Kathy sighed as she glanced at the chrome clock on the wall of the Dairy Queen. Half an hour to go until Two-Bit picked her up. She smiled as she rearranged the straws and the serviettes on the diner counter remembering the last time she was with him.
They'd been fooling around in the back of his car; he was kissing her neck, and reaching under her blouse, stroking her skin and letting out a groan in her ear as her fingers slid up the warm denim encasing his thigh.
A loud knocking on the window had jerked them apart, Two-Bit cussing as he'd hit his head on the car headliner, and looking up, Kathy saw her mother's angry face peering in the window and hastily grabbed her things together as her mother's voice began lecturing her through the car window, "Kathleen, get out here this instant!"
Two-Bit could hardly control his laughter as he opened the car door for her, she hit him with her purse as she got out, straightened her skirt and walked past her mother and into the house as if nothing had happened.
Kathy entered her bedroom, shutting her door against her mother's incessant tirade. She could see Two-Bit's car idling on the curb as he talked to James, her elder brother. Standing by her bedroom window, she observed the two greasers talking to each other earnestly then shaking hands through Two-Bit's car window. As Two-Bit drove off, he glanced at her window and grinned, blowing a kiss at her as he drove off, tires squealing.
Putting plates down in front of a family, burgers piled high with toppings and fries with sauce over them; she pulled out her order pad to take a drink order of a malt shake and two Pepsis. On her way back to the counter, she was flipping through the pad to see any order she had yet to fill. She stopped at a badly drawn Mickey Mouse, ink smudged, his nose off centre, one ear bigger than the other with a speech bubble saying, "Where's Minnie?" She tore off the slip off the pad with a laugh and put it in her uniform pocket.
She'd missed a party at Two-Bit's house that he'd thrown last night at last minute since his mother left with his sister, to visit Two-Bit's aunt.
It'd been humiliating to be grounded at her age, she was 17, but her father wouldn't listen to reason, he'd put his foot down as her mother had smirked and James couldn't sneak her out since his car wouldn't start. A whole gaggle of his friends had come around, talking of carburettors and spark plugs and oil across the kitchen table.
Kathy resignedly accepted that she couldn't meet Two-Bit at The Dingo and then go on to his house party that night. Instead she holed up in her room reading for an English book report on "Romeo and Juliet", and grudgingly writing notes for History for Monday morning.
Kathy poured the drinks and carried them over on a tray, putting the respective drinks in front of the customers, accepting their smiles as her tips. Heading back to the counter, she ripped off the old drinks order and stuck it to their meal order, mentally adding the total and scribbling it down.
The door to the diner opened, Kathy smiled as she looked up from behind the counter, expecting to see the warm grey eyes of her boyfriend. Instead she encountered the frosty steel blue eyes of a Soc girl. Her grin faded as four Soc girls came up to the counter, their pale eyes raking over her worn uniform, her not so white apron and her hurriedly tied back dirty blonde hair.
She looked at the clock again and inwardly groaned, fifteen minutes until Two-Bit came. She put a friendly smile on, hoping it didn't look too much like a grimace and went to take the girls orders.
"Hi, I'm Kathy, I'm here to take your order, we've got specials today of barbeque beef sandwiches and fries with a chilli relish."
The girl in the middle raised her head from the menu and looked at her snootily, the other girls giggled as she stared at Kathy.
"We don't want any specials today; we'll have four burgers and fries with cherry cokes."
The other girls nodded in agreement and as Kathy wrote down the order, the one furthest at the end with a pink neckerchief tied around her neck, said "Could you make those burgers not so greasy this time? Why, last time I came here, I had such a hard time trying to get the grease off my hands."
The girls laughed in a chorus, cold and hard, the retort making Kathy's smile flicker. She gritted her teeth as she poured their cherry cokes, and as she reached the last girl, she jerked the glass so the drink slopped over the sides and dripped off the counter wetting the girl's cream skirt in sticky sweet dark cola.
