Pat refused to return to the theater. She just couldn't, not after her brother had bodily dragged her away as if she was Melissa's age. Pat put her shaking hand up to her face; it was hot and prickly. She forced herself not to run--even though she could feel the tears of humiliation begin to well up. She walked quickly but steadily, closing her eyes every few feet in an attempt to keep them dry.

In her imagination she smacked that arrogant grin off of her brother's face with the algebra text in her hand, slammed Anne and Maria's bubbleheads together and shoved Richard under the latebus. Pat didn't know how her anger at her brother had switched to the four of them, but it didn't matter, it was useful. She straightened up, and walked normally to the lockers, picturing Brian's expression on stage while the picture was being taken. She couldn't hear what was being said, but she knew Danny was teasing him up there.

In fact that was part of the reason she liked talking to Danny. He was older; he looked down on Brian as an annoying underclassmen. He seemed to be the only one in their high school completely immune to the greatness of the Fab Four.

Pat was smiling by the time she reached the hall that contained the freshman lockers. She felt safe as she went down the stairs and entered the alcove where Seb stashed the belongings of its newest students.

She didn't exactly know where she was headed when she first stomped away from her brother, but this seemed like as good a place as any. Upperclassmen were rarely seen in this area and just then Pat was quiet eager to avoid anyone over the age of fifteen.

Pat calmed herself before spinning the combination on the locker she shared with Diana. She knew from past experience that she would never get it open if she went too fast or was upset. Diana had somehow talked Richard into showing her how to open their locker at lunch on the first day--so she was quite at ease with it. Pat's lesson from Brian was much more fleeting; it was squeezed between the hordes of people surrounding Brian and his friends.

Brian couldn't even be separated from his friends for one morning.

"Here Pat," he said, eyeing the distance from his locker to the freshman alcove, "I'll just show you on mine."

"But they're different!" Pat had argued. The sophomores' lockers, located in the hallway near the cafeteria, had a simple handle that was unhooked with the index finger. The freshmenlocker handles were harder to open, consisting of a lower and upper catch, which had to be lifted up with the whole hand. A subtle, but important difference. The freshman locker jammed much easier.

Brian shot her a don't-be-a-baby look. "Pat, doing the combination is the main thing."

"What's this?" Maria asked, walking up to them. Richard was behind her.

"Locker training." Brian shut the door and spun the dial.

"Uh oh....good luck," Maria said. She sounded as though Pat was a child that Brian was teaching to ride without training wheels.

"Pat look, 38-13-24, see? Just try it."

"Fine, but I'm telling you, I won't be able to open mine," Pat said, spinning the dial to the first number. When she stepped in front of Brian to do the combination, she heard Maria giggle. She turned to see what her brother was doing behind her back, but he had straightened his expression already. He pointed at his locker.

"Are you going to try?" he asked.

"While we're young!" Richard said. He and Brian laughed. That was a catch-phrase they had used all summer from some movie Richard had rented.

Pat came back with hers and Diana's. "Points for originality."

"Oh God, Monica says that," Maria said.

Pat frowned at Brian's locker. Monica was Maria's twelve year old sister, whom Maria never lost an opportunity to compare Pat to. At least Pat knew in this instance that Maria was lying just to make her look bad in front of Brian. There was no way Monica could know that phrase from elementary school.

She opened up Brian's locker with the crook of her index finger on her first try.

"See? Not so hard," Brian said.

"Yeah, I'll know what to do next year," Pat muttered as Brian turned to talk to Maria and Richard. She slipped down to the freshman alcove, and was nearly five minutes late trying to get her freshman locker, with its different handle, open.

Pat realized one of the notebooks she needed was back in the theater. She hoped Diana picked it up--she wasn't going back into the theater until she was sure her brother was gone. Pat paused in front of her open locker. What was she going to do about the late bus, not to mention home? Ignoring him was the easiest solution.

Pat tried to yank an especially full notebook from a tight shelf. When she finally got it out it fell from her hand and scattered papers on the floor around her locker. She stooped with a sigh of resignation to gather them up.

"Aw man," Pat heard someone say, "I haven't been down here in like, two years," Pat heard someone say.

She froze when she recognized Mike Boudroux's voice. What were they doing by the freshmen lockers?

Pat got her answer. "Pat? Are you down here?" called Diana.

Pat looked around at all the papers from her crouched position on the floor. At that moment she could have cheerfully strangled Diana, still gaily calling her name in the voice she used around guys as if she didn't know where her own locker was.

Pat decided that the best course of action was to remain calm, as if it was quite normal for two senior starters to be accompanying her cousin to the freshman lockers. Diana could look like the ultimate freshman, yelling all over the place. But she, Pat, would remain calm in social crisis.

So when Diana, Mike, and Danny came upon her in front of the locker, Pat looked up and said coolly, "I heard you the first time, D." Oh yes! Pat thought. Even sprawled on the floor in front of seniors she's cool!

