After school, Abby followed Vern and Libby home.

"I smell cookies," Abby said excitedly. "Vern's mommy's baking! I want cookies! VERN, can I have some cookies?"

Vern put his arm around Abby to calm her down. "Libby, do you want to come in?"

She smiled. "Cookies make my tummy feel happy."

Once they entered Vern's house, a woman's voice called, "Vern? Are you home?"

"No, it's Abby, I murdered your son. I'm here to replace him. Surprise!"

"Vern, I need you to strip the sheets on your bed and put new ones on, Grandma's coming and she gets your room," his mother called, ignoring Abby.

Grumbling profanity and such under his breath, Vern climbed the stairs and went into the kitchen to get Abby and Libby some cookies. "Mom!" he yelled. "This is Libby, she lives next door! Say hi!"

"Hi, Libby, your brother's here," Mrs. Tessio said in a rush. "Grandma's going to be here any minute, so go do what I asked, Vern. Nice to meet you, Libby."

"I am but chopped liver," Abby sighed.

Vern looked sympathetically at Abby and Libby. "Sorry. I'd better start slaving. Jeannie! Come help me!"

"Stuck in the toilet again?" his nine-year-old sister shouted back.

"Shut up and come here!"

Vern's sister came up the stairs. "I was busy." She had a friend in tow.

"Your friend has to go home. You're helping your brother."

"Eww, that's my brother," Libby groaned. "How the hell did you manage to get someone to like you?"

Libby's brother cried, "You swore! I'm telling!"

She laughed and put an arm around his shoulder. "I love you, Jake."

"Don't touch me."

"Sorry," she said. "I forgot. No displays of affection in front of other people."

"Bye Libby. Bye Abby. Oh, Libby, do you want to meet at 7:00 tomorrow so we can walk to the bus together?"

"Right. SEVEN. Ha." Libby said goodbye to Vern's lovely family members and walked out the door. She asked Abby, "Want to visit the St. Peter family?"

Abby asked, "Do you have food?"

"We might have food."

"Then I would love to visit the St. Peter family."

Libby led Abby up to her room. So far she had some boxes in it and a mattress, along with her sister's stuff.

"My sister is probably in here. She's sick." Libby pushed her door open. "How's my precious little ray of sunshine doing?"

"I'm dying," Tabitha groaned. She looked up and saw Abby, burying her face in her pillow. "And you bring someone in my room when I look like I've been run over by a garbage truck."

Abby laughed. "I was wondering what that smell was."

"Leave it to Libby to befriend another idiot."

Libby smiled. "Tabitha gets bitchy when she's sick."

"My sister's always bitchy. They can be friends!"

"Tabitha, are you coming to school tomorrow?" Libby asked.

"If I'm not dead."

Libby flopped down on her mattress. Abby took a seat on the floor. "So what are the other Castle Rock people like?"

"The ones we ate with today?"

"No, I mean Vern's grandma."

Abby smiled. "Umm. Andie's my best friend. She's neat." She then laughed for awhile, causing Tabitha to groan. "Gordie is cute. I like him. But he's my brother's best friend and Chris is like 'No, you will stay away from the opposite sex.' And Vern's like...uh, well, he's Vern. Chris is my brother. He's nice and stuff. He's better than Delia anyway."

"Why?" Libby asked, laughing.

Abby paused, thinking for a moment. "She's evil. You've been warned. Let us see--whom am I forgetting… "

Libby waited for her to finish. When she didn't, she said, "What about Teddy?"

"Teddy's a jerk."

"You don't like him?"

Shrugging, Abby replied nonchalantly, "Chris and him used to be friends. And now, I don't know, Chris just seems to not like him anymore. And he's my big brother so I kinda trust him more than Teddy. Plus he's not so stable."

"He seemed nice. "

Abby shook her head. "Never mind." She continued, "He's not a bad person or anything." She got up and suggested, "Time to feed Abby!"

Tabitha groaned. "Get your sister some tomato juice and a bucket."

Libby collided with her brother Gage in the kitchen. "Dicksnacker."

"Don't touch the pizza in the fridge, it's mine."

Libby glared up at him, trying to be intimidating, which was hard with her 5 foot 4 and a half frame and his six foot one and a half frame. "Abby, help yourself to the pizza."

Abby clapped her hands. "Excellent! I was hankering for pepperoni."

"It's Hawaiian," Gage said, pouty.

"So now we're gonna get racist, huh?"

"Libby, your taste in friends never changes."

Libby didn't pay any attention to him as she poured a glass of tomato juice for Tabitha (careful not to let it touch her because it's corrosive), got the bucket their mom used for mopping the floor and then found some slices of pizza wrapped in Saran wrap. She handed them to Abby. Once they were back in her room, she handed Tabitha the tomato juice and dumped the bucket on the floor.

"Oh, could I use your phone?" Abby asked.

"The phone in here isn't hooked up yet. Is the phone in Mom's room hooked up?" Libby asked Tabitha.

"Well it keeps on ringing. Or maybe that's my head." Tabitha took a sip of her drink and grimaced. "I wonder how long that'll stay down."

"Thanks so much for thinking out loud," Libby said. She took Abby's arm and led her to her mom's room. "There's the phone, have a blast. I have to pee." She left Abby to do her business and went down the hall to the bathroom to deal with hers.

They both finished and met in the hallway. Abby explained, "My aunt said that I have to be home in a half hour because I've got chores."

"You live with your aunt?"

"Yep, me, Delia, Chris and our little brother Todd. Our mom died two years ago…um--and my dad isn't fit to be a single parent."

"Neither is my dad. That's why we moved here."

"I'll have to leave in about 10 minutes," Abby said, changing the subject and going to Libby's room. "You know what? I feel privileged to be eating your brother's pizza. He was a fine piece of man specimen."

Tabitha gagged. "I think I'll be throwing up again."

"What? He was cute."

Jake came in the room. "Hello, ladies."

"Hey, Pookie," Libby said. "What do you want?"

"I was annoying Gage and he told me to come and annoy you so I thought that might become great fun and now I'm here. Tabitha, you dead yet?" he asked conversationally, sitting on the edge of her mattress.

Tabitha looked up at him. "If I said yes, would you go away?"

"Probably not."

Abby asked, "What grade are you in, Jake?"

"Four. I'm in Jeannie's class. Are you in Libby's grade?"

"Yep and I'll probably be in grade nine for the next thirty-eight years. Tabitha!"

She gurgled to show she was still alive.

"Are you in grade 10?"

"Yes."

"That's good! All my other friends are in Grade 10. Except for Delia because she's the oldest and in grade 11 and whatnot, but I don't consider her a friend. They rest of them will adopt you quickly." She checked her watch. "I'd better start walking. Goodbye St. Peter family. See you in class tomorrow, Libby."