Chapter 4

After the family was done dinner, Pony and Johnny stayed and did the dishes, and Sara was sent off to her room to clean up the mess she had made while Darry and Sodapop moved into the living room to relax some.

"Dar, did you talk with Sara?" Sodapop asked half watching tv.

"Not really. I was to pissed when I saw that room. What would possess her to do that?" Darry said reaching for the mail. "And then she had the nerve to say that she can't tell me what she was looking for when I asked her. She better have that room clean when I go in there. I'll give her about an hour, but if it isn't cleaned up I swear I'm getting a trash bag." Darry was still looking through the mail as he talked with Soda about Sara.

"I know. She wouldn't tell me either, just that she was looking for something. I think something might of happened at school. She was fine when she left for school this morning, but when I got her off that bus this afternoon she was full of attitude. Is this how it is with girls?" Soda was half smirking.

"Kind of early for that I would think, but who knows. All I can say is she better lose that attitude though. She knows better than to destroy her room like that." Something in the mail had grabbed Darry's attention.

"What ya got there, Dar?" Soda noticed him studying a sheet of paper he just took out of an envelope.

"Directions and schedule for Pony on Saturday. I still can't believe he made it to States, and he wants to throw it all away by fighting in that rumble on Friday. He truly doesn't use that head of his." Darry continued to look over the information. "We are going to have to leave here at 4:00 in the morning to get him there in time. Wow that is going to be a long day."

"Are you sure you still want to bring Sara with us?" Soda was second guessing the thought. "Because if she isn't out of this mood she is in, than I just might strangle her before we even make it there." Darry let out a laugh.

"I told her that she could go. I can't change my mind now. We are going to be awfully cramp in the truck for a 4 hour ride. I should see if Steve or Two-Bit will trade vehicles for the day, or else we will both probably strangle her." Darry flashed Sodapop a smile.

"Should we venture in there and see how she is coming with that room?" Soda asked.

"Nah, let's give her some more time." Darry said moving onto another piece of mail.

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The boys were enjoying their quiet night, the only gang member over was Johnny who was hanging out with Pony in the boy's room. Darry was looking over the newspaper and Sodapop was watching tv. When Darry heard the theme song to "Lassie" he knew that he should wander on back and check on Sara. They had left her in there for almost an hour and a half now and it was time for her to be getting off to bed. "I'm going in." Darry said getting up from his chair.

"Good luck." Soda said half stretched out on the couch.

"If you hear yelling you might want to come hold me back." Darry had Pony's informational letter in his hand and was going to place it on the refrigerator so they would know where it was. When he got over there he needed a magnet to post it up with but couldn't find one. He started running his hand on the top of the fridge to see if one was up there, he made one swipe when his hand hit a piece of paper. Darry stopped and looked at what it was. As he picked it up he knew right away what Sara was probably looking for. "Sodapop?" Darry said from the kitchen.

"What?" Soda yelled back. Darry started moving towards the living room knowing that Soda wasn't going to come to him.

"Soda, do you think this is what Sara is looking for?" Soda took his attention away from Lassie and his eyes landed on the card.

"I totally forgot about that. Did you ever talk with her about it?" Soda question.

"Nope, never got around to it." Darry looked down at the card feeling a little guilty that he hadn't found time to talk with her about it yet.

"Well, I guess now is as good of a time as ever. Want me to come with you? You know, just in case I need to hold you back?" Soda snickered.

"No, I think this is something I need to do on my own. I will try extra hard not to yell." Darry turned and started heading down to Sara's room, he could hear music coming from her room, "A Hard's Day's Night" by The Beatles. Darry wasn't a big fan of The Beatles; he considered them a sign that times were a changing. Darry paused before entering Sara's room; he took a big, deep breath and rounded the corner. Darry's eyes widen to the size of baseballs, he couldn't believe the sight that he was taking in. His eyes continue to dart around the room, what had happen in here he thought. He stepped back out of the room for a second and looked around to see if Pony was still in his room, and he was, and Darry knew that Sodapop hadn't moved from the couch since dinner, huh he thought. He walked back into Sara's room. "Sara?" Darry called her name to get her attention. She slowly moved around from facing her bookcase. "It's time for bed." Darry was moving over towards her dresser to get out a set of pajamas.

"But I am not finished, Darry. Just give me a little longer, I'll get it all picked up, I promise." Sara was starting to gather up her books to place them on the shelf so that Darry wouldn't take them and throw them out like he had threaten to.

"Sara, I said it is time for bed, now take these and go put them on and brush those teeth." Darry handed her the pajamas he had picked out and was pushing her towards the bathroom.

"Don't throw them out, please Darry. I was working hard, really." Sara's eyes started welling up with tears afraid that Darry was going to toss her books in the trash.

"I'm not going to toss them out. Now go get changed and get ready for bed." Sara gave Darry one more look not quit believing him, but she didn't want to give him any more reason to so she moved onto the bathroom, as she was entering the bathroom, Sodapop was just coming out.

"Getting ready for bed?" Soda asked noticing the clothes in her hand.

"Yup." Sara was trying to push her way passed Sodapop who was still standing in the doorway of the bathroom.

"Did you get your room cleaned up?" Soda hadn't heard any yelling so he assumed it was picked up.

"I didn't get it all picked up. Can you go make sure that Darry isn't throwing my books away? Please Soda?" Sara was giving Soda her puppy dog eyes.

"Did you at least find what you were looking for?" Soda was hoping he could get a little more out of her to see if it really was the card that she was looking for.

