“I know telling you to go straight to bed is pointless, so just keep it down, and don't stay up too late. okay?”

"Thanks, Daddy." Tracy said with a smile.

"Just be good, okay? Or I’ll let Vance sleep in here with you girls."

"Daddy!" Tracy playfully whined.

"Sage would never get to sleep." Rachel said with a giggle.

Editing by Djkauf

Another look in on Tracy and friends.

February 4th 1983

Mooney, Harvey, and Lok had all come in to hang out with William and Vance, to know them better; Persephone and Romy had come over, as had Tracy's grandparents. The guys were busy watching the Dukes of Hazzard, and talking about sports and anything else that caught their fancy. The ladies all went to the kitchen to take over the kitchen table and a couple of the folding chairs, too. As much as Tracy wanted to watch the TV, her friends were more important.

Her grandmother suggested a board game, something that they could play, but still talk with each other. As they had done at Sage's house in December, one of them took Romy as a team mate, while Persephone, Maggie and Modine just watched. Maggie had brought out a kid favorite, Chutes and Ladders, and the girls each took up a place at the table.

So Tracy ended up with Romy in her lap as they played the game. Half an hour had passed as they started on a second round, while Maggie had been talking with Persephone when Modine caught their attention with a wave of her hand. She pointed to the table where Tracy sat, the little girl slowly falling asleep in her arms. Romy's head was bobbing slightly as she fought to stay awake. Each time the girl shifted her weight, Tracy moved with her, letting the girl rest against her chest. Maggie was impressed that Tracy juggled her attention between the game and holding the child as though she had always dealt with children.

Tracy's leg was slowly losing feeling, but she didn't want to upset the girl by putting her down and making her think she wasn't invited to play anymore.

"Tracy, do you want me to take her?" Persephone quietly asked.

"Naw, she's not that heavy, unless it's time for her to go to bed."

"In another half an hour, but I don't want her to get in the way of your fun", Persephone said.

"I'm not tired", The little girl mumbled.

"I don't mind. I don't have a baby sister, so this is kinda cool, like practice, if I ever do have a baby sister."

Maggie arched an eyebrow, but decided to not question her daughter about the statement. Instead, she came up with a plan for the girls. "I have an idea for when this is done." Maggie said, making the girls to all look at her, except for Casey, who had to look around and figure out what was going on.

"What's that?" Tracy asked.

"Would you like to see something really cool tonight?" Maggie asked. "Before Romy goes to bed."

"Sure, what is it?" Sage replied.

"We can show you the stars" Maggie replied. "You can't see them that well in Livermore, but you can out here. It’s a clear night, so we should be able to see some of them."

"We could go now, if the girls don't mind, and then we could go put Romy to bed." Persephone suggested.

The girls all looked around the table and each of them nodded. “Sure.” Tracy finally said. They all stood up after Persephone took her daughter, and they got a strange look from the guys as they passed the TV.

“We're gonna go look at the stars.” Maggie said.

“Oh. Have fun.” William replied. Then he looked at the guys. “Unless you want to see them too.”

“Sure.” Moony replied.

Harvey just nodded. He quickly explained to his slightly confused deaf daughter what was going on and she nodded.

“I think I'm going to go home and get ready for bed.” Modine said and her husband got up an grabbed his flashlight. "We'll see you all tomorrow."

They all stepped outside and Maggie led everyone outside with a flashlight, past Harvey's trailer, and behind the house. She shut off the light and the girls stood there. “Now just wait a few minutes for your eyes to adjust to this.” She said. “And you'll be able to see the night sky.”

They stood there in the darkness. Several minutes passed and in the cold February night, as their eyes slowly got used to the darkness, they could make out the tiny pin pricks of light in the sky. Just a few, then the longer they stood there, the more seemed to show up.

“Wow.....are all of those stars?” Sage asked. "It's like a blur, like someone smeared their finger across the sky."

“Yep.” Maggie replied. “You should see it in August when the Perseid meteor shower happens. That's a wonderful show.”

