Carl had a lighter and an aerosol can which he was playing with. I watched the flames while I licked my popsicle. Debbie and Ethel watched Liam. Liam was standing in the yard with his hands in his diaper playing with himself. "Liam, if you want a popsicle, show me your hands" Debbie told him. Liam kept playing. "Liam, hands off your package or no treat" Debbie said. "Let him enjoy himself" I told Debbie. "Touching it is his treat" Ethel added. The door opened and Fiona squeezed past us. "I need Liam out of my room" Debbie said. "I'm late for work" Fi said as she fiddled with an earring, she saw what Carl was doing. "Carl, quit it" she told him. "I can't share a room with someone in a constant state of arousal. I'm going to be a woman soon" Debbie continued getting angry, "oh my god" I sighed. "Hey, enough!" Fi said and grabbed the lighter and can off Carl. "Franks been gone for months, you move into Franks room, Lip takes yours, Ian and Carl share with Liam" Debbie said to Fi. "Frank will be back. In bed midnight. No exceptions" Fi said as she left. I watched her go then got up. "Where are you going?" Debbie asked. "Exploring" I said as I kissed Liam on the forehead, "bye little man" I said, he reached out to me. I shook his little hand then walked away.

We had followed the train tracks to the train yard and climbed over the fence. Hector was sure we would be able to move a carriage if we tried hard enough. We all knew we wouldn't be able to but exploring the yards at night was fun enough to warrant the walk anyway. Carl had joined us with Des, Hector wanted as many of us to try as possible so had put the word out. Lee, Cue, Hannah and Pete were all here as well. We ran around yelling, pushing each other and climbing on everything and anything we could. There were a couple of carriages close together, so we jumped from one to the other like they do in the movies and practiced running along side a carriage and jumping on. Pete and Carl had brought some spray cans so set to work doing some decorating. Hector just walked around checking out every carriage, he eventually called us over to one and ordered us to line up. We tried, we really tried. I skidded in the gravel and fell to my knees, Hannah was pushing on the side and slipped and grazed her arms and shoulders. By the time Hector called it quits we were all covered in scrapes and bruises and dripping with sweat.

We stopped on the way home to cool down with a hose, despite it being past midnight it was still stinking hot. Hector decided to try and whip everyone with it and we soon ended up chucking everything we could find at each other. "Get the fuck out of here!" a guy yelled from the window. We screamed, yelled and flipped him off as we left. A few other neighbours yelled out as we ran down the street. Carl and I left everyone as we went past our street.

I woke as the ear buds fell out of my ears. "Sorry" I heard Fi whisper. "Why?" I mumbled "I need something to drown out the fridge noise" she said. "You can hear that from your room?" "From the couch." I wiggled back and squished myself against the wall. Fi got into bed next to me. "Why is your hair wet?" She asked. "I had a shower." "You stink." I grabbed the headphones and put one ear bud in Fiona's ear and the other in mine, pulled Fis eye mark over her eyes then closed my eyes.

