“Stole it,” Clarice declared boldly to Daisy.

Daisy didn’t even blink. “Okay then, where did you steal it?” Then she turned to Indy. “Gotta get me one of those. It’d go perfect with my new pink cowboy boots.” She turned back to Clarice. “You steal another one, darlin’, my size is medium.”

“Daisy!” Jet exclaimed.

“What?” Daisy asked.

Clarice stared at her like she’d dropped to earth from another galaxy. I walked up to them.

“Hey Jules,” Indy said when I arrived.

“Hi. Um…” I didn’t know what to say.

Roxie smiled at me. “Thought we’d pop by, say hi.”

“I’m Ally Nightingale.” The brunette offered her hand and I shook it not surprised by her last name.

“Hey,” I said to her then turned to Daisy. “Sorry about this but you probably shouldn’t encourage the kids to steal. We try to talk them out of that kind of thing.”

Daisy looked at me for a beat then turned to Clarice. “What’s your name, Sugar?”

“Clarice,” Clarice told her.

“Well, I’m Daisy. You go back to that shop, you let me know and I’ll meet you there. You have a cell?”

Clarice nodded.

“Give it to me, I’ll program in my number,” Daisy told her.

I stared, so did Indy, Roxie, Jet and Ally.

Street tough Clarice, looking a little dazed, gave Daisy her cell and the whole time Daisy punched in numbers, she talked. “We won’t steal anything, we’ll just browse. Then maybe go get a coffee. You drink coffee, Sugar?”

“Um…” Clarice mumbled.

“I’ll get you a soda. That pink really suits your coloring. You got flair,” Daisy went on.

Clarice continued to stare and only blinked when Daisy handed her back her phone.

Then Daisy turned to me obviously ready to move on, she asked, “You got a place to talk?”

I nodded thinking maybe this was the weirdest day in my life. “Sure,” I said.

“What’s goin’ on?” May trundled up to us looking amongst the hot chicks and being clear she wanted in on the ground floor of any new event that rocked my life.

I introduced her. “May, this is Daisy, Ally, Roxie, Indy and Jet. Guys, this is May, she’s a volunteer here.”

They all did their greetings and Daisy repeated, “We gotta talk, girl. You got somewhere private?”

“Blue room’s still open,” May put in immediately and I added May to the top of my ever growing mental list of people I wanted to murder.

“Well, what are we waitin’ for?” Daisy asked and then shoved forward like she owned the place and knew exactly where she was going. May pushed up next to her and we all followed.

When we got to the blue room, May closed the door behind us and this time everyone settled into a seat like they were going to spend the day doing girlie talk in a counseling room at a shelter for runaways. Daisy, Ally and Roxie sat on the couch, Indy, Jet and May pulled chairs around to face it. Daisy patted the arm of the couch next to her and, with no other option (like running, screaming, from the room, which I wanted to do but thought might be rude), I sat on it.

“What’s up?” I asked.

“We just came to see how you’re doing,” Indy answered. “You okay?”

I looked at her confused, not knowing what she was really asking. “Yeah,” I said.

“We heard about last night… and, um, the night before,” Jet put in.

I switched my gaze to Jet. “What’d you hear?”

“That you’re one kickass bitch, that’s what we heard. You crazy or somethin’?” Daisy asked, clearly not in the mood to beat around the bush like the other women.

“No,” I said, my eyes narrowing as I looked down at her.

Daisy took my narrowed look and it bounced off her like she was made of Teflon. “All right, Sugar, I believe you,” she said then giggled and it sounded like tinkly bells.

“We hear you’re going out with Vance,” Ally put in.

My eyes moved to her. “Not exactly,” I replied.

They all looked disappointed.

“Yes you are,” May threw in. “You had a date with him last night.”

They all perked up.

“You had a date last night with Vance?” Indy asked.

I opened my mouth to say something when Roxie cut in. “That is so cool!” Then she leaned toward me. “What’s a date with Vance like?”

“It wasn’t exactly a date,” I told her, feeling weird, mainly because this was weird. “We watched Monday Night Football with my uncle and then talked.”

They all looked disappointed again.

“You were necking with him like a teenager in this very room just a couple of hours ago. I saw you my damned self,” May carried on spilling all my secrets.

I widened my eyes in a “shut up” look at her and noticed the hot chicks had all gone perky again.

“I bet he’s a good kisser,” Ally said.

“I bet he’s a good everything,” Daisy put in. “You get anything else from him?”

Was this really happening? I didn’t even know these people.

“Um…” I muttered. It wasn’t any of her business but I didn’t want to appear rude.

“Oh come on, share. You’re among friends,” Ally said even though I knew her less than the other four and I didn’t know the other four at all.

I didn’t do girl talk at least I hadn’t really done it since college. I didn’t know where to begin and anyway, it was important to note (again), I didn’t even know these people.

“Maybe you should understand something,” Indy said, watching me closely, “Lee and I are getting married.”

I just looked at her. I didn’t know how that information made anything more understandable. “Congratulations,” I said.

“Eddie and I are living together,” Jet put in.

I looked at her guessing she was talking about Eddie Chavez and wondering why she shared this information.

She kept talking. “We met, like, five months ago. Then I had this situation where a loan shark was after my Dad but came after me, then some other guy tried to rape me and then –”

“I’m still sorry about that, Sugar,” Daisy cut in.

“It wasn’t your fault, Daisy,” Jet assured her, taking her hand and giving it a squeeze.

“Still, he was workin’ for my husband. I feel responsible,” Daisy went on.