“Kinda makes you feel small.” Rachel stated.

“Yeah.” Stacey replied.

“See, this is why you should go camping, Rachel.” Sage said. “Just imagine, lying on the ground, watching the stars overhead.”

“With the bugs that eat you alive? No thank you.” Rachel replied.

"Come on now. Camping isn't all bad." Harvey said. "It can be quite fun. There is more to life than the mall."

"For you, maybe." Rachel replied with a chuckle. "But then you don't shop much."

"True. I leave the shopping to my girls."

Persephone shifted her youngest and sighed. "Well, I think this is bed time for me. Romy's starting to snore."

Maggie chuckled lightly. "Well come on girls. Let's get you all inside. We'll see you tomorrow morning, Persephone."

~o~O~o~

It was just past ten at night when William got up as Maggie shut off the TV and he went to the fireplace. Moony had decided to hang out with Vance at the last minute, so he ended up in Tracy's bed, instead of the trailer. After their quick venture in star watching, the girls had played another game, picking something a bit more complex. Persephone had already gone next door with Romy. The pull out bed had been made and Brooke was already laying down on it. Rachel had also taken the pullout. Other sleeping bags were littered around the room, including Tracy's.

William looked at the collective preteens. “Okay girls, I'd like to keep a little path in here to get through. I'll put another log in the fireplace, but don't put anymore in. It'll get a bit cool tonight, but just stay in the sleeping bags, okay?”

Five of the girls nodded, then Stacey relayed the message to Casey.

“I know telling you to go straight to bed is pointless, so just keep it down, and don't stay up too late. okay?”

"Thanks, Daddy." Tracy said with a smile.

"Just be good, okay? Or I’ll let Vance sleep in here with you girls."

"Daddy!" Tracy playfully whined.

"Sage would never get to sleep." Rachel said with a giggle.

Once William had gone to his room, Sage rolled over in her sleeping bag and smiled up at them, the light from the fireplace reflecting in her eyes and on her face. “So wanna tell ghost stories?”

"Creepy." Rachel said with a snicker. "Could you not have the firelight on your face when you do that?"

"Let's tell the story about the cute redhead who keeps being followed by the brother of a friend of hers." Stacey said as she began to laugh. She moved the pillow to her face and laughed into that.

"Yeah yeah, he saw your naked backside too." Sage reminded her.

"I was wearing panties and a bra." Stacey stuck out her tongue. "Not like you, miss naked butt."

"I was not totally naked."

"Bet he didn't see it that way." Rachel said with a giggle.

“Bet she's gonna be a great dream for him tonight.” Brooke said with a chuckle.

“Please, I don't want to think what he's doing in his room with the dreams of Sage.” Tracy said. “Worries me when I'm in the room with him.”

“I can understand.” Sage replied. “Being the only other one of us with a brother....”

“I'm just glad you all made it up here.” Tracy butted in, to stop the talk of brothers.

“Hey, it's kinda cool up here. Like camping in a cabin.” Stacey said. “Besides, you needed us to visit, you were going crazy on your own.”

Tracy nodded in agreement.

“Let's not talk about the sad stuff.” Sage said. “I want tonight to be fun.”

“Yeah, like Christmas time.” Tracy said in agreement.

“I still can't believe how quiet it is out here.” Stacey said. “Does anyone drive down this road?”

“Some.” Tracy said. “The ones who use it as a race track.”

"A race track?" Stacey asked.

"There's a big dip past my grandparents place and people love to speed through that, but the corner of the road is a sharp turn and if you miss it, you end up in the ravine." Tracy explained.

"Oh." Came Stacey's reply.

“Must be boring to live here all the time.” Rachel said. "When we were up in December it seemed like it could be boring."

“It can be.”

“I couldn't live here.” Brooke stated. “My wheelchair couldn't take it.”

"I can't live here, there's no mall. Rachel stated.

