The first night was hard, especially since we had nothing for her to eat. I kinda figured she wasn't old enough to have chocolate milk or regular food. I'm not that stupid. During the middle of the night, Darry ran out to the grocery store that was open 24 hours and got this special kind of formula. It was formula for babies that didn't have breast milk and since practically everybody in the house was a guy, we had no other choice.

Darry came back around 3:00 with the formula and a pink baby bottle.

It was the powder kind so we had to add water. I poured the formula in the bottle and gave it to Davanee.

"Hold it up so she's not sucking in air" said Darry.

"Since when did you become the baby expert?" I asked, tilting the bottle up a little more.

"Mom let me feed you and Soda a bunch of times and she always said stuff like that" replied Darry.

"You can go back to bed if you want" I said. I noticed that Darry was starting to doze off in his chair.

"Ok, but come get me if you need help. Don't forget to burp her after your done" said Darry, shutting his door quietly so the baby wouldn't get upset.

"You look just like me" I whispered softly, looking down at Davanee, "boy, I've done it now, haven't I? I'll tell you right now, I'm not cut out for this parenting thing. Not at 14. I want to call that social service place but something's telling me not to." Davanee was too cute to give up, but then again, she had already been given up by her mom.

"I'm sorry" I whispered, "I'm sorry I didn't know about you. And I'm sorry you never got a chance to know your mom but then again I didn't really know her either." Davanee sucked down that formula real fast. Now came time to burp her. I grabbed a rag from the kitchen, threw it over my shoulder, and started burping her. I didn't exactly know how to burp a baby or if there was even a certain way but the way I was using seemed to work because she burped about ten minutes later. After that she started crying.

"Shh…..it's ok. Daddy's here" I said, trying to calm her down. I decided to take her to the rocking chair outside. I heard somewhere that rocking chairs help babies fall asleep.

I rocked and rocked and rocked until I thought the rockers on the chair where going to break off. She still hadn't stopped crying.

I decided to try singing to her. I sang "Teddy Bear" by Elvis.

"Baby let me be,
Your lovin teddy bear
Put a chain around my neck,
And lead me anywhere
Oh let me be
Your teddy bear.
I don't wanna be a tiger
Cause tigers play too rough
I don't wanna be a lion
cause lions ain't the kind
You love enough.
Just wanna be, your teddy bear
Put a chain around my neck
And lead me anywhere
Oh let me be
Your teddy bear.
Baby let me be, around you every night
Run your fingers through my hair,
And cuddle me real tight."

I couldn't carry a tune whatsoever but it put her to sleep. Even though she was a baby and I was 14, we had something in common. We both liked Elvis songs.

I got up from the rocking chair and went inside, closing the door silently behind me. I got her basket from my room and decided to spend the rest of the night out on the couch. I thought she might wake up again, and I was right. She woke up again at 5 and we went through the same routine. Formula, burping, song on the porch.

"You sleep at all last night?" asked Soda, walking out onto the porch.

"Only a couple of hours. She woke up around 2:30 and again at 5" I said, letting out a loud yawn, "you wanna hold her?"

"Can I?" asked Soda.

"Sure, I'll let you sit here" I said, getting up from the rocking chair. Soda took my place and held his arms out. I gently placed the baby in his arms. In an odd way, she looked like Soda.

"She's so small" commented Soda.

"I know" I said, "but boy can she cry. And eat."

"She's only a baby and already she's actin' like a Curtis" remarked Soda.

Darry came out with his arms full of cups of coffee and chocolate milk.

"Chocolate milk for you" said Darry, setting the glass down on the table next to Soda.

"And coffee for you" he said, handing me a cup.

"Coffee?" I asked, looking at the cup.

"You'll need it" said Darry, taking a sip from his own cup.

"So when's the doctor's appointment?" I asked, making a funny face 'cause the coffee tasted funny.

"Today at noon" replied Darry.

"Are we all going?" asked Soda.

"Don't you have to work today?" I asked.

"Not today. I've got the day off." Just as Soda said that, Davanee started crying again.

"Give her here" I said, setting my coffee down. Soda handed the baby over to me slowly.

"Shh………. It's ok. Daddy's here. Daddy's got ya" I said, rubbing her back softly. She seemed to calm down a little bit but not completely.

"Maybe she needs to be changed" suggested Soda. A look of horror crept across my face. The thought of changing a baby grossed me out completely but I guess it had to be done sooner or later. I'd rather it be later then sooner but apparently Davanee had other plans.

"But we don't have any diapers" I said, "or baby powder, baby wipes, or any of that stuff."

"Or a changing table" added Darry.

I gave him a look that said 'not helping.'

"We can try the floor. Like lay an old blanket down and change her on that" I suggested. You know, for someone who should be in a state of panic, I wasn't doing too bad.