—-

Fiona was still asleep when I woke up. I managed to get out of bed without waking her and headed downstairs for some coffee. Lip and Ian were talking at the kitchen bench. Carl followed me downstairs. "This Jody douche has hair longer than Fiona's and a motorcycle with a luggage compartment" Lip said. "Yeah? test me on the theorems" Ian said. Lip started to say some weird stuff. I grabbed the milk out of the fridge while Carl brought over some cereal. Debbie came downstairs with Liam and put him in the highchair. "Lip, why are you sleeping in my bed?" Fi asked from the lounge room, she still had her "fuck off" eye mask on her head and was wearing her club clothes. "Ask her" Lip said and pointed at Debbie. "I moved Liam, I can't be in the same room where Liam is constantly masturbating" Debbie said. "It's not masturbating if nothing comes out" Carl said. "According to who?" Fi asked as she poured coffee into a mug. "My friend Jack O'Donnell" Carl said. "He just wants everyone to see the stuff that comes out of his" I said. "Don't touch that" Ian told me. "Not true" Debbie said. "It's kind of true" Lip said "not legally true" Ian added. "Liam can be arrested for masturbating?" Carl asked. "No, listen up…" Fi said as she changed tops. "What is the age where it's inappropriate to arouse yourself in front of others, even if nothing comes out?" Lip asked "we had this convo at school, it's private time you do in your bedroom. Not in the classroom or on the playground. If girls do it a lot they get really weirded out" I said. "Girls can't masturbate" Carl said. "Yeah, we can" I said "it's different but some goal" Lip said. "How?" Carl asked. "Hey, Gallaghers. I need focus and cooperation" Fiona yelled, "unfortunately, Frank has rented out his room to a pregnant woman." "I already told them" Debbie said. "You let her in last night?" "She let herself in. She has a key. Besides she's from China. They kill extra babies there" Debbie said. "Liam needs to go back in with you" fi told her, "No!" Debbie yelled, "Debbie…" "what's done is done!" Liam started crying. Debbie stormed off. I put some cereal on the highchair for him to eat. Fi sighed "for now, Liam's in the boys room with the boys" she said. "What?" "4 guys in one room?" "Isn't that a health violation?" "I'll find Frank and figure this out. Until then, four in the room" Fi said. The lodger came down the stairs with a wok and a bag of rice and walked over to the stove. Everyone just looked at her. Fi went upstairs and I headed out for the day.

"Where you going?" I yelled out to Hector. He and his friends circled around and skidded to a holt next to me. "Found a warehouse in the med district, got real good stuff to climb on" Hector said. I looked at the guys with him, I didn't recognise any of them. "Friends from camp" Hector said. "Reece, Yule and Pig" he added and pointed to each of them. "This is Lucy, she's cool" Hector told them. "She's a little girl" Yule scoffed. I flipped him off. "We are meeting up with a few more kids on the way" Hector said. "Fine, haven't got anything else to do" I said and got onto the back of Hectors bike. "Really?" Pig complained. "Wait till you see what she can do, we will have enough money for pizza and snacks once she's done" Hector said.

"Hey! You can't just run off" I yelled after them. None of them stopped. I looked at Reece on the ground who was still screaming. "Ready dude? That's enough yelling" I told him as I took my tshirt off and made a sling out of it. "We got to get you to the hospital, it's only a few blocks away but you got to man up a bit" I said as I tried to get him on his feet. I grabbed the last two slices of pizza on the way out.

Reece stumbled again, this time he pushed into me so hard I fell down onto the road. A bike skidded to a holt but still ran into me "Jesus kid" he yelled, straightened his bike and road off. "Lucy?" I heard someone yell. I got up and looked around. Carol came rushing over to us. "Hey" I said and smiled at her. Reece was crying and moaning so she went over to him. "What happened?" she asked. "He fell, hurt his arm" I said. Carol sighed and helped him into the ER. "What's she done now?" Dr Ross said as soon as he saw me. "Nothing, just dropping a friend off" I said and went to leave. "Hey, no! You got hit by a bike, we need to check you out too" Carol yelled out. "What? No way, I'm fine" I said to them. "Get in the back, I'll look at you now" I sighed but followed him.

"Are you going to call Fiona?" I asked as he took his gloves off. "She's working" I added. "Fine, just go. Just don't tell anyone" He said. I jumped down from the table and took off. "Thanks doc" I yelled back to him.

I spotted the van at the park and headed over to it. I went straight to the freezer and grabbed a popsicle, "you got to work for that you know?" Lip said. "You're pretty banged up little Gallagher, what happened?" Kev asked. "Train yards last night and found a warehouse with heaps of beams and stuff to climb today, got hit by a bike too" I said. "Sounds like fun" Lip said and put a bag of grass and papers in front of me. I nodded. "No it doesn't, you got to be more careful" V said, I spun around and hugged her. "What are you doing here?" I asked her. "Old folks field trip day, they wanted to stop at the park" she explained as she hugged me back. "You never stopped at the park when I went on those" I said. "Get started with those blunts" Kev told me.

