“We need to get going. Troy will be checking out here shortly.” Maggie said, moving the chair past Mary Beth.

The young girl began walking with them. “Are you going to be in school Monday?”

“Maybe. It depends on how I feel by then.” Tracy replied.

“So what happened?” The girl asked again.

“I'd rather not talk about it. It's kinda personal.” Tracy said.

“So it's true? Bruce cut your...well you know, your thingy off.” She blushed as she said it.

Tracy's cheeks went just as red. “Who said that?” She asked.

“I heard it someplace.” The girl replied as she looked to the floor.

Maggie chuckled. “No, he didn't cut it off. If he had, Troy would be dead.”

December 3rd 1982
Oroville Hospital

The doctor had just finished her checkup of Tracy. Maggie had stayed in the room, but did her best to give her some privacy. Her friends and their mothers had waited outside, to also preserve Tracy's dignity. Tracy smiled at them as her mother began calling their house so her father could bring her some clothes. The two girls ran over, both had huge grins.

“So?” Rachel asked.

“I can go home.” Tracy replied, smiling back.

“She can go home, but she has to take it easy for a day or two, so no walking everywhere and no playing. You'll have to be content with her lying about.” Maggie clarified.

“Aww, Mom.” Tracy whined.

“Hey, you heard the doctor. You really want to be back here for pushing yourself? You know how tired you got just walking part of the halls here. You'll take it easy and we'll go from there.” Maggie moved to where she had put the wheel chair. “So come on, let's go see your Grandma before we go home.”

Tracy slowly got off of the bed and stood up, and she walked over to the wheelchair using very slow, small steps. Sage began to snicker, causing Tracy to stop. “What?”

Rachel went to her side and reached behind her, closing the gown a bit better. “Lets just say, if you had walked to your grandma, you would have given the whole place a great show.” Tracy's cheeks went bright red.

“It's okay, but you think they'd let you have underwear. Or something.” Sage replied.

“Not really. Something about rubbing against the site of the operation.” Tracy said.

Once Rachel was done tying the gown together, she sat in the chair and was wheeled out into the hall. It was an uneventful ride to the floor above in the elevator. They went down the hall and into Modine's room. Tracy's grandma was in one bed. The second bed by the window was empty, but showed signs of someone having been in it a little while earlier.

The older women smiled as she saw Tracy come into her room. “You look like you're doing better.”

Tracy's smile lit up the room. “I get to go home. I got to take it easy though. Do you get to go home too?”

“Yes. The x ray of my hip came back good. They just needed to know that everything was okay on the insides.” She said.

“Oh, is it?” Tracy asked.

“As far as they know. But you know how things can pop up.” Modine said.

“I'm sorry you're here. It's all my fault for leading them to your place.” Tracy dropped her head down and sat there looking at her lap. Modine gestured for Maggie to roll her closer.

“Alright, none of that. No moping” Modine said, then she deflected what could have been a bit of waterworks. “Now I see you brought guests, so maybe you should be polite and introduce them”

“Okay.” Tracy said as she turned in her wheelchair. Sage and Rachel stepped in and their mothers followed them. Tracy made quick introductions for everyone.

“So you're the young ladies my Granddaughter talked about when she got home.” Modine said, offering her hand out, the one not in the cast. At the mention of her being the granddaughter, Tracy smiled brighter.

“Yep.” Sage replied. “We tired to bring our other friends with us, but their mother said no.”

“It's good to meet you all.” Modine smiled at them. “I'm glad Tracy has some good friends to help her through with this.”

“We tired to get here yesterday, but our mothers said no.” Rachel replied.

“And with good reason.” Rachel's mother touched her daughters shoulder. “You still need your education.”

“You missed Conner. He's in the pharmacy, getting my new prescriptions filled.” Modine said.

Tracy looked to Sage and Rachel. “He actually said he was sorry, for everything he's done.” In their two days of sleepovers, she had told them all about her family, including her dad and grandfather.

“Really?” Rachel asked.

“Yep. He said he was proud of me for defending my Grandma.” She replied. “And I should be who I want.”

