Emily yawned and started to stretch but stopped when she realized she was about to elbow her best friend in the face. Jenny was curled in a ball to Emily's left, hugging her tattered plush raccoon doll. Emily stifled another yawn and slowly sat up.

Long after midnight the girls had pulled out the trundle and raised it up to convert the daybed into a king sized one. Evie was beside Jenny, her face hidden by her riot of curls. Alex was on the far side of the bed on her stomach. Her right arm dangled off the edge of the mattress.

Emily planted her feet on the carpeted floor. With her eyes closed, she wiggled her toes against the plush, polyester pile. She quietly tiptoed past the foot of the bed, taking care not to bump the air-mattress on the floor that held a softly-snoring Anna.

When Emily emerged into the hallway, she stretched more completely. Her father whistled reveille as he approached.

"Breakfast is ready!" John Sr. announced when he spotted her standing there. "Alex's father will be here in about an hour to drive them all home,"

Emily nodded. "Got it. I'll get them up."

After breakfast, the girls gathered their things and went outside to Mr. Pistelli's car.

Anna and Evie had already said their goodbyes inside and now patiently waited in the backseat discussing which playlist to listen to on the ride home.

Jenny gripped Emily in a ferocious bear hug.

"I'll see you tomorrow," Emily said, hugging her back.

Jenny looked at Emily skeptically. "Can't tell with you lately Randazzo."

Alex's father closed the trunk after putting in the last bag. Emily called out to him over Alex's shoulder, "Thanks for driving them Mr. Pistelli!"

He lifted his cardboard coffee cup in salute. "Happy belated Emily."

She whispered to her Alex when they hugged, "Seriously, you have the best Dad."

"I know it!" Alex smiled and climbed into the shotgun seat.

John came outside to wave as the girls departed. Emily watched the car drive off the cul-de-sac before she turned to look at her brother. She didn't even have to ask.

"He's not happy, but he'll be okay," John volunteered. Then he cleared his throat. "So I guess you picked Evan."

Emily walked up the driveway beside her brother. She opened the screen door. "Actually, I picked myself."

He took the door from her hand and chuckled. "Pretty sure I know what that's like."

He smiled and turned towards his bedroom. Emily went toward the backyard to find her father.

John Sr. looked like Gulliver in Lilliput as he gingerly stepped over a model house on his garden layout.

He bent down to pick up an engine and flipped it over in his hands as he tinkered with the coupler. Emily sat down on the small retaining wall on the perimeter of the display. She looked at the little plastic people, perpetually frozen in place waiting for imaginary trains on the platform of the station.

John Sr. repositioned the engine onto the tracks and found his way to her side.

Emily took a deep breath. "Um Dad?"

He twisted a knob on the controller in his hand "Yeah Bean?" The train sparked to life.

"I know you and Suzanne gave me a hundred dollars for my birthday yesterday... but um... I could really use more money for something."

The train chugged along the rails and disappeared through a tunnel under the rosemary bush. The engine reemerged without its cars.

"Damn it!" her father exclaimed. He twisted the knob in reverse to back the engine into the tunnel again. Another twist and it was back out again, still sans cargo. He muttered more curses to himself.

"Well Dad?" Emily waited.

Her father opted to send the engine forward and around the track again in order to shunt the trapped cars out of the tunnel.

"How much?" he inquired offhandedly.

"I need fifteen hundred dollars," she said.

His eyes bulged out of his head. "Jesus Emily! What for? Are you pregnant? Is this for an abortion?"

John Sr. forgot about his toy trains for a moment and there was a sharp metallic cracking sound as the engine smashed into the stuck cars inside the tunnel. He turned the train off and said, "Now the train's derailed."

Then he climbed over the houses again towards the accident while he mumbled, "Suzanne said she thought you and Kelly were having sex and I didn't believe her. I liked that boy but now I'm going to have to kick his ass. Unless... Is it that Evan kid's fault?"

Emily stood up. "It's nobody's fault! I'm not pregnant Dad! I got into a specialized summer camp program for writing and theatre. I've saved up a lot of the money. But I need the balance by next Saturday."

"Oh thank God!" Her father squatted down to peer inside at the mess.

Emily started to laugh. It began as a nervous chuckle that quickly grew to a guffaw that doubled her over holding her stomach.

Her father looked up at her, his brow furrowed and his face growing red. "This isn't funny Emily!"

She wiped her eyes and straightened up. "Yeah it is. I've only known these boys for two weeks and you think I'm pregnant enough to ask for money for an abortion." She snorted a laugh. "Even if I did have sex with either one of them, odds are I wouldn't even know I was pregnant yet. It's basic biology."

Her father stood back up and scowled. "It's probably not the best idea to laugh at the man that you just asked for a lot of money from."

Emily closed her mouth and held her breath as she slowly regained her composure. "You're right. I'm sorry. I wasn't laughing at you... just at how ridiculous my life is."

Her father grimaced some more and bent back towards the problem at hand. "I can give you another $500 but that's all," he said firmly, as he reached his arm into the hole to retrieve the battered train. "I'll give you the cash in the morning before I drop you off."

"I'm curious Dad. If I did need the money for an abortion, would you have been able to get the entire amount?" Emily watched as he father gently pulled a boxcar out.

He put the boxcar back to rights on the track and mopped sweat from his brow. "Well, sure."

Emily nodded and walked away. "That's what I figured."