Disclaimer: I do not own anything from The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton.

10 June 1965

Sodapop Curtis, Steve Randal, and Dallas Winston all sat around a small wooden table in the living room of the Curtis house.

Dallas had won the last five hands, and Soda didn't think that his pride could survive another loss. He had actually been trying to sneak a pair of aces out of his DX cap for a few minutes. But Dallas was watching him like a hawk, so he hadn't had to opportunity to cheat just yet.

Soda let out a long yawn as he dramatically raised his arms behind him, and sneakily tried to tug the pair of cards from inside the back of his hat. Dallas kicked hard at the seat of Soda's chair, causing Soda to tumble to the floor. Steve laughed heartily as Dallas threw his cards at Soda and stood up.

Dallas kicked at Soda's leg as he said, "Really Sodapop? Do you really think you're slick enough to pull one over on me?"

Dallas stepped around Soda and was walking toward the kitchen, and then Soda stuck his foot in-between Dallas's legs, causing him to stumble, and almost fall into Darry's armchair by the door. Dallas whipped around as fast as lightening and charged at the younger boy. But Soda was on his feet in instant, running circles around the small table as Dallas dashed after him.

Dallas bumped into the couch, where Ponyboy was reading a section of the pervious day's newspaper. Ponyboy shot an annoyed look at his older friends, before going back to reading.

Soda was laughing and talking to Steve as he ran away from Dallas, "Steve…did you see him fall? Ol' Dally here, just about face planted on the ground, didn't he? Steve was doubled over and in tears by this point. The sight of a very angry Dallas chasing a laughing Sodapop around the small room was enough to bring almost anybody tears of laughter.

Finally Dallas caught up to Soda, and tackled him hard to the floor. The crash shook the whole house and Darry yelled from his bedroom, "Hey, take in easy in there guys! You'd better not break anything, or I'll have to beat ya'll."

Steve called back, "Yeah, sure ya would, Superman!"

This made Soda and Ponyboy chuckle, but Soda immediately stopped laughing as Dallas twisted his arm hard behind his back. He cried out, "Darry! Dallys hurtin' your baby brother! Come help me!"

Pony laughed at Soda's childish cries for help, but Dally didn't find him very amusing. "You deserve it you little punk. Now say 'Uncle!'"

Soda snarled back, "NEVER!" Dallas twisted his arm tighter behind his back "Say Uncle!" Soda threw his head back in pain and let out a high pitch scream of agony. Dallas pushed his arm even tighter up his back just as Darry entered the living room.

Darry leaned down, grabbed the back of Dallas's jacket with one hand, and hauled him up and off of Soda. Soda sat up on the floor, pointed playfully at Dallas. "Victory."

Dallas looked angrily over his shoulder at Darry before retorting, "Soda, I would have broke your arm if you hadn't cried for your big brother here to come save you." Soda shrugged nonchalantly "Doubtful." Dallas raised a fist and shook it at Soda. "Boy, if you don't shut your mouth, I'll do it. I swear to god, I'll tear your arm off."

Darry gave Dallas a stupid look and said, "Okay, new house rule: No tearing any body parts off of anybody." Darry had gotten in the habit of randomly coming up with new 'house rules' when he didn't like something that the other boys did. Darry turned around and walked back toward his bedroom, where he was getting ready to go into evening shift at work.

Soda got up to his feet and grabbed his shoulder. "Ouch. Geeez Dally, you actually did hurt me a little I think." Dallas laughed as he plopped down on the couch next to Ponyboy. "Well, that's what you get for trying to cheat me."

Soda raised an eyebrow. "Actually, I was trying to cheat Steve. You're so back a poker, I ain't gotta worry bout you, Dally. You overestimate yourself." Dallas chuckled and pointed to Steve. "Steve here lost every hand, even worse than you did." Steve frowned and crossed his arms. "That's not true…no wait…yes it is."

Dallas laughed again and said, "See, I told ya so. Steve sucks the worst, Soda tries to cheat the worst, and I just win everything." Ponyboy laughed at Dallas's conclusion to the events of the day. He liked it when others put Steve down. Ponyboy just plain didn't like Steve most of the time.

Soda picked up his fallen chair and sat down across from Steve. He glanced up at the old clock handing on the wall above the door and asked, "Hey, any of you guys wanna go to the drag races tonight? Paul Burner and Mike Burke are racing." Johnny and Two-Bit are gonna be there too."