A nurse stepped in behind the girls before they could continue the questions. “Modine? We need to do another check up before you get released, okay?”

“Well, I think that's my cue to let you young ladies get going. We can talk later when I get home.” Modine smiled.

“Cool. I'd like that.” Tracy replied. She let her mother wheel her out of the room, taking a moment to wave at her grandmother before the curtain was pulled around the bed.

They were almost to the elevator when a younger girl about Tracy's age stepped out of one of the rooms. She gasped as soon as she saw Tracy in the wheel chair. ”Troy? I thought you were dead. So Peter was telling the truth?”

“Mary Beth, I'm not dead. Just a little hurt.” She replied with a roll of her eyes.

“But your clothes, they were blood red.” Mary Beth shook her head, as though the action could help her brain work better.

“That's because they were red.” Tracy shook her head.

“Boys don't wear bright red pants.” She said. She didn't continue the statement. She knew what he had been wearing. But instead of blurting it out she didn't say what she saw, she wasn't sure how to deal with this.

“I'll have you know it was my shorts. His got ruined in the fight. The other three guys tired to cut him bad, so he needed something to wear when he came to the hospital.” Rachel replied.

Mary Beth thought about it for a moment, then nodded. “Oh...yeah that makes sense.” But she didn't believe it.

“Yep.” Rachel replied.

“So did Bruce really try to kill you?” Mary Beth asked.

“I'm sorry.” Maggie cut in. “We can't talk about that yet. Legal issues.”

“Oh...I'm sorry.” Mary Beth slumped her shoulders.

“We need to get going. Troy will be checking out here shortly.” Maggie said, moving the chair past Mary Beth.

The young girl began walking with them. “Are you going to be in school Monday?”

“Maybe. It depends on how I feel by then.” Tracy replied.

“So what happened?” The girl asked again.

“I'd rather not talk about it. It's kinda personal.” Tracy said.

“So it's true? Bruce cut your...well you know, your thingy off.” She blushed as she said it.

Tracy's cheeks went just as red. “Who said that?” She asked.

“I heard it someplace.” The girl replied as she looked to the floor.

Maggie chuckled. “No, he didn't cut it off. If he had, Troy would be dead.”

“Really?” She asked.

“Yes. But once again, you'll have to excuse us. We got a nurse waiting for us in Troy's room.”

“Oh....sorry.” Mary Beth replied. “I'll see you in school on Monday.”

“Okay. Bye Mary Beth.”Tracy replied.

They walked over and Sage ran ahead to call on the elevator. When they got in the elevator and the doors shut, Rachel looked to Tracy. “Is she really that clueless?”

“Yep.” Tracy nodded. “She's the biggest gossip in the school. I bet she's the one who said my thing was cut off.”

“Oh shit.” Rachel said as she began to rock on her heels.

Tracy turned to face her. “What?”

“You said she's the biggest gossip and I just told her that you were wearing my shorts. I just admitted you were wearing girls clothes.” Rachel looked to the floor. “I'm sorry Tracy.”

“Crap.”

“Language young lady.” Maggie leaned forward so her daughter could see her face. “We'll handle this when it happens. Till then there's no point in worrying about it.”

“Okay Mom.” She replied.

~o~O~o~

An hour later Tracy sat in the middle seat of Persephone's VW Bus, taking over one whole seat, with her legs on the bench. She wasn't happy with the sweats and lack of underwear, but she didn't want to push things too far. Rachel and Sage behind her. Her mother had taken over the passenger seat. Rachel's mom was with William.

As they quickly got out of the small town Tracy lived by, Sage tapped her shoulder. “That was it? That was the town you live in?”

“Not really. That's the bigger town we live near and we were just on the outskirts of it. Wait till you see where we live.” She pointed to a road as they turned at an intersection. “That way leads to the lake. Lots of camping up there.”

“See, we so gotta come here in the summer.” Sage said, then she looked to Rachel before the other girl could say anything. “Camping wont kill you.”

“It may.” She replied. “I may get eaten by a rabid chipmunk or a venomous duck.”

