"Oh, just to a friend's house" Ian said, a distant look in his eyes. "I have a few things to talk over with her. I don't mind you coming." he rose, and swiped the dirty dishes off the table setting them in the sink. "Let me wash up these. Go ahead and turn on the TV or something"

*******

Maralyn came out of the kitchen, baby Sarah in her arms. A pleasant smile was on her face. She watched the little girl, Weydon, come in. "Hello!" she said kindly and stepped toward her. "I'm Maralyn" she looked at Josephine, and stuck her free hand out to her "You must be the woman Justin told me about. Nice to meet you too"

****

Melisha's mother, Theresa 'Angel' Ryner, was in the kitchen when her son Tim entered. He inquired about Melisah, and she turned to him almost in tears "She's gone Timothy. I don't know where to, but I went to talk to her earlier and she was gone. Her Father beat her again...." she said bitterly "She went through her window and down the back roof. I was afraid to call the police just in case Arthur woke up" she sat at the table "Some Mother I am......I don't even know where to begin looking!"

**

Brian was in his room, pacing, fuming, when he heard the door bell. He didn't really want to answer it, but he knew he should. It could be the mail man, or someone else for his Father. He was alone in the house, but it didn't matter. He grudgingly left his room, and hopped down the staircase, pasting on his most fake smile. He could have gotten on the Ginis Book of World Records for worst smile if there had been a contest. He rolled his eyes and yanked it open. Brian was shocked to see Peter there, a innocently fun look on his face. He sighed and stepped back taking a breath "Hi Pete! Sorry I didn't get the door sooner....I'm used to my Mom getting it see, and I'm home alone. Didn't hear it from my room" LIE. He was a terrible lier too. He wondered if Peter could see that. He licked his lips and tried to cover it up "Want to come in? We're freshly stocked up on sodas!"

*****

Abigail shook her head "No thank you Amanda. I just want to be alone with Andrew now"

Justin said, "Well, you already met Sarah. There's another one, but..." He tohught of a way to tell her this without telling her he had an abortion. "It died when it was a baby."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter noticed a fake smile on Brian's face, wondering if he was upset. Since Brian switched the subject to sodas, he decided not to press him. He walked straight in. "Diet Pepsi please." He didn't normally drink soda, but didn't want to hurt Brian's feelings. After all, he wasn't allergic to it and wanted something to drink and could count soda as a sbnack.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Micah made his way to the couch, waiting for his cousin to finish dishes. "Who's your friend?"

It was Stacey. Ally thumbed her phone open and pressed the green telephone icon. "Yeah?"

--------
Johnny smirked at Miley. "What, you wanna hear the Restart song again?"

There was a rap at the door, and Johnny poked an eye into the peephole. Hey, he knew that face. But it was kind of a new one, not like Peter's or even Maralyn's.

He swung the door open and blinked at Bridget. "Hi again!" Not "how did you find me" or "why are you at my house" or "that color looks really awesome on you".

Miley laughed when he mentioned the Restart song. "Come on, I'm sure you've written other songs since then" As soon as she said that, someone knocked at the door. She gave Johnny an amused grin, as soon as he opened the door for none other than Bridget.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stacey sighed, "Hey, let's go see if we can find Logan. I can't wait until our date."

"Hi." Bridget said, flashing a slightly embarrassed smile. "Sorry to show up without warning...but I--" She stopped as she saw Miley. Smiling again, she said, "Oh, hi."

Looking at Johnny, she pulled her hands out of her pocket and said, "I didn't know you had company..." Bridget bit her lip, offering an apologetic shrug.

“Shall we play a game?” the computer with the name Joshua asked.
“Oh!” David said aloud as the green words appeared on the once black screen.
“I think it missed him.” Jennifer said with a giggle.
“Yeah, Weird isn’t it?” David asked.
“Yeah.” Jennifer replied.
David began to type on the old 80’s computer screen. “Love to. How about Global Thermonuclear War?”
“Wouldn’t you prefer a nice game of Chess.” Was the computer’s, Joshua, reply in an almost human form, despite the cyber like voice.
“Later.” David said, except this time Declan quoted the line with Mathew Broderick’s Character David Lightman, who was on the screen. “Let’s play Global Thermonuclear War!”
“Fine.” The computer on the screen replied.
Declan took a sip of his Yoo-hoo, “Pure genius. I love this movie!”
Suddenly Declan noticed Ro come into the room, followed by Sydney.
“Hey, Ro and Syd!” Declan said. “Sup? Come to watch the movie?”

OOC: (I am also on vacation so it will be quite a while between each post.)

"Actually," Rosamunde said, plopping down on a pink beanbag and grabbing the remote, "no."

Rosamunde smirked at her cousin as she pushed the stop button on the remote. "I don't think Sydney came to watch War Games. Besides, you watched this last night."

Sydney sat down on a yellow beanbag as Rosamunde jumped up.

"I know!" The blonde skipped over to a closet and pulled it open. "Monopoly!" She grinned as she pulled the board game down.

When Tim's mom turned to him with tears on her cheeks, he knew that something was wrong. His heart twisted and his mind whirled, "Mom..." he began when she interrupted and told him that his father had beat Melisha again and that she had run away. She also told him that she was afraid to call the police and ended with 'Some mother I am...'

