A/N: Whoa. I didn't think I was being that mean! But I guess a good old cliffhanger certainly lets you know who's reading when the mad reviews start coming in! :-) Well, hopefully I won't stress people out TOO much this time! Enjoy, and thanks for the feedback!

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Everyone was frozen in time, the tension hanging in the air between us all, practically blurring my vision. I struggled to see my brothers clearly, panic rising in me like a fever.

"We totally forgot…" Soda started.

"What? What did you forget? God, you're scaring me to death. What?"

"Your graduation," Darry said. "We just forgot about it. Why didn't you say something?"

"The state cares about my eighth grade graduation? They're upset at us about that?" Were they kidding? I was in trouble for skipping a stupid graduation that meant nothing? Seriously?

"What are you talking about? Who said anything about the state?" Now Darry sounded even more concerned.

"Guardian of Samantha Curtis?" That's how the state sends you stuff about me. I heard Soda read the address."

"It's not from the state, baby. It's from school. We missed your graduation. They had to mail us all your awards, we didn't even get to see you get them." Soda handed me the envelope and I pulled out what was sandwiched between cardboard: History Award, English Award, Foreign Language Award. I was not surprised that there was no Math Award. The other two things in the envelope were a Junior Honor Society certificate, and, last but not least, a Varsity Letter. There had never before been varsity letters awarded to eighth grade girls at our school; me, Anna, and the two other eighth graders on the basketball were the first.

I collapsed backwards on the couch with relief, practically yelling at them.

"Are you kidding me? You're stressing about my stupid graduation? God, you guys just practically gave me a heart attack, thinking we screwed something up with the state! You forgot about my graduation... big deal! I didn't even care about it!"

"It is a big deal," Darry said. "It was a big deal for the rest of us, and it should have been for you, too." He looked terribly guilt-ridden.

"It's dumb," I said. "It's not like I'm done with school, I'm just going to another building, right across campus."

"Scout, you won awards. You earned a letter, for God's sake. It is a big deal. You must know that, because you had to go to every single graduation or awards ceremony that any of the rest of us ever had."

He was right about that. Lord knows, I had been to every school or athletic related event that any brother had been involved in, because I was always too young to be left home alone.

"I didn't care about it, Darry. I didn't even want to go."

"Why? You have so much to be proud of. Why don't you want anyone to know about that? Mom and Dad would have been so proud, baby. I swear, it would kill them all over again to know that we completely missed this."

"That's why," I answered him softly.

"What's why?" Soda asked.

"Last year, I went to Pony's graduation with both of you, and Mom and Dad… I know how proud we all were of him… I just… I didn't want to think about it, this year, that they were gone. That they're not here this year, for me."

"Scout, you can't just ignore all of the important things in your life because Mom and Dad won't be there. I hate it, that you got cheated – and that they did, too, not getting to see you grow up and graduate. It isn't fair. And I know we can't take their place. But… God, we should have been there for this. They would have wanted you to go, Scout, to be proud of yourself, and all your hard work. Hell, you earned a letter! I didn't letter in football until my sophomore year! I can't believe you let us miss this. Do you really think we don't care?"

I should have figured the varsity letter would be a big deal to Darry. He definitely believed in the value of sports. I actually felt bad. I definitely hadn't thought they would be so upset about it.

Pony came wandering out of his bedroom, hearing all the commotion.

"What's going on?" he asked, realizing this discussion was a fairly serious one.

"We totally missed Scout's graduation," Soda said. "Why didn't you remind us, Pony?"

"To be honest… I forgot," he admitted, looking kind of surprised and sad himself. "I forget now that since she got put up last year, that school stuff happens for her the year after me, not two years apart, like our ages… how it used to be."

"It's okay, Pony," I said. " I guess… I didn't know you guys thought it was that important. I guess I figured if you thought it was a big deal you would have remembered it."

"I kinda forgot you got put up a year, too" Soda said. "I was thinking the same as Pony, that you'd have graduation two years after Pony, not the next year."

"It's okay, you guys, really. Don't feel bad about it. I'm not upset that I missed it."

"We'll make it up to you, I swear," Darry said. "We'll think of something."

"You don't have to."

"We want to. And look, I know we have a lot going on around here, but when stuff like this is going on, you have to tell us. We'll make time to be there. Mom and Dad always did for us, and Soda and I want to, for you, and Pony, too. Family comes first."

I had never thought about it before, but Darry was right. Dad always made time to be there for all our important games and events. Having four of us must have meant a lot of overtime to make up for all the work he missed being there for us. But he'd never complained about it.

"Okay, Darry. Now I know. I will. And... I'm sorry."

"Girl, you don't get to be sorry about this, this was our mess-up," Darry said, dead serious. "Everybody go get yourselves cleaned up, we're going out for lunch, in honor of Scout and all her awards."