Tracy laughed, till she gasped and held her sides. “No making me laugh.”

“So, is Peter coming over tonight?” Sage batted her eyelashes at Tracy.

“Yes. I called his place when you were in the bathroom Tracy. Your Dad is picking him up on the way to the school.” Maggie answered for her.

“School? Why are we going there?” Tracy asked.

“You're Dad got Mr. Harper to agree to let you look at the pictures to see if we could see the fourth boy who attacked you. There was a basketball game tonight, so he'll be there till seven. That gives us about two hours. Plus Your father is going there for Vance's game. He already called the sheriff’s department so they can have someone there to take down any more information. ”

“You talked to the cops already?” Rachel asked. “Was it like in the movies? Did they use the room with the bright light and stuff?”

“I talked to them after I woke up on Friday. And I was in bed, they couldn't move me till later.” Tracy replied. “No, it was just a lot of questions over and over till the nurses and doctor got mad and kicked him out because they were making me mad and I couldn't move at all.”

“Wow. Think they'll do that here?” Rachel asked.

“Who knows?” Tracy shrugged.

“If they do, I will take you away from them.” Maggie replied. “They got one report, they don't need two. And you need your rest.”

Tracy nodded. “So act like I'm tired? Shouldn't be hard.” She pointed to Sage and Rachel. “What about them?”

“Well there's several hundred kids in your school I was thinking you could give them a description to all of us and we could look too.” Maggie gestured to Persephone. “It's kind of rude to just take them home and make them wait for us.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Tracy replied.

“Okay girls, I doubt you'll remember, but this road on your right leads to our house. It dumps out on this road in a mile or so too.” Maggie said, pointing to the road. Persephone turned at it.

“I thought we were going to the school?” Tracy said, now extremely confused.

“We are, but I thought Persephone and the girls would like to leave their stuff at the house, as opposed to just leaving it in the back of the bus. Plus it gives your father enough time to go grab Peter.”

“Oh.”

“Okay, take it easy. Just up ahead the road is a forced turn to the left. You miss it and we're in the ravine.” Maggie said.

“Nothing like pressure to make you don't screw up.” Sage's mother said with a smile. She slowed down as they hit the turn. When they straightened out she picked up the speed. “Which one?”

“It's on the other side of that hill.” Maggie pointed to a big hill on the road. As they started down one side, Sage began giggling.

“She's like this on roller coasters too.” Rachel said shaking her head.

“COWS!” Sage began bouncing and pointing to the right side of the road.

“That's Lilly Scott's place. She's our neighbor.” Maggie said. The buses motor got louder as Persephone put her foot down. She let up near the top of the hill. “Just past this mobile home on the right. That's Modine's place.”

“Whoa, look at the old truck.” Rachel said, looking at a truck with more rust and dust on it then paint. “Uncle Frank would love that.”

“He does, he tired to get Conner to sell it before, but Conner uses it for farm work.” Maggie stated.

“Hey, what are those trees?” Rachel asked as Maggie pointed to a drive next to Modine's place and Persephone pulled in.

“Well the trees with no leaves are pecan trees. The ones with the leaves are olive trees.” Maggie replied as the bus pulled to a stop. “We also have three pomegranate tress here, one apple tree, one green apple and a fig tree. Not sure who planted some of those, but they must have been hungry for fruit.”

As Maggie got out and slid the back door open, Tracy blushed from embarrassment as the sight of her house. It was old and rundown. It badly needed a paint job, new windows and a ton of other work. “You want to wait?” Maggie asked her. “Or can you handle getting in and out a few times tonight.”

“I'm Okay in here.” She replied, her happy tone was now long gone. There were times she hated the house. Usually when someone was over to visit her.

Sage hopped out and was followed by Rachel. Sage began looking over the house and she understood why Tracy didn't mind her place in Livermore. She looked around the outside, then stepped to the side of the house. “Cool.” Her eyes went wide. “Rachel. Look, they got big birds here.”

