Jen joined into the conversation her boyfriend was having with Karver and Weydon. "Oh, you should try CHik fil A."

"Thank you!" she replied. "I think I'll do just that." Karver smiled, and stood up, placing Weydon on the floor again. She tried taking Weydon by the hand, but the little girl wouldn't come. Karver smiled. She figured the child had something to say to someone or other in the group, and let her stay with them while she got the food. Even though none of them knew Karver, she knew enough about them to trust them with the little girl.
After Karver had gone, Weydon stood staring at Jen. Weydon thought Jen was pretty, and liked her. She didn't smile as she looked at her though -- Weydon rarely smiled, even when she was in the company of people she liked -- but just stared at her with a blank, solemn expression.
She wanted to ask Jen her name (she hadn't heard it yet), but couldn't bring herself to do so. For some reason, in Weydon's very different way of thinking, it was the simplest, easiest questions which were always the most difficult to ask.
So after a few moments of staring at Jen blankly, she finally asked this question instead: "Do you like birds?"

Jen blinked. No one ever asked her if she liked birds before. "Um, I really don't know...I don't really know much about them. Do you like birds?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Justin decided he, Maralyn and Sarah should go to the mall for a little while and eat there. When he got to a table where Peter and his friends were, he noticed a strange looking girl. Before he could say anything, Peter said, "Hey, Justin."

"Yeah, I like birds," Weydon replied. "After all, I guess I wouldn't have asked you if you liked them, if I didn't like them." Weydon thought about what she had just said, afraid she might have been accidentally rude again. "Anyway," she continued, "birds are the best ever. I guess they're really pretty. Kinda like you, you know?" She looked down at the floor nervously. She rarely complimented people. And strangely, she was more afraid of the compliment offending her than she was of her first comment offending her. She kept talking so that hopefully, if someone was angry with her, they'd forget about it. "I'm hoping someday Karver will let me get a bir--" she stopped quickly, as if she had something she hadn't intended, then quickly changed the subject. "I like green birds best. Green is the best color, too. I mean, unless your thinking about purple. Purple, I guess, would be better than green. But I guess everyone knows that."
Weydon was afraid that she was maybe talking a little too much and a little too fast, and it would lead her into trouble. She didn't have to worry about that long, though, because just then she heard Peter say hello to someone who had just walked up. There, in front of them, was a man, a woman, and a baby. Weydon had never seen any of them before, and yet, she had a very odd look on her face when she saw them.
Just then, Karver walked up with the food. She put the tray on the table and gave Weydon a plate on it.
Karver noticed the family that walked up. "Oh, hello!" She said with a friendly smile. "My name is Karver, and this is Weydon. There weren't enough tables so your friends here let me sit with them. Aww! What a cute baby! Boy or girl?"

Justin answered, "She's a girl. Her name is Sarah. So..what's your name?"
Jen spoke first. Her name is Karver and the girl is Weydon. She babysits her."
Justin answered, "That's cool."
Miley gestured to an empty chair, tehn told them , "I'm Miley, Justin's sister."
Jen added, "And I'm Peter's girlfriend, Jen."

Weydon was glad to know Jen's name, but now her focus was on the baby. She stared at the baby for awhile, then at Justin, then at the baby again.
"Do you like her?" Weydon asked Justin. "Do you like Sarah, I mean."

Taken aback by the question, Justin answered, "Of course. Why wouldn't I?" He tried to block out memories of telling June to get an abortion when they were in highschool by focusing on his wife Maralyn, who he married when he was 22 adn their baby instead. "She's precious."

"Yes," Weydon answered with a curious expression, looking at the baby, "I guess she is precious. I hadn't thought of that before." She looked troubled for a moment, her fingers playing with her hair nervously. Then, she looked down at her food. An idea came to her. "Does Sarah like food from Chik fil A?" She took some food off her plate and tried to feed it to Sarah.
"Weydon, don't!" Karver exclaimed, catching hold of Weydon's arm.
Weydon looked at Karver, offended. "What?"
"You don't just feed other people's babies!" she replied, a look of warning in her eyes.
Weydon pulled her arm out of Karver's hand, then looked at her blankly. Her blank expression slowly turned to one of anger. "You're not my mom."
Karver's eyes widened, looking like she didn't know how to respond to that.
For a few horrible seconds, Weydon just glared at her angrily and silently. Then, in a fit of rage, grapped her plate and Karver's, and threw them across the table onto the floor, spilling food everywhere. She ran from the table as fast as she could, disappearing from view.
Karver was in shock. But slowly her face showed signs of extreme anger as she looked at the spilled food and the direction in which Weydon had run. She turned to the others with one of her sweet smiles. "I'm sorry. I'll be right back." And her face went back to anger as she ran off in pursuit of the little girl.

The pizza was done and Rosamunde took the pizza to the table. She slid into the chair next to Declan and said, "I'm so hungry."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sydney watched the situation at the other table, with the little girl and the woman.

"What do you think is going on over there?" She looked at the others.

Justin was about to stop weydon from feeding his baby, when Karver told her not to feed other people's babies. He watch in shock. as she ran off, screaming "You're not my mom!"
Turning to Maralyn, he asked, "What is going on? Why would she ask if I wanted to keep my baby?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bored, Miley finished her dinner and walked over to Rosemunde's table. Noticing Sydney was observing the drama, Miley asked, "That is one weird little girl. She tried to feed my brother's baby solid food. Why do you think she would be like that?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Micah heard a beating on the door and hid behind a couch. What if it was his dad's goons after him?

Sydney looked at Miley. "She didn't know any better. She's young." Sydney stood from her chair, flipping her choppy bangs to the side. "Maybe I should go help..."

Miley thought about this. A little girl was running off, her baby sitter chasing after her. "Wonder if she just has separation issues? Wonder if the baby sitter is mean to her in private?" She did hear bits of conversation when she was at the other table, but was more curious about Karver's question to Justin. Her brother even seemed confused! "What if she thinks Karver is trying to be her mom?"

"Might be better if you didn't assume things." Sydney pulled her tote bag over her head and set it on the chair. "I'll be right back."

She sauntered over to the edge of the food court, glancing around, trying to locate the little girl.

Weydon quickly hid behind a sign, and Karver, not seeing her, ran right past. She didn't want Karver to find her. She wanted to be alone with her thoughts. The short conversation she'd had with the group had brought forward a lot of dark feelings she had -- far too many that a girl of her age should be feeling.
As she thought about it, her hand went instinctively to her neck which, up till now had been covered by a turtle-neck sweater. Now that she was alone, she pulled the neck of the shirt down slightly, and fingered a nasty scar that sliced across her skin.
Weydon looked up. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw Sydney's eyes staring back at her. Quickly, she put the neck of her shirt back up. Had Sydney seen the scar?

Sydney's eyes widened slightly when she saw the scar, but she chose to ignore it for now.

Sydney smiled at the little girl as she walked toward her. Lowering to the little girl's level, Sydney pulled a beaded bracelet off of her wrist and offered it to Weydon. "Hi. This is for you."