"You don't have to, Darry."

"I insist," he said. "Call Ben, he can come, too."

I felt slightly guilty – eating out was an extravagance we rarely could afford - and I was pretty sure that we definitely couldn't afford it with Soda not working for a month, but the second I even hinted at a protest, Darry hushed me up.

"No arguments." His tone implied that his decision was final. "You earned it."

"Okay." I knew it was futile to argue with him when he set his mind to something.

So Ben and Two-Bit came over and we all went out - to Angelo's, at my request - so Anna could eat with us. Plus, I was buying Darry a little more Alison time, even though he was already taking her out that night and he'd agreed to let me go to the movies with Anna, as well.

At one point during lunch, Mr. Harvey asked about me not being at graduation. Darry made a joke about me finally managing to skip a day of school without him knowing, but I could tell it was killing him that he had missed it. It was another of those things that ate away at my heart, knowing I had unintentionally hurt his feelings by not letting him do something he felt that, as my guardian, he should have. I hated that he was second-guessing himself so often, when, in fact, he was doing such a good job of raising us. I squeezed his knee under the table and when he looked over at me, I tried to tell him without words that there really, truly were no hard feelings on my part.

After lunch, Two-Bit and Ben hung around at the house for a while, Ben shooting baskets outside with me, and Two-Bit taking full advantage of the opportunity to harass Darry about his date for the evening. When Ben headed back home, as the late afternoon sun made it just too hot for any more basketball, I could hear Two-Bit grating away at Darry as I came in the back door and poured a glass of water.

"You know, Darry, what the girls really like is when you tell them you like their shoes. Yup, that's a surefire free pass to second base, at least, every time." He looked up and saw me in the doorway.

"Oh… hey there, Scooter, your big brother and I were just talking about… baseball, y' know? How 'bout those …. Cowboys, huh?" He obviously reached for the first team name he could come up with, which I knew was a football team, not baseball. Darry sat in the armchair, shaking his head at him sitting there on the couch.

"Yeah, well, I think I better get goin', my mom's probably expectin' me." Two-Bit hobbled over to the door on his crutches.

"You're gonna walk, Two-Bit?" He only lived about a quarter of a mile away, but still, on crutches…? I knew it would take him forever.

"Yeah, I can use the exercise." That was funny. Two-Bit hated all exercise except football, and occasionally he indulged in a few minutes of shooting baskets with me and Ben. But walking around town definitely wasn't something he was fond of, especially in the heat.

"Cut the B.S., Two-Bit, you ain't walkin' anywhere." Darry grabbed his keys and headed out the door after him. "I'll be back in a few."

I could hear him lecturing Two-Bit on the way to the truck about being a little more aware of what ears might be listening in before he started in with his dirty talk. I guess Darry wasn't aware that the same kind of talk happened at the junior high all the time, though most of it was just that - talk. Although, Anna had been taking things pretty far with her latest crush, a sophomore football player whose older brother was on the boy's basketball team. I was sure I'd get to hear all about it that night, since she had told me at lunch that she had "things to tell me about when we were alone." Darry had eyed her suspiciously when he heard that, but seemed to have forgotten about it since.

While Darry was gone, Soda and I started dinner. It was so hot that we really had no desire to slave over the stove, so we ended up making tuna sandwiches. This was the one sandwich we all liked exactly the same way: toasted, with cheese on one side, lettuce on the other, and pickles on the side. It was the pickles that made the meal.

We all sat down to eat, even Darry, despite the fact that he was taking Alison out to dinner. I swear, my brothers were never full. They could eat ten meals a day and, yet, still, if given the chance, have room for more. I admit to enjoying a good meal, but I definitely was not the reason our food bills were astronomical and yet we still always seemed to be running out of everything.

The boys took great pleasure in taking up where Two-Bit had left off, telling Darry to make sure he brushed his teeth really well, since no girl wants to make out with a guy with tuna and pickle breath. I mostly held back. I just never felt quite right about teasing Darry, I figured he had enough to deal with without his pesky charges giving him a hard time about what seemed like one of the only non-stressful things he had going for him: namely, Alison.

I think he was relieved to be rid of the boys as we rode over to Anna's place. I have to admit, I kind of enjoyed the quiet too. Our house can get really loud sometimes, and you don't fully notice it until you finally get some quiet time.

Mr. Harvey sent us up the stairs and Alison met us at the door. She looked so pretty, and I wondered whether Darry would take Two-Bit's advice about her shoes. They were nice, but nothing all that special. I only had a second to think about it, though, because Anna already had me by the arm and was dragging me into her bedroom.

"Scout?" Darry called after me.

"Yeah?"

"Use your manners," he said, "and be good."

"I will," I replied.

Honestly, I had no intentions of being anything but good. Sometimes, though, as I would find out later, things just don't go the way you think they will.