-break

Vance got up in his usual post slumber daze and he wandered into the kitchen when he paused in his tracks. At the stove, like usual, was his sister, but the other girls he had forgotten about were there, all of them still in nightgowns that fell past their knees. His mother was at the table with Brooke, both of them buttering pancakes. The girls looked at him. He noticed Tracy's eyes go wide and her jaw dropped. Rachel looked and began giggling.

The other girls turned to look and Stacey caught Casey's attention. “Um, Vance, maybe you should try today with pants?” Sage said with a giggle.

“Wha?” He sleepily muttered.

“Vance, you should put pajama bottoms, instead of just boxers, when the girls are spending the night." His mother stated. “It's the proper thing to do.”

He looked down and the shock seemed to wake him up a bit. He turned and headed for his bedroom as the girls all began to giggle. Rachel snickered as she tried to whisper. “Looks like someone had a good dream last night.” They all burst into laughter, except for Maggie who just shook her head.

Stacey began fighting the laughter. “Wanna b-bet it was about a n-n-nake Sage.”

“Oh, Be quiet.” Sage said in a playful tone.

Brooke reached over and pinched her butt. “It's that cute butt of hers.”

Sage squirmed away from Brooke and tried to look mad, but failed. “Stop!”

Rachel flipped up the back of Sage's nightgown, just slightly. “He'll like it better this way.”

“I swear I'll get in your packs and let him have the pick of your panties.” Sage glared at her cousin and friends and each of them backed down as they saw the expression on her face showing they were about to go too far. “Please drop it now.” Sage said through clinched teeth.

“Okay.” Rachel said as she pulled Sage into a hug, which Stacey joined. Brooke just squeezed her hand.

“You all okay?” Tracy asked.

“We will be.” Rachel said. “Just don't want hard feelings.” She said to Sage, who just leaned into the hug for a moment, then they broke it off and Sage went back to work at the stove with Tracy, making her wonder what was going on.

~o~O~o~

After Lok and the other adults had eaten, he walked up to Tracy's parents “William, Maggie, I would like to talk for a moment, outside, please.”

“Sure, nothing wrog, is there?” Maggie asked.

“No, I just wanted to talk about Tracy's classes in Tai Chi.” Lok said.

“Okay.” William said as he stood up.

As they all left the house, they stopped near the street. Lok turned to talk to them. “Brooke told me about her last teacher. How he made her quit. That is not the sign of a good teacher.”

“Yeah.” Maggie scoffed. “I wanted to smack the jerk.”

“Does Tracy enjoy it? The classes I mean?”

“Yeah. She practiced whenever she could.” Maggie said with a nod.

“What if I provide a solution?” Lok said with a smile. "We could let her become a student of my school."

“You would teach her?” Maggie asked.

“No. Jaio would. At our school, Jaio teaches Chen style of Tai Chi. I teach Wing Chan and a couple of other styles. But Jaio would be willing to take her as a student. We know she is a good girl and that is the kind of student we want. Not ones who make demands of the teacher.”

“Maybe we should offer it to her?” Maggie asked William.

“Yeah.” He said with a nod. “She does seem to enjoy it.

Maggie looked to Lok. “There is something that Tracy and the other parents don't know yet, but William and I agree that if there is another attack, we will send Tracy to live with Shelly and Frank. I will give two weeks notice and then William will follow with Vance.”

Lok nodded in agreement to the soundness of the plan, but then he asked. “Have you thought that it may not get better?”

“Yeah.” William said with a sad nod. “I went to bed thinking that sending her with Persephone may be our best bet. Ever since they started leaving pictures at my work, I think the writing is on the wall. But we wanted her to have a weekend with her friends, before we worry her.”

“Then I shall let you tell her that.” Lok stated. "But I want to offer to teach her."

“Thank you.” William replied. “But I'm not sure how we'll afford the classes.”

“Perhaps we can find a solution together.”

~o~O~o~

Breakfast was over as Sage waited till most of the girls had used the bathroom when she grabbed Tracy and led her to her bedroom. “Pants, grab a pair now.”

