When I woke up again, my brother was still there. I stood up a little too quickly, and I was overcome by dizziness. Dallas roughly grabbed my arms in his really bad attempt to steady me. "Careful," he murmured as soon as I regained my footing.

"How was Seattle?"

"It was great. Aunt Lucy and the twins say hi." Dally laughed, which really sucked because Seattle was actually terrible. My uncle hated the fact that I was staying with them for three months, while Dally was away in New York. He always asked me why I didn't go with Dally. I always said the same thing, I didn't want to. The thing was, I did want to go, but after my mom died, my dad became an alcoholic. Dally always wanted to go to New York, but when I asked if I could go, my dad said that my mom wanted me to live with my uncle. I only stayed three months because of my uncle.

"Great. How is he? Matty I mean."

"Little Matty's doin' good."

"That's good. Hey, wanna see the rest of the gang again?" Again? When did I meet them before? I sort of remembered Ponyboy and Two-Bit, but the others I barely remembered. I guess that's a bad thing. Whoops.

"Sure. Let's go." I put on my shoes, and he started running, so I did too. We almost ran into some Socs, but Dally scared them off when he threatened them with his switchblade. Those Socs ran so fast to get to their car that they were just a blur. Dally told me it was because they were wimps, but I knew that it was really because everyone was afraid of him. Dally stopped suddenly. "Why'd we stop?" I asked him.

"We're here. Now c'mon." Man, for once, I could actually see why everyone was afraid of him. His blue eyes were ice cold and scary looking. When we walked in, I saw two boys; they looked like older teens, wrestling on the floor, and two other boys, watching them. Two others were at the table playing cards. "Hey ya'll!" Dally yelled and suddenly, there were six pairs of eyes staring over at us. They all ran over except for Sodapop, who continued to sit at the table, looking blankly at the other boy (who I found out was Steve Randle) who was now walking over to me. I looked over at Soda, who was now talking to Darry.

"Hi." I could only manage that. Their attention turned to Dally, who was glad to answer questions for and about me. I walked over near the kitchen, where Darry and Soda were. I was careful not to be seen.

"Darry. Can you try to find out why she came back?" I hated the way he said 'she'. He said 'she' like a rich person would say 'poor'.

"Soda…you know I can't do that."

"Wish you could. It'd be great to know."

"Sodapop, if you wanna know so bad, ask her yourself." Thank you, Darry. "Fine. I'll ask." Wow…he hated me. I could see it in his expression, and the way he was talkin' down on me didn't make me feel so hot ether. I felt like…like I needed to talk to him, just ask him why. What kind of grudge did he hold against me?

I was wrapped up in my thoughts about, well, everything, when I saw three people, two guys and a girl, walk in. I walked over to Two-Bit and asked them who they were. "Shoot, Rose, that's Tim, Curly, and Angela Shepherd. Tim's the oldest, then Angel, then Curly."

"Oh, thanks, Two-Bit."

"Hey, you're Dally's sister. We'll be nice to you, trust me." Dally's sister. Those words were the ones that I hated. I ain't much younger then him. He's seventeen, I'm sixteen. Who cares? I can take care of myself. Well…not exactly by myself. Like if I was jumped or something, then hell yeah, I'd like the gang to come. But that would be the only reason. "Hey." I jumped. The tall, catlike one, with shaggy dark brown hair, who I thought was Tim, was suddenly behind me.

"Hi. Um…you're Tim, right? Tim Shepherd?"

"Yeah, Dallas tell you 'bout me?"

"No…uh, Two-Bit actually. Uh… so why'd you come over here?"

"Ya mean why did the three of us come over here? Or why I came over here to talk to you?" I had to lie.

"Why'd ya'll come over here?"

"We got bored. I kinda wanted to see Dal again, considering he's been in New York for the whole summer."

"Oh. So have ya seen him?"

"Yeah, I have. Where's Soda and Darry?"

"Somewhere in the kitchen. Don't bother going in there though. Soda's in a bad mood." He looked at me for a moment, and then he responded.

"Oh. Ya look a lot like him. Dallas, I mean. The hair and the eyes, but not the attitude. Ya gotta be tougher, colder, and meaner."

"Trust me, Tim. I can be just as obnoxious, annoying, bitter, and…evil as Dallas if I wanted to."

"Thanks!" I heard Dally yell. I rolled my eyes.

"I just don't like to be mean to people, so back off!" I actually sounded mean. Perfect. "Ya, you are Dallas's sister." I had to smile at that. That was a complement I was happy about.

"Tim c'mon, we gotta go. Robby's gonna beat us if we're late again."

"Shit. I gotta run."

"Bye."

"See ya' Rosalie, bye ya'll." He punched Dallas lightly from what I could tell. "See ya man, and Tim, back offa my sister will ya'? She's 16." I saw Tim roll his eyes, and then they were gone.