"Nice of you to drop in!" laughed Dally, his eyes full of amusement. Katie, while trying to get inside the window, had taken a wrong step and resulted in falling from the canopy covering the front porch, but instead, Dally had caught her before she'd landed on her back. He was currently holding her bridle style.
"Put me down, you goof!" Katie struggled, trying to wiggle her way out of Dally's arms, trying to force Dally's arms to bend the wrong way, which would result in him dropping her.
"But I don't wanna!" Dally complained, sounding like a little kid again. He kept his grip on her, but moved her so she was laying on her stomach across Dally's right shoulder.
"Put me down!" she beat on Dally's back.
"Fine," he set her down on her feet. Dally usually was one to watch his mouth and clean up his act around girls, but not around Katie. He did it on purpose. Dallas hated Katie and Katie had equal feelings for the tough criminal.
They were just too much alike.
The two, one fourteen and very smart, but tough at the same time; one, seventeen, in school but skips on purpose, were always butting heads about something. Whether it be the sky is blue and the grass is green, or Katie reads too much, or Dallas in always in jail when he could clean up his act and get a job, have a life.
Dallas didn't want Johnny around Katie, and he made it clear; but the two hung out anyway. No matter how tough, Dallas couldn't keep Katie away from her very good friend. She knew that Dally would beat her head in, and that was the problem.
Katie Roberts was not afraid of Dallas Winston.
The fourteen year old greaser wasn't scared of much, in fact. Sure, Socs would spoil her every now and then and the constant fear of her conscience telling her someone was going to jump her at midnight, she wasn't scared of much. The red-clad greaser was tough, and you had to admit it. Just because she was a girl didn't mean she was less able than the rest of the greasers, in fact, if anything, she knew more. Maybe not more than Dallas but the kid had it figured out pretty quick. She was small, but she was smart and tough and you had to respect her.
The gang hadn't even noticed Katie trying to get their attention from the window. "Guys! I got it!"
When they looked up, however, she wasn't there.
"Where'd the dang kid go?" asked Dally. Not that he cared, anyway, but he needed to know where the kid was. Not because he cared, but because this humongous house was way too sketchy for his liking, especially for a fourteen year old kid to be wandering around. . . No! He didn't care. In fact, what stopped him in his thoughts was knowing that a sixteen-going-on-seventeen year old kid was in there, along with a seventeen year old and two fourteen year olds. . . No! The tough greaser thought to himself again. He only cared about Ponyboy and Johnny and that was it. The rest could handle themselves. . .
He was snapped out from the thought daze when he heard Johnny muttering something along the lines of "This is it. Here we are. Get Ponyboy, Sodapop, and Steve and high-tail it the heck out of here."
"I agree, Johnny," said Dallas, to both his and Johnny's surprise. "This place is to sketchy for a hangout. Let's get the kids and get out."
"Yeah," said the wisecracker named Keith, more commonly known as Two-Bit Mathews. "This place gives me the creeps."
"Alright," Darry finally spoke. "We're gonna go in pairs. That way we can cover more ground. Dally, you take Johnny. Two-Bit, take Delilah. . ."
Delilah Winston was Dallas' cousin. She moved from New York around the time Katie came from Windrixville. Two-Bit and Delilah were very close, but everyone could tell that Johnny wanted to make the greaser his. Every time he talked to her, or even looked at her, that haunted look would disappear for a moment, only to be replaced by the same haunted look again. Dally didn't want Delilah and Johnny together, but eventually he persuaded himself that he didn't care about anyone except Johnny and Ponyboy.
". . . I'll take Katie and Bray, you go with- actually, scratch that. Two-Bit, take Kathy and Bray, take Delilah."
Kathy was Two-Bit's kid sister and Bray was Katie's fraternal twin brother. The two didn't have anything in common, but they got along okay. Bray wasn't small like Katie. He was skinny but had a tougher build, so he'd be able to handle it.
Too soon for anyone's liking, though, the gang was headed into the door after Katie had gotten down and unlocked the door. It spooked everyone when it shut itself and locked.
"Dang it!" Katie exclaimed. "Dang you stupid door!"
"Relax, kid," Darry assured her. "It's gonna be alright."
"Whatever you say, big guy." Katie said, although anyone could tell she was really unsure of herself. "Whatever you say."
With that, Darry and Katie left to look in the library, Two-Bit and Kathy left to the kitchen, Bray and Delilah left for the bedroom and Dallas and Johnny left for the sunroom.
A/N; I tried to make this a cliff-hanger chapter. . . Please, tell me what you think! Also, I apologize for grammar errors! This chapter was sort of a filler. . . I'm going to try to start the action in the next chapter!
Until next time,
-rdawn:)