"Well that was entertaining," I gripe as Ike holds my hand as we push the stroller of kids home. I put them all down for a nap until I meet Ike in the bedroom.

"I guess so..." he whispers as he burns with anger. "We learned that Jasper and Ella got married."

"And everyone knows we went skinny dipping a few days ago." I snap as I flop on my side of the bed. "We're ruined just like Sketch and Davey."

"How is that?" Ike asks as he carefully sits on the bed next to me and strokes my hair.

"Race said he saw the having sex in a honeysuckle bush." I groan as I flip over.

"It's not so bad actually-"he starts as he wraps his arm around me.

"Not bad? No, of course it's not bad, the idea was stupid and we were being sexually sassy and a bunch of other "S" words were going through our heads too." I snap as I dig my face into his chest. He eases out a sigh and begins to say something but doesn't, but that's ok with me.

"I like what Sketch said," he laughs a little while curling my hair.

"What was it she said again?" as I turn to look at him.

"Bitching," he quotes, "running your mouth; jumping to conclusions and pushing your luck."

"Oh yea, that was funny, I've never seen Race so embarrassed in his life." I laugh; breathing in his scent and wait before I say anything. "I'm sorry about your birthday."

"It's okay, really," he sighs, "it just means I'm getting older with you because you Mrs. Hype will be sixteen this month." I roll my eyes at this then think back a few days ago when we went skinny dipping for his birthday. Some present, but Race caught us somehow and just killed the mood. He cat called us out. He never does that, I mean he does it to Jasper and Ella the most, and I feel bad for them, I do but Race also cat calls Sketch and Davey and now they will probably never leave their apartment, so now what? I don't know.

"I don't want to be sixteen," I mutter.

"You think I asked to be eighteen?" he laughs.

"Maybe," I whisper remembering my little motto when I was six maybe? It was I think "I can't wait to grow up!" When I said this I didn't realize it would be that I would actually grow up and leave all that I've known in a different state. I didn't know it would realize my parents would die either, but some things just happen for a reason. Everything happens for a reason and everyone you meet will have at least one impact on your life one way or another. Like Minnie for example, she want home a week before Ike's birthday, we haven't seen each other for over five years, this girl didn't even know my name or who I was and she found me.

"Hey Hype," Ike asks as he strokes my hair even more, he gets up for a second to turn on the fan and slides back next to me, but this time he kicks off the covers,.

"Yes Ike," I reply almost asleep. Our little clock in the main hall chimes some and I'm too lazy to count the hours, but I'm pretty sure it's at least six o'clock.

"Did I ever tell you how much I love you?" he asks. I know what he's doing and we added the saying into our little book of stuff so I play along.

"No," I smile.

"It's because I can't, there isn't one word in this world that can describe how much I love you." He smiles. Somehow we finally arouse ourselves and get something to eat as Ike awakes the kids from their extra-long slumber and i bring food into the nursery, promising to clean up later so there wouldn't be any more bugs. Ike and I both eat some form of meat, chicken I think, through it is a possibility it could be ostrich as Lucy, Cole and the twins eat mashed up fruits. Lucy now adores apples, Cole as always, cherries and the twins, little grapes. So happy I don't have to talk in a stupid baby voice to get the twins to eat, I convince them to eat as making Mr. Snuggles "eat". Ike clears away the food and in no time are as energetic as me when I got my nickname. Hours later, they are down for the night. As we leave the nursery, I pause a second before closing the door, knowing Lucy's still awake. I give Ike a sweet smile and use one of our favorite sayings.

"Hey my little O'Malley's, you may not know this but, Blink loves you, Star loves you, Sketch and Davey love you," I say as Ike finishes.

"Butta Fingas and Mike love you, Smalls and Twig love you, and, most importantly, Mommy and I love you." And with that he closes the door giving me a long lingering kiss.

"Hey Ike," I say uneasily as we change for bed, he looks up at me as I continue. "I'm a little concerned about something."

"And by that I'm assuming that something is Lucy," he states.

"Exactly," I reply. "Anyways, so when we were out selling with Star, she had her eyes trained on a boy and she said she wanted to marry him."

"Really," he asks as I nod.

"Well. Not exactly, I asked her what she was staring at and she pointed to the direction of the little kid and I asked why she was staring at him. She says it's because I stare at you this way," I say pausing for a second as Ike blushes at this. "Then she was like, I want to marry Daddy. But I was like; you can't marry him because I'm married to him. And then all of the sudden she said 'I want to marry that kid'. Ike she doesn't even know who that kid was."

"Well, I guess she's at that stage where she's thinking of what she wants to be ten years from now. " Ike states.

"Ike, can you do me a really big favor?" I ask politely.

"Anything," he says a little nervously.

"I know it's really early, but I want you to get Lucy a purity ring. She may not know what it's all about now, but I do know it is something that would change her life." I say remembering mine like I got it yesterday.

"Laura, do you love me?" Daddy would always ask when I was younger, I was daddy's little girl if you hadn't noticed already. Mom tells me this tradition starts when we first learn to talk until we're ten; thus my brother had one year left. It was our little daily habit that when he would come home from the factory he would ask me this question and I would always reply.

"I love you Daddy." Then I would reach into his pocket to find a little surprise: whether it would be penny candy or a nickel, anything would excite me. Today it was a tiny ring I saw a few days ago at a cheap store. I remember wearing it every day no matter how much it hurt because I was growing. A few weeks later we did the daily routine and I sat on his knee.

"Laura, do you love me?"

"I love you Daddy."

"Then give me your ring." He said with a small twinkle in his eye. I noticed but I was too upset to give it up.

"Daddy, I love you but please let me keep my ring."

"Trust me," he whispers. I reluctantly took it off and gave it to him as I reached into his pocket and saw the gold one.

"It's so pretty, I should have given it to you sooner!"

"Now Laura, this is ring is real gold so don't misplace it, which I know you wouldn't." he smiles as he kisses my cheek. "Anyways, this is a special kind of ring, it's a purity ring." He says, sliding it on my ring finger on my right hand versus my left. "It means you will save sex for marriage and I know you don't know what it is yet but I need you to promise me you will right?"

"Yes Daddy, thank you." I smile as I bounce up from his knee.

"I don't ever want you to take it off until your wedding band replaces it ok? Don't ever let anyone take it from you promise?" he asks for a second.

"I promise Dad," I smile as I watch it glimmer on my finger.

I'm not actually sure what happened to it but I think I had to sell it for good money when I was eight because it was pure gold, like the case to Ike's pocketwatch. But by the time I wanted a new one, my uncle didn't know where to ship it to me. I wouldn't have any use for it now either, but maybe I can say I lost it or something, because that's just probably something I would do.