Chapter 1:

I was dreaming peacefully until I felt someone jump on the bed. I open my eyes and see my baby brother Soda on the bed, looking at me and tellin' me to get up. I took my pillow out from under my head and hit Soda with it. He grinned, took the pillow away from me and tickled me in my sides. I started to kick my feet. He stopped after a while and left the room. I rolled out of the bed. I did roll off the bed and onto the floor. I ended up hittin' my head on the floor too. My two younger brothers and older brother came in. "What happened?" Darry, my oldest brother asked.

"I rolled out of bed," I said. I stood up, only to fall on the bed again. "Darry, do we have any Tylenol?"

"I'll give you some when you come downstairs," he said as he left. Soda and Ponyboy followed after him. I got up, walked to the closet, pulled out a corset, a short flip skirt, and a white short sleeved shirt. I removed my night clothes, which are long sweat pants and a tank top. I switched my clothes, brushed my long red hair, put my hair in two high pigtails and went into the kitchen. Darry was makin' breakfast; Ponyboy was readin' a book he had to read for school, and Soda was leanin' back in his chair. I went to the refrigerator, grabbed the chocolate milk, poured myself a glass and put the milk away. I picked up my milk and was about to drink it when I felt it slip from my fingers. I look up and saw Dally took my glass and drank it some.

"You bastard," I said.

"Watch your language," Darry said.

"But he drank my milk," I whined like a little kid. I never acted my age which was 17. I acted like a child instead. I was older than Soda by one year, older than Ponyboy by three years, but younger than Darry by three years and younger than Dally by six months. "He took my milk," I complained again.

"You have plenty of it," he said laughing. He was talking about my chest.

"Please can I kick his ass Darry?" I asked.

"Not in the house," he said.

"Plus you could never beat me shrimp," he said.

"I'm almost taller than you," I said. "I only need to grow four more inches."

"In your dreams kid," he said as he began to drink some more milk.

"But I like my dreams of me and Johnnycakes doing it on your bed," I said. Dally spit the milk all over the place. Soda and Ponyboy were laughin'. I looked in Darry's direction and saw Johnny standin' in the door way. "Just kidding Johnnycakes," I said as I ran over to him and hugged him. "Love ya!" Two-Bit came into the room with Steve behind him after a couple minutes.

"What happened here?" Steve asked.

"Dally sprayed it everywhere," Soda said while he was still laughin'. "And Rosemary just told us what she dreams about and I quote 'I dream of me and Johnnycakes doing it on your bed.' She was talking about Dally's bed." Two-Bit and Steve started to laugh too.

"Okay, Dally and Rosemary clean this place up," Darry said.

"Why innocent me?" I asked.

"You caused it," Dally said.

"You took my milk," I said as I grabbed some paper towels.

"I wish I did," Dally said.

"Go fuck yourself Winston," I said and I stuck out my middle finger.

"You wish I could fuck you," he said.

"Rosemary," Darry said as he raised his voice some before I could say anything. I started to clean up the mess I "supposedly" caused. Dally didn't help at all. I threw the towels in the room with all the laundry. I'm going to have to do that later. Darry finished making breakfast and good thing too. I was hungry. He handed me a plate and I ate it all. I put my plate in the sink, ran up stairs to grab my book bag and my blade. Darry doesn't know I have this. He already knows I have tattoos. I've had the tattoos since I was little and he just found out about it. I had a Chinese dragon on both of my arms. You would never think my parents let me get these but they did. I was so happy that day. I know all about ink poisonin' and all that. I just don't listen though.

After I grabbed my stuff, I walked back into the kitchen. Just as I entered, a clown popped out of nowhere. I screamed at the top of my lungs. I hated clowns. They scare me. "Darry!" I screamed as I fell to the ground in tears. I hated them so much. Darry ran over to me and put his strong arms around me.

"Enough Dallas," he said. I looked up; eyes still full of tears and saw it was a blow up of a clown. I heard Dally and everyone else except Johnny and Darry laughin'.

"He got you good Rosemary," Two-Bit said.

"He did," Steve said.

"I am going to send you to Hell Winston," I said as I was about to run over to him. As you probably guess, Darry held me back.

"You know she's terrified of clowns," Darry said.