"We are crushing it" Kev said as he handed over another pile of popsicles to some old guys. "Nothing pays like hipsters, minors and the elderly" Lip said. "You should have told me V, could have made heaps busking" I said as I rolled another joint. "V you gotta start bringing these geezers around every day, they love their sugar" Kev said "shit, Denise needs her insulin shot" v said, and kissed Kev goodbye then rushed out. "Can I have your popsicle?" I asked as she passed me. She handed it over. "Later boys" I told Lip and Kev and left too.

"Lucy!" V yelled out as I walked across the park. I ignored her, I knew what she was going to are me do. "Lucy!" she yelled again, this time there was a warning in her tone. I stopped and looked across the park for her. She waved at me to come over. "Lucy you know Denise right?" she said as she swatted down next to her wheelchair and injected something into her side. "Hi Denise, is that heroin?" I asked, I knew people injected that. "What? No, its insulin" V scoffed. "Wish it was, I really enjoyed my days on horse" Denise said, I nodded. "Old people should get whatever drugs they want" I told her. "Lucy" V hissed. Denise laughed. "Go help Harriet get back to the bus" V told me. "Who?" I asked. "Fake aunt ginger" V whispered to me and pushed me away. I spotted fake Aunt Ginger walking with another old lady I hadn't seen before. I ran over to them "Hi Ginger, do you need help back to the bus" I asked. "Hello, my aren't you just a beautiful little angel" she said and smiled at me. "Come on, everyone back to the bus!" V yelled out again, I looked over my shoulder at her. She waved at me to hurry up. "You know the nurse? Veronica?" The other lady asked. "Yes, I'm Lucy. She told me to help you back to the bus" I said. "I'm Claire and we would love some help". I stood in the middle of them, Ginger put a hand on my shoulder. I was still busy eating the popsicle with my other hand. "Do you need help?" I asked Claire, "no I'm ok" she said and we started walking together. "Good because I would like to finish this popsicle" I told her. Aunt Ginger was really leaning on me and it was a bit hard to walk but I hobbled along with her. "I like the name Claire" I told her. "Well I like the name Lucy" she said, I smiled up at her. "Did you see me play?" Harry said as he trotted over to us. "You were so amazing" Ginger said. "I showed them young ones a thing or two" he said and went next to Ginger. "Not the only think I could teach them" he tried to whisper to her but said it too loud. She giggled. Thankfully we were getting close to the bus. I helped them up the steps then waved goodbye.

I was going to grab my violin and head to one of the ladies houses to practice but Debbie stopped me and demanded I help clean up after daycare. One of the kids was still there, "we listened to Fiona's diary today" she told me as I tried to sweep up some crisps which had been smooshed into the rug. "Really, which one?" I asked. "It was about a guy, Grieg Hie… something" she said. "Oh yeah, I've read that one, lots of drawings in it" "I didn't see the drawings, Fiona came in all grumpy and took the book away" I just nodded at her and took the pan full of crumbs over to the bin. There was a knock on the door, thankfully it was the girls mom. I stuck my hand out for the money then called the girl over.

"Lucy, we need to get stuff for my new room" Carl yelled as he barged into the kitchen. "What?" I asked. "I'm living in the van now, got my mattress in there already" he said. "No fair, why do you get to go out there?" "There's no room inside and Fiona felt bad for me" he smirked. "Where you want to go?" I asked. He smirked at me. We didn't go to the shops, we went to Des's house.

Carl knocked on the front door "Is Des home?" he asked when Des's mom answered. "No he is out at the moment" she said. "Oh, no worries" Carl said and we walked away. We cut across a neighbours yard to get to the alleyway then headed to the back of Des's house. His bedroom was on the side of the house and the big tree next door almost touched the window. Carl led the way up the tree, I followed though wished I had gone first when Carls shorts kept falling down. The window wasn't locked but also wasn't the easiest to get open from the branch. Carl sent me to do that part, I split my legs over the gap and strained to push the window up but managed to get it. Carl knew exactly what he was after and were it was, there was 3 magazines under Des's mattress. I spotted some twizlers on the desk and grabbed those then jumped out the window back onto the branch. "They are pornos aren't they?" I said to Carl as we climbed down the tree. "And a sports magazine, with the best fold out" he said grinning.

