She did everything she had to do in her room, and walked downstairs to find Brantley in the kitchen. She walked over. "How about we go get you your adoption fee?"

"Yes!" She jumped up and down and ran to the door. She grabbed Marco's leash and hooked it to his collar. "Are you gonna get a treat for being a good boy? Yes you are!" She took a tiny dog bone out of her pocket and held it up. "Sit boy, sit..." He sat with one paw slightly raised. She gave him the treat and rubbed his head. "Good boy!"

Brantley watched her instant unconditional love for the dog. It was really beautiful.

They drove to the nearest shopping plaza. The one for their town was Georgia Outpost Outlet. There were five buildings in the plaza. One was a clothing store, one was a supermarket, then there was a bank, then a diner, then finally the gas station.

They went into the clothing store and started shopping. Brantley pushed the carriage while Azaria excitedly started shopping. First they went to the dress section. She found a nice long sun dress. It was strapless and pink and yellow. She also got a pair of overalls. They were light blue denim with tears in the legs. She got a second pair of overalls, but this pair was dark blue denim, and the bottoms were shorts. Then she got a white crop top that was lace in the back and a light blue denim skirt. Finally she got a cheetah print bikini.

For her accessories, she went to the hat area. She got one cowboy hat, a pack of bandanas, which Brantley agreed to upon request and a tie dyed base ball cap. She then went on to find her two pairs of shoes. She got a pair of black heels, and white platform flip flops.

They finished there and went to the Jeep. "Okay, bank or supermarket first?"

"Bank, so I can get some bills to spend at the supermarket."

"By the way, Chris and Luke are moving a huge Ikea fridge into your room right about... Now."

"She smiled, "you spoil me." They walked into the bank.

"Hi ma'am, we'd like to take out a bank account in my friend here's name."

"Okay, name please..."

Azaria now had her own bank account and debit card in her name with one thousand, two hundred seventy-seven dollars on it. She had some 💰 saved already.

They finally went to the supermarket. They each had a cart, Brantley was getting stuff for the house, while Azaria was getting stuff for herself.

She got back to her room and examined her fridge. It was huge and silver, it had a water/ice machine, the freezer pulled out at the bottom. It was amazing! She had organized everything into her fridge. She had cans of cherry coco-cola, bottles of flavored water, fruit punch and three big bottles of Gatorade. She had cheese sticks, fresh fruit like grapes, strawberries and cherries. She also had yogurt, pudding and jello.

She walked downstairs to the kitchen, where Brantley, Luke and Chris were all drinking beers. She grabbed a glass and got some juice and sat by them. Marco sat by her feet like a good boy. She pet his fur and smiled that bright smile that Brantley loved.

"So Azaria, tell us about yourself..." Luke asked as Chris smiled.

"Well, my name is Azaria Rose Crawford, I'm turning fourteen in two months. I love country music, I love dogs, and I want to be a famous singer some day."

The three men started a round of applause. She laughs and walks over to the couch, putting one of her M*A*S*H DVDs in the DVD player. This was the episode where Charles and Potter get the mumps and a replacement surgeon is brought in from Tokyo.

"A childhood remedy for a man in your advanced age..."

"Ha! Charles you didn't!" The three men laugh.

"Well Brantley, I better get going, or Caroline's gonna have my head for dinner, then I wouldn't be able to eat all the fried chicken waiting for me."

"I better go too." Chris smiled. "It was great meeting you Azaria. See you Saturday..." He left.

"What's Saturday?" Azaria put away the disk and walked over to Brantley.

"We're having a bon fire by Luke's private lake. It's gonna be awesome. And don't worry, there will be plenty of cherry Coco-Cola." He smiled. "So, where do you want to go for dinner?"

"I could just cook something here."

"No, it's our first meal together, we're going to eat out. So where to?"

"Chinese buffet!"

"I take it you like Chinese food?"

"Just a little bit." She smiled and ran upstairs to get her sandals on.

They went out and had a great night.