-1 b Disclaimer: I only own Cherrytree. That's it. Hinton owns the rest.

A/N: Happy reading! /b

I walked into the messy living room of our house where five other boys were smoking, drinking beer or otherwise just lounging around watching television. Their eyes were all set and I knew why. There was another rumble happening tonight. After the last one had occurred and the Socs had been stomped, two of our gang had died (almost a third, but my brother, Ponyboy, wasn't as sick as we thought him to be). It had only been a month since Johnnycake and Dally died, and I wasn't sure the guys were ready for another fair skin fight. I was afraid one of them was going to snap and really go out and hurt some Soc with some type of weapon.

Why another rumble you may ask? Well, after the trial occurred and my brother wasn't sentenced to anything - not even sent to a boys' home - some of Bob's friends got angry. They started jumping us greasers every time they had the chance and eventually Tim Shepard had gotten so pissed off after his sister Angela had been almost run over by a high-class Mustang that he called a rumble with the next Soc he saw. So all the greasers in town were assembling down in the lot in about thirty minutes.

"Hey, Cherry," Sodapop greeted me as I went into the kitchen to grab some chocolate milk. Don't get me confused for that broad Pony met at the Nightly Double. She's nice and all, I met her while Johnny and Pony were up in Windrixsville, but she's nothing like me. My full name's Cherrytree by the way. I'm an older sister to Ponyboy Curtis and younger sister to Darry and Soda. I'm fifteen years old, not much older than Pony is.

"Hey Soda, ready for the rumble?" I asked cheerily.

"Yeah, we're ready, you shouldn't be though," he said, putting on a pair of shoes.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." I rolled my eyes. I was never allowed in the rumbles because I was a girl, but I had gotten everybody in our gang (which isn't really a gang, but there isn't much of a word for it anymore) to admit that I can hold my own when up against some Socs. Once when I was walking home from the park a guy just came up behind, grabbed my stomach and pulled me to him. Instinctively, I brought the back of my fist to his face and kicked my foot up backwards to hurt him in a certain unmentionable area. Needless to say I felt kind of bad when I realized it was Dallas Winston who was doubled over on the ground in pain. I never did find out why he had done that, but I had earned my respect to him after that incident and he had always stuck up for me when I wanted to go somewhere after dark, telling Darry that I could hold my own. It didn't really help though, Darry was way too overprotective to leave me out after the sun went down without anybody else with me.

"Cherry, I want you to stay here for the rest of the night," Darry warned. "If you so much as step out of this house, I will personally make sure you never see sunlight again."

"I know, Darry," I said. Darry isn't always as tough as I might make him out to be. I mean, he's ten times worse with Ponyboy, but I guess you have to expect it after what happened last month. He only is like this with me because I'm the only girl. I mean, I'm fifteen and he won't even allow my to have a boyfriend! It's ridiculous if you ask me. Too bad he doesn't know that I have kissed/made-out with everybody in the room besides my brothers before.

Steve was drunk, I took advantage of him at a party and we ended up making out for most of the night (I doubt he even remembers), Two-Bit definitely remembers but it was over three years ago, so it's not a big deal, Dally I had kissed to try to make him tell me where Pony and Johnny were, but it hadn't helped. And Johnny, well, Johnny was the closest I ever came to having a boyfriend and after the fire, I couldn't even bear to go to his funeral. I think everybody in the gang knows how close Johnny and I were after I locked myself in with Pony while he was sick. I only came out once or twice a day to eat and everybody tried to cheer me up, but it didn't work. Eventually, I had just given up on hoping Johnny would come back and went back to acting like my usual self around others. Nobody knows that I still grieve when I'm alone. Not even Soda, who I tell everything.

"I mean it, Cherry." Darry grabbed his jacket and rushed out the door. The energy wasn't as high as past rumbles, but everybody was still doing mid-air somersaults and back flips down the street.

"Bye, Cherry! We'll see you after we stomp those Socs real good tonight!" one of the guys yelled. From what I could tell, it was Steve, but I couldn't be too sure.

Sighing, I went into my room and dug around in my closet for some clothes to wear to bed. I found a pair of Soda's boxers and an over-large t-shirt to wear and took off any trace of make-up I had put on before going back out into the living room. I found a beer in the fridge (Darry doesn't count to bottles because Two-Bit just takes some whenever he wants) and sat down on the couch to watch some television.

I was getting a little bit drunk after just one bottle of alcohol. I'm not much of a drinker and can't handle a lot at a time, but I took another bottle from the fridge anyway. I was beginning to think about Johnny and how his hand always seemed to fit perfectly within mine. His big, dark eyes always watching out for the both of us and his tender lips upon mine. How everyday he would come over with a new bruise on him from the way his parents beat him.

Suddenly, I closed my eyes tight. I couldn't let myself think of Johnny Cade. He was dead and would never come back. I had to get over it. I'm a lot tougher than this. I hadn't even been this sorry for my self when Mom and Dad died in that auto wreck.

There was a knock at the door and I didn't bother to whistle like us greasers usually do when we don't know who it is. I was thinking another girl was coming over because all the other guys were at the rumble. Perhaps it was Two-Bit's sister, Jane. She was a lot nicer than the other girls in town. I didn't much care for the others because they walked around all the time like tramps, but Jane was nice, she would never do anything like that.

Planning on a nice visit from Jane Matthews, when I opened the door I was surprised when two hands knocked me hard against the floor…