The Curtis Sisters -Volume 1- Juniper

Chapter 1 ~ Judge's Orders

"Ok. Why don't we start by telling me your names?" Dr. Carmichael smiled amicably, leaning back in her leather chair and putting her pen to her mouth. "Starting with you" she nodded towards me.

"Me?" I squeaked nervously. My youngest sister rolled her eyes from her seat across from me.

"Jesus" she drawled. "Don't shit yourself, June. It's just your name."

"You're June?" Dr. Carmichael lifted her pen to the leatherbound notepad in her hand.

"Juniper" I corrected meekly.

"And you're how old?" I glanced at the floor nervously, feeling my voice being strangled into silence as my anxiety rose.

"She don't talk much" my brother offered after watching me squirm for a minute. He put a supportive hand on my knee. "Not since mom and dad died."  I looked down at the floor and began playing with my fingers. The room was suddenly getting stuffy and I wanted more than anything just to leave this office and go back home.

"How old are you, Juniper?" She asked again, adjusting her tone in a way that made me feel like a child.

"We're seventeen" my brother answered for me. He had been doing that a lot lately. There was a pause as her pen moved across the page.

"You're twins?"

"Yes."

"Ah ha. And what's your name?" I looked up at him and he gave me a wink to let me know I'd be ok.

"It's Sodapop ma'am."

"And I'm River" my sister cut in tiredly "and this is my brother Ponyboy and that over there's Darry and Emma." She slid down in her chair and crossed her arms. "There, can we go now?"

"River," my oldest brother, Darry, warned. "Cool it." River scowled and dropped her head back angrily.

"She's a little dramatic" Ponyboy explained with a hint of irritation.

"This is bullshit!" River defended, sitting up in her chair again. "And you know it, Pony."

"Why do you say that, River?" Dr. Carmichael questioned calmly. Darry eyed her pen nervously.

"Because no one even asked us if we wanted to go to a shrink. They think just 'cause our parents are rotting in the ground that means we must be all screwed up."

"That's enough, River" my oldest sister, Emma, said with a gentle firmness. River eyed her for a second and then crossed her arms again and slid back in the chair.

"So, your name is Sodapop and your name is Pony?" the doctor asked my brothers with the same muted look of surprise most people gave when they first found out their names. The polite ones anyway. Pony straightened up a little.

"Yes ma'am." His eyes twitched back and forth between her notepad and the thick frame of her glasses. "Name's Ponyboy, actually."

"And you are?" she asked vaguely, drawing an imaginary line in the air between Pony and River.

"We're both fourteen", Pony answered for her. Dr. Carmichael lowered her pen and leaned across her desk, her eyebrows arching over her glasses.

"Another set of twins?" River made a face as Pony nodded.

"Yes Ma'am." She looked over at Emma and Darry

"Are you...?" Emma shook her head with a warm smile.

"No ma'am. We're not. I'm nineteen. My brother, Darry, is twenty" she responded in the same steady tone that always set her apart from the rest of us. Dr. Carmichael's eyes scanned across the room as she took us all in.