The next morning I awoke to the sound of Darry getting ready in his new room. I had underestimated the difference that it would make for me to know that I had brothers sleeping on both sides. I lay in my bed staring up at the ceiling, thinking that, just the previous night, it would have been Pony or Soda staring up at this particular ceiling. I wondered if they slept as well as I did in their new room.

Soon after, I heard Darry's footsteps come to my door and he knocked softly, opening the door at the same time. He had definitely not been expecting to find me awake.

"Hi," I said, and he came over to the bed and sat down.

"Hi, yourself. You're up early. Did you sleep okay?"

"Yeah, actually, the best in a really long time. Switching was a good idea."

"I had a feeling it would be. Did I wake you up?"

"Yeah, but that's okay. Once I get used to your morning noises, I'll sleep through it."

"My 'morning noises?'" He laughed.

"Yeah, you know… just – getting out of bed, opening your drawers and stuff. Plus, you're a loud walker." Darry was just too big and heavy to be capable of being completely quiet.

"Well, I'll try to keep it down."

"I don't mind," I said. "It reminds me that you're there. I have to get up anyway… if you wake me up that way at least you don't have to attack me."

"Good point," he said, "and you're even in a pretty good mood, for this early in the morning." Before school, I had usually been considerably less than social.

"I'm full of surprises," I smiled up at him.

"Oh, I don't doubt that," he said. He stood up and headed off into the kitchen. "Get yourself ready. I'll start breakfast."

There really wasn't all that much "getting ready" to do. I wasn't yet at the point of being a girl where it took a long time to pull myself together in the morning. I took a quick shower, not washing my hair, since we were about to run out of hot water after Darry's shower. I just braided it, anyway. I brushed my teeth and threw on some clean clothes. When I came into the kitchen, Darry was pouring himself some coffee.

"How can something that smells like that taste good?"

"What?" Darry hadn't even heard me come in.

"Coffee. It doesn't smell like it would taste good, at all."

He looked baffled. "I don't know… I guess it's not even so much about how it tastes, it's that it wakes me up."

"So you don't like it?"

"No, I do… I didn't when I was a kid, though. I guess it's just one of those things that you learn to like when you're older." He added his milk and sugar. "You want to try it?"

I wrinkled my nose at it. It didn't smell bad, exactly – it was a typical morning smell at our house, so it had an element of comfort to it – but it didn't smell good, either.

"C'mon.. try it. I promise, it won't kill you."

"Yeah, well, I hope it goes better than when I tried beer." He put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed as I timidly took a sip. He looked down at me.

"Well?"

"Definitely an acquired taste," I said, handing him back the cup. "I'll stick to orange juice for now." I grabbed the juice from the refrigerator and sat down at the table while Darry laughed at me. He put some hash on my plate and took the rest for himself.

"Soda and Pony aren't eating?"

"I'm just gonna let them sleep. Soda's still not caught up on rest from the accident, and the second Pony gets up, so does he. Might as well let them both catch up."

I was actually sort of glad. It was nice to have Darry to myself. It was kind of corny, but I was feeling kind of grown-up, getting up to go to work. I'd been wanting for so long to do something to help out, it was exciting to be finally doing it. I had to admit, I was a little nervous, too.

We finished up breakfast and Darry gave a strangely evil laugh as he told me to leave the dishes for the boys to deal with.

"Hey, we're working for a living," he joked. "They can take care of it." I was sure we'd get a hard time for it later, since it was Darry's week for dishes, but I also knew they would get done – we all knew how hard he worked, and tried to ease his home workload as much as we could.

"You ready to go?" he asked, turning to me.

"I guess so," I said. "Ready as ever."

"You'll do great," he said, grabbing his lunch and pushing me out the door ahead of him. I guess he could tell I was a little nervous, because when we got in the car he turned to look at me in the passenger seat.

"You don't have to do this, you know that, right? I mean, if it turns out you don't like it, or you change your mind about it, just tell me, and I'll tell him he has to find somebody else. I don't want you doing this just for the money, okay? It's not so bad that we can't still get by."

"I want to do it, Darry. Really."

He looked at me, deciding whether or not to believe me.

"Okay, well, just remember, I wasn't exactly the best role model as your babysitter," he laughed.

"You weren't so bad." He had loved to tease, but he always took good care of me.

As we pulled into Coach K's driveway, I opened the door to hop out and Darry grabbed my arm. I looked back at him, and he smiled at me.

"Call Soda if you have any trouble, though I know you won't. You'll do fine."

"Bye, Darry… Thanks."

"See you at dinner," he called out as I slammed the truck door and walked up to the front porch, where Coach stood in the doorway waiting for me, Laura in his arms. They both waved to Darry as I climbed the stairs.

"Morning, Scout," he said. He put Laura down and she immediately begged me to pick her up, which I did. Coach led us both into the kitchen.

"Okay, well, she's already had her breakfast, so she should be fine until ten-thirty or so, when she usually goes down for a nap. If you put her in her crib with a bottle – there's one in the fridge – she usually goes right down. Any questions about anything?"

I shook my head no. "I can't think of anything."

"Barbara and my work numbers are right by the phone, and, I forgot to tell you last time, one of our neighbors – over there, he pointed - is a doctor, and the other is a cop, so you if you ever can't reach one of us, feel free to ask a neighbor. They're both really nice families."