"I know and that's why I did it," he said. I wrapped my arms around my older brother and cried more. Ever since I was a kid, I have always hated clowns. I have no reason; I just hate them so badly. That's why Darry, Soda, Ponyboy and I never been to the circus. I had Darry whispering in my ear words to make me calm down. "It's okay Rosemary. Dally was just playing a trick on you. Clowns are not real and they can't hurt you. If they ever did, you know I would skin 'em." I stopped crying after ten minutes. Everyone either left for school or work by then. Darry offered to drive me to school but I said I would walk. Darry and I left at the same time. I love Darry. He was the best older brother in the world even though he could get a little over protective of me. He always helped me when I needed him. I've especially needed him after mom and dad died. Out of the entire Curtis family, I was the one who took it the most hard. Why did great people like them have to die? They didn't deserve to die. I will never get over the fact they are gone.

I look at where I'm going and saw I was going to wrong way. Damn; now I was late for school. I hope Darry called them and told them I would be late. I ran in the direction I was suppose to go in and rushed off to school. Along the way, I saw a new greaser gang in town. They were driving their motorcycles, or bikes. They were driving like they own this territory. To bad we'll mess with them if they try to take our territory. I am a greaser and proud of it. I just didn't get a chance to grease my hair today. They drove right past me. I finally made it to school and went to my first class: science. She was the nicest teacher in the world. I opened the door and the whole class watched me as I entered. I explained what happened to the teacher and she accepted it. Then she reminded me that this was my first tardy. I went and got my seat next to my best girlfriend in the world, Angela Shepard. The only way I know her is because of her older brother Tim. Tim and I grew up together. How we meet, that was a weird day.

I was in the park with Darry. He was about six and I was three. I was playing in the sand box when his kid came over and messed up my sand castle. Darry came over and yelled at the guy. This kid was about eight. So he and Darry got into a fight. Darry wasn't as strong as he is now back then. Darry was getting hurt so I jumped in. I ended up getting hurt worse than Darry. Just as the guy was about to hit me in my ribs, Tim came and threatened the guy. The guy ran away. I was always wondered how an eight year old got scared by someone the same age as me. That was weird. So that's basically how Tim and I meet. Then we started going to the same pre-school, kindergarten, elementary, middle and now high school. We were both seniors now.

"Do you have the book?" Angela whispered to me. The teacher was explaining a group project and not really paying me or Angela any attention.

"Have what?" I asked. I knew what she wanted.

"The book," she said.

"Of course," I said as I opened my book bag and handed her a book. She took the book from me and looked through it. She put money on my desk and I put it in my book bag.

"These are good girl," she said.

"I have one for Soda, Darry, Steve, Two-Bit and Johnny. I'm working on Dally," I said. "And I have more of Ponyboy." I was a photographer and a very talented one too. What I handed Angela was a book full of pictures of my youngest baby brother Ponyboy. She was crazy about him. She had always been crazy about Ponyboy, ever since we were kids. She asked me to take pictures for Ponyboy for her. I wanted to see her face when I actually did it.

"Why were you late?"

"Three words: Dally and clown," I answered.

"Why ain't there any pictures of him fully undressed."

"Damn girl; I wasn't going to ask him to do that."

"You told him?"

"No; I just asked him if he could model for me. Then Steve, Soda and Two-Bit came in and asked me to take pictures of them. Johnny just stood there so I asked him too. I haven't convinced Dally to let me yet. It was easy to convince Darry." We saw the teacher coming so she quickly put the book away and paid attention. The teacher came up to us, looked at us then left. The bell rang so we got our things and left. Once we got out the door, we laughed so hard.

"What do you have next girl?" she asked me as she stopped laughing.

"Child development," I said.

"Are Dally and my brother in there (author's note: I wonder why they took that class)?"

"Which brother?"

"Either."

"They're both in there. I have to not only deal with Winston but both Shepards too."

"Want me to switch into that class?"

"I can handle all three of you. Sure, come on."

"No thanks; I see Ponyboy next class."

"You better not lost that book."

"Trust me, I won't lose it."

"Because I'm not making another one."

"I know; see ya girl." She then ran off to her class. I walked to my class and got in there right before the bell rang. Damn; it seems I was trying to be late for every class today. I felt someone lift me up into the air.

"Rosemary Hannah Curtis!" I recognize the voice. I turned around and saw Tim Shepard. Everyone was looking at us. He walked over to my seat and put me in my chair. He seat right next to me. Dally and Curly were on the other side of the room. "I heard what Dally did to ya."

"Damn he's a long mouth!" I said loud enough for Dally to hear. He looked at me and smiled. The teacher then warned me not to talk across the class again and started her lesson. We all had to pull out our books and do a couple worksheets. Of course Tim forgot his book so he had to use mine.