"What the hell, Soda?" I woke up screaming at my big brother.

"Sorry, sweet cheeks. You weren't waking up!" He stifled a laugh.

"And that makes it okay to dump freezing water on me?" I sat up and started ringing my hair out on the ground.

"Yeah, Jill, I think it does. Darry told me to wake you up at all costs."

I groaned, "Why do I have to wake up early on my birthday?"

"This is a direct quote from Darry; 'It's not everyday our baby sister turns 16, we need to make the most out of the day.' So, sorry, but we have the whole day planned for you." Soda smiled. His smile always made me do whatever he was asking. He was quite the charmer. Even being his sister, he could still manipulate me with that smile.

"Fine. Get out so I can get ready."

After showering and getting myself prepared for the day's events, I went to the living room to find all three of my big brothers. Each of them was holding something. Soda had a camera and was taking an obnoxious amount of pictures, Pony had a cake that didn't look any different from any of the other cakes we had around here except for the lighted candles, and Darry had a gift bag. They were all grinning like idiots.

As if on cue, they all shouted "Happy Birthday" in unison.

I smiled, "Thanks, guys." I walked up to Pony and closed my eyes. When I opened them, I blew out the 16 candles. As the last candle lost its flame, a rush of bodies came swarming into the house. I saw 3 familiar faces that belonged to most of the other members of my brothers' gang. Two Bit ran towards me and spun me around in the air. "Happy birthday, Jilly!" He kissed me on the temple.

"Hey, enough of that, Two!" Darry yelled across the room.

"Sorry, man! I gotta get them in before she starts shacking up with some guy!" He grinned.

I blushed furiously. Darry crossed the room and whacked Two Bit across the head. Two Bit just shrugged and laughed some more.

Next up was Steve. "Baby Curtis is all grown up!" He fake sniffled, he patted his eyes. As his hands came down, his eyes caught the cake. When he saw it, he forgot why he was here.

I laughed as I walked over to the couch and took a seat. I rested my head against the back and slowly started to doze off like any other day. The guys were always here, so I never had a problem with the noise. I felt someone sit down next to me and bump my side. I opened my eyes to see Johnny.

"Hey, Johnny." I grinned at him.

"Happy birthday, Jill." He mumbled. He was never much of a talker.

"Thanks, man." I said and wrapped my arm around his shoulders, pulling him in for a hug.

He blushed. "Yeah, no problem." We sat there for a few minutes in silence before Johnny couldn't take it anymore. He got up and started talking to Pony.

A few more minutes go by and I'm half asleep again.

"Princess over there is going to sleep?" Soda shouted. "That must mean it's present time!"

I opened my eyes once again, and looked back at him.

I would be lying if I said I hadn't been dying to know what was in that bag Darry was holding. I knew money was tight, so I didn't expect anything too extravagant, but I was excited.

"Okay, okay! Me first!" Two Bit screeched. He walked over to my place on the couch and handed me a small box.

"Awe, Two. You didn't have to get me anything!" I peeled back the brown paper bag wrapping, and saw a small crushed velvet box.

"There better ain't be no ring there! I know you've had a thing for her before, but this is taking it too far!" Darry stared down at Two.

"Calm down, it's earrings!" I said as I opened the box, "Wow, Two, these must have cost a fortune."

His ears turned red, "They were actually my ma's. She won't miss 'em."

I nodded, and smiled at him in appreciation. "Thank you."

Two Bit clapped Johnny on the back. "Johnnyboy, you're up!" Johnny stood up wearily from his spot on the floor. He passed me a small package wrapped in the Sunday comics.

"This isn't as good as Two's. But I hope you like it." He smiled slightly. I ripped the tape off of the paper and revealed a black Zippo lighter.

"Thanks! Now I won't have to bum lights off you guys anymore!" I smiled widely.

"Why do you need any lights?" Darry interrogated.

Darry didn't like the thought of his only sister smoking cigarettes. Constant denial. "So I can light my candles, duh!"

Darry laughed, "Good answer."

"I'm next! I'm next!" Steve came running at me. He threw a softball sized box at me and sat down in front of my like a puppy. I opened it up and pulled out a white coffee mug. On the side, it looked like Steve wrote on it with Magic Marker. In his childlike handwriting, he had written "Jilly Bean", my childhood nickname.

I threw my head back and laughed. "I love it, Steve!" He curled his lips up and threw up a thumb.

Pony came around the couch now. "And last, but not least!" He presented me with the same gift bag I saw this morning. I pulled out the purple tissue paper, and grabbed the first object. It was a Seventeen Magazine. The guys knew reading it was my guilty pleasure, but we couldn't always afford them. I squealed and started flipping through the pages.

"There's more!" Pony smacked the magazine out of my hand. I looked longingly at the spot it landed on the floor, but directed my attention to the bag again. The other article in the bag was a small wooden picture frame. "We figured you could get one of the pictures from today to put in there." Soda said.

"These are all really great!" I said, motioning to the stuff spread around me. I leaned back and sighed. I couldn't help but notice that there was one person that wasn't here. Dally.

Soda noticed the small frown forming on my face. He grabbed my hand and pulled me to the kitchen. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I said, giving him a fake smile.

"Come on, I know you better than that." He shoved my shoulder. "Out with it."

"He's not here." I pouted.

Soda sighed. He knew I'd had a crush on Dally for as long as I could remember. Everyone knew; I was pretty obvious about it. I mean, how is a little girl that only hangs out with boys supposed to keep her crush a secret? "I told him about it. He probably just forgot." He shrugged it off.

"He didn't forget. He just loves torturing me! He knew I would want him to be here, and so he didn't come. I don't know how I can stand that guy." My head rested up against the wall. "Sometimes he's just so nice to me, and I start to think he might like me back. Other times I see him with some nasty girls and I'm positive he doesn't want me."

"You can't let a guy like him get in your head. He doesn't even know what he wants." Soda patted my arm. He gave me another small smile before returning to the party.

Why couldn't boys just be simpler? I guess Dally was technically a man. He was 18 after all. That didn't matter to me though, he would always be the 11 year old boy that came over to our house everyday after school, talking about how much Oklahoma sucked. I shook all the thoughts about him out of my head. I had to stop thinking about him. I plastered a smile on my face and went back out the where my real friends were.