Maggie raised an eyebrow and moved to the side of the house. She chuckled when she saw what Sage saw. “Meet the wild turkeys. Usually we have like twenty of them.” She gestured to the trees. “We get a lot of deer here too. And make sure the cats don't have the white stripe down their back if you try and pet them at night, those are skunks. But lets get your stuff put up for now. We can't keep the Principal waiting. I promise to let you look around tomorrow.”

“Cool.” Sage said with a smile.

~o~O~o~

Ten minutes later, Tracy found herself slowly walking into the main office of her school. Sage and Rachel were to either side and Peter was rushing ahead to open up the doors. They had added Vance into their group, who was playing in the basketball game. Mr. Harper met them in the lobby as he stood in the doorway watching the set up for the basketball game. The offices, both the principal and nurses, were connected to the auditorium that served as cafeteria too, plus it had the stage for the drama class and the band room was connected to that.

He turned as he heard the movement and he stopped and considered the group that Tracy had with her. “Well, you know you didn't need all this backup Mr Patterson.” He said, walking over to Troy and offering his hand. “How you doing, son?”

“I hurt. I feel like someone is dancing on my...my crotch.” She blushed brightly.

“That's normal. I had a brother that went through the same thing a couple years back because of cancer.” He replied.

“You know what happened?” Tracy asked, very nervously.

“I had to tell him and the nurse for when you came back to school, in case of problems.” Maggie piped in.

“Don't worry, the nature of your surgery will be kept from the mass populace of the school. Even the teachers will only know that you had something major done as a result of the attack, but with the rumors, it wont be hard to guess at what it was.”

“Oh.” Tracy replied. She didn't want it being too well known. But with stories like the one that Mary Beth had told then, someone was bound to make up something like what really happened.

“I've got the pictures in the office. Let me get the Deputy.” He went back to the auditorium and waved at someone, then he walked over to Tracy and her friends and family. “So what's with the big group?”

“These are friends of hers from out of town. They heard about the attack and they wanted to visit. Be a bit rude to just leave them at our place for a couple of hours.” Maggie replied.

“It would be.” Mr Harper agreed, ignoring Maggie's choice of words. Tracy was too busy being in pain to hear what she had said and the only recognition that William gave was a quick glance towards his wife, just the eyes, not a full move of the head.

“I was wondering if they could help us and cut down on the looking time. Tra...” Maggie's vocal filter caught the slip in time and she tired to save it. “oy. Can give them a description and we can look that way.”

Mr. Harper looked at her for a moment, wondering what she had started to say, but he just waved it off. He had been hearing strange rumors all over the school for the past two days. Something about Troy being maimed, and being dead. There were more, one of which he already had confirmation on and now he felt he needed to talk to them in private. “That's good. But before we begin, can I talk to you, your husband and Troy please?”

Maggie looked to a confused William, who just shrugged. “Sure.”

Mr. Harper led them into his office. The rest of the group stood in the outer office. On instinct he went around his desk and pulled out his chair. He had sat down as he watched William stand behind his wife, offering the other seat to his child. Tracy winced in pain as she sat down. The Principal waited a moment, then he started.

“I just wanted to let you know about some of the rumors that we've heard concerning your son in the past two days.” He watched as Tracy shifted in the seat, the child’s face was a mask of pain. “They run the gambit from stories of your son being dead to Bruce cutting off body parts.” He watched as Tracy kept fidgeting in the seat. “There even rumors that your son fought off ten guys single handed.”

He stood up as Tracy moved in her seat once more, grunting in pain. “Troy, get up for a moment.” He stood up and wheeled his chair around the desk. “I should have thought about the pain and those chairs. Try this out, but only for tonight.”

Tracy had stood up slowly, then she looked to her parents who nodded. Once she had the approval, she sat back in the seat and smiled. The seat had better padding then the other seat. In fact it was one of the most comfortable work types seats she had ever sat in. “Thank you, Sir. This is comfy. ”

“Being Principal does come with some good benefits.” He smiled as he moved to sit on the edge of his desk. “There's also a rumor going around that Troy was wearing a dress on the day Bruce attacked him. I'm not sure who is spreading it, but I have instructions with all the teachers to help stop it. It's a slander lawsuit in the making.” Maggie looked at William, who just kept his poker face going. The blood rushed from Tracy's face as it held a look of shocked fear, something Mr. Harper caught.

