AN: OK, this is a rewrite of my story 'Gone are the Days.' I hope that you enjoy the new and improved Chapter 1!
Much love,
Dagmaris
Chapter One
Claudia Randle wasn't quite sure how she felt about Sylvia Richards.
Oh sure, she'd heard the stories and the gossip; sometimes in more detail than she would otherwise care to, but that hadn't necessarily defined her opinion of the older girl. Claudia knew that a lot of it was just talk. She also knew that a lot of it wasn't.
This left her wondering why she had agreed to an outing with none other than the East Side Queen herself. Steve would be hacked if he found out (and Steve always found out), so why risk it for a girl she wasn't even sure she liked?
The answer was quite simple: Karen Mathews.
"Oh Claudia, you have to come! It's my birthday." Karen had started her pleas early that morning and they had spilt over into lunch. Claudia thought she'd have let it go by then, but Kar was holding tight to her plan. And what a plan it was.
"Karen, I am not gonna to hang out with Sylvia Richards and her friends on a Friday night, even if it's for your birthday. Steve will never let me, and I bet your brother won't either. Since when are you even friends with her, anyhow?", Claudia asked exasperatedly as she sipped coffee from the small thermos she had snuck into lunch. She never could bring myself to eat the school lunches. Coffee held her over until dinner.
"I met her at the Dingo," Karen said simply as she picked at her limp fries. Claudia raised an eyebrow at her short answer; there had to more to it than that. Karen snuck a glance at her from beneath a curtain of rust colored curls and sighed.
"Ok, so I may have followed her into the bathroom."
"Karen!", Claudia said in slight shock. She knew her friend had a strange hero worship for the older girl, but she never imagined she would have the courage to do something like that. Karen giggled at her friend's reaction.
"I know! I dunno why I did it, I just…went. Right in there, like I knew exactly what I was doin'."
"Well what did ya say to her?"
Karen lost her excitement a fraction at that, her smile falling. It was replaced with an air of frustration.
"A whole lotta nothin'," she said with a sigh. "She's just so tuff. I lost my nerve the second I walked through the door."
"So, you didn't talk to her?"
"Oh no, I did", Karen was quick to reassure her friend. "Well, really it was her that talked to me. I was checkin' my hair and she just walked right up and asked me what my name was. Far out, huh?"
Claudia couldn't help but agree. Even though she didn't have the same admiration for Sylvia that Karen did, Claudia knew what a deal it was to have a junior go out of their way to talk to a freshman; and outside of school, no less.
"Anyway, I told her and she said she knew Two-Bit. We got to talkin', my birthday came up, and she invited me to hang with her and her friends tonight", Karen finished with a pleased look and a pointed bite of her soggy French fry. Claudia narrowed her eyes and sipped at her coffee; this had to be some kind of tale Karen had spun. She was a lot like her brother in that way.
"I don't know Karen. I know it's your birthday and all, but I got a lousy feeling about this," Claudia said as she screwed the cap back onto the thermos and grabbed her books. Lunch was almost over. Karen groaned and lifted her tray.
"Come on, Claudi! You can't keep livin' in that damn shell your brother scared you into. You're fourteen for chrissakes! You think ol' Steve'o was on the couch playing solitaire and drinking coke when he was fourteen?", Karen ranted as she tossed her tray into the trash with more force than necessary. Claudia was still amused by the 'Steve-o' bit. She doubted Karen would say something like that within earshot of Steve, but it was definitely a title that she had picked up from Two-Bit. Karen went on.
"Just…please. Do something wild, just this once, for me", Karen turned her dark gray eyes on her friend and Claudia knew she couldn't refuse. She paused outside the door of the classroom and sighed.
"Well…what d'ya suppose I tell Steve?"
Karen laughed brightly at the apprehensive look on her friend's face.
"Oh, I knew I could convince you. And don't you worry about Steve. He'll never even know," Karen said confidently.
Claudia, however, wasn't as sure about that.
XXXXXXXXX
"I'm going to spend the night with Karen tonight."
Steve didn't break stride as they walked to his car, Johnny Cade trailing behind him. He simply looked over at his sister with narrowed eyes.
"Why the hell are ya tellin' me?", he asked roughly as he opened his car door. Claudia walked to the other side where Johnny gestured for her to get in the front seat. She smiled gratefully at him as she slid in. Johnny was the nicest person she knew.
"I dunno. Thought I ought to since dad ain't home tonight", Claudia hoped she sounded calm and cool, like she was telling a simple everyday fact and not like she was lying through her teeth. Which was exactly what she was doing.
