When I got inside the house, I headed straight upstairs. Guthrie was out of the shower by that point and so I quickly showered and brushed my teeth. I was still tearful from my interaction with Adam. It wasn't so much that he had swatted me- the swats had hurt at the time, but I couldn't even feel anything now and I knew that Adam had been very lenient with me, all things considered. It was more that I felt like he was still angry at me. It doesn't bother me so much now, but when I was kid, I hated to go to bed on an argument.

Guthrie was playing with his lego models on the floor when I came into our room after my shower. He looked up at me in interest.

"How come you were so upset earlier?" he said to me.

I ignored his question and climbed into bed, picking up my book from my nightstand to read while we waited for Adam.

"Heidi! What's up?" Guthrie said, more insistently.

I looked at Guthrie moodily. "Nothing."

"Come on, Heidi! Tell me!"

"I'll tell you tomorrow. I'm tired now."

Guthrie rolled his eyes at me. "Suit yourself," he said and went back to playing with his lego models.

It wasn't that I didn't want to talk to Guthrie, but I was still trying to work out for myself what had happened earlier- how I had gone from having a perfectly fun time with Olivia, Guthrie and Michael to ending up yelling at Adam and being punished for it. I really hoped Adam would let me go to San Francisco with Olivia and her family, but from the way he was talking, it didn't seem all that likely. I knew from experience that Adam saying "We'll see", more often than not ended up as a no. And bringing up that damn class! I'm not as stubborn as my brothers in certain situations but I knew for sure that Adam would have a real job on his hands getting me to go there.

I started reading my book to myself silently while I cuddled Rocket to me. My belly was starting to hurt. Cramp sort of, so I lay down on my side and it was only a few minutes later when I heard Adam's bootsteps on the stairs and then he came into our room.

"C'mon, Guth, into bed," he said, seeing Guthrie playing on the floor.

Guthrie obediently got up to put his models on our dresser although he tried to get into bed without picking up the remaining blocks which were on the floor.

"Uh uh, tidy up the mess," Adam said, pointing to the blocks. "I'm not jabbin' my foot again by steppin' on another block."

Guthrie sighed, but he did what was he was told.

It was my turn to be sat next to while Adam was reading that evening, but I didn't know if he would do it because he had seemed still mad at me outside, even after I had apologised. But now, he looked down at me and smiled.

"Scoot over," he said, making a shoo like gesture.

I wriggled over a bit so Adam could have some room to sit down, but I didn't sit up and snuggle into him like I usually would. Adam frowned in concern.

"You ok, kiddo?"

"My belly hurts a bit," I told him.

Adam felt my forehead. "You don't feel warm. Do you feel sick?"

"No…"

"Hmm…," said Adam. "You think maybe your bellyache might be to do with what happened earlier?

"Maybe…"

"What happened earlier?" Guthrie said.

We both ignored him and then I said quietly to Adam, "Are you still mad at me?"

Adam smoothed my hair back. "No, baby."

"Okay."

"Do you think a hot water bottle might make you feel better?" he asked me.

I nodded. "Uh huh." I really loved a hot water bottle. Especially in winter.

"Alright. I'll go make one," he said.

As he was leaving the room, Guthrie made as if to get out of bed to go and play again with his models. Adam spun around as though he had eyes in the back of his head.

"No way, Guth. Stay in bed- I won't be long," he said.

"But it's boring just lying in bed!" Guthrie complained.

"I don't care. Just stay there!" Adam said, and then he was gone.

Guthrie huffed but got back into bed. He turned to his side to face me.

"What was Adam talking about, with you and him earlier?" he persisted.

Honestly, sometimes Guthrie was like a dog with a bone. I quickly gave him a run down of the evening's event.

"That's too bad," Guthrie said, when I got to the part about the class.

"Yea…," I said, glumly, feeling like I wanted to cry again.

"What happened with Michael tonight?" I asked Guthrie then, to change the subject away from me.

"What do you mean?"

"He totally lost it when he spilled a glass of milk!"

"Oh yea… well that was a bit weird."

"Why do you think he acted like that?"

"I dunno…"

The two of us continued to speculate about what could have caused Michael to react that way when Adam returned with my hot water bottle which he handed to me.

"Adam, why do you think Michael was so upset earlier when he spilled his milk?" Guthrie asked.

Adam settled back on my bed and this time, I sat up and then snuggled into him. I was already feeling better.

"I dunno, but whatever it is, I think Michael could go with a good friend about now, so you two make sure you're really nice to him, ok?"

"We will be," Guthrie said. "Do you think his mama or daddy gets mad if he spills his drink though?"

"I really don't know, Guth. Now hush up, otherwise there won't be any time to read."

Adam opened the book. "Where were we…?"

/

Olivia asked me first thing in the morning at school the next day if Adam had made a decision yet regarding San Francisco. I told her what had happened the night before, leaving out the part about Adam punishing me.

"That's so unfair!" Olivia said, when I told her about Adam saying something about the class. We were still outside before the morning bell rang and were just hanging out in the playground.

"I know," I said, blowing on my hands to keep them warm as it was a bit chilly that morning. "I'm never going to speak to Adam again if he makes me go to that stupid class."

Olivia giggled. "That's a bit dramatic."

"I mean it!" I said, feeling irritated. "And I don't know why he won't just say yes to me coming to San Francisco with your family. He always acts like everything I want to do is a huge deal."

The first bell signalling that we had to go inside rang then. Olivia and I started moving towards the front door of the school.

"Maybe it would help if my mom called and spoke to him?" Olivia said.

I considered for a moment. "It might… do you think your mom would mind?"

"Nah. She loves you. I'll ask her when I get home."

I felt a bit more hopeful then.