Tracy did as she was told, then Sage led her to the bathroom and locked both the door that led to Tracy's parents room and to the hall that led to the kitchen. “Um....what's going on?”

“You asked me about tucking at Christmas. I said I'd show you sometime. Today became sometime.” Sage replied. She handed something to Tracy, then she turned away. “Strip. You can leave your shirt on, but take the rest off. That thing I gave you is a gaff and it is now your best friend.”

“Um, okay?” Tracy said as she slowly shed out of her clothes. She tapped Sage on the shoulder. “How does this work?

Without turning around, Sage replied. “Okay, take your thing and lay it against the skin between your legs then pull the gaff on the rest of the way. It's going to squish it a bit You may need to adjust yourself too. The gaff goes under your panties. When you get your panties on, tell me.”

It took several minutes till Tracy could summon the courage to pull on the gaff thing and did as Sage had instructed. Finally she bit her lip. “Okay, panties are on.”

Sage turned around, making sure to keep her eyes locked on Tracy's. She took a couple of breaths and brought up the will to look down. She knew how much she hated people, even if they were doctors seeing her in less then this, even the joke they had played on Vance the night before had been hard for her to pull off. Rachel had begged her to do it, and in the end she had only agreed to it because it seemed funny. She had almost lost it though as her friends had kept pinching and exposing her but, but she knew they meant no harm.

She knew what Tracy was feeling and she was trying to make it as painless as possible. She slowly lowered her eyes and she took a step back and a grin passed over her lips as she looked, then she looked Tracy in the eyes again. “Very good for a first time. Maybe a little adjusting, but that's something you get better at with time. I'll wait at the door as you put on the pants.”

“Cool.” Tracy was blushing. She was glad when Sage stepped away. Tracy put on the pants and zipped them up.. Then she grabbed a tiny mirror and held it out so she could see how she looked. She smiled when she couldn't see a bulge, no matter how small it was to begin with. "Hey Sage?" She called out

"Yeah?"

Tracy stayed where she was, but decided to question the use of the gaff. "Is this what you use? Like when you go swimming?"

Sage blushed but she didn't go back to Tracy, letting her have her privacy. "Yeah, I use something like that too, but mine isn't that big, so my gaff is smaller."

"Oh, cool. At least I know it works." Tracy went to Sage and she tapped her on the shoulder. “Done.”

“Well? Can we turn you into a jeans girl?”

“I still like my skirts.” Tracy said, then she hugged Sage. “But thank you.” She whispered.

“You're welcome. There are other tricks, like tape and stuff like that to hold it in place, but that gaff is for the best. Easier to go to the bathroom I think.”

“Plus if we're outside, I'd rather be in jeans, just in case someone sees me.”

“I can understand that.” Sage replied. “Man I wish you lived by us.”

"Me too." Tracy said with a nod of her head.

~o~O~o~

The girls walked behind Tracy's parents house and they stood in silence. Brooke and Casey stood near the end of the foot path as Tracy pointed out the flock of wild turkeys that were busy looking for food just about thirty feet from the house. “See.” Tracy said in a whisper, as she pointed the birds out to Romy. “Turkeys.”

“I wanna pet 'em.” The little girl said, then she took off running towards the birds.

“Romy!” Sage started after her, but just after two steps, the large birds all turned and took several steps, then began to flap their wings and the flock took off towards the trees that lined the back part of the property.

Sage slowed down, then she just stopped and stood there, All the other girls had the same expression, their jaws hung open. All but Tracy. Sage looked at Tracy. “They fly?”

Tracy nodded. “Yep.”

“Turkeys can FLY?!?” Sage asked again. They heard Modine laughing from her back porch and looked over to see her out watching the large birds as well. Tracy began to lead them over to her. Casey began pushing Brooke over, taking the nicest path she could.

“Wild turkeys can. The ones you have on farms for Thanksgiving can’t cause they get too fat from eating the feed.” Tracy clarified. “But these turkeys can fly and they do it well. In fact I heard they sleep in the trees.”