"There" Carl said as he stuck up the last of the Megan fox posters. "Still smells like ass and smoke" I told him as I kicked the side of the van. "Whatever it's mine, I can do whatever I want out here and no one in the house will know" he said. "So, you're going to be jerking off all summer then?" "Yep, I'm ready to go now so piss off" he said and whacked me "wait, here's your van warming gift" I told him and let one rip then ran away.

Lees house smelt even worse than the van, I ran upstairs and into his room. "What the hell is that smell?" I asked him, he was laying on his bed reading. "I don't know, I'm too scared to look for it" he said and closed his book. "Want to go hang out on the rooftop?" I asked him. He smiled and got up but I could tell something was wrong.

I spotted Karen kissing her boyfriend as I walked up the street. He rode off on a bike. Karen gave me a smile as I walked past. "Night Karen" I said and kept walking. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and saw Lip but he went behind the neighbours hedge, I called out to him but he ran off.

Fiona was letting herself in the front door when I got home. I quickly dashed around the the backyard and ran up the stairs. I found a bobby pin in my pocket and unlocked the door to my room, despite this I wasn't quick enough. Fiona was already standing in my room. "Umm, just getting fresh air" I mumbled. "Get into bed, I'll deal with you in the morning" she said.

—

I played through the passage again, and again, and again then I sped it up. I played it at the correct tempo a couple of times. "I've got it!" I yelled out though wasn't sure anyone else was even around. "Thank god, what was that 100 goes?" Lip asked as he walked out of the kitchen. Fiona followed him then sighed and rolled her eyes as she looked at me. "Really?" She said. I looked at her puzzled. "You could have at least found panties without holes in them, are they Carls old ones?" she asked as she came over for a closer look. I looked down at them, I had just chucked them on and not thought anything of it but they were basically falling apart and the front didn't sit right. "They were in my drawer" I shrugged. "What to hear the whole piece? Pretty sure I can play it" I said. "Go on then" Fi said and sat down on the chair.

I had switched to piano for an hour but was back to the violin. "Ok, time for a break" Fi said as she grabbed my elbow. "You said all I could do was stay home and practice for the next week" I whined. "Yeah well, we need a break" she said. "Can I have my friends over?" I asked "no you're grounded, you can clean, read, cook, watch tv, stare at the wall, I don't care but I need some quiet for the next couple of hours" Fi said. "Can I go to the ladies houses and play there?" "No, you're not to leave this house" "it's not fair, I need to practice" "you have been practicing for 5hrs and you're grounded, that means you stay here" I sighed and pouted. "Enough, you were out til 3am last night. That's far to late" Fi said. I rolled my eyes, she had already yelled at me for it. "No listen Lucy, you can't do that" she said and put her hand on my arm. "It was important" I mumbled, I could tell she was getting angry and didn't want to upset her anymore but didn't want to share what Lee had been going through either. Fiona's jaw twitched and she squeezed my arm but quickly let go, then made a chocking gesture with her hands and stormed off up stairs. I put my violin away then went up to her room. She had shut the door but I slid it open and slowly walked to the side of her bed. "Fiona?" I whispered. "Lucy, please, before I loose my shit" she said. "I know a place where you can smash shit up?" I suggested. She sighed. "It was really important Fiona, Lee needed me" I said. "What were you doing?" she asked. "Just talking, on a roof. That's it. He just need to talk and have company" Fi reached out and cupped my cheek in her hand. I squeezed onto the bed next to her and put my face right in front of hers then cupped her cheek. "Your fingers are rough" she whispered. "Yeah, violin and guitar does that" I told her. "It's not just you Lucy. I just … worry, that's all. Don't do it again" she said. I nodded but I think we both realised it wasn't a proper promise.