/

I had thought that Daniel would bring his band friends home again after school, but he was at home alone, doing his chores when Guthrie and I got home. I asked him about it, but he was a bit evasive about the answer.

"We're just taking a break today," he told me.

I was determined to lock down the coupons for Brian's birthday present as I wanted to get a head start on the artwork for each one so I asked Daniel if we could have a family meeting with the five of us without Adam and Brian. He seemed reluctant.

"Can't we do it at the weekend?"

"But then I have no time to make the coupons pretty!"

Daniel laughed. "I hardly think Brian's going to care if his birthday present is brightly coloured with pink hearts all over it."

Daniel must have seen my face fall though, because he said then, "But I'm sure he's gonna love the idea. Why don't you tell the others and we can meet before supper."

I gave him a pleading look. "Can't you do it?

"Why?"

"Because the others won't come if I ask them. Except maybe Guthrie. They'll only come if you ask them."

This was true. Because of the natural order of things in our family, I hardly had any power with my big brothers. Of course, I knew they loved me, and they always protected me, and if I really needed them I knew they'd be there for me. But I didn't have much sway with them to call a family meeting or anything. Now, talking to Daniel, I could see that he wanted to argue with me about it further.

"Pleeasssee, Daniel. You'll be my favourite brother!"

Daniel narrowed his eyes. "I thought I was already your favourite brother."

I giggled. "Oh well, you are. But if you do this, you'll be my favourite brother for ever and ever and ever."

Daniel rolled his eyes. "Fine!" he said. "But we have to make it snappy. I've got stuff to do."

I hugged him round the waist. "Thanks, Danny."

/

As Daniel promised, he rounded the others up and we met, the five of us, in the barn in the early evening before supper. Evan was in a particularly grumpy mood because Daniel had dragged him away from working with his precious Diablo. He was the last one in the barn and it was only because Daniel had demanded he be there. The rest of us were scattered around the barn, sitting in a sort of semi-circle on various hay bales.

"Let's make this quick," he said.

"You could be nicer about it, Ev!" I said huffily- he was irritating me, "it's for Brian's birthday after all."

"I just don't know what there is to talk about!" he grumbled, flopping down on one the hay bales.

"We need to decide on what the coupons will say," Ford said, sounding short then with Evan. I smiled at him gratefully.

"Why can't they just say 'I owe U,' Evan said.

"I owe U for what though?" said Guthrie.

Evan shrugged and there was a brief moment of silence while we all thought about it.

Daniel stood up then. "Why don't we all think of two things we can from Brian's chores- something realistic that we can do. So for example, Evan and Ford, us three can offer to do some of his night chores, and then Heidi and Guthrie- you two can offer to do some things instead the house.

"Hey! I can do Brian's night chores too!" Guthrie protested.

The other three chuckled at him.

"Okay, little brother!" Daniel said to Guthrie, with an indulgent smile.

"I can!" said Guthrie, going red in the face.

In truth, Guthrie couldn't have managed Brian's night chores. There was a lot of heavy lifting and fact was that Guthrie and I were just too little.

"Chill out, little brother," Evan said then, grabbing Guthrie in a headlock and rubbing Guthrie's head with his knuckles. I knew Guthrie hated that- he struggled to get loose from Evan's grip.

The five us talked a while longer hashing out what we would offer to Brian on the vouchers. I had to admit that it had seemed a lot simpler when we had been talking about the initial ideas. Eventually, after a lot of going back and forward, we decided that Daniel would offer to do night chores one day, and one day of laundry, Evan would offer to do weekend morning chores and one day of Brian's cleaning duties in the house, Ford would offer to do weekend evening chores and one day of taking over Brian's cooking duties- we all groaned at that. Ford liked to cook but he was terrible at it. Guthrie and I were limited in what we could offer as we were still so young so we settled on Brian's dish duties and offered to polish his boots. Polished boots were very important to Brian. I also had one extra idea which I was going to slip into the booklet, as I was going to be the one making and decorating the vouchers.

We were just about done talking about it when we heard a high-pitched whistle coming from the direction of the house and then predictably Brian's voice, calling us to supper. Daniel opened the barn door and we all filed out and up to the house. Brian looked at us all suspiciously as we entered the house.

"What was goin' on down there?" he said, as Guthrie and I slipped past him through the front door.

I turned to look at Brian with wide, innocent eyes. "Nothing, Bri."

Brian's eyes narrowed. "Why do I not believe you?" he said, studying me closely.

I gave him a dimpled smile. "It's nothing to worry about. Cross my heart and hope to die." I quickly ran upstairs to wash up for supper before he could say anything else.

/

We had all just sat down to eat when the phone rang.

"I'll get it!" Ford said, springing up. I thought that maybe he thought it was Crane who sometimes called around this time. I knew how much all of us were looking forward to seeing him the following week for Thanksgiving break. I felt a skip of excitement in my chest every time I thought about it.

Ford came back to the table about of minutes later.

"Adam, it's for you."

Adam frowned. "Who is it?"

Ford slipped back into his seat. "I dunno. Some lady."

Daniel whistled and wiggled his eyebrows at Adam. "Some lady, huh?" he said suggestively.

Brian laughed. Adam rolled his eyes and got up out of his seat and headed towards the living room through the mud room at the back, lightly clipping Daniel's head on his way.

He was away for a good ten minutes and when he came back to the table, he looked a bit irritated.

"I hope you vultures left some food for me," he said, sitting back down at his place at the table.

"Better get in fast," Brian said, passing Adam the dish of chicken casserole.

Adam spooned a generous helping onto his plate.

"Who was on the phone?" I asked him.

He acted like he hadn't heard me and started eating his supper.

"Adam!" I said more insistently, "Who called?"

Adam sighed. "It doesn't matter, Heidi. Just eat your supper."