I rolled over angrily and turned my alarm off. 6am was not my favourite time of day, in fact I believed it should have been illegal for people to have to wake up at this time. However, I persevered and rolled out of my bed and let my feet hit the cool floor. I shuffled across my tiny room and through the hall to the bathroom, careful not to make any noise and wake my brothers up.

I had a quick wash and sorted my hair out ready for school. Once I'd finished getting dressed I headed to the kitchen to start cooking everyone's breakfast, careful not to wake the boy sleeping quietly on our couch.

Its not that I hate making breakfast, in fact I quite liked cooking, but since my parents passed away it was one of the many womanly tasks that fell on my shoulders, making my day just that little bit longer. I'm one of four children, my eldest brother Darry works full time, and then some, as a roofer. He squeezes every last working minute out of the day trying to get enough to keep us comfortable. Seeing as we are technically orphans the state does give Darry a bit of money to look after us, but it's never enough for three young men and a young girl. So he does his best. I let him off for slacking round the house seeing as he really does try. Sodapop is my twin, happy-go-lucky and outgoing, he dropped out of school to work full-time at the DX station to help out with bills and stuff. I try not to nag him to help out around the house seeing as he does try, but I also work at the DX casually and I know he doesn't exactly work his guts out down there. Mostly he spends his time messing around with cars and girls. Ponyboy is the youngest, he wanted to drop out and get a job, but at the age of 14 that was pretty much out of the question. He tries hard at school, and Darry is always on his back about grades, but out of the four of us Pony has the best chance of going to college. Darry did get in with a football scholarship but he couldn't go once our parents died. It's not like he didn't have the chance, we tried to convince him to go, but that would have meant us going into a care home and he wouldn't have it. So here we are.

I try at school, but I'm not really academically minded. I am Soda's twin after all and I'd have dropped out too if I'd had an opportunity. But being a girl job options are limited, especially in this neighbourhood, so I needed all the help I could get. So my days consist mainly of cooking breakfast for my brothers, and the variety of other hungry guys that pass through the house, waking my brothers up, giving the house a quick tidy, sorting the washing then heading off to school. After school I come home, put the washing on, hang it out, tidy up some more (there's always someone making mess around here) then cooking dinner for when everyone gets home.

I bang on Pony and Soda's door first, they take the longest to get ready for the day. Pony is just so dreamy and slow and takes his sweet ass time to do anything, and Soda is just a scatterbrain so he spends most of the morning chasing around looking for clothes and shoes. I give Darry a few more minutes. I know he'll probably be up anyways. By this point Johnny is stirring on the sofa so pop back and check if he's coming to school today as well.

"Dunno man," he says with a shrug, "guess I probably should huh?"

I nod and walk back through to check on the toast, telling him if he hurries and sorts himself he can have some breakfast before he leaves. Johnny is here most out of our friends. He doesn't exactly have the best home life and our door is always open to him so most nights he ends up here. I look at his mop of black hair, greasy still from yesterday although he'll most likely pinch more of Pony's grease to sort his hair for today. He rubs his big brown eyes and mopes on over to the kitchen table. I smile and set his plate for him, shouting for the other boys to get their butts in gear and get through here. I look at the clock and notice its 7am already so I go through to knock on Darry's door but just as I raise my hand to knock he opens the door and looks down at me.

"Morning Blue, don't worry I'm up and ready to go"

I smile and start banging on Pony and Soda's room across the hall. One of them is in there and one in the shower so I hurry them along. When I get back through Darry is helping himself to breakfast and chatting to Johnny. Neither of them are very talkative, Johnny is shy and quiet and Darry is usually in too much of a rush, but today he's in a good mood. It's funny seeing them sitting side by side. Darry is huge, like tall huge and really muscley. He reminds me a lot of dad, tall and well built, same dark hair and blue-green eyes, he towers over all of us at 6ft 2in. Mostly he towers over me, although Soda and I are alike in many ways I clearly do not share the same genes in terms of height. I barely scratch 5ft 2in, and Johnny isn't much taller at 5ft 5in. But I have another giggle to myself and join them for some food. By this point Pony comes in and mumbles something about being sick of eggs for breakfast and just has some toast and jam, earning a scowl from me. Soda rushes through a few minutes later, half dressed as usual and with hair like a wet dog. He usually just greases his hair in the car on the way to the DX, he even keeps a tub in Steve's glove box.

Thinking that we're in for a quiet breakfast I settle in and tuck in to some eggs on toast, realising I spoke too soon. At that moment Steve and Two-Bit crash through the screen door and rush on over for food as if they've been starved for days.