“Has anyone said who started it?” Maggie asked.

“Maggie, you know how these things work. Each kid will say they heard it from someone else. We can't suspend half the school, not till we know who is spreading the rumor. If I had to guess, it's either the boy you want to find today, or it's Bruce's brother, Clark. He worships the ground Bruce walked on, so getting him to admit it would be hard.”

“I understand.” William replied, nodding his head.

Mr. Harper paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to proceed. “Maggie, William, I don't care what Troy does in his spare time, if the rumor is true. As long as his schooling doesn't falter, that's my main concern. Well, That and his safety. He's a bright student. Polite and friendly. I've never had any trouble with him, other then the incident last week, but my hands were tied on that.”

He took a deep breath, then sat to where he could see both Tracy and her mother. “I would urge you to exercise a little more caution though.”

“What do you mean?” Maggie asked.

“I know I'm out on a limb here, but bear with me. In the hall you almost refereed to your child with another name and you said those were her, not his friends. You used the female pronoun. And just a moment ago, when I mentioned the rumor of the dress, your son lost the color in his face and looked like a scared animal.”

Before anyone could speak, Mr. Harper held a hand up. “Like I said, I don't care what he does as long as he is in a safe environment. But Troy, things like this can land you in a world of hurt if your not careful. You got to learn to control your facial reactions.” He stood up and looked to Maggie and William. “I should also tell, my wife was in the ER the night Troy went in. She was there with her mother. She knew you on sight, Maggie. And she remembered Troy from the Christmas program last year she saw what he was wearing. It's a small hospital, there's no back door to go though, so if anyone else was in the waiting room, they could have seen Troy in a skirt.”

Tracy's heart sank and she began to cry. Mr, Harper turned to face her, dropping to one knee. “Hey, what's with the tears?”

“Everyone's gonna find out.” She said between sniffles.

“Not from me they wont. And Karen wont tell either. She has a niece in New York like you, she's about nineteen and lives in Albany.” He smiled at her. “Your secret is safe with us. But this is why you need to work on your facial expressions. You got to be able to pull off the poker face your father has. If not people just got to ask you about dresses and you'll give it away.”

“You...” Tracy blinked and then wiped some tears out of her eyes. “You don't mind?”

“Well you can't wear them here, but at home? I don't mind. You don't seem to be suffering any mental issues from it, no more then the usual kid stuff, so I don't need to call the county people.” there was a knocking at the door and he stood up. “Look, anytime you need to talk, my door is open. I may not totally understand, but I'm behind you. I don't know about the other teachers, but I'm on your side.”

“Thank you.” Maggie said as she stood up.

“It's no problem,.” He opened the door to find the Deputy. “Sorry, had to cover a couple of school related things.”

“Oh, I totally understand. I just wanted to see if we can get working on this. I've got dispatch wondering what's taking me so long and I hate being in trouble.” He replied.

“Sure. We'll take over my office for privacy.” Mr. Harper turned around and smiled at Tracy. “Go ahead and keep the chair for now. Be best for you.”

“Should I do this?” Tracy asked, looking to her parents.

“What do you mean?” Maggie asked. “He attacked you, didn't he?”

“Well not really.” She replied.

“But he was there at the time of attack and he knew that it was going to happen, correct?” The Deputy asked.

“I don't know a part of him seemed surprised at what all Bruce wanted to do." Tracy replied.

"But he can help keep those other boys in jail. I'd do it just to be safe." Maggie stated.

She sat there as everyone filed into the office. “Okay, Troy, tell them what your looking for.” Maggie said, as Mr. Harper put the pictures on his desk.

“There was a fourth kid there on Wednesday. He left early, Bruce attacked him when he decided not to do what Bruce said. He's about my age, a bit older. Brown hair and kind of a bland face.”

“Wait.” Peter said, he moved closer to the desk. “Was he wearing a black Queen t-shirt?”

