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pictures and posters. She also set up the new CD

player and the speakers. While we worked, we

listened to the new CD's we bought and for the first time ever, rock music flowed through this house. Whenever Jade and Star passed Misty and me in the hallway, they were singing and dancing, and before long, we were all in the hallway, even me with my

cast, singing, swinging, and swaying to the rhythms "I can't wait for our first party!" Misty cried. "Who will we invite?" I wondered aloud. "We'll be careful and take great care about who

we choose," Jade said. "We should discuss every

suggestion and make a rule we all have to accept

anyone someone suggests, okay?"

"How are we going to do that?" Star asked. "I

don't know your friends and you don't know mine." "We'll talk about them and do the best we can,"

Jade insisted.

"Let's not worry so much about everything,"

Misty piped up. "Let's just have fun for a change." "Hmm," Star grunted. She looked at me and

then shook her head. "Don't worry about Doctor

Marlowe; don't worry about the bank. Don't worry

about this and don't worry about that. Maybe we

should be calling ourselves the OWW's then, Orphans

Without Worries."

Misty laughed. Star looked at Jade and then

they both laughed, too. It was good; it was good to hear that sound in this house, a sound so alien to my home, I was always taken by surprise whenever I

heard it here.

Our work continued. On the way back from the

mall, we had stopped at a house and garden supply

store where Star chose some plants and bushes to

cover the grave while Misty and Jade picked out the

paint for my room. We bought all the rollers and pans,

too. Then Misty said we should think about painting

the hallways as well. We talked about doing

something with the house lighting. Geraldine always

kept it dim, the fixtures loaded with low wattage bulbs

to save on energy costs. Misty wanted us to buy some