She passed Jason, bent over one of the cars in the garage, and went in through the little door marked "Employees Only." That was basically their front door. She walked down the narrow hallway to the so-called living room and threw her bag on the chesterfield.

There was nobody there, as usual. Her dad, Jason, Mark, and Joe were all out working in the yard. Steve was still at school. She turned and went down another hall to her bedroom, then went into her own room and closed the door.

It hadn't been easy fitting in at St. Patrick's, living where she did. She was still considered a little weird by some people.

She flicked on the television, and clicked the remote control to the music station. Her dad had put together a satellite dish a while ago, and hooked it up to the televisions in the house. They never lacked for any kind of electronic toys, that was certain.

They never lacked for cars either, at least, the boys didn't. All four of her brothers had cars, and her dad had three. All of them had been junked by somebody but rebuilt by her dad and brothers. It had taken her a lot of whining and yelling before they'd finally put one together for her and it had never run properly, which was why she usually took the bus to school.

Her father was a chauvinist pig of the first order, a blue collar, hard working sexist pig who thought women were for the kitchen and the bedroom. He had been surprised she'd even wanted a car. Surely she could get a boy to drive her around, he'd said.

She sighed, and stripped off her mini skirt and blouse. Her brothers had taken after her dad, which made it practically impossible for a girl to live around here. There wasn't any alternative though, not if she wanted to finish high school and go to college.

She wasn't sure what she was going to take in college, something involving paperwork that would get her a high paying white collar job. She didn't intend to work with her hands like her father did and her mother had. She hated her father, and wasn't terribly fond of her brothers, either. She had no intention of working at some "Chicken Delight" for minimum wage for the rest of her life, however. And she certainly didn't want to stay home and do the "paperwork" for her father's business.