Diana started to look annoyed at the fact that Pat had ignored her, but then she smiled with Pat called her D. They had agreed to shorten their names in high school because Pat and D sounded much cooler.

"Hey, the guys and I were looking for you." Diana stood a little bit in front of Mike and Danny. Her voice was casual, but she raised her eyebrows at Pat.

Pat stood, concentrating on the papers she was straightening in her hand to avoid reacting. "Hey Ya’ll, I'm fine, but if anyone wants a free brother, be my guest." Ya'll? screeched a voice in Pat's head. She cringed internally, wondering if she could have possibly said anything dumber.

Diana saved her. "Oh God, no thanks, one's enough," she said, laughing it off. Diana bent over picked up the papers still on the floor. Danny leaned a shoulder against the locker right next to Pat's.

"Did I get you in trouble?" he said, smiling.

The reference to Brian make Pat angry all over again. "That jerk thinks he can run my life just because we're at the same school. I swear, it's been that way my whole life. And now that he's on varsity, he's a serious conceited jock..." Pat paused, "well, I mean, no offense."

"We're not all like that," Danny said.

"Oh, I know that, it's just my brother and his stupid friend that can't fit their eads through the door."

"Richard Cudaghy?" Danny asked with a look at Mike.

"The very one," said Pat.

"Oh, Richard's not so bad sometimes, he's not on first string, so he's only partially full of himself," Diana said.

"Well," Danny took Pat's papers from Diana and handed them back to her, "that's probably why they don't usually put sophomores on varsity. Everyone knows why they had to this year."

Pat was confused by the last statement. Why would the team have to put sophmores on this particular year?

"Yeah, it probably a phase," Diana said as though she were Danny's and Mike's age, commenting on Brian, the young sophomore.

"So does he always tell you who you can talk to?" Danny said to Pat.

"Oh uh, not really," Pat answered, a bit taken aback at the question. Now that she thought about it, Brian had never really freaked out on her before.

"He's kind of high-strung, huh?" Mike asked.

"Yeah," Danny said, "we try to joke with him, but he takes everything the wrong way, you know?" He looked at Pat.

"He's kind of serious sometimes," she said.

"No shit. Remember the scrimmage?" Mike asked Danny.

"Oh yeah," Danny said to Pat and Diana, "somebody stole the varsity roster and we were like kidding around with him, rookie souvenir, ha-ha, right? And he got like, mental! I'm going,what the hell? I mean, everybody expects to get ragged on their first year on the team. You know, it doesn't mean anything."

Diana was nodding. "I guess it's the sophomore thing," she said.

"Hey Pat, check his sock drawer, the roster's probably in there," said Mike.

Mike, Diana and Danny laughed. Pat smiled, and pretended to be busy in her locker again. She was still highly annoyed with Brian, but for some reason the conversation's direction was making her vaguely uneasy. Danny, noticing her silence, nudged her with an elbow.

"Don't worry, he'll relax, they always do," he said.

Pat shrugged and zipped her backpack. "Well, he's not my problem," she said lightly, "We agreed not even to speak at school. I just want him totally out of my business."

"I can see why," Danny said.

"Patella!" Yolanda's voice rang out over the atrium. Her voice, ten times more sing-songy than Diana's, seemed to reverberate off of every locker. Everyone turned. Troy's voice came clearly from a row over.

"Are you like an opera singer or something?"

"Patella!!" they sang together.

From behind Danny's back, Pat grimaced, laying her head on the side of her locker. Why should she bother to change her image? She could be a cheerleader and SGA president and still be the biggest class dork. Here she had successfully played off picking her papers up off the floor, only to be confronted by her hyperactive brother and sister, yelling her full name loud enough to rival the P.A. system.

"Oh God," she groaned quietly. Diana turned with a look of sympathy.

"Who's that?" Mike asked.

"My little brother and sister," Pat said.

"Is that what Pat's short for? Patella?" Danny asked.

"Yeah, it's weird, I know," Pat said quickly. She decided she had to answer the twins. They had begun jumping up to see over the rows of lockers. Diana snickered at their bobbing heads. Pat wished her family would suddenly have to move to Europe.

"You guys, I'm over here," she called out.

"Where?" Troy said. His head popped up for an instant and disappeared.

"Here, get over here!" Pat said.

"Oh, there you are!" Yolanda said, as both their heads popped up on the row next to Pat's locker.

"You've got a lot of brothers and sisters," Mike said.

Pat nodded, her eyes scanning the rows to look for the twins. "A family reunion practically every day." Pat rolled her eyes at Danny, who smiled again.

Suddenly Yolanda appeared at the beginning of Pat's row. She had taken a huge leap and landed squarely with both feet, right in front of Pat and her friends. Troy, coming up right behind her, nearly ran her over.

"Ach, kill me next time!" said Yolanda. They straightened up and noticed Danny and Mike.

