"Good morning, Teaspoon."

"Why mornin’ Karen. What can I do for you today?"

As she looked around the empty jailhouse, she replied, "I was out at the station and Rachel asked me to tell you that Jesse won’t be able to come into the jailhouse this afternoon to help you like he had wanted. He has to help Rachael instead."

"She made you come all the way into town to tell me?"

"No, I had to come in anyway to go to the store."

"That’s good. I wouldn’t have wanted you to come to town just to tell me that. I would have found out later when Jesse didn’t show up." Teaspoon said.

Just then the door opened and two girls walked into the store. One looked to be about twelve or thirteen and the other was about her age, probably sixteen or seventeen.

Both were very pretty, maybe sisters? Karen thought.

"Hi, Jacy. Hi, Melissa."

"Good morning, Teaspoon," said the older one.

"Hi," chirped in Melissa. She seemed very excited about something.

"Have you three met?" asked Teaspoon.

"No, I’m afraid not," answered Karen.

"Karen, this is Jacy and Melissa. They are opening up the Pony Express Gazette again. Karen owns Mustang Hill just outside of town."

"Nice to meet you, Karen," Jacy said.

"You too." From the outgoing nature of Melissa and the way that Jacy handled herself, Karen immediately liked the two girls. "Well, I need to head on over to the Mercantile. I’ll see ya’ll later." With that came a chorus of ‘bye’s.

"Bye, Javier," Karen called as she walked out of the General Store.

She had just climbed atop Storm when she heard her name being called. Turning around, she saw Melissa, the young girl that Teaspoon had just introduced her to a few minutes ago, waving at her.

"Karen, can I talk to you?" Melissa asked after running across the street.

"Sure. What’s going on?" Karen replied, climbing down from Storm.

"Well, Ms. Boudreaux asked if we could get some people to donate stuff for the sales that are going on at the dance. I was wondering if you could help?"

"Well, I’m not sure if I am going to the dance. But, sure, I’ll bake you some cookies. Is that okay?

"Yeah, that sounds great. Thanks. How come you might not go to the dance? Jacy said that it will be a lot of fun."

"I just wouldn’t know who to go with that’s all. And I don’t know too many of the people around here yet, at least not real well."

"Well, who do you want to ask you?"

Karen thought for a moment about the guy that she had met not too long ago. He was so sweet. She didn’t know why some people made fun of him and thought he was stupid. He was one of the gentlest people that she knew. She sighed to herself as she remembered when she had met him a few weeks ago in town. She thought they had hit it off pretty well, but she hadn’t seen him since.

"Karen?"

"Huh? Oh, the dance . . . I haven’t really thought about it."

"Well, thanks for the volunteering to make the cookies."

"Your welcome. I’ll see you later, okay?"

"Yeah. Bye."