****Own nothing. Enjoy!!!!!****

****SADIE****

The week passed slowly. Okay, slowly was an understatement. The week seemed like a century. Each minute an hour, each hour a day, each day a year. I woke up groggy and moody. I went to school with tears in my eyes because Chris still refused to talk to me. When I got home each day I did my homework, ate dinner, and went to sleep. I didn't know how much Chris was a part of my life until he left it. Sure Gordie and Teddy and Vern were nice to be around and yeah they were my best friends…but they weren't Chris. Reggie and Genny were the only other people I kept contact with, she practically ordered me to go with her to her house or out with her or anywhere with her. I suppose she was afraid I would try to drown myself in the bathtub like some senior boy did last month.

Finally it was the week before the dance. Flyers were handed out. Posters were hung. Girls squealed. Boys groaned. It was a typical American high school dance. Thursday afternoon I watched Chris leave the building to talk to Gordie for a bit. I knew that recently he was sleeping over at his house lately. I was glad that Chris had only severed ties with me. Gordie and Teddy and Vern needed their peacemaker.

"Sadie?" Reggie's voice echoed.

"Yeah." I shut my locker and walked out with her.

"Guess what." She was happy. Her eyes were shinning and she was smiling more. Ace had cooled down and was being an acceptable boyfriend. Genny was thriving in Castle Rock Tots, the local preschool. And her mom was leaving her alone more and more. I couldn't figure out how that last thing was good but I let her have her moment.

"What?" I played along, wishing she would just say it.

"Ace agreed to take me to the dance!" she squealed, doing a little jig.

"Do they let other kids come to the school dances?" I pondered.

"He still goes here…just doesn't show up." I stopped walking and looked at her. Ace was like twenty or something insane like that. "He never graduated." She said simply.

"Alright." I was uneasy about spending an entire night near Ace. Let alone that night was tomorrow so I had barely anytime to mentally prepare myself.

"He will leave you alone. And the boys. Made him promise."

"Promise what?" Teddy asked, putting out a cigarette on the side of the building.

"None ya." Reggie replied snidely. "Where are Gordie and Chris?"

"Went to Gordo's house. Some project or something." I noticed he was gravitating towards Reggie and had stopped calling her the Hot Friend.

"Vern?"

"Who knows. With Rita again." We walked into town like every afternoon; I enjoyed the routine of it all. "What's wrong, Shorty?" he asked me.

"Nothing." I stated strongly.

"I never knew that this abundance of nothingness could bum someone out for an entire week."

"Anything's possible. I gotta go. Sylvia is making me do extra credit projects. The woes of being a teachers sister."

****TEDDY****

I watched her sulk off and I heard Reggie sigh. She was sighing a lot recently. Sadie had a lot of 'projects' recently. Gordie and Chris were gone a lot recently. And weirdest of all Vern had a lot of dates with a hot brunette recently. What the fuck was going on…

"So." She muttered, zipping up her jacket.

"Yeah, so."

"Ace is coming to the dance."

"Then I am not." We turned to walk to the preschool to pick up Genny. I often avoided home recently so I spent most of my time with Sadie or Reggie. After school with Sadie we would go to the tree house or to the diner. After school with Reggie we would pick up Genny, give her snack, help her with her 'homework', and play with her.

"Yes you are! You have too!"

"Why exactly do I have to do anything you say?"

"Because I have the boobs that's why." We laughed and she pushed me playfully. "But seriously, I need you to get Gordie to get Chris to the dance. Gordie won't make Chris go if he doesn't want to and he won't want to. I need you to get Gordie to go because I need Chris and Sadie to talk. I have it all planned."

"Really now? How so?"

"None ya." We walked into the preschool and Genny bolted to us. "Hi, honey." Reggie kissed her head and picked her up to go talk to Miss Walker, the day care lady. I tagged along, watching other kids play with the blocks and coloring books. I had yet to come in and meet Miss Walker but I didn't get the feeling she liked me anymore than children enjoyed root canals. Her gray hair was wrapped tightly onto her head. Her nose was long and crooked and sat awkwardly on her wrinkly pinched face. She was hunched over and wore a prairie dresses and half moon glasses she glared over. I shrunk back behind Reggie.

"Hello, Regina."

"Hello, Miss Walker. How was Genny today?"

"A star pupil as always. Genevieve is an angel. For being such a young mother you have raised her with outstanding values." She looked at me over her glasses and I could feel disdain radiate from her. "Is this her father?"

