Caroline's POV

He looked angrier than hurt, and that scared me.

It took me a couple of seconds to accept that I had just slap the boy I love. I stood there, frozen, shocked at my own actions. What had I done?

"You shouldn't have done that..." He muttered his eyes remaining on the floor.

The only thing I could think of was to run back inside the cafeteria before James anything else happen. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned to stare at me when I slammed the doors open and rushed inside. I walked past our table and to the girl's bathrooms, ignoring all the attention I was receiving. When I made it into the bathroom, I checked the entire bathroom stalls. I was the only one here, thankfully. I went over to the mirrors.

My mascara was smudged and my hair was falling out of its neat updo. I quickly washed the blood off my arm before anyone else noticed, and pulled the sleeve of my sweater down over my wrist. I tried to use my fingers to wipe away the mascara, but it only smudged more.

"What happened?"

I turned and saw Rose standing there with her half-eaten donut. Even as she chewed she looked concerned.

"I slapped him," I told her straight up, turning back to the mirror and focusing on my hair.

"Why?"

"He called me whore."

She stopped chewing, a look of rage in her eyes. "Why'd he call you a whore?"

"He thought I was pregnant with Winston's child, which I'm not." I told her, shrugging it off as if it were now nothing.

"I have a feeling James wasn't concerned about losing you, but concerned about his reputation if you were to get pregnant." Rose muttered, leaning against the wall and going back to focusing on her donut.

"But we've dated for so long, and I don't want our relationship to end because of a greaser and Soc rivalry." I told her truthfully.

Rose sighed. I knew she really liked Soda, and I didn't blame her, he did have the fun kind of personality that Rose liked... but she was with Archie. I wouldn't let her throw her relationship with Archie away for someone mom and dad wouldn't approve of in a million years.

"Rose, promise me you won't go see Soda ever again. Everyone's already angry at us, and dad's gonna make us get homeschooled if we disobey him again." I told her, looking her in the eyes.

Rose kept her lips pressed in a tight line and said nothing.

"Promise me that you won't." I repeated, this time more sternly.

"Fine, I promise."

"Good," I told her, giving her a curt nod. I watched as she slowly turned around and made her way out the bathroom door. I just hoped she kept her promise.

Rose's POV

It was the last class of the day. I was doodling hearts and flowers in my notebook, not paying attention to the math lesson I was supposed to be paying attention to. But it wasn't like I needed to learn any of the stuff we went over in math. I already knew it all I was a straight-A student.

Thirty minutes into the class, we all heard knocking at the door.

"Excuse me everyone," Mr. Diaz cleared his throat. Everyone watched as he went to get the door. Well, everyone except for me. I continued doodling hearts and flowers.

"That must be our new student. Now, I want each and every one of you to be nice to him, he's a bit... younger than the rest of you." Mr. Diaz informed us right before he swung the door open.

This was advanced grade 11 math. If I was in grade 10, the new kid was either my age or a bit younger. Finally I wasn't going to be the only sophomore in this class.

"Class, please welcome, uhh..." I heard Mr. Diaz ask the new boy for his name. "Please welcome Ponyboy Curtis."

My pencil slipped out of my hands and fell onto the ground, and I instantly looked up and saw a young boy who looked a lot like Soda. Sodapop's last name is Curtis, and I remember him mentioning something about having a little brother at the party. I even remember the name Ponyboy being familiar... Caroline had told me about how Cherry's boyfriend Bob, who had also been a best friend to Archie and James, had been stabbed. I remember the name Ponyboy somewhere in the story, but I knew he wasn't the greaser who had killed Bob; the killer was named 'Jimmy' I think. It started with a J.

A few immature idiots in the class started snickering at Ponyboy's name. I didn't know what they found so funny... it was a unique name. I wished I had a more unique name.

"Why don't you go sit next to Rose, over in the back?" Mr. Diaz asked Ponyboy, nodding over to the empty seat next to me. He nodded while his eyes remained on the ground. Boy, was he shy.

Several boys glared at Ponyboy as he walked over to the seat and sat down. I remembered they had all at one point in the year tried to sit next to me, but when Archie had glared at them, they had backed off. Looking over at Archie now, sitting to the other side of the row ahead of me, I noticed that he was too busy chucking paper balls at the geek in front of him to realize what had just happened. I was thankful for that, now I could talk to Ponyboy without Archie questioning me later on.

"Hi," I smiled at him. I tried to ignore the weird looks I was receiving from some people.

Ponyboy looked over at me shortly, and then back up to the front of the class. I couldn't help but wonder if the only reason he wouldn't talk to me was because he was a greaser, and I was a Soc.

"Take out your homework from last night," Mr. Diaz instructed, going back to his 'let me bore you to death' mode.

"Are you Soda's brother?" I whispered to Ponyboy as I opened up my notebook.

"Yeah, how'd you know him?" he asked curiously, giving me his full attention now. He looked half scared as well, as if receiving news from a Soc about his brother could only mean trouble.

"I met him last night at a party. Do you know where I could find him?" I asked.

He hesitated. "Why should I tell you? You're a Soc..."

"I'm no Soc, I'ma middle class," I told him with a straight face. When I noticed him look at what I was wearing.

"A designer skirt with a designer sweater, a pearl necklace, and fancy lookin' shoes is middle-class?" He asked, looking confused.

I sighed. "Fine, I'm a Soc. But I really need to talk to Sodapop."

He ignored me for the rest of the class. When the bell rang, we both stood up at the same time. Ponyboy looked over at me, and I looked back.

"Soda works at the DX station," He blurted out.

"Where is that?"

"I could take you there if you want..."

"That would be wonderful! School's over now, so meet me at Lolli's in 15 minutes. Thank you, Ponyboy," I reached over and gave him a quick hug before walking out of the classroom.

Lolli's was a candy store close to the school. It wasn't popular, so no one would see Ponyboy and me and get suspicious.

I just hoped nobody would find out about the plan, especially Caroline. I was breaking the promise I had made with her. I knew how much trouble I would be getting into if anyone found out about this, but... just one last visit to Soda couldn't hurt, could it?