Tracy looked at him confused and nodded. “Yeah, how did you know?”

“That fucking son of a bitch.” Peter swore, gaining him the motherly stares from Maggie and Rachel's mother. He blushed. “Sorry. I saw him walking down your road, mumbling to himself. I just figured he had relatives there.” Peter locked his eyes on Tracy and his fists began to ball up. When he spoke again, his voice was strained and he looked ready for a fight. “Did he hurt you?”

“No. In fact Bruce and his friends first found me behind the barn. He was with them, but when it was shown that Bruce was going to hurt me, he left, after Bruce hit him.” She leaned back in the chair, all eyes were on her. “If he hadn't objected to what Bruce was going to do, I wouldn't have had the chance to run and get to Grandma's place.” After a second, she scoffed and added. “Not that getting there helped much.”

“Alright, on Track people, focus.” Mr. Harper looked to Peter. “Mr. lowery, can you point out who he is? Have you seen him around the school before?”

Peter nodded. “I think he's either in the sixth or seventh grade.”

“That narrows it down.” The Deputy remarked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Actually, it does. We have all grades here, first through eighth, but there's only three classes of each grade, so that gives us six homerooms to check out, and that’s better then twenty-four.” Mr. Harper stated.

The Deputy looked at Tracy. “And why did you fell the need to hide this information?”

William was about to speak, When Maggie stood up an glared at the Deputy. “We've spoke to your department once since she woke up. Your people felt the need to ask questions to a child who had just been through a major surgery and was still on pain killers. She didn't even recall the other guy till later.” It was a lie, but Tracy had enough problems.

“So why do you need to find this kid?” The Deputy asked. “You've got your mother, friend, Grandfather and Grandmother to say they attacked you.”

“We want to make sure that son of a bitch stays in jail.” William replied. “And this kid could help with that.”

“I understand.” The Deputy nodded. “I'll let you all work, let me know when you got an ID.” He walked out of the crowded office, talking into his radio as he went to find a chair in the outer office.

Mr. Harper spread out the class pictures of the sixth and seventh grades and everyone let peter look over them.

Sage and Rachel stood next to Tracy as Peter and Tracy looked over the pictures. Peter stopped and tapped one of them. “him.” He passed it to Tracy who nodded.

“Yeah. That's him.” The others moved from the desk so Mr. Harper could get a look

“Hmmmm.” He scanned the list of names at the bottom, drumming his fingers on the desk. “Jerry Rivers. I remember him now. New kid, just moved to the school district in August.” He picked up the pictures, then went to find the Deputy.

“Now what?” Tracy asked.

“Now we put it in the Law's hands.” William replied. “That's all we can do.”

~o~O~o~

The game was going on in the auditorium and Tracy didn't want to deal with the crowd in there, so instead she asked to go for a walk on the school grounds. Peter had gone with her in case of troubles and Sage and Rachel went along too. Persephone and Rachel's mother had stayed near the office with Maggie and William.

As they reached the far end of the school Sage shook her head. “Man, that's it? You're school is this small?”

“Wow, our school seems huge compared to this and that’s just an elementary school.” Rachel added.

“Well there's not a lot of people here.” Tracy said. “It's just farm lands.”

“I expected to see cows and horses grazing on the football field.” Sage said with a laugh.

“It's not that small.” Tracy replied.

“Compared to home it is.” Rachel looked at her and shrugged. “But it's okay.”

Tracy stopped by the bus stop and leaned against a wall. “Okay, lets go back and see if your mother can take us home.”

“Cool. Can we play a board game when we get home?” Sage gave her a big smile.

“Sure, I could use so fun in my life.” Tracy answered as she began the long walk to the office. Halfway there a couple of girls came running up and Tracy recognized Mary Beth and her older sister Emily May.

"You got out of the hospital?" Mary Beth said as she fell in step next to Troy, pushing Peter out of his spot. Her sister walked next to her.

"Yep." Tracy nodded.

"Were you visiting someone up there? We had gone to see my Granny. She got sick the other day and they wanted to keep an eye on her."