"Not a bad idea" said Darry. We all went inside and while Soda and Darry went to look for an old blanket, I looked for something that can serve as a temporary diaper. I was about to go into mom and dad's room, but I hesitated. It had been almost a year since I had been in there. I wasn't sure I was exactly ready for all the memories to come rushing back to me. I slowly crept into the room, baby in hand. I heard the floor board creek as I stepped into the room. The room was exactly as I remembered it aside from the spiders and dust. All of there clothes where in the closet. All of dad's papers where spread out all over his desk. His briefcase was leaning against the desk chair, ready for the next day at work, which would never come.

I walked hurriedly past the desk, trying my best not to think about them. I searched high and low in the bathroom for anything that might be used to change a baby. Finally, I found some spare diapers underneath the sink. Mom must of kept the diapers I never used. I checked the diapers and they looked useable to me. I grabbed the baby powder, baby wipes, and went back to the living room. By the time I came out, Soda and Darry had already spread the blanket out.

I set the baby down on the blanket, on top of the new diaper. I removed the dirty diaper, holding my nose at the same time. I wiped her bottom, put the baby powder on, and put the new diaper on.

"It seems like you've done this before" said Darry.

"I haven't. I'm going to go get ready for the doctors. Do you think you can watch her for a couple of minutes?" I asked.

"Yeah sure but you know, Pony, we're not even sure she's yours. We probably won't know until a couple of days" said Darry.

"I know" I said, letting out a long sigh, "but just in case."

Darry sighed, looked down at the baby, and asked "what are we suppose to do with her?"

"I dunno. Play peek-a-boo with her or something" I said before getting into the shower. The hot water never felt so good before. It felt like the water was washing away all the worries and thoughts I had the night before. Even though I wasn't sure she was mine, I began to think about her future and what she'll look like when she gets older. If she is mine, will she be involved in the whole grease, soc thing like I am? Will she look more like me or her mother? I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

While Darry and Soda where busy getting ready, I played with Davanee on the couch. I played more peek-a-boo with her. She seemed to like that game. I found it boring because after the tenth time of someone shouting peek-a-boo in your face, you figure out that the person is hiding behind there hands.

"Ready?" asked Darry.

"Yeah" I said, scooping the baby off of the couch. When we got to the car, we where faced with another problem. Where was Davanee going to sit?

"Soda, I think there's an old car seat in the garage, will you get it?" I asked.

Soda went into the garage and came back with a green baby seat. After about 30 minutes of trying to figure out how to buckle the seat in, we finally got the baby in. We wrapped her up in her little pink blanket and put her hat on sense it was cold out.

I couldn't take my eyes off her the whole car ride. I was getting more and more nervous as we got closer to the hospital.

Once we did get to the hospital, the nurse had me fill out a bunch of forms. I filled out as much as possible like her name and her mom's name and stuff like that. But I left the stuff like her social security number blank. I handed the papers back to the nurse and she said that a doctor would be out momentarily.

"Are you nervous?" asked Soda, who was sitting next to me.

"Yeah" I said, "I can't help but I think I shouldn't be here. I'm only fourteen."

"But you are here and there's nothing you can do about it now" said Darry.

A couple of minutes later, a doctor called us back.

"I'm Dr. Irene. I'm a pediatrician. And who is this little cutie?" she asked, pointing to Davanee.

"This is Davanee" I replied.

"Which must make you Ponyboy" said Dr. Irene. I nodded my head. Dr. Irene showed us to a room that was painted with rainbows and clowns. I felt like I was a little kid again, waiting to get a booster shot and lollipop. There would be no lollipop this time.

"You're here for a paternity test, right?" asked Dr. Irene.

"That's right. Would it be ok if they stay in the room?" I asked, referring to Darry and Soda.

"Who are they?" asked the doctor.

"My brothers" I replied, "Darry and Soda."

"Yeah they can stay if they want. Now, this is how this test is going to work. I'm going to stick a cotton swab in your mother to gather DNA from your spit, ok?" said Dr. Irene.

"You can stick a cotton swab in her mouth?" I asked.

Dr. Irene laughed and said "yes but it'll be a smaller cotton swab." Dr. Irene pulled out a cotton swab and stuck it in my mouth. She wiped the thing all over my mouth and when she was done, it left a nasty taste in my mouth. She did the same thing to Davanee and put the cotton swab in a separate bag. She labeled the bag with my cotton swab "Curtis, father, Ponyboy" and she labeled Davanee's "Curtis, daughter, Davanee."

"Now, it'll take about five to six days to get the lab results back but once we do, we'll call you. Do you have any questions?" asked Dr. Irene.

"Yeah, um, what are we suppose to do while we wait for the results?" asked Darry.

"For now, I would buy all the baby necessities if you don't already have them. Her mother isn't around , is she?"

I shook my head no.

"Well, in that case, I'm going to give you a special formula to give her. Babies normally don't start using formula until there a couple months old but this one is for babies who don't have a mother" said the doctor, handing me a box of powdered baby formula. The doctor told us that if we had any questions to call her at her regular office.