"Hi!" chirped Yolanda. Troy took his hand out of his pocket, gave them a short wave, and put it back.

"What are you guys doing down here?" Pat asked. She noticed Diana leaning against a locker, looking at her nails.

"We wanted to see your locker and Brian told us where you were. Guess what?" Yolanda said.

"Ooo....brother police is out!" Danny nudged Pat. Mike started to make siren noises.

"Uh-oh! Patella's in trouble now!" laughed Diana.

"Shutup you guys," Pat said, giving Danny and Mike each a playful shove.

"Patella, guess what?" Yolanda said again.

"What? Will you quit it?" Pat put a hand over Mike's mouth. He had progressed to the two-tone European siren, much to Danny and Diana's delight.

"I'm Alice!!" Yolanda cried over the din.

"What?"

She held up her copy of Up the Down Staircase script.

"Oh! You're in the play too! Both of you!" she said.

"A big part, you should see!" Yolanda held the script open and pointed.

"Oh boy Pat, that means they'll be here all the time after school," Diana said in a loud falsetto voice.

"Fun, fun, fun," said Danny.

Pat smiled, but she was getting the same feeling she had when they were discussing Brian. The twins were looking at Diana, who was turned towards the guys. Yolanda folded up her script, looking a little disappointed.

"Hey, Yolanda, that's really great," Pat said. Yolanda smiled. "But we'll talk about it later." She tried to give Yolanda a significant look, pointing with her eyes toward Danny, hoping her sister could grasp the significance of the situation.

But Yolanda missed Pat's cue altogether, mimicking Pat's expression and eye movements in front of Danny. "Ooo-kay," she said slowly.

Diana laughed aloud. Thinking herself back in her cousin's good graces, Yolanda made a little curtsy.

Troy tapped Pat on the shoulder. "Brian wanted to know what..."

"Tell Brian to mind his own business. I'll be up there in time for the bus."

"Okay," Troy said quickly.

"Hey, tell Brian we've kidnapped Patella and we're going to stuff her in her locker," Danny said suddenly. He put an arm around Pat's waist and pretended to drag her towards her locker.

"Omigod! Danny! Stop! Diana help!" Pat squealed as she felt herself move backwards.

"I'll save you!" Diana said, beginning to give Danny a series of little punches in the arm.

"Well," Troy said, "we're outta here. You people are weird." He pushed Yolanda forwards and they departed with uncertain waves. Pat didn't see them. Mike, uninvolved in the fray, saluted.

"Wo, I'm outnumbered." Danny suddenly let go of Pat and held up his hands.

Pat whirled around. "Where's my brother and sister?"

"They took off," Mike said.

"So Patella," Danny said.

"Pat."

"Sorry. So like, does your Mom work here too?" Danny grinned.

"Yeah, I know, there's a lot of us around," Pat said.

"Her Dad's principal, didn't you know?" Diana's giggle was beginning to get on Pat's nerves.

Danny took a step back to peer into Pat's face. "Oh yeah, I see the resemblance now. Especially in the skin tone."

Diana didn't seem to notice anything weird about Danny's last comment, so Pat laughed with the rest.

"Can you believe Brian?" Diana shook her head as they gathered their books. Pat, not wanting to get into another discussion on her brother, merely shrugged.

"Well, catch up with you guys later. Say hi to your grandma," Danny said as they got into the main hall.

"Yeah right," Pat said. She and Diana waved as the guys turned down another hall, on their way to the senior parking lot.

When they were safely out of earshot, Diana became herself. She and Pat grasped each other's arms and screeched at the same time.

"How Diana? That's all I have to ask, how?" Pat said.

Diana gesticulated wildly, unable to find words. "I...I don't know, it was the weirdest thing. You guys disappeared; they saw you leave."

"That's because Brian pulls me away in the middle of a sentence, the jerk," Pat grumbled.

"So Richard goes to see where Brian went and I was going to find you. Then I felt someone pull my arm and I turn around and it's Danny, right? So he goes, 'Is he mad or something?' and I said I didn't know, I was going to check and see where you were, kind of leaving it open, you know?" Diana said.

"Way to go!" Pat cried, holding out her hand. Diana hit it and went on.

"So they said, 'Well, we'll go with you if you don't think Brian will be there' and I told them that there was no way you'd want to talk to your brother for a long time. So they were like let's go. And we started looking."

"I can't believe they came down to the freshmen lockers," Pat said.

"Well, it's after school, so no one was really around," Diana said.

Pat nudged her cousin. "Can you believe what happened to me? I’m like the queen of embarrassing moments."

"Oh," Diana said, shaking her head, "the twins! I was like ready to die!"

Pat paused. She was referring to her papers on the floor. "Well, I think Danny laughed at that."

Diana considered this. "I guess maybe, but you played it off," she patted her cousin's shoulder with a comforting motion. Pat said nothing as they went through the front door in the main hall and out to the late buses.