"Stephanie," said Michael.

"Yeah?" she asked, popping her gum.

"Why'd you end things with Johnny?"

"Nogerelli?" she said, "I outgrew him."

"You outgrew him," repeated Michael slowly.

"Yeah. Him and those T-Birds, they think they're all that, but they're just a bunch of silly kids. I wanted someone cool, you know that better than anyone."

"Yes, I get that. But how'd you even end it with him? At the beginning of the school year things seemed, a little, unfinished."

"Jeez, wadda writing, a book?"

"No, I'm just wondering."

"Well don't wonder so much, huh?"

"Alright," he said, quietly, letting the point go for the moment.


Stephanie knows exactly why she dated Johnny. They had been close growing up, their families were friends, and when they got to high school it only made sense for him to take her to the first dance, and then after that they just always went together.

He'd been real sweet to her back then, and she really did love him. Then, at the end of junior year he was approached as the new leader of the T-Birds, and she the Pink Ladies. Everyone at the school had expected it, even though nobody thought the T-Birds were as up to snuff as they had been in prior years. Johnny was as close to the King of Cool as it got, but he was along way off from Danny Zuko and Mikey Razzano who had graduated the year before them. The 60s just weren't the same when it came to tough guys and that sorta thing, but nobody really talked about their opinion out loud, with the exception of outspoken Stephanie.

"Davey Jaworski?" she said, "I could kick his ass Johnny, what the deal with that, huh?"

"Listen, Steph, I didn't pick the gang okay, but they are our friends, so you could be a little nicer."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," she answered, snapping her gum at him.

"I hate when you do that."

"I know," she answered. He hated everything she did, and she was starting to get pretty annoyed with him these days too.

"Steph, what's your problem, huh?" he asked, fed up, "It's like you don't even like me anymore."

"Maybe that's cause I don't, huh? How about that?"

"Waddaya mean, you don't like me anymore?" asked Johnny, agitatedly lighting his cigarette, "I love- we love each other."

"Yeah, well, maybe, I don't feel that same way no more, Johnny," she said, tearing up a little.

"How do you not feel that way? We're supposed to be together, Stephanie, everyone knows it. We're supposed to rule the school together, graduate, and get married. I'll start working at your dad's station, you'll stop, and eventually he'll turn it over to me. That's the plan."

"I don't like the plan no more Johnny, can't you see that? I don't want to stop working at the station."

"Fine, we can both work at the station! Who cares!"

"I care, Johnny. I don't want a life that's all planned out! I want adventure, I want danger, I want hell on wheels!"

"Hell on wheels, hell on wheels!" he repeated, bitterly, "I'm the leader of the T-Birds, ain't that enough hell for ya?"

"No, Johnny, I just don't think it is," she said, full on crying now. She took Johnny's T-Bird jacket off and handed it back to him.

"Steph, baby, don't do this," he said, not taking the jacket.

"I gotta. I gotta, you know, do my own thing. I wanna try, just, being Stephanie Zinone, not Johnny Nogerelli's girl," she said, handing him the jacket more forcefully, and kissing his cheek, "How about we just try it for the summer, huh? If I don't find someone else, we'll just start all over, okay? Get back together and all that."

"You can't just decide when we break up and when we get together, Stephanie. Nobody dumps Johnny Nogerelli."

"Then don't look at it as 'dumping', look at it as 'trying new things'. You love trying new things. You'd try a new girl every day of the week if I didn't keep my eye on you."

"Yeah, well, I'll try a new girl every hour this summer, now that I ain't got you holding me back," he said, angrily putting on his jacket and turning up the collar, "I'll see you around, Zinone."


He had been hurt then, but all summer he was mean to her. He flirted with every girl in sight, picked on her every time he went to the station, and demanded- imagine, he demanded- that she get back with him. He didn't know when to quit it.

Michael and Johnny were friends now, and even Steph had patched things up with the latter, but she didn't need to tell Michael about how things had ended between them- she hadn't told anyone, and she was sure he hadn't either.

She'd always have a place in her heart for Johnny, he first love, the first boy she had slept with- hell, the only other boy she had slept with- and she still felt a certain alliance to him. She didn't want to bring up the bad memories of him, she'd rather just cherish the good ones, not that she needed to tell Michael that either.