Jennifer POV

I tried to focus on my work as my thoughts drifted between thinking about the girls, my family, and the gang. I pictured my brother, remembering all the fun times we were planning for the summer, and now it's almost over.

"Are you all right, Jennifer?" Ethel appeared behind me and put her hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah. I just miss my brother." I sighed. My eyes went huge as soon as I realized what I said.

"I thought you only had a sister." Shit. She studied my face. "You're not from around here." She said slowly.

"Yeah. I'm from Chicago." I said, my voice starting to stutter. Double shit.

"No you're not."

"Of course I am." I said, trying to control my voice. "Born and raised in the Motor City all my life."

"Chicago is the Windy City dearie." TRIPLE SHIT.

"All right fine." I sighed, knowing I was caught in my lie.

"It's alright Jennifer. I knew the moment you stepped into my store." I could almost see the color of my face drain as she said that.

"Am I really that bad at lying?" I asked, my voice shaking. If Ethel knew what about the boys? What about Sodapop?

"No."

"Then, what do you know?"

"You're Jennifer Wallace. Born on July 18 in 1997. You do not have abusive parents and Angelina is not your sister. While you like to think of Angelina as your sister, you do have a younger brother and very caring parents. "

"H-How did you know that?"

"Because I brought you here."

"You did what?" I was completely overwhelmed and sat down on a stool.

"You said you wished you lived in the sixties, so here you are."

"But... Why?" My mind had stopped functioning as Ethel stood there staring at me.

"Because I thought you'd be happier here." I took a moment to digest this.

"So let me get this straight, you, a random stranger, teleported a group of teenaged girls away from their family and friends because you thought we would be happier here?" Ethel nodded her head. I sighed in exasperation. I could have talked to her this whole time and she would have helped me?!

"You are happy here though." Ethel said, more as a statement that a question. I had to think of how to respond.

"I'm not sure happy would be the word, more like we just got used to our surroundings. I mean, Angelina never wanted to be here from the start." I rubbed my forehead.

"But she's grown to this place quite well. I knew her and Johnny would get close." I nodded, thinking about how happy she is now that she and Johnny were together.

"But," I thought again, "Rachel is going to have to start school here. She's a smart girl and will know things from the future that people of this time can only dream about."

"She'll pull through. You said yourself, people dream of the 21st century and all the things they will have. They will think she's just dreaming too."

"What about me? I had plans for my future, and because of sexism, I won't be able to achieve them in this time."

"You will be just fine. There are plenty of things you can do in this time that your parents would have never let you do. Like get a cosmetology license." I smiled at the thought of essentially being a beauty guru, something my parents definitely would have never let me do. "And besides, you will eventually just want to be a stay at home mom no matter what time era you're in, so does it completely matter what job you have until then?"

I was gobsmacked as my mind attempted to think past her arguments. I tried to think of something for Emma but I couldn't. She is completely neutral about everything, and her feelings about living in the sixties pretty much matched living in our own time, indifferent.

"Okay, well even if all that is true, what about going home? We all miss our families."

"I can send you girls home, but if some of you stay and some of you go, you'll never see each other again."

"All right." I sighed, aware of the tough choices ahead of me. "We'll come back in a week with our final decision."