Author's note: Hope you all enjoy this chapter. :)
Annie had learned to read fully, and practiced on boxes and signs outside her window, and she used her skills to help Molly read. It was fun for them. Whenever Annie showed Molly a picture from the newspaper, Molly would say "I want to go there." Their favorite page included an advertisement for baby formula, and it showed a mother feeding her baby girl with her husband and other children by her side. It reminded them of what it would like to have a loving, caring family.
The orphans loved to draw, with Tessie taking a special interest in it. The orphans never got any paper to draw on though, and when they did Tessie always snatched it up, often upsetting the many other orphans.
One day when Annie and the older orphans were busy doing work, a very bored Molly was looking at Tessie's drawings. Tessie had copied off of the newspaper photographs, so there were silly drawings of President Hoover and of Walter Winchell, as well as the baby picture, as well as a drawing of the Chrysler Building. Molly never got to draw, so she looked around for something to write on. When she found it, it didn't matter if there were words on it, she just went ahead.
When Kate, Duffy, Pepper and Annie came back from cleaning the kitchen, Molly rushed over to show them what she had drawn.
Pepper screamed as she saw it, "MOLLY! Oh my gosh what an idiot. You are such a stupid girl look at what you did! You drew all over my newspaper. Every last page!" The precious newspaper that she had secured for her friends was covered in doodles.
"Molly we use that to teach you girls to read! Now you've ruined it because we can't read over your drawings." Annie scolded Molly.
Molly's reaction to their response was ordinary. She started to bawl, loudly.
"I thought you'd like it. I'm so sorry!" she said in between cries.
To comfort Molly, Annie changed her disposition and held Molly in her hands.
"Molly, I do like them. We forgive you, Molly, don't cry. Please don't cry, we're sorry. We will find another way to teach you girls to read. It's ok don't cry." Annie said to Molly.
Because of Molly's foolishness, from then on the orphans could not learn to read until they found another paper.
This was one of many incidents of conflict each day between the orphans. It was typical for Molly to make a mistake or do something stupid, like wet the bed, and then have Pepper harass her for it. Sometimes people would jump to Molly's defense, usually Annie, but occasionally Kate, Duffy or July. Often a fight might break out that had to be broken up. The younger orphans were always the scrappiest, and would get quickly beaten down by Pepper, but sometimes Kate or Annie might join in and then Pepper would have to back down. Nobody ever hurt Tessie and Molly, and If Miss Hannigan ever found anyone fighting, she would give them all spankings.
But Molly and Pepper weren't the only ones who caused problems. Annie was notorious for getting on people's nerves by acting somewhat pompous or arrogant because she talked about how she had parents that would come and get her. Tessie sometimes said her catchphrase "Oh my goodness!" a little too loud and a little too much and would get into mood swings where she would get very sad or angry. July would do silly things like Molly would that would get others in trouble. Kate sometimes couldn't take any more of the younger orphans and got angry with them, but this was very rare. Duffy was always doing reckless things like pranks and jokes that would get everyone reprimanded.
All of these fights were only because the orphans were tough, and they had to stick up for each other to get by. They still were friends and they stayed together because they didn't have anyone else in the world who would.