"Dinner was great, Mrs. Powers," Dallas said kindly.
"Thank you, honey," Bonnie said as she took the boys' plates. "What about you, Don? The London broil wasn't too burnt for you?"
"No, Mom, it was fine," Don answered.
"You four can go out and practice for a little while longer if you want," Bonnie informed them. "The cherry pie's got fifteen minutes or so of cooling left."
Don, Dallas, Johnny, and Trey were now sitting around in the garage, neglecting to practice. Trey spun his drumsticks in between his fingers, Johnny tinkered with a bassline, Dallas gazed skyward, and Don just twiddled his thumbs.
"Did you write that, Johnny?" Trey asked.
"I think so," Johnny replied, continuing to strum his bass. "Unless I subconsciously ripped it off of something."
"You guys really don't wanna do The Joker?" Dallas asked, sounding bored.
"You already got suspended for a week last year for that pack of cigarettes, man," Don said, picking his head up from the table. "We can't take a risk."
"The instruments'll be loud anyhow," Dallas argued. "He probably won't even hear 'smoker' or 'toker'. Besides, do you think Principal Stevenson knows what a toker is?"
"It doesn't matter, Dallas, we're not doing that song," Johnny said, placing his bass down.
"Hey, Don, I think I see two of your new neighbors," Trey observed.
"Are they hot?" Dallas asked.
"They're guys." Dallas shrugged and Don and Johnny stood up and walked to the window and gazed alongside Trey.
"What the hell are they doing?" Don asked. There were two boys, both with curly brown hair. One looked to be roughly eight while the other looked like he could be close to Don's age, though maybe younger by a year or two.
"I don't know much about sports, but I'm pretty sure that's not one," Johnny said. The boys were tossing tennis balls into baskets and then running and tackling each other.
"They probably just made somethin' up," Dallas said, sitting by the garage door and not bothering to peer out the window.
"Alright, Don, your mother finished her pie," David said as he opened the door. "Let's head over to the Bradys' house. Be on your best behavior, all of you. It's really important to your mom that we make a good impression."
"Sure, Dad," Don said, and he and his friends filed out the door and over to the house next-door. Bonnie walked up the front doorsteps and rung the doorbell.
"Hello," a woman with short blond hair and blue eyes said. "Are you all our new neighbors?"
"Hi, we're the Powers," Bonnie said. "I'm Bonnie. This is my husband, David, and my son, Don. These are his friends, Johnny, Trey, and Dallas."
"Very nice to meet you all," the woman said. "My name is Carol. Let me call the family to meet you all. And thank you so much." Bonnie handed her the pie. "Mike!" Carol called.
"Yes, dear?" came the voice of her husband, and he eventually appeared in the doorway. Mike Brady had curled blackish-brown hair and stood about 6'3". "Oh, hello, you must be our neighbors." Next to Mike was one of his sons that Don did not watch from the garage window. He looked to be much older than Don and was almost a spitting image of his father with curly blackish-brown hair and hazel eyes.
"Oh, hi, you all, I'm Greg," the son introduced. "Was that you guys playing the music earlier?"
"Yeah, that was us," Johnny said, the smoothest talker of the group. "We're in a band. I play bass, Trey here plays drums, Don plays lead guitar, and Dallas sings and plays rhythm."
"That's far-out," Greg said. "Do you all live on this street?" Johnny nodded. "Groovy. I play guitar myself."
"Greg graduated high school this past June," Carol informed the group. "He goes to college late this month."
"I've got to get going," Greg said, striding outside. "It was nice meeting you all."
"Greg wanted to catch a glimpse of the town," Carol said. "Pennsylvania's much different from California."
"I'm sure," Bonnie chuckled.
"Go! Hurry!" came the squeaky, pubescent voice of a boy, and the two kids Don had seen through the garage window were running toward the house. The youngest boy tried tackling the elder one, but he was able to shake him off and through a tennis ball into a basket. "Yes!"
"Peter, Bobby, come here!" Mike ordered.
"These are our other two sons, Peter and Bobby," Carol introduced. "Kids, these are our new neighbors, the Powers."
"Pleasure to meet you," the oldest, Peter, said.
"Peter is thirteen in the eighth grade and Bobby turned nine last month," Carol said. "Now you just have to meet our three daughters."
"Wow," Bonnie said playfully. "You sure have a lot of children."
"Our daughters are from Carol's previous marriage and the sons are from mine," Mike explained. "Marcia! Jan! Cindy! Come here!" Three blond girls appeared in the doorway. "How old are you guys?"
"We're going into sophomore year Wednesday," Don spoke.
"Well, that's perfect," Carol said. "Marcia is going into sophomore year too and she could use some friends to show her around."
"Sure," Don said, and he gazed at Marcia. Marcia was about 5'3", and Don thought that she was very pretty. She had bright blue eyes, nice legs, and blue eyes like her mother. Behind her stood her younger sister Jan, who was in eighth grade with Peter. She was also very pretty and looked nearly exactly like Marcia. Cindy looked to be about Bobby's age; she was short and stumpy and wore pigtails.
"Hi," Marcia greeted, shaking Don's hand. Don said hello back and Dallas chortled.
"Hey, if any of you guys'd like, there's this neat store down the street called Candyland," Johnny said. "It's pretty far-out, and real cheap too."
"Oh, yeah, we saw that passin' by," Peter said, mouth agape.
"We'd love to go," Jan said, and Marcia, Bobby, and Cindy all nodded, the latter two showing tremendous excitement in their faces.
"Well, sure, it's okay with me," Carol said.
"Be on your best behavior, you two," Mike said to Bobby and Cindy, who nodded.
"Have a good time, and be back by at least nine," Bonnie said, and Don, Dallas, Johnny, and Trey set off out of the Bradys' driveway and into the street with Cindy, Bobby, Jan, Peter, and Marcia behind them. Dallas nudged Don with a smirk broad upon his face. He knew by Don's facial expression that he was enamored with Marcia.