"My Grandma got hurt when I did." Tracy replied.

"Why are you walking so slow?" Emily May asked.

"I got hurt?" Tracy looked at her and then back at the goal of the office doors. They were so far away and she hoped she could make it.

"Oh." Emily replied. "You gonna be back on Monday?"

"Maybe. I'll be in pain, but I'll try."

"So who are they?" Emily May asked, pointing to the other two girls.

"Yeah, I forgot to ask earlier." Mary Beth said.

Tracy slowed to a stop and gestured to her friends. "This is Sage and Rachel." then she gestured to Emily May. "This is Emily May, Mary Beth's sister"

"Hi. Do you go to school here?" Emily asked.

"No, we go to Rancho Las Positas Elementary." Rachel replied.

"Where's that at?" Mary Beth asked.

"Livermore, in the Bay Area." Sage replied.

"You live in the Bay Area? We got family all over down there. We wanna move, but our Dad likes it here." Emily shrugged her shoulders. "But when I'm older, I'll move there."

"It is nice down there." Sage agreed.

Tracy began walking again, causing the five kids to walk with her.

"So is one of you his girl friend?" Emily May asked.

Tracy almost stumbled, but she caught herself and pain erupted in both her ribs and her crotch. Sage answered with a grin. "Neither of us are lucky enough to have him as a boyfriend."

"We're gonna be in the Bay Area around Christmas, maybe we should hang out? Our brother was going to go, but he wants to hang out with a different uncle and go skiing." Mary Beth said, taking a piece of paper out of her tiny purse. She pulled out a pen and began to write. "This is our Aunt's number, call it if you wanna hang out."

"Well I'll see." Sage said as she took the paper. "May be out of town visiting family in Vermont."

"Then her." Mary Beth took the paper back and pushed it to Rachel who took it.

"I'll see. Not really sure what Attila the Mom will have planned." Rachel said with a smile. "But we'll see." She pulled out a piece o paper from her own purse and wrote a number down. "Call that if you want, we may be home."

"Thanks." Mary Beth smiled at her.

Tracy reached the door, then she turned around and rested against the wall. "Okay, I need to go home."

"You okay?" Peter asked.

"Just tired. Been a long day and I need a nap." She replied.

"I gotcha." He opened up the door and let Tracy walk in. She stopped at her mother and the other mothers.

"Can we take off now?" She asked.

"Yeah." Maggie said after looking to Persephone and Rachel's mom.

"Cool." She turned to look at Mary Beth and her sister. "I may see you on Monday. If I can make it to school."

"Cool." the two girls smiled, then went into watch the basketball game. Tracy slowly lead the group to the bus as her mother stopped to tell her father that they were leaving. When they reached the bus, Tracy looked to Rachel. "Why did you take their number? You really wanna hang out with them?"

"Not really, they seem a bit clueless for my tastes, but if I hadn't they'd use that to claim you have stuck up friends." Rachel replied. "Plus if I get to talking to them, I can see if they are starting rumors about you. See, I have a point to this."

Tracy stopped and hugged her. "Thank you Rachel." She looked at the other girl. "You too Sage."

~o~O~o~

As the game was ending, Emily May and Mary Beth walked ahead of their brother and parents to the car. The older girl looked at her sister. "Are you sure it was a skirt?" She asked.

"Emily, I know what a skirt looks like. Troy's hiding something. Then that Rachel girl said his clothes were ruined and he was wearing her stuff. She's bigger then he is. This fit too nice for it to not be his." Mary Beth replied.

"I see. And it is odd for a boy his age to be that comfortable with two girls." She nodded. "Hell Wally hates being by girls right now and he's older then Troy." She cast a glance to her twin brother.

"See what I mean? Troy is hiding something, something juicy." Mary Beth smiled wide.

"Just remember, you go blabbing this around and he could get hurt." Her sister said. "You know that."

"Yeah, but you got to admit, with his hair getting longer, he does look like a girl."

Emily May nodded. "Yeah, he does."

More fun with our little heroine. Tune in next bat-time for a bit of farm life for Sage and Rachel.