Brianna's POV

After school, I went to Uncle Darry's with Emma. he had told me that I could invite her as long as it was okay with daddy and her parents.

"Why don't you show Emma your room?" Uncle Darry said after we walked into the house. "I'll make lunch."

"Your room?" Emma asked.

"We lived here until we moved into the apartment," I told her as I led her to my old room. Uncle Darry had moved the book shelf from the living room into there, but nothing else had changed. The few toys I had there were still in the laundry basket where I had put them.

"It's small," she said, looking around.

"It used to be daddy and Uncle Darry's room when they were little," I said, remembering that daddy had told me that. "Uncle Pony stayed across the hall."

Emma nodded and walked to the toys. "These look old."

"They belonged to daddy and my uncles."

Emma smiled as she took out a box of little green army men. She lined them up on the floor as I sat down across from her. She looked at me. "My cousin and me play with these at his house. Well, he plays with them, I watch."

"You're playing with them now," I said.

"He says I can't because I'm a girl," Emma replied.

"That's stupid."

"Some people believe that girls and boys should only play with certain things, Brianna," Uncle Darry said from the doorway.

"How come?" Emma asked.

"I don't know," he replied. "Brianna's spent a lot of time playing with the toys I grew up with that she wasn't really around a lot of the girl stuff. No one told her she couldn't play with army men or cars."

"These were yours, right Uncle Darry?" I asked pointing to the army men.

"That's right, I used to play with them for hours," he said, grinning as he picked one up. "Ponyboy chewed on this one when he was teething, mom had a hard time getting it away from him."

Emma and I giggled.

"I miss Uncle Pony."

"I miss him, too, Brianna," Uncle Darry told me. "Maybe after lunch we can call him."

"Is lunch ready?" I asked.

Uncle Darry nodded and we went to the kitchen to eat.

"Emma, how do you like school?" Uncle Darry asked. "I know Brianna enjoys it."

"It's fun," Emma whispered and Uncle Darry smiled. "I like it when we get to listen to stories."

I finished eating my hot dog and looked at Uncle Darry. I wanted to talk to Uncle Ponyboy and tell him about the Valentine's Day party my class was going to have in a few days.

"Keep in mind, he might not be at his dorm," Darry told me as he picked up the phone. "You might have to see if your dad will call him tonight if he doesn't answer now."

"Okay," I said, watching as Uncle Darry waited for Uncle Ponyboy to answer.

Ponyboy's POV

I had just walked into my dorm room when I heard the phone ring.

"Hello?" I answered, tossing my jacket on the bed.

"Ponyboy, I wasn't sure if you'd be there," Darry said on the other end.

"I just walked in the door," I told him.

"I have someone here who wants to talk to you," he continued and I smiled. I didn't have to be home to know that Brianna was probably hopping up and down next to him. I could even see her smile as I waited for Darry to hand her the phone.

"Uncle Pony?" Brianna asked.

"Hi, sweetie," I said. "How was school?"

"Fun. Guess what?" She asked and I could tell that she was excited.

"What?" I asked, trying to match her excitement.

"We're having a Valentine's day party in my class this week. I get to make Valentines. And daddy said we can make cupcakes to bring, too," Brianna told me.

"That sounds like fun," I said. "You don't have any boyfriends in your class, do you?"

"No," Brianna giggled. "Emma's here. Uncle Darry said he'd take us to the park."

"I'll bet your going to go to the slide first," I said. I had taken her to the park enough times to know that the slide was her favorite.

Brianna giggled again and I could hear Darry whisper that it was time to end the call. He knew I had other classes in the afternoon and probably thought I wanted to go to the cafeteria to get something to eat.

"Uncle Darry says I need to hang up," Brianna told me and I could hear the disappointment in her voice.

"We'll talk on Sunday," I reminded her. "I'll look forward to hearing about your Valentine's day party."

"Bye, I love you," she said.

"Love you, too, Brianna," I replied as I hung up.

Darry's POV

"I don't like saying good-bye," Brianna said after I hung up the phone for her.

"No one likes saying good-bye," I told her. "But you'll talk to him again on Sunday."

"That's a long time from now!" Brianna replied and I chuckled. Sometimes I forgot that time doesn't move as fast for kids as it does for me. To me, Sunday was going to arrive before I knew it. But to her, Sunday seemed to be far away. It was almost like explaining to her when Christmas was. Every day after Thanksgiving, she asked if Santa was coming, and Soda and I would have to tell her how many sleeps she had left until Santa arrived.

"Are you ready to go play at the park?" I asked. I noticed that Emma was playing with her ponytail. "I think Emma's ready."

Emma nodded and gave me a shy smile.

"I'll race you!" Brianna yelled, already running out the front door.

"Only to the corner!" I yelled back as I watched Emma run after her. Neither girl was allowed to cross the street alone, yet. As I walked behind them, I could hear them giggling. It was nice to have Brianna and her little friend come over.

"Uncle Darry, you're slow," Brianna called from the corner.

"Oh, yeah?" I asked.

"Yeah!"

"We'll see about that," I replied as I ran up to her and lifted her onto my shoulders. I then took Emma's hand so we could cross the street before I ran across the vacant lot with Brianna laughing and Emma skipping behind us. Both girls seemed to be having fun and we weren't even at the park yet.