Ponyboy closed the refrigerator door and uncapped his Coke. "I just don't get why you're so curious about my whereabouts today."
"Aw c'mon, Ponyboy," Sodapop said. "Does it hurt to have your older brother being a teensy lil' bit more concerned for you?"
Ponyboy raised his brows in an are-you-seriously-kidding-me way. "Mhmm, sure you are." He drank from his Coke and sat on the dining table, opening up his book and getting ready to start on his schoolwork. He knew that Sodapop was a very caring brother. But he's been acting a little weird that day. Sodapop had been relentlessly asking Ponyboy about his day at school. With a strange emphasis on his Book Club, which Sodapop wasn't really interested in at first due to his lack of interest for reading.
Sodapop joined him on the dining table and gave in. "Alright." Soda hesitated. "There's this girl."
"Now you're talkin'," Ponyboy said, closing his book automatically and leaning against his chair, all ears on Sodapop.
"I just...wanna know more about her, y'know," Sodapop said, shrugging and trying to restrain himself from sounding too dreamy. "I just met her and I think she's very...very..." He struggled to find the perfect word to describe Marilyn.
"Charming? Beautiful? Captivating?—"
"Yes! Captivating!" He exclaimed, agreeing. "She's very captivating, and I don't know, Pony, I just talked to her for a lil' bit and I find her really interesting."
Ponyboy's face was scrunched up, deep in thought. When his brother was done, Ponyboy looked up, scratched a small portion on the side of his head and asked, "So how am I related to this again?"
"She's Marilyn," Sodapop said, slightly urgently. "Marilyn Crowe. You know? The new girl from your Book Club? The blonde one? She's your partner apparently."
"Oh! Marilyn!" Ponyboy raised his hands and let out a chortle. "You should'ave said so, Soda! She's a very nice person. What do you want to know about her?"
"Anything you know about her!"
Ponyboy leaned on the table, into a thinking position. "Well, let's see..." He took a momentary pause to think before he opened his mouth to talk. "She moved from Massachusetts. She formerly attended this private Catholic girls' school. She was a part of this equestrian club. She told me she loved horse-riding during our Book Club sharing and I immediately thought of you and Mickey, but moving on, she mentioned once that she was Valedictorian in her previous school. She only said it because she was asked to share about herself. Hm, what else...?"
"Oh and that's the second of the Curtis brothers."
Marilyn regarded the picture carefully on the school's yearbook from two years ago. Sodapop had a cocky yet genuine and sincere smile, wearing a white dress shirt and slightly loosened black tie. His hair was gelled up perfectly for his photo and Marilyn couldn't help but wonder if that was the last he had dressed up so formally for a picture.
"That was his last appearance in the school yearbook," Bonnie Sullivan said.
This piece of information wasn't foreign to Marilyn. She had heard about Sodapop around the school hallways. Girls were gushing about him most of the time, making plans to make trips down to the DX gas station he worked in. Ponyboy was the one who talked the most about him to her though. He said how Sodapop dropped out of school to help their eldest brother, Darry, earn a living so as to allow Ponyboy to graduate.
Marilyn thought it was a very admirable act, and she looked up to Sodapop for that. She would never want to disown her education, simply because she was always dreaming of becoming successful in her future. And here was Sodapop, dropping out to give way for his little brother to pursue his dreams.
"He's definitely smart, both streetwise and somewhat academically, my brother," she remembered Ponyboy telling her. "He's just not a school person. So he doesn't really mind."
Marilyn closed the yearbook and handed it back to her good friend. "Thanks for showing that to me," she said, smiling appreciatively.
"Anything to make you feel more welcomed here!" Bonnie replied enthusiastically. "It must be different here since you came from a private girls' school but trust me, it's just as good, or even better when it comes to schools like these. You'll be able to meet the craziest and most unusual people ever and..."
Bonnie continued to give her supposedly heart-warming welcome speech, which she had recited to Marilyn a thousand times before already. But taking consideration of her effort, Marilyn didn't stop her. She listens attentively again and nodded where appropriate.
But inside, she was thinking of Sodapop. Her encounter with him was something she kept replaying on her mind. He seemed like a laid-back person. As if it was normal for him to just go out into the public and make friends! Well, that was her impression of him anyway. But nonetheless she found him interesting. She'd love to see him again, and she was hoping he would pop by at school to fetch Ponyboy and they could talk. And before she could carry on dreaming and hoping, Bonnie was asking her a question from a totally different topic already.
"And there you go." Ponyboy sat up once again and opened his book to get back to work. "That's all I know about her. It's not much, but you know, it's something worth knowing."
Sodapop was reclined back on his chair, arms crossed, deep in thought. When he looked up, all he could utter was, "She's too good to be true, Pony."
"The epitome of perfection," Ponyboy corrected, pointing his pen at Sodapop.
He knew his brother was just messing with him with the use of strange words that was meant to remain in black and white, not used verbally. He sat up as well, leaned on the table and looked up at Ponyboy.
"Do you need a ride home from school tomorrow?" Sodapop asked. "Let's have a lunch out somewhere before my shift at the gas station. Whaddaya say?"
Ponyboy rolled his eyes in amusement and smirked at his brother.