"Oh I'm so sorry, I guess I just don't have a good grip on things what with my hands being so greasy!" she hissed at the girl amidst the shocked eyes of the other Soc girls. Grabbing a handful of serviettes, Kathy thrust them at her and stomped off to the employees' restroom, jerking her thumb at Adam, the new waiter to stop memorising the menu and to take over the counter.
She entered the restroom, leaning against the wall and sighing. Good god, what was taking Two-Bit so long, knowing her luck the girls would complain to Mel, her boss, about her competence as a waitress and would try to get her fired.
The bell rang at the kitchen, meaning the soc girls order was ready. She breathed out and in and smoothed down her uniform and tied her hair back tighter than before.
She stared at the mirror for a second and stuck her tongue out at her reflection, wishing she could tell the soc girls what she really thought of them, before heading out to face the girls again.
As she headed out towards the counter, her heart leapt as she spied Two-Bit's beat up black car parked outside the Diner windows. She looked around and spied his grease combed hair above one of their corner booths. She helped Adam serve the Soc girls, setting their plates firmly down in front of them, ignoring their glares and moving on to the corner booth.
Placing her hands over Two-Bit's eyes and peering round the booth, she laughed, "Guess who?" She felt his eyelids flutter beneath her fingers as she smiled at Johnny, Two-bit's dark haired quiet friend sitting across the booth. He was a sweet kid, a bit younger than them but a good friend. He always hung around with the youngest Curtis brother and sometimes stayed over at Two-Bit's since things were rough at home for him.
Two-Bit's arm snaked around her waist and pulled her into his lap; she squealed as he tickled her gently but leapt up quickly, hitting him with her order pad. "Oh, behave yourself, I'm at work, which is more than I can say for some people!"
Two-Bit looked hurt, "hey, I'm just a man of leisure, what can I say? Is it okay if me and Johnny have a drink and a bite to eat, we're starved, we didn't have any breakfast, and then I'll take you home?"
Kathy didn't mind, the girls wouldn't dare to say anything else now that she was clearly friends with two greasers in the corner. She laughed to herself, these boys weren't hoods, and they were some of the sweetest boys she knew. Johnny was poring over the menu, food almost reflected in his big brown eyes. They decided on two specials and she scribbled the short hand down on her pad and put the order in at the kitchen counter, almost feeling the glares from the girls warming her back. She turned back around, firm smile on her face and busied herself with helping Adam seat a family had that just come in, filling up one of the big booths with chatter.
She took their drink orders and waited as they surveyed the menu, she peered over at the boys. They seemed to be having a discussion since Two-Bit's eyes were intense as he talked and Johnny seemed to sink into the booth seat as he replied.
Immediately Two-Bit must have made a wise crack as Johnny laughed. Two-Bit joined him, his loud laughter causing some diners to stare at him over their club sandwiches.
He met her eye and grinned, his eyes dancing. God, that smile, it made her stomach flip, especially when he'd smile at her while they were in the back of his car and it was just the two of them alone and they had all the time in the world.
Kathy was startled out of her reverie by a little girl piping up from the family table, "Mommy, why's that boy with the Mickey Mouse shirt laughing?"
Her mother shushed her saying, "you don't want to know, probably something filthy, he's just a good for nothing hood, with grease in his hair and a knife in his pocket I suppose."
Kathy inwardly snickered, Two-Bit did laugh at filthy jokes and did carry a switchblade in his pocket, just for show. He was a greaser and proud of it.
At least he wasn't as bad as some of the greasers he hung around with, Kathy had heard many stories about Dallas Winston, the unofficial gang leader who'd come from New York and was wild and tougher than any of them. He slightly scared her, seeming to have this feral quality about him and his eyes were always cold.
She took the family's order and rushed back to the kitchen counter to take the boys their sandwiches.
Johnny looked gratefully at her as she placed the plates in front of them, "eat up boys, god knows you need a good feeding and I'm exhausted, been on my feet all day, so the sooner you eat up," she said nudging Two-Bit with her hip, whispering in his ear "the sooner we can go home and relax." Two-Bit chuckled lewdly and Johnny blushed.