He placed his hands on his mother's shoulders, "Mom... I'll look for her, I'll leave right now... Call the police and tell them what happened, and If Dad does anything, I'll flatten him!" he turned to leave, then stopped and spun, "Make a couple sandwiches please... and I'm going to call in some help..."

He pulled out his cellphone, and walked to the other side of the kitchen, where he plopped down in a chair, "hey... Caleb? Yeah... it's Tim... Listen Man, I need some help, Melisha ran away... Yeah... alright, see you in a few." He hung up and dialed again, "Zak, you free tonight? Great, I need you over here right now... I'll tell ya when you get here... Thanks" A third time he dialed, this time The Manager of the store, "Richard? Yes, It's me, Timothy... I've got a family problem that came up suddenly and I may not be able to make it into work tomorrow... Thanks a lot, apologize to the others for me if I don't make it... bye."

He got up and turned back to his mother.

Melisha caught a glimpse of the scar on Brooklyn's arm but didn't ask about it. She knew what it was like to want to hide ugly injuries. She had done it all the time. "I'm from here.....Ditto Town. You must have come along way from Texas" she whispered, taking the last gulp of her water. Sweat trickled off her brow as she looked up into the mid-day sun. It was getting hotter, and by the position of the sun she figured it was almost noon. Looking back at Brooklyn with tears in her eyes she said "I don't really know where to go. I'm just not going home."

Maya laid a hand on Melisha's shoulder and tried to comfort her. "It's okay. Nobody is gonna make ya go home. Ya cin stay with me 'til you cin live on yer own." She looked at their surroundings and mumbled, "Where ever that is. So..." Maya sighed. "Do you have any family that you could live with?"

Miley said, "Oh, no Bridget. I was just leaving. I gotta see Justin next. Bye, Johnny." She figured this would be a perfect time to set her brother up with Bridget. She stepped out the house, adn went back onto the side walk in front of Johnny's house.

Maralyn came out of the kitchen, baby Sarah in her arms. A pleasant smile was on her face. She watched the little girl, Weydon, come in. "Hello!" she said kindly and stepped toward her. "I'm Maralyn" she looked at Josephine, and stuck her free hand out to her "You must be the woman Justin told me about. Nice to meet you too"

Josephine smiled and shook her hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you. You'll need to sign those papers as well." Josephine looked at Weydon to see her expression, then looked back at Maralyn. "I'll come at least once a week to check on y'all." Josephine said. "Weydon why don't you say hello to Mr. and Mrs. Thomas?"

Miley said, "Oh, no Bridget. I was just leaving. I gotta see Justin next. Bye, Johnny." She figured this would be a perfect time to set her brother up with Bridget. She stepped out the house, adn went back onto the side walk in front of Johnny's house.

Grace was walking down the street when she thought she saw Miley walk out of a house. Grace kept watching the girl hoping it was Miley. When the girl started walking down the sidewalk Grace knew it was her. She ran across the street over to Miley. "Miley!" Grace said rather loudly. "Hey what's up? I saw you walk out of that house and I was like, is that Miley? Then when you started walking I knew it was you." Grace smiled excitedly. "So what have you been up to lately? Does a friend of yours live here?"

Nate hobbled out of the army transport plane and down the ramp where he found Greg and Angie standing Angie rushed to him and gave him a gigantic hug “Oh Nate I missed you” she said.

“Mom, the guys are looking” he replied, glancing over at a few older soldiers, lifers. He had met them on the way over from Britain, which was where he had been shipped after injuring his leg.

When Angie refused to release him he faked that she had hurt his leg “Ouch” he mumbled and she let go “Sorry” she said, she pulled away, letting Greg at his adopted son.

Greg reached out to shake Nate’s hand, Nate shook it before bringing his dad into a hug “I’m so proud of you son” Greg said before pulling away “Come on, lets get out of here” Nate said with a fake grin.

On the way home Nate told them stories of basic training, the sight seeing he got to do while over there and he talked about the squad he was with, but he avoided talking about the actual combat.

If he did that he knew he would start to get glassy eyed and then the tears would come. He couldn’t cry in front of his parents, they would regret ever letting him go. They already did. He leaned his head against the car door and pretended to be asleep; keeping hi eyes closed would stop the tears.

Nate limped out of the car and into the house with the help of Greg, his leg giving him troubles once again “Thanks dad” he replied to Greg as he sat down on the couch and picked up the remote for the TV, he flipped through the channels.

When found that nothing good with on he grabbed the phone and dialed Justin’s cell number, hoping Justin hadn’t changed it since he had left. He didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of this earlier “Hey Justin, this is Nate” he said as Justin picked up.

“I’m back”

Weydon gave a tired smile to Maralyn. She didn't want to be there, but she also didn't want to be rude.
"I'm not feeling very well," she said. "If you don't mind, could I be shown to my room now? I'd like to be alone for awhile to think."

Justin was just about to answer Weydon, when his cell rang. He rushed over to his cell, then answerd, "Hello?" A familiar voice came through the ohter line. "Hey Nate. Peter is living at my parents' now, but he will be so glad to see you!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Miley had noticed Grace also and was glad at the chance to make a new friend. "Actually, my oldest brother does. He's going away for his job for a while."

Miley had noticed Grace also and was glad at the chance to make a new friend. "Actually, my oldest brother does. He's going away for his job for a while."

"Oh, that's kinda cool... I guess." Grace said, then she smiled. "I didn't know your brother lived in my neighborhood! What kind of job does he have?" Grace asked.