“Hey.” Rachel said as she pointed to the field. “Is that a deer?”

Off in the distance at the edge of the trees stood not one, but three deer. All of them had been grazing, but were currently looking around for trouble because of the flying turkeys. Tracy nodded. “Yep. That's a deer.”

“Where? I wanna see!” 'Romy began jumping up and down. Sage picked her up and placed her on her hip, then pointed.

“They're big.” 'Romy stated. “I wanna see sheep!”

“We'll see them when we get back. Mom wants to show you all the lake.” Tracy said as they stopped at Modine's fence.

“Cool.” Sage said.

“Hey, Grandma.”

“Tracy, Girls? Having fun making the turkeys fly away?”

“They've never seen wild turkeys.” Tracy stated. “And later we'll take them to see the Turner's sheep after we go to the dam.”

“That's nice.”

“Maybe Mister Hollister will have his horses out too?” Tracy thought aloud.

“I could call them and see if you could go look at them. Be more polite then, calling them to the fence.”

"Could you?"

Modine nodded. "For my Granddaughter I could."

~o~O~o~

Lok had waited for Tracy and the girls to come back in from looking at the turkeys. Her parents were already there, waiting for them. Persephone and Harvey were there as well. “Tracy, could we talk to you for a minute?” Maggie asked. Tracy began to worry that she was in trouble for something.

“You want us to leave?” Sage asked, not sure what was happening.

“Actually, you can stay.” William asked. “There's a few things we want to cover.” As the girls all came out, William nodded to Lok. “She's all yours.”

“Tracy, your parents told me about you losing your Tai Chi class.”

"Yeah." Tracy said, her happy mood completely going away.

“Tell me Tracy, were you happy with the last school?

"Well it was okay, I guess. I mean I didn't want to quit, but if he's gonna be a jerk, then I'd rather not go there....."

"And in not supporting you, your teacher has dishonored himself as a teacher."

"He said he couldn't afford to lose twenty students because of one, something about his bottom line."

"Money should not be the reason to keep a student. You keep a student because he or she brings honor to your school. You keep a student because that person pushes him or herself to be the best they can. Students who make demands of their teacher and order him around, those are not the type of students I would keep. Those are not the type of person that makes for a good learning environment." Lok looked staright at her and smiled. “I keep students like you. Ones who honor their family, and friends.”

"Like...like me?” Tracy asked, sounding more then confused. Then it hit her. “I could really be your student?"

"Yes. Jaio teaches the Tai Chi in my school and I teach a couple other styles. She is more then willing to teach you.”

“But I don't live down there, how could I learn when I only see you once a month?” Tracy asked.

William decided to make a spur of the moment choice and he hoped his wife wouldn't kill him later for not consulting her. Since the picture in his locker and the lunchroom, he guessed that a bigger storm was coming. He knew what Tracy heard over the phone was just a threat, but one that someone could easily accomplish and he refused to watch his wife or children die from his inaction. “What if you lived down there?”

“Lived down there?” Tracy repeated. “What do you mean?”

“Tracy, your mother and I have made an agreement that we would send you to your Aunt's to live if someone attacked you again. But I think your mother can agree with me, that we'd rather have you safe, so we're going to send you down there after this weekend.”

“I totally agree. In fact, Shelly agrees to it too. ” Maggie said and all the girls erupted into a roar of happy screams. The smile returned to Tracy’s face and it almost lit up the room.

“We'll help you pack!” Sage said as they stood and began to pull Tracy up.

“Girls.” William said, trying to get them under control as they began to drag Tracy to her room. “GIRLS!!!” William shouted, loud enough to catch their attention. “We'd like to finish before you do anything else.” The girls all came back into the room and stood there.

“Tracy, you'd be going without your father or me.” Maggie said. “At least for the first couple of weeks, so I can give my two weeks notice to Chris, this way I can get my sick time and vacation pay.”

“Alone?” Tracy asked, her happiness now gone, replaced with fear.

