A/N: Thanks, jduke and IlovethemDukeboys (aka Jordyn) for reviewing, I really appreciated it, guys. :) Anywho, here's the fourth chapter, enjoy!
CHAPTER FOUR
SUMMER, ENTERING FALL 1973
Thirteen year old Bo whooped and hollered as he rode shotgun in Luke's first car; Luke had just gotten his license not too long before and had been working odd jobs around town to earn the money to get his own car. He had bought it from a young shadetree mechanic called Cooter Davenport whom he'd met in his freshman year of high school before Cooter quit going into his junior year. He and Cooter found that they had a common love for cars, and although Cooter was noticeably wilder and crazier than Luke, they formed a friendship. Soon after, Nathan met him as well and they seemed to be hanging out on a daily basis.
At the beginning of the summer, though, Bo was bummed out and moping a lot because Becky had to go to her grandmother and aunt Nancy's in Atlanta for the summer. Emily had felt that it would be best for her to go there for a little while; she had nothing against the Duke boys, but she thought it best that Becky spend some time away from Bo. After all, they'd seemed joined at the hip ever since they'd met.
Luke knew that his best friend not being a walk away would be hard on Bo for awhile, but he figured when he got his license, they could go riding around Hazzard and hang out with Nathan and Cooter at his apartment above Old Man Helton's garage where he was an apprentice, of sorts.
Old Man Helton was the owner of Hazzard Garage and had no one to leave the business to, so when Cooter came along interested in helping out, he seemed to have adopted him as a grandson or something. He was the only man that Cooter showed much respect for at all, which was saying a lot considering how Cooter was.
The summer with the guys had seemed to help Bo out a lot, for he enjoyed going out riding with his cousin and "Crazy" Cooter Davenport. But at the same time, he wished that Becky could have been there to enjoy it all with him, and he knew that she would have. She would have truly felt like an outlaw the one time that Sherrif Rosco Coltrane tried to trap them in some phony speed trap and they outran him.
Enos had started following the Sherrif everywhere that he went, wanting to really become a man of the law. But Rosco had changed a lot since they were all kids. He had become a bit more hateful and scheming since he didn't get his pension, which meant that Enos had really become a pain in his rear, but he never took the Sherrif's word seriously enough to turn him off of wanting his career in Law Enforcement.
After all day of driving, Luke pulled them up into the front yard, doing a donut before completely stopping. They climbed out of the car and not but two seconds later heard happy cries.
"Bo! Luke!"
The two boys looked up to find a tall, slender brunette running toward them; it took them a moment to realize who it was, for she didn't look quite the same as they had remembered her. Luke had to put Bo's slack jaw back in place to snap him out of the look he'd gotten.
"Becky!" Bo called back as she ran up to them.
She jumped happily into his outstretched arms for a seemingly never-ending hug, he spinning her around just a little and picking her feet up off the ground. He put her down and had his arms around her for a moment too long, but she didn't notice, she was too happy to be home to notice anything, especially the stares Bo was giving her and the look she was getting from Luke as Nathan came up from behind.
"Ooh, it's so good to SEE you guys!" she squealed, going over to Luke and hugging him around the neck next.
Luke chuckled as he hugged her back, "Welcome home, Becky; how'd this summer treat ya?"
She pulled back from his hug long enough to roll her eyes, "Well I admit, it was nice seein' Aunt Nancy and Grammy again, but other than that, it was plum boring... Daisy!"
Daisy had come running out of the house when she saw that Becky was home and the two girls hugged, Daisy absolutely gushing over her.
"Oh sugar, you look lovely! You're even wearin' makeup, look at you!"
It was true, the summer had been good to her in more ways than one, although she wasn't really thinking about that. Her jeans and shirts were nicely filling out, and her aunt Nancy had insisted in putting some makeup on her to see how it looked. She was amazed when she looked in the mirror and saw how pretty she could actually be. Of course she didn't go as overboard with silly things like blush and eyeshadow like her aunt did, so she just stuck with basic eyeliner, mascara, and lip gloss.
She blushed, "I really look okay?"
"Sure you do, honey!" Daisy then turned her back to the guys, "Fellas, doesn't she look good?"