"No!" she said instantly. "This is my friend Teddy."

"He comes over and plays with me and tells me stories and takes my apples even though stealing is bad." Genny explained sweetly.

"Tattler." I touched her nose and she giggled.

"He helps out with Genny while my mother is at work.

"He comes over to your house with no adults in the house." She was visibly taken aback.

"Have a good day Miss Walker." We walked up the street, each of us holding one of Genny's hands and swinging her up in the air.

"Why does she think that Genny is yours?"

"Because I told her she is. I try to tune out my sister anywhere I can. Besides why start the rumors all over again. I would rather Genny deal with a teenage mother than a runaway mother."

"Does the old bat know that would put you at twelve?"

"Maybe dinosaurs do math differently." She laughed as we swung Genny up in the air.

Entering the house Genny ran to the kitchen and I took her tiny backpack to her room while Reggie made snack. I looked around the room smiling to myself. It was pink and covered in drawings taped to the walls. Her little bed was pink and flowery. All her little dresses were hung up and she had dolls scattered on the floor, most unclothed.

I walked back out to the kitchen to see Genny with an apple wedge in one hand and a juice box in the other. She was talking a mile a minute about Robby eating the crayons during color time. I waited for her to take a breath before I turned my attention to Reggie who was eating an apple as well.

"What is with small children and stripping their dolls clothes off? My cousin does it too!"

"I never did that." She stated with dignity.

"Really?"

"Yeah. I took their heads off."

"Why doesn't that surprise me." She shrugged and cleaned up the snack.

I stayed until 6:00 when I had to leave for work, that and her mom came home at 6:30. Needless to say Mrs. Bricks didn't much care for my company. As for work I had snagged the graveyard shift at the gas station the week prior and was earning good money. Two bucks an hour and free sodas; the only problem was that I worked seven to three, Tuesday to Saturday. I was lucky I was pulling over time to grab the night of the dance off. I stood to leave and Genny who was sitting at my feet watching some educational cartoon jumped up and latched to my leg.

"Don't leave!" she wailed. I looked to Reggie who smiled and went back to her book. I picked Genny up and wrapped her legs around my waist, her arms were locked tight around my neck. "Don't leave, Teddy!"

"I have too."

"Why?" she demanded.

"Because Reggie makes me." Genny spun around and stuck her tongue out at Reggie.

"Way to throw me under the bus, Theo." She mumbled.

"But." I said trying to redeem myself. "If you behave yourself and are a good girl and Reggie and Grandma say you were then I will bring you back a present from work. But for now I believe it is dinner time then bath time."

"Okay. You can leave. I'll be good." Taking her cue Reggie closed the book and took Genny from me.

"Come on little one." She said gently. She looked up at me with those perfect eyes and I had a thought. If this were one of those afterschool sitcoms Reggie and I would have been together. I would have kissed her goodbye and left for work, knowing I would come back home to her and my daughter later that night. But instead of kissing her goodbye I just grabbed my jacket, waved goodbye, and left.

I clocked into work a little before seven and settled behind the counter for a long empty night. Surprise, surprise not too many people in Castle Rock required gas and cheap food at midnight. Paul, the middle aged man I worked with, was mopping in the back around one when I began to look around for a toy a four year old girl might like.

"Hey, Paul." I called to him. He stuck his head around an aisle. He was balding and his face resembled a pugs. Short, fat, and down on his luck, Paul was a good work buddy. Fun to talk to and easy to ignore.

"Yeah, Ted?"

"You got kids?"

"I did once. Three boys and a darling little girl who looked just like my second wife."

"What does a girl like?"

"What kinda girl?"

"She's four. Tough and girlie. She will wear a dress and kick your ass while in it. What should I get?"

"A shotgun." He laughed. "Your little girl is gonna bring home some boys later on."

"She's not mine. She is the girl of my friend."

"Friend?" he wiggled his eye brows and wrung out the mop water.

"Yeah."

"She a cute 'friend'?"

"She is gorgeous. Smart, funny, tough."

"She ain't no friend, boy." He said wisely.

"What? Yeah she is."

"You don't sigh dreamily bout your friends." He cackled. "Here." He tossed me a silly putty egg. "Amanda loved this shit." I nodded and ignored him for the next two hours, not being able to wait to present Genny with her gunk in a purple plastic egg.

****Well the dance is tomorrow night! What drama will unfold this Friday Halloween night??? Muh-nuh-nuh-nuuuuuh!!! Please leave me the much loved reviews!****