Sara let out a long sigh and her head tilted down and her eyes were looking at the floor of the bathroom. "No." she said very softly.

"That's too bad. All of that for nothing? I'll go check to see what he is doing with your stuff, but you know Sara, I won't be able to stop him if he is throwing them out."

"But you could try." Sara brought her eyes back up to meet Soda's.

"I'll try, now go." Soda pointed into the bathroom and closed the door as he was walking towards Sara's bedroom. When he entered Sara's room he found Darry making Sara's bed. "This isn't what I expected." Soda picked up a few books off the floor and placed them on the bookcase. "How much did you do?"

"This is the first thing, and she had it thrown together, but I just wanted to straighten it out some so it would as least last the night." Darry was finishing up the bed and was slipping something under her pillow.

"You mean she did this all by herself?" Soda was moving around and checking out the closet thinking she must have just thrown everything into it. But nope, it looked good. He then moved to her dresser and pulled out the first drawer, not to bad. Most everything was in the right place. "I'm impressed. I didn't expect this. She asked me to come in and make sure you didn't throw any of her stuff away." Soda picked up a stuff animal and handed it to Darry to place on her bed.

"I told her that I wasn't going to. Jeez, that kid just doesn't trust me sometimes." Darry was turning around when Sara walked slowly back into the room.

"Kiddo, it looks good." Sodapop walked over to Sara and ruffled her hair.

"Thanks, Soda." Sara slipped her arms around his waist for a hug. Soda gladly returned it back; he even leaned in and kissed the top of her head.

"Let's not do that again, though. Maybe next time you can just ask us if we have seen what you were looking for, or even help you, ok?" Soda gave Sara's back a few quick rubs before pushing her off towards her bed. "Sleep tight, Kiddo."

"Night, Sodapop." Sara looked up at Darry while she climbed into bed noticing that Darry had fixed it. "I didn't do good making it?" Sara asked.

"No, you did a good job, I just wanted to tuck everything in so that the blankets would stay on you all night that's all." Darry was watching Sara settle into bed when he added, "You know Sara, I am proud of you. I didn't think you were going to be able to get this place cleaned up on your own. You did good. It looks a lot better." Darry sat down beside Sara settling in to have the talk with her.

"Thanks, Darry. I am sorry that I made such a mess; it's just that I needed to find something." Sara said with sadness in her voice.

"Can you tell me now what that might be?" Darry was hoping that she might let him in on it.

"Something that I made at school." Ok, Darry thought, they were getting somewhere now.

"Sodapop told me that you were in a foul mood when you got home off the bus today, does this have anything to do with it?"

"Kind of." Sara said putting her head on her hand.

"No Sara, it's either yes or no." Darry corrected her.

"Yes." Sara was quick to change her answer.

"And?" Darry felt like this was starting to feel like pulling teeth from her.

"Ms. Martin wanted to know how you liked what I made and well, I lost it before I could show it to you." Sara's eyes started to glaze over with tears. Darry noticed that this was truly upsetting her. He didn't want her to be in more agony about it, so he slipped his hand under her pillow and pulled out the card.

"Are you talking about this?" Darry held up the card. Sara gasped.

"Oh, Darry, where did you find it?" Sara went to grab it from his hand, but Darry pulled the card back.

"Sara, I found it on the floor last week when I was in here. Why didn't you show it to us then?" Darry was still holding the card out of Sara's reach.

"I don't know." Sara said darting her eyes away from Darry's. Darry knew Sara well enough to know that she was lying to him.

"I think you do know." He said with some seriousness in his voice. When Sara still hadn't answered him he tried again. "Sara, I think you know very well why you didn't show it to us." Darry reached over and took Sara's chin in his hand and tilted it up.

"I was embarrassed." Sara responded looking at the card still in Darry's hand.

"Embarrassed? Of what?" Darry didn't understand what she was talking about.

"I didn't want you guys to laugh at it." Sara's voiced cracked a bit.

"Sara, why would we laugh at it?" Darry was somewhat hurt that Sara was having some trust issue with him and her brothers.

"Because the card was meant for Mothers, not brothers. Ms. Martin made me make a Brother's Day card so I wouldn't feel left out. It is stupid." Sara's cheeks started to turn a shade of red; Darry could tell that she really was embarrassed about this.

"Sara, remember that note Ms. Martin sent home and you forgot to give it to me?" Sara shook her head up and down. "Well, this is what the note was about. I already knew that you would be doing something like this, and it isn't stupid. I would have appreciated if you would have given it to us, rather than finding it on the floor." Darry was working hard at trying to make Sara feel less embarrassed about the card.

"You wouldn't of laughed?" Sara now was looking straight at Darry. "Really?"

"No. I wouldn't have laughed. You want to know the truth?" Sara nodded. "The night I found it I was out in the kitchen and had placed it on the table and Pony and Soda saw the card and they both thought it was real nice. Pony even said it was sweet." Darry stopped and placed his hand on the side of Sara's cheek and looked her right in the eyes and said, "Sara, the card was real nice." Darry noticed a tiny tear slipping from her eye. He took his thumb and quickly swiped it away. "Maybe next time though, it might be a lot easier to just show us, instead of trying to hide it from us, huh?"

"It's just hard sometimes." Sara said choking back more tears.

"I know it is, BabyGirl. But I heard that it gets easier." Darry bent down and placed a kiss on Sara's forehead. "Now, that we have gotten that out of the way, maybe you could try to get some sleep?"

"Can you read to me? Just a quick story?"

"I get to pick though." Darry smiled over at his little sister and was reaching for a book.

"Deal." Sara said lying down to get ready for the story.