October 17, 2006
It took three months for Veronica to learn to call him Don rather than Mr. or Deputy Lamb. She turned bright red the first time she'd found the courage to use his name and he'd laughed at her, which hadn't helped. She'd been twelve and desperately in love with him.
It took exactly two weeks for her to go from calling him Don to Deputy Dumb or Lamb Chop. This change, of course, coincided with Veronica's adoption by Lilly Kane and the other 09ers. He stopped in his squad car one day as she and Lilly we were walking home and offered them a ride home. Lilly had sneered at him immediately. Veronica had smiled for a moment, before realizing that she wasn't allowed to do that anymore.
"Why don't you go back to playing cops and robbers Deputy Dumb?" She'd huffed, before glancing nervously at Lilly, seeking her approval. Lilly had been grinning and Don had wanted nothing more than to slap her pudgy little face until she was the same shade of red that Veronica had been the first time she'd called him Don. But she was an 09er, which in Neptune is something akin to a god. First lesson he learned from Keith after moving to Neptune: don't mess with the 09ers. So he takes their comments with a blank face, nodding his head lamely.
"Alright then girls, have a nice day." He'd said before driving off, dazed and far more hurt that he'd ever admit.