"Don't you guys have food at your own houses?" I scowl at them.

"Yeah we do dollface, but no one tops your cooking" says Two-Bit with a wink.

"Pff yeah that's right keep on my good side otherwise your second breakfasts will be a thing of the past."

Steve grabs some toast and egg and makes a sandwich ready to go, nudging Soda and telling him to hurry up. If it wasn't for that boy Soda would never get anywhere. Steve and Soda have been best friends since they were little kids, but I like thinking that he's just Soda's carer, he's always looking out for him and making sure he does what he needs to do. It's not that Soda can't take care of himself, its just he's always too busy enjoying life to realise what he needs to be doing one minute to the next... trivial things like socks and shoes often slip his mind whilst he heads off for his latest adventure. Steve's a nice guy though, seeing as he's such good friends with Soda he's kind of my best friend by default I guess. We don't hang around too much any more though, since becoming teenagers they have become more interested in girls and parties and dragging your twin sister along doesn't really make for a good wingman. On the relationship front though things have become a bit distant between Steve and I, we kind of shared a moment a couple months ago, but it didn't last. It's not that Steve's not a nice guy, hes pretty good looking too with his lively brown eyes and dark brown hair always sleeked back in complicated swirls, but I'm his best mate's sister and we're kind of like family so it was just a fleeting thought.

By this point everyone is being rushed out of the house by Darry. He hops in his truck and heads off to work whilst Soda and Steve rush out the door after him into Steve's Ford and they skid off down the street. We have a couple more minutes before we need to leave so I run back to my room to get my school stuff and give myself a once over. I tried the best with the money I got to get some girly clothes. There was a period after our parents died when money was tight so I mostly wore hand me downs from the boys, but once I started filling out that didn't quite cut it. I'm pretty short like I said already, and quite slim build, but my bust seems to stick out a fair bit and boys shirts are just not made to fit. However I'm an aspiring seamstress so between buying and making my own clothes I make do. Today it's just jeans and an Elvis t-shirt Soda got me for our birthday. My curly gold hair is up in a ponytail and I grab a red bandanna and tie it round to keep stray strands from flopping into my eyes at school. I have the same deep brown eyes as Soda, and same hair, although mine is maybe a shade or two lighter. We take most after our mum, infact Darry jokes I'm almost a carbon copy. I figure I better stop messing around and get the guys in the car and off to school. No doubt Two-Bit's car will brake down halfway there anyways.

"C'mon guys we best get a move on or we'll end up late again", I earn a glare from Two-Bit as I say this, we had a string of late days last week until Soda and Steve looked at his car on the weekend. Something about alternator and charging, but it's fixed now, until the next thing breaks.

"Your carriage awaits m'lady" Two-Bit says as he opens the passenger door for me. I punch him on the arm and hop in, whilst Pony and Johnny squeeze in the back. Pony complains constantly about how he can't fit his legs in and he should get to sit in the front whilst the shortys sit in the back. But Two-Bit insists he's a gentleman and that ladies should sit in the front and winks at me. I just roll my eyes and laugh at Pony. He's a lot taller than me with light brown hair and same eyes as Darry and Dad, except his are maybe a bit greener. He's starting to become a bit of a looker I reckon, going to be a heartbreaker as my best friend Angela Shepard puts it. Pony is definitely going to be as tall as Darry, he's already same height as Soda, and he's not all that short, just about 6ft. But Two-Bit's front seat is a bench seat and so the passenger side can't be moved forward more than the driver's side. So Pony will just have to lump it.

We drive along for a bit listening to the radio, with Pony giving the occasional kick to the back of my seat. I just look out the window and plan what I should wear tonight for my date with Danny. I dunno whether I'm excited or not, we've been seeing each other for a few weeks, but I don't know if he's quite right for me. He's one of Angela's brother Tim's friends. Tim is quite a tough guy and his gang are known not to be messed with. But Danny asked me out at a party at theirs a few weeks ago and I thought why not. He's pretty cute with dark brown hair and chisled face. He's got a pretty good body too which is always a plus. But being in Tim's gang he's a bit of a dick. However we shall see tonight how we go.

Before I know it Two-Bit's car starts to shudder and there seems to be a lot of steam or smoke coming from under the hood... Pony whines loudly that we'll be late for school again and Johnny just shrugs and leans against the window for a snooze.

"I guess today is gunna be a long day" I say as Two-Bit stomps around to the front of the car and opens the bonnet.