"I'll keep that in mind," I said. I was certainly hoping nothing would happen my first day on the job that required the assistance of a doctor or – even less – a cop.

"Well, then, Scout, I guess it's time for me to go. I'll be back right around twelve."

"Okay… have fun!"

"Well, I'm teaching, but… I'll try." He grabbed his keys and headed out the front door. I carried Laura over to the window.

"Wave bye-bye to Daddy," I said, feeling a little choked up remembering my mom saying those very same words to me and Pony, watching our Dad head off to work, Soda and Darry already in school. Laura waved, and as his car disappeared around the corner, I headed with her into her bedroom.

I plopped her down on the floor and pulled out a few toys, which pretty much kept her busy until naptime. She was a happy kid, and babbled to herself quite a bit while she played. I talked to her, but her vocabulary was largely limited to commands – "more," "again," "go" – so I pretty much just did what she told me. It was fun, being around someone so… undefined. There was really no telling, yet, who or what she was going to be.

She wasn't a Soc, or a Greaser – she was just Laura. It had never occurred to me what a clean slate we all start out as, and how we are are, eventually, slowly molded into who we become. I really hoped that she wouldn't ever have to be molded by the sort of tragedy my brothers and I had faced. My parents had been just like hers, once – young, and assuming that they had their whole lives ahead of them. I had a morning of reflection and wonder. I realized pretty quickly how easy it was to get attached to something as cute and innocent as a two-year old.

She went right down for her nap, and I sat on the couch, looking at a magazine I found lying around. I decided to ask Pony for a few good books to bring with me to read while she was napping. I looked out the window at the neighbors for a while – the woman in the house where Coach had said the doctor lived was outside weeding her garden, and I started to feel a little bit ashamed of our yard at home. Maybe I could make that my summer project, cleaning up the yard a little bit. Just because our house wasn't on the rich side of town didn't mean it had to look like a total dump.

Laura woke up about fifteen minutes before her Dad got home and I had just finishing changing her diaper when he called out to us and I heard the front door closing behind him.

"Scout?"

"In here!" I yelled, though Laura was already out the door running toward his voice. He scooped her up.

"There's my girl," he said, hugging her against him while she laughed, and for a second I missed my Dad so much it actually hurt.

"Everything go okay?" he asked.

"Yup. No problems at all." I almost felt guilty getting paid; it had been so easy.

"She's a good kid, I told you. So, you ready to go?"

"Yeah," I said. We went out to his car and I found myself praying nobody from the basketball team would see him driving me home. They already thought I was his favorite anyway – as much as I respected him, I didn't need the other girls picking on me any more than they already did. I directed him to my house and as we pulled up, both Soda and Pony were both out on the porch smoking, and the yard seemed more embarrassing than ever. I vowed to fix it up over the summer.

"Okay, Scout, we'll see you again tomorrow then," he said as I got out of the car. "Remember, you can just call, any time Darry can't bring you and we'll come get you."

"Okay," I said, wishing the scene behind me would transform into something a little more respectable. "Bye!"

"Bye!" he said, and I could hear Laura's "bye-bye" as they drove away. I turned to find the same unimpressive scene I had just wished away. I walked up to the porch, shaking my head at my brothers.

"How'd it go?" Soda asked.

"Okay. Why are you smoking?" He usually only smoked when he was upset. Sandy was back, and we were all fine, so I wasn't sure what he would be upset about.

"I'm bored," he said. That sounded like a pretty dumb reason to me, but I just shrugged.

"Anna called for you," Pony said. "I told her to call back this afternoon." I hadn't talked to her since the night she'd tricked me into going to the drinking party, and, to be honest, I was still extremely upset with her, about so many things – lying to me, putting both of us in a dangerous situation, and nearly ruining my trust with Darry. I wasn't sure what I was going to say to her, but I had no plans to hold back.

I was just about to ask them if they had eaten lunch yet when the phone rang. Figuring it was Anna, I guessed I might as well just get it over with.

"I'll get it," I said, walking through the screen door and letting it slam behind me.

"Hello?" I plopped down on the couch, expecting Anna's voice.

"Is this the Curtis residence?" It definitely wasn't Anna.

"Yes," I said, feeling myself tensing up.

"Is Darrel, Junior available?" Nobody except the state called him that.

"No… um, he's at work… Could I take a message?"

"My name is Eleanor Robertson, I'm with the Oklahoma Department of Social Services. Is this… " I heard her rustling through paperwork. "…Samantha?"

"Yes," I choked out.

"Well, Samantha, what time do you expect him home?" I looked up to see Pony and Soda both coming in, staring at me, knowing from my tone that I wasn't at all comfortable with the phone call.

"Um… well, it's always different, but usually, by five-thirty…. at the latest."

"All right, well, will you tell him to be expecting our call?" I wanted to scream: What do you want? Why do you always bother us when we are doing okay? But I said nothing.

"Yes, ma'am," I managed.

"All right. Thank you, Samantha,"

"You're welcome. Bye."

"Bye."

I hung up the phone and didn't want to look into the faces of my brothers. I didn't have to tell them; they knew exactly who it had been.

"What'd they want?" Pony barely whispered.

"I don't know… Darry," I answered, not looking up.

"Damnit," Soda muttered, and went back out to the porch. Pony turned and followed him. I just closed my eyes and lay back on the couch, wondering.

What now?