Straightening up, she caught the little girl's eye from across the diner and winked. The little girl collapsed into giggles and was shushed by her mother.
The boys ate quickly, not necessarily because of Kathy's words but because she knew they always ate that way, quickly and hungrily almost wolfing it down, washing mouthfuls down with Cherry Coke.
She slid their order slip off the kitchen counter and into her apron pocket. Diners never missed a few dollars, so if she could help her friends by them getting a free meal, she would, plus Mel was tight, not giving her an equal share of the tips as she was a girl and still in high school, yet he'd still leer at her and brush his hand against her skirt.
She took away the empty plates from the Soc girls, ignoring their glares and whispering, she placed the plates in the kitchen sinks and went to check upon the boys. She found them pushing fries around their plates, soaking up the barbeque sauce and popping them in their mouths. Two-Bit's eyes darkened as he loaded a fry with sauce and threw it at Johnny, bouncing off the side of his face, leaving a streak of brown. Johnny's shocked expression made Kathy smile. At least it was a fry thrown by a friend and not a beer can thrown by his dad.
Johnny threw a small handful of fries back at Two-Bit, the two of them collapsing into giggles as Kathy swatted them both with her menus. She told them she'd be ready to leave by the time they'd finished their drinks and Two-Bit held up his nearly empty glass, catching the chewed on straw between his lips and sucking the soda up in one gulp.
He raised his eyebrow, "you ready yet?"
She raised hers back in a near perfect imitation, "what about Johnny's drink?" she said smugly. Two-Bit glanced over at Johnny's drink. It was half full. "Aw, man." Johnny smirked in apology.
Kathy left them as she went through the kitchen, taking off her apron as she went and saying goodbye to Adam, precariously balancing plates on his hands as he went through the swing doors.
"Kathy... I need to talk to you."
Kathy inwardly groaned and turned to face her boss. He was balding, and overweight, his grease stained shirt tucked over his large belly into shabby pants.
She pasted a smile on her face and gritted her teeth as she answered.
"Sure, Boss".
"I've had a serious accusation from the group of girls sitting out front that you've been taking orders off the counters, slipping them in your pocket, so your hood friends get free meals."
She inwardly paled, her smile gone. Shit, the Soc girls must have seen her and wanted to grass her up.
"Mel, those girls don't like me, they'd say anything to get you to fire me, and you know that."
His shoulder shrugged. "I can always get someone else to replace you, so empty your pocket now".
She sighed, putting her hand into her uniform pocket, her fingers grazing the order slip, she pulled it out, folded into half, and his eyes lit up at the sight. He snatched it out of her hand roughly and opened it eagerly. His face fell and his lower lip wobbled as he saw the badly drawn Mickey Mouse on the slip.
"My boyfriend left me a note and I wanted to keep it, so I'm sorry if your customers got the wrong idea and thought I was trying to fleece you."
Mel gaped, his mouth opening and shutting like a fish gasping for air.
"Maybe now would be a good time to talk about that raise?"
His eyebrows shot down and his face turned puce as he growled, "You should be so lucky, go on, and get home."
She grabbed her overcoat from the hook by Mel and flounced out, grinning at the Soc girls who immediately fell upon whispering urgently amongst themselves.
Two-Bit fell upon her with a bear hug, "Finally, you appear! You'd been in there for ever, I was going to send Johnny in to rescue you, be a knight in shining armour, eh Johnny?" Johnny rolled his eyes.
"You mean you wouldn't be my knight in shining leather?" Kathy pouted prettily and Two-Bit laughed as he gently pushed her out of the diner doors, hands around her hips, "nah, someone has to drive the get-away car, don't they?"
Kathy sat in the front, Johnny in the back and as Two-Bit revved his engine and drove off, tires squealing, she'd never been so happy to have finished a day at work.