Steve cranked the car and started to back out of the lot.
"I ain't gonna be home either, so it don't matter to me if yer at Karen's", he said simply before he started cussing some Soc who cut him off at the stop. Johnny, Claudia noticed, fidgeted in the back seat. She knew he was one of those guys who didn't like swearing in front of girls. He'd once said 'damn' in front of her and spent the next hour apologizing quietly for it. Steve told him not to sweat that, that if she'd heard one curse word, she'd heard a thousand. Claudia could tell that Johnny still didn't like it, though. He really was a nice guy.
"Oh? And where are you gonna be?", Claudia tried for nonchalance, but almost immediately knew that she had failed. Usually, she didn't care where Steve went, but tonight it was pretty important. Life or death, really. If he saw her out with Sylvia, she was toast. It was not a risk she was willing to take.
"Glory, Claudia, when'd ya get so nosy?", Steve snapped. Claudia sighed. Her brother was such a hothead sometimes. It drove her nuts.
"Sorry. I was just askin'. Trying to make conversation, I s'pose", she spoke softly as she looked out the window. Her breath fogged the chilled glass. She didn't look at Steve at all. The car was silent for a beat before Steve spoke again, this time in a calmer tone.
"If it matters so damn much, Soda and I are takin' Sandy and Evie to the Nightly Double."
Claudia felt her gut roll slightly and she almost wished she hadn't asked. It wasn't that Steve would be anywhere near the Dingo (that's where she was meeting Karen). In fact, him going to the Nightly Double all but eliminated the possibility of them crossing paths. No, the lousy churning in her stomach stemmed from the fact that Sodapop Curtis was still with Sandy Mathers.
Claudia had had a rather unfortunate crush on her brother's best friend for most of her life. She didn't remember when it had truly developed, only that it felt like she'd had it forever, and it had been more inconvenient on more than one occasion.
Claudia knew that she would never stand a chance of being with Sodapop. He was the most handsome boy she had ever seen, not mention funny and sweet. She was plain, with brown hair and dark eyes. She hadn't grown into her body yet, having reached an average 5'5 over the summer with no…assets to show for it.
Of course, she was still young and had plenty to time to develop, but she had a feeling that even if she turned out to have looks like Brigette Bardot, Sodapop would never see her as more than Steve's little sister. It was something she had come to accept, but that still didn't quell her displeasure over Sodapop and Sandy. She had seen them together. She knew that he was in love with the blonde beauty.
"Have fun", Claudia replied, hoping she didn't sound too miserable. She was almost certain that Steve had no clue about her crush and she would prefer it stayed that way.
"Sure", Steve said, and the rest of the ride was silent until he informed her that he would be dropping her off and taking Johnny to the DX with him. He also said that he didn't plan on coming back before his date, so she needed to walk to Karen's before sundown. Until then, she had the house to herself.
Steve dropped her off at their house and, after a quick goodbye to Johnny and an affectionate flick on the arm from Steve, she made her way up the worn steps of her front porch.
Their house, like most of the others on the East side, was not very nice. It was bigger than most and probably at one time it would have been beautiful. Her dad had found it condemned right after he and her mom got married. He'd gotten it for practically nothing and had fixed it up to be inhabitable, but nothing more than that.
It was wide and spacious, the dining room wall having been knocked out to open up the already large living room. The first and second floors were decent, but the third floor was too dangerous to even walk on. Her dad had had the door locked to the third floor for as long as she could remember. She and Steve slept on the second floor, while their dad (when he was home) slept in the master bedroom beside the stairs. The house was sparsely decorated with only what was absolutely necessary and the rest was blank, cold space.
Claudia plopped on the worn couch in the living room and sat in the silence, entirely too familiar with that exact scene. She was left alone often. Probably too often.
They didn't have a T.V., so Claudia usually filled the quiet with the old beat up record player in the corner. All the music was out of date, but she didn't mind. There were a few Elvis records in there that Steve had lifted a few years before. They were Claudia's favorite.
She got up and put one on before heading to the kitchen, the King's croon following her as she went. She had just opened the fridge when she was startled by a knock on the door. No one usually knocked on their front door.
Claudia walked to the front of the house, turning the music down as she went, and opened the door.
There would come a time when Claudia would get smarter, more cautious, not opening the door for friend or foe. That time, unfortunately, was not then, and lucky for her, she wasn't quite sure if the girl standing on the other side of her doorstep was a friend or an enemy.
"Hey kid. I heard you're down for a party."
Sylvia Richards had a voice of honey covered steel.