"Johnny's going?" Ponyboy asked. Soda nodded at him and said, "Yeah, Two-Bit said that he and Johnny would be at the drag races tonight and that we should hang out down there too."

Dallas seemed to think to himself for a moment before saying, "Yeah, I'll go. I ain't got nowhere else to be, and things have been really boring over at Buck's place lately." Ponyboy shook his head up and down. "Yeah, I'll go."

"Sounds good." Soda said. He turned his attention to Steve and said, "How bout you?" Steve shook his head almost sadly. "Nope, I can't tonight. I've got a date with Evie. It's our…anniversary." Soda immediately let out a girlish "Oooooh." Steve shot back, "Oh, shut up. I hate it when Evie calls it our anniversary; makes it sound like we're married or something."

Soda laughed and Dallas asked, "How long have you been dating that girl anyway, Steve?" Steve shifted his weight from side to side almost uncomfortably. "It'll be one year, tonight."

Ponyboy looked up from the newspaper and gave Steve a funny look. "Has it really been a whole year?" Steve raised his eyebrows at Ponyboy and nodded seriously.

Dally laughed slowly before teasingly asking, "So…you gonna go all the way with her tonight?" Soda laughed and answered for his best friend. "Ah, Evie gave it up to Steve by like their fourth date."

Steve picked up a couch cushion that was lying on the ground by his feet, and hurled it with all his strength at Soda. "Hey, you'd better watch how you talk about my girl! And it wasn't the fourth date. More like the tenth, or something." Soda laughed and said, "Aw, you know I'm just messin. I like Evie, she's an alright gal."

Dallas shrugged and looked down at his bare hand. "Well, she sounds better than my girl. I think I'm gonna get my ring back from her tomorrow. I get the feeling that Sylvia is messing around with another guy again." Soda looked sadly at Dallas. "Yeah, well I think you should just find another girl, Dally. The way you talk about Sylvia…she just sounds like more trouble than she's worth."

Dallas nodded solemnly. "Believe me, she is. But she's a pretty tuff girl. I don't know why, but I always like her. I always come back to her lying, cheating, good-for-nothing ass, no matter what." Pony laughed at Dallas's fond description of his on-again-off-again girlfriend.

Steve gave Pony a quizzical look and asked, "Say, you got a girl yet, Pony." Pony looked down at his lap, sighed, and answered, "No." Soda said, "Aw, Pony don't you even trouble yourself with girls, right now. They're just a whole lot of trouble. Plus, you're too young date anyhow. Darry would sooner see you join the Navy than let you date!" Soda gave his baby brother a warm smile that made Pony smile too. Pony could never look at Soda smile, and not want to smile himself.

Dallas leaned back in the couch, and placed his arms behind his head. "Well, I agree with Sodapop. Ponyboy, you don't even need to worry bout girlfriends and dating and all of that mess till you're older." Pony gave Dallas a shy smile before picking up his paper again, and resuming his reading.

They were all quite for a minute and then Steve piped up, "Yeah, but all the same, I've seen Angela Shepard making eyes at you, Pony." Pony looks up with a surprised expression on his face, as if he hadn't even considered the possibility. Soda chuckled a little. "Yeah Pony, you remember that time we were all hanging out at the DX, and she stopped by? Boy, she couldn't keep her hands off of you. Did you really not notice her? She was practically throwin' herself on you!"

Pony shook his head honestly. "I don't even remember that. I actually don't even remember her being there." At this Steve and Soda laughed, but Dallas spoke up seriously, "Well, Angela may be a pretty girl right now, but she's a Shepard all the same. If there is one family that you do not want to get mixed up in, it's the Shepard's."

Steve quit laughing and nodded, "Yeah, she seems pretty taken with you, but I wouldn't touch her with a ten foot poll." Soda laughed at his friend's comment and replied, "Well, its near-bout amazing that you tricked Evie into getting closer than ten feet to you. From what I see, most girls prefer to keep their distance!"

Steve punched Soda in the arm, which immediately began a wrestling match on the floor. As Steve and Soda tossed and rolled around on the ground, Dallas looked sincerely over at Ponyboy and said, "Seriously though, you shouldn't go for Angela. She's just about as easy as they come, and she's gonna look real trashy in a couple of years...come to think of it, she reminds me of Sylvia when we was younger. Ok, definitely stay away from her. She's bad news."

Ponyboy laughed at Dallas but answered, "Alright, I'll be sure to do that Dally." Dallas leaned over and good-naturedly smacked Pony in the side of the head. "You better, kid."