Two-Bit's POV

We sat down at a picnic table and had a lunch of sandwhiches, chips and soda. When we were done eating, Brianna opened her gifts which were mostly new clothes and a few new toys. Steve bought her a toy garage and a new toy car to go with it. I swiped her a stuffed dog from the store because I didn't want to risk getting caught carrying a doll around. Besides, Brianna doesn't seem interested in dolls. She likes playing with toy cars and sometimes her stuffed animals.

"See, now you can work at a garage, too," Soda was telling Brianna as she looked at the toy garage Steve gave to her. He turned a little handle on it. "Look, you can even make the car go up and down so you can fix it."

"We should probably look at the other animals," Darry commented.

"Yeah, " Ponyboy agreed. He helped Darry clean up and soon we were on our way to look at the animals again. Our first stop was to look at the monkeys and other similar animals.

"Brianna, who do they remind you of?" Steve asked Brianna while pointing at me.

Brianna laughed while I tried to look like I was upset by Steve's comparing me to a monkey. But even I had to laugh as we watched the monkeys play on the ropes the zoo had tied up in their display.

Soda's POV

We went to see the lions and the tigers next. Brianna really seemed to enjoy watching them even though most of them were laying in the sun, sleeping.

"Nice kitties," Brianna said.

"Yes," I told her. "nice big kitties."

One of the lions yawned, showing his big teeth before stetching and moving to a shady spot under a tree.

"A nap does sound good," Darry commented as we watched the tigers.

"No, having a good time on my daughter's birthday sounds good," I replied and Darry grinned at me.

We continued to the penguins and watched them swim around a little before we went to look at the reptiles. Brianna didn't seem too thrilled with the reptiles and spent most of the time hiding behind me.

"They're not scary," I told her as I picked her up. "See, they're all behind glass and can't get you."

"They look scary," Brianna said softly.

"Do you think we'd let anything happen to you?" I asked.

Brianna shook her head.

"We'll go look at the other animals now, okay?" I said and for the next two hours, we continued to look at the animals before going home to have some chocolate cake and ice cream.

Ponyboy's POV

While Darry handed out pieces of cake, I ran outside to check the mail. It was mostly bills and your typical junk mail, but there was a big envelope addressed to me.

"Hey, I have something here," I said when I walked inside the house.

"Well, open it," Darry told me.

I opened the envelope and read the letter inside it. "It's from the university in Oklahoma City stating that I've been accepted on full English and athletic scholarships. Darry, they're saying that we don't have to spend any money to send me to college."

"And that's where you wanted to go, right?" Two-Bit asked.

I nodded, "Yeah, I wanted to stay close to home. But still be far enough away to be on my own."

Darry grinned at me. "That's great news, little buddy."

Soda nodded in agreement as he handed me my piece of cake. "We're all happy for you, Pony."

"Hey, you deserve credit, too, Soda," I told him. "You're the one who decided to go back to school and now you'll be graduating with me."

Soda grinned. "And I'm glad that I get to graduate right behind the one who never let me give up. If it weren't for you or having Brianna, I'd probably still be a high school drop out."

"But, you're not and I'm proud to know that my two younger brothers are going to be graduating in a few months," Darry said.

Brianna walked up to Steve with the toy car he gave to her. "Uncle Steve, can you open this?"

Steve took the car and removed it from it's package before handing it back to Brianna who took his hand and led him to the middle of the living room where she had put the toy garage.

Steve's POV

"Do you want me to show you how this works?" I asked her.

Brianna nodded and watched as I pushed the car inside the garage and turned the handle making the car go up. Then I pushed the car until it rolled down a ramp that was on the side of the garage.

"You're garage doesn't have that," Brianna said, pointing to the ramp.

"You're right, it doesn't." I agreed.

"Why?" Brianna asked.

"I don't know," I told her as Soda joined us.

"Do you like your new toys?" Soda asked her.

"Yes," Brianna replied as she pushed the toy car into the garage like I did. She laughed when it went down the ramp a few seconds later. She played with the car and garage for a while before deciding to play with the Play-Doh that Pony had got for her. I already knew that Darry wasn't too thrilled with the idea of Play-Doh getting all over the house, but he also knew that Brianna was old enough to have fun playing with it.

Ponyboy even got out some cookie cutters for Brianna to use n the Play-Doh. "She's goingto be an artist when she grows up."

Soda shook his head. "Nah, she's going to own her own business."

"She could be anything," Darry said. "She's a smart little girl. I'll bet she'll even skip a grade when she's in school, like Pony did."

We all watched Brianna as she played. Darry was right about her being smart and I knew that was something that Soda was concerned about when she first came into his life. But, she seemed to be a fast learner. Soda always told me about the new things that she was learning.

"Can you make an animal from the zoo?" Two-Bit asked Brianna.

Brianna shook her head.

"Why not?" Two-Bit asked.

"I don't want to," Brianna told him. "I want to cut out shapes."

For the next half hour, Brianna cut shapes out of the Play-Doh and Soda told her what each shape was or sometimes she would tell him. Soda even told her the colors of the Play-Doh, since Pony had got her three different colors to play with.

"You should enroll her for preschool in the fall," Darry told Soda.

"Darry, we can't afford to put her in preschool," Soda replied.

"Well, you can at least think about it," Darry said. "She's already learning the stuff anyway. And Pony won't be here to watch her in the fall because he'll be away at college."

"I'll think about it," Soda said as he helped Brianna put the Play-Doh away. "Come help me make dinner, okay?"

Brianna followed him to the kitchen where they made dinner while the rest of us sat around and watched the television.