Bo and Luke looked over her way; Luke smiled and, seemingly in behalf of himself and Bo, replied, "She looks fine, Daisy," with almost a slight blush at being asked such a question about her, although she did look very pretty.
Jessie then came out to see what all the fuss was about, but then saw Becky standing with Daisy, "Well, hello there, Becky!"
"Uncle Jessie!" she exclaimed affectionately, running up to him and letting him envelope her in a bear hug.
When she pulled away, he got a good look at her, "Well lookie what we got here; our Becky's becomin' a young lady!"
She only blushed and smiled a little; she didn't want to be thought of as a precious doll, she just wanted to be Becky.
After talking to Daisy, Jessie, Nathan, and Luke for a little bit, she and Bo were left alone to talk amongst themselves.
They walked over to the old tire swing and Becky settled down in it; Bo settled down on the ground in front of her. She took a deep breath and sighed in contentment, "It's so good to be back home again... you really have no idea how much I missed you guys all summer."
Bo looked up at her, "What all did you do in capitol city?"
"Not much of anything, really. Aunt Nancy took me shopping and tried to get me to buy a dress or somethin', but I didn't want a dress," Becky rolled her eyes, "it took awhile to finally convince her that a pair of jeans and a nice shirt would be nice. And a pair of boots," she grinned as she pulled slightly up on one of her pant legs to show a pair of boots she didn't have before.
Bo laughed at some of the stories she told about her aunt and grandmother. And when she talked about how bored she had been most of the time, he couldn't help but feel bad for her.
"So, what'd you an' Luke do all summer? I notice he's drivin' now," Becky observed.
Bo got up and pushed her in the swing as he started telling her the many tales of himself, Luke, Nathan, and the newest member to their enteurage, Cooter. How they would go driving up and down the old dirt roads, play games of hide and seek with their cars in the old junkyard, and about their first time running from the law.
It had been a day like most others of their summer so far; Bo, Nathan, and Luke had driven over to Cooter's to get him and go driving on the backroads. But soon as they got on one of the backroads and got Luke's tires making miniature dust clouds, Sherrif Rosco Coltrane pulled out of nowhere with his sirens and lights on, chasing Luke down and intending to give him a ticket.
"Uh oh, we got ol' Rosco on us," Cooter, dressed in tattered jeans, a sleeveless shirt, and an old, oily, beat-up ballcap piped up from the back seat.
"I ain't even doin' 35, what's his problem?" Luke wondered aloud, about to pull over, but Cooter's hand on his shoulder stopped him.
"You crazy, man, you ain't doin' nothin' wrong! Lose the ol' geezer!" Cooter hooted with laughter.
"What! But we gotta pull over, Cooter!" Nathan protested.
"Not when y'ain't done nothin' wrong! Now put the pedal to the metal and give him a REAL reason to chase ya!" Cooter laughed insanely once again. Bo then understood exactly why he was called "Crazy" Cooter.
So Luke stepped on the gas and intended to lose Sherrif Coltrane; but what he didn't realize was that straight ahead was a two-foot dropoff and a few foot wide stream leading through the creek. So when he came up on it too fast to react, he knew he would just have to wing it. With the speed he had been going, though, he found they easily jumped the stream, which of course Rosco didn't, and the chase ended then and there.
Cooter hooted from the back and laughed, and Bo looked up to his older cousin even more than he ever had before.
"Luke, that was boss!" Nathan remarked.
"Of course! He's a Duke!" Cooter howled.
Bo whooped and "yeehawed" as Luke sat back, listening to the others and blushing; he had discovered he could do that on accident. This made him wonder what exactly else he could do in a car. He intended to find out someday.
When Bo finished telling Becky all about it, she had stopped swinging by now and just let her feet dangle above the ground. He grinned at her when he saw the look of total envy on her face.
"Dang it, Bo, you 'n Luke's done outlaws now," she said with a good-natured smile, but then grinned even wider, "that's okay, when WE start drivin', we can pull our OWN stunts and do our OWN shuckin' an' jivin'."
Bo laughed, "Sounds like a plan to me!"
They shook on it and Becky climbed out of the tire swing and stood up to meet Bo's height of 5'5 with her own height of 5'2, "Let's see if you got any faster this summer..." she then thumped him on the shoulder and he took off after her.
"You're on!"