she was going to make it into an Ivy League school.
"I'm sitting, I'm studying". Beth grabbed her backpack and slid into the booth she had claimed as a six year old, crinkling her nose up at her mother and Caroline.
Seventeen years old and with an attitude to match, Beth Plumber was the image of her mother.
"Oh, but I have a date tonight". Beth shrugged, pulling out a handful of pens.
"What?" Caroline almost squawked, and Oleg gasped, sticking his head out the window.
"What?" he roared.
(He was the one to stand in the doorway on the evening of Beth's first date, shrieking threats about his shotgun down the hall.)
They were all protective of the little girl that Max had brought to the diner. Only, and Beth kept reminding them, that little girl wasn't so little anymore.
"With who?" Max wanted to know.
"Johnny and I are seeing a movie", she said smoothly.
Max let out a small sigh, grinning a little. "Its Johnny's night, is it?"
Johnny and Max had broken up for good when Beth was nine, and while she hadn't been keen on him to begin with, he had grown on the little girl and Beth had been heartbroken. So they agreed that every so often, Johnny would take his turn looking after her. He had taken her to the movies, out to dinner- Johnny and Beth had done all of New York City together. In his own words, he deserved at least part custody of the little girl. And even though she was sixteen (going on seventeen- and Caroline made a point of singing that to her at least once a day), she looked forward to their dates.
"Yeah- that okay?" she checked.
Max nodded. "Just make sure he brings you home".
Max had been winging it since the six year old had wandered into their lives. And ten, almost eleven years later, was still winging it. She had no idea what she was doing at least ninety percent of the time, and Beth knew it. Max had muddled her way through Beth's elementary school life, had somehow managed to survive the preteen with raging hormones and an attitude, before life threw Beth's dating scene at her.
But despite being raised by Max Black, Beth had turned out alright.