The next morning Pony was relieved when I confirmed that I had found a day care center for Katherine. After breakfast he went right back to bed. I was busy on the phone while everyone was eating. I needed to get in touch with some sort of lawyer about Katherine and gain legal custody of her just in case. I'd left a message with some secretary at the law firm. It was the same place we got the lawyer for when we all had to go to court about Pony and Soda staying with me after our parents died. It was also the same one for that whole deal we had with Ponyboy and Johnny and the killing of that soc. Soda, Steve, Katherine, and me all left at long last. I dropped Katherine off. She was awful upset about being left there and I hated to see her like that. You can't blame the poor little thing though. She hadn't seen her mother in several days and she hardly knew me and that was bad enough. Then getting handed over to a complete stranger probably didn't help her feel any better. The women there said she'd be all-right and that she'd take care of her, so I left before I had to hear her cry anymore.

"C'mon, hurry up." Soda said, when I got back in the truck. "We ain't got all day."

"I'm aware of the time." I said, annoyed and pulled back out onto the street to drop Soda and Steve off at the DX.

I picked Katherine up at five. When she saw me she squealed like she had that day she had for Brooke. That made me feel kind of good. After I had signed her out we went home to a lovely mess. "Ponyboy, what in the world happened to this house?" I demanded of my youngest brother, who was sitting in front of the TV and drinking a coke.

"I had a few friends from school over."

"Oh yeah? Whatever happened to getting permission?"

"You were busy all morning. I didn't get a chance to ask you anything. Besides I didn't think you'd mind all that much. It ain't like I brought fifty people over here and totally trashed the place."

"It looks pretty 'trashed' to me." I said, moving an empty bottle out of the way with my foot. "Clean it up." He sighed, stood, and got to work. I set Katherine down and put a few toys in front of her, hoping that she'd give me at least twenty minutes to collect myself after that long day. "Where's Soda?" I asked.

"He's with Amanda of course." Awe yes, the current love interest.

"What do you mean of course?"

"You guys had like a five minute discussion about this at breakfast." Pony said.

"What discussion?" I asked, completely blanking out.

Pony sighed. "They're going to some party at her friends or something. I didn't catch all the details. By the way, how come Soda gets an extension on his curfew and I don't get one on mine?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"He said he'd be home around two and you said 'fine.' "

"I what?!" Ponyboy was looking at me strangely. "I did not tell him that he could be out till two."

"Yes you did. You were waiting on hold on the phone and you two were talking about the whole thing and you told him he could."

I searched my brain trying to remember that. I was sort of beginning too. I sighed. I had so much on my mind lately that I was forgetting about all those small yet important things. "Well I didn't mean to say fine. I just wasn't thinking at the moment and he knew it too. That's why he chose to ask then."

"Well there ain't much you can do about it now." Pony laughed.

"It's not funny. I don't even know where he's gonna be."

"I already told you, some party that a friend of Amanda's is having. Her parents are in Europe." Like that was any comfort! I used to not worry about where Soda was as much because I didn't have any reason to but then he gave me reason. That's a different story though. "Um, Dar?"

"What?" I asked, exasperated.

"How are we gonna play poker if Katherine eats all the cards?"

"Huh?" I turned around to find that she had found a deck of cards, opened them, and half of them were now soggy and had bite marks on them. "Oh Katherine, don't eat that." I said and bent down to her level to take several torn pieces out of her mouth. "Ain't you done teething at one and a half?" I asked, picking her up. "Ponyboy, did anyone call today, asking to talk to me."

"Yeah, this lawyer or something called and asked if you were around."

"What'd you say?"

"I told him you weren't so he asked me when he could reach you."

"Well then what'd you tell him?" I asked, impatient.

"I told him I didn't know."

"Pony." I groaned. "It's important that I get in touch with him. I'm trying to figure out what I need to do to gain custody of Katherine."

"Well I didn't know what the best time would be to 'reach you' so to speak."

"Tomorrow if he calls give him my work number, ok? I really need to talk to him." Pony nodded. I sighed. I had so much stuff to figure out and I didn't even know where to start. I put Katherine on the couch and bent down to pick up the pieces of cards that she'd chewed up. I then set out to make dinner. She was obviously hungry if she was eating paper. After dishes and putting Katherine to bed I flopped down in a chair and picked up the paper. Pony was stretched out on the couch, reading.

"Ponyboy, bed in fifteen." I said.

"Yeah, ok." He mumbled, studying his novel. I guess I fell asleep because the next thing I knew it was almost completely dark in the living room and someone was walking through the front door.

"Dar? What you doing?" He asked.

I rubbed my eyes. "Waiting up for you or at least attempting to." I yawned. "It's a bit to late for you to be getting in." I said.

"Well, you said I-"

"I didn't even hear you ask me."

"That ain't my fault." Soda said.

"You knew I wasn't paying attention." I said sternly.

"Oh c'mon, Darry. I told you I'd be at a party with Amanda and that I'd be out till two. You said that was fine."

"That's because I hardly heard you and you know it. Why would you ask if you could be out till two anyways?"

Soda grinned. "Cuz you weren't listening."

I rolled my eyes. "That's what I've been saying. C'mon lets get to bed. We gotta get up early tomorrow."