“For just a couple of weeks. Then I move down too.” Maggie replied

“What about Vance and Dad?”

“Vance goes with you. Your father will stay so he can sell the property. Or work something out. Once the school year is over for.” Maggie stated and her father nodded. “Unless they can catch this guy, then Vance will stay so he can stay in sports.”

Tracy thought about it, then looked to Lok, the happiness on her face sliding away slightly as she thought about what her father said the weekend before about moving and money. “I don't know if I can be a student though. If we move, money may be tight.”

“Could I have a few days to think of a suitable offer to help you?”

“Sure, I guess.”

“Then I shall talk to your parents and you should have fun.”

“When we go to the dam, we'll stop by a store and get some boxes to pack your stuff.” William said. “Your mother can call Shelly and warn her you’re coming.”

Tracy went over and hugged both of her parents. “Thank you.” She said.

~o~O~o~

The girls all piled into Persephone's bus. Harvey took his Suburban, filled with the other adults, plus Vance, Jerry and Moony and they all headed through the nearest town and to the dam that sat to the east.

Persephone pulled her VW bus to a stop at the top of the dam. Only a few people were out, mostly those jogging on the dam. On the lake, only a few people were out fishing.

“Wow”, Sage said as she stepped out of the VW bus and pushed her glasses up her nose. “That's a huge lake.”

“Yeah, but if you think that's big, you should see the side of the dam. Check this out.” Tracy said and she waited for a car to pass before she led her friends to the other side of the dam, with a great view of the valley around the town.

“wow.” Stacey said as she looked over the edge. “What's that? Like a power plant?” She said, pointing to the base of the dam.

“Yeah, there's a huge plant under us. It generates power for as far south as Sacramento I think.

“Whoa, look at the water running over there.” Rachel pointed off towards the other end of the dam. “What's that, like a river?”

“That's the spillway.” William stated. “For when the dam gets too full, they open that up and close off the road over there. “Open it too much and it floods to the south, so they have to watch how much they open it.”

“This is like the largest Earth dam in America, or something big, I forget what it was though. My class got to go there for a school trip this year, but that was when I was hurt and I had to stay home. We did get to see the Fish hatchery too.” Tracy stated.

“Fish hatchery?” Brooke asked.

“Yeah, it's over that way.” Tracy pointed off in the distance. “Each year the salmon swim back to spawn and this place makes sure some of them get the chance. It's cool because there is a viewing window there and you can see them swim by. I saw a fish that was longer then Romy is tall.”

“Damn, but my Dad would love to fish near there.” Stacey said.

“You can't. During that time of the year, they limit how close you can fish.”

“Man, Salmon would be nice.” Harvey said with a grin. “And if they all go at once, would have been easy to get some.”

“Yeah, the river goes black from the amount of fish in it.” Tracy said.

“Holy carp.” Harvey replied, using a very bad fish joke. “Just dip the net in the water and no need for bait.”

“Hey, is that mountain over that way really flat?” Sage asked, pointing off in the distance.

Tracy nodded. “There's like two or three mountains there. It's called Table Mountain. There was a volcano or something there thousands of years ago and when it blew, the mountain was flattened on top. It's cool in the spring, wild flowers grow all over.”

“Why is there a big O on the side? I saw it when we were riding up here.” Sage asked.

“O for Oroville, the town nearby the mountain.” Tracy stated. “I heard students of a local school put it up there in the Sixties.”

“How close is the nearest mall?” Rachel asked. “Think we could go to that?”

“It's in Chico, the North Valley Plaza. That's like over half an hour away.”

Rachel groaned. “Darn it.”

“It's not a good mall. It's kinda boring. The Peach Tree Mall in Marysville is just as bad.” Tracy looked at Rachel and shrugged. “At least compared to the Malls around you, it's bad.”

“We'll consider it.” Maggie said. “But I would feel bad if we spend all of Persephone's gas to get there.”

Figured on a bit of fluff, got to have a bit of fun with the girls.