A/N: Two months later, a chapter! Not much action here, more reaction. I'm really gonna try hard to get another one up soon.

Cherry Valance sat at the desk in her bedroom Monday night with her head in her hands. Her family was downstairs in the dining room having dinner, but she had claimed a headache and skipped the meal. It was somewhat true; her mind was overwhelmed and racing with thoughts of Alice... she felt terrible.

At first her intentions had been good-- she only wanted to help. If Alice told her what was wrong, she thought, she would be able to make her feel better. But then she had been upset with the new girl for not explaining, and had stolen her notebook. Now she understood why Alice hadn't wanted to tell her. She was a lesbian... and she thought Cherry was good-looking... and Cherry didn't know what to think of that. Part of her thought it was exciting- not only did she appeal to boys, but girls as well. The other part was terrified- a lesbian thought she was cute. What did that mean? Would she try anything? What was Cherry supposed to do about it?

But still, she felt guilty about what she had done. Totally freaked out after reading the letter to who she assumed was Alice's ex-girlfriend, she had called Marcia after school on Friday. Well, Marcia was her best friend, and this was big news, and she had to tell someone. She made Marcia swear not to tell, but clearly she wasn't that trustworthy... which Cherry had to admit to herself that she had already known. Deep down she had known it would spread the second she opened her mouth and spilled over the phone about the new student's sexuality. At the time, she had hated Alice so much that she didn't care. Filthy queer... she had thought. But now she wasn't so sure.

Cherry had never had a huge problem with queers like most people did. Sure, the subject made her a bit uncomfortable, but she wasn't the type to walk up to one and scream at them about how they were going to hell. So now she had actually met one-- what was the big difference? Alice hadn't stared at Cherry's boobs, or tried to rape her in an empty classroom, or done anything even vaguely creepy. She had worried about what Cherry would think if she knew, which meant that she valued Cherry's friendship... so really, she wasn't all that bad.

Great, Cherry, the redhead thought to herself. It's a good thing you've come to this conclusion after completely ruining her life! All day people had been horrible to her, calling her names and shoving her all over the place. Alice had lost the few friends that she had made and the chance at getting any new ones. And it was Cherry's fault.

She sighed and let her head fall forward, landing hard on the desk.

"Hey, Soda, you know that Alice chick?" Steve called out suddenly from underneath a car.

"Yeah, what about her?"

"Everybody knows she digs chicks now."

Soda looked up from the magazine he was reading with his feet up on the counter. "She tell 'em already?"

"Nope, she definitely didn't tell. She wouldn't be that dumb."

"Steve..." Soda frowned, a thought coming to his mind. "You didn't..."

Steve emerged from under the car. "No way, man. I don't like it, but I wouldn't do that."

Soda wasn't so sure about that. Steve was his best buddy, but he knew that telling everyone about Alice liking girls was definitely something he would do. Steve could tell that Soda didn't believe him.

"The Socs knew first, man. One of them must have found out and spread it around their friends. Then it trickled on down to the low-life greasers," he added bitterly.

If the Socs had known first, then Steve definitely hadn't told. Soda believed him on that, and dropped the subject for a few minutes, returning to his magazine.

"She doing okay?" he asked a while later. Steve looked up again.

"What?"

"Is Alice okay, are people bitching about her?" Soda repeated.

Steve stared. "Of course people are bitching about her, this is Oklahoma! It might not be such a big deal in KC, but here..."

"But you're not, right?"

"Soda..."

"Steve! She's just a person, sheesh. Would ya be nice to her?"

"Be nice to the lez? Come on, Sodapop," Steve sighed.

"Whatever," Soda replied, glancing at his watch. "It's time to go, you can lock up."

Steve sighed as his best friend walked away. He wasn't trying to be mean, but Soda had to know how people would react if he started being nice to Alice. That was not going to happen.

"Ponyboy!" Soda yelled for the third time. "Come downstairs and eat!" Unlike the last two times, the response was footsteps running down the stairs rather than "I'm busy!" The table was set with spaghetti and meatballs getting cold and Darry and Soda halfway through theirs by the time the youngest Curtis boy finally decided to come down and eat.

After a few minutes of silence as he wolfed down his first serving, Pony got himself some more spaghetti and said, "You guys know Alice from across the street?"

Soda, having known it was coming, just nodded and kept eating. Darry asked, "What about her?"

"Did you know she's..." Pony looked uncomfortable. "She's gay?"

Darry's eyebrows met in one line. "Really..." he muttered, looking thoughtful. Then he glanced at his youngest brother. "Well, it wouldn't surprise me the way she dresses," he said. "Why, did something happen?"

Ponyboy nodded. "Everybody's talking about it at school. And I saw Two-Bit and he told me she got in a fight about it or something."

"Makes sense," Darry nodded. "There's a lot of people here that wouldn't like that."

"What do you think?" Pony asked.

"Well..." the oldest Curtis seemed to be searching for the right words. "I'm not... completely supportive, but I don't think she should get beaten up for it. I don't wanna hear about you getting involved with any of that, you hear?"

Soda snorted over his plate. Like Pony would ever beat up anyone for such a stupid reason, let alone a girl.

Later, after Pony had gone up to bed, Darry turned to Soda. "You already knew about this." It wasn't a question.

"Yeah, she told me and Steve the other day," Soda replied, pulling his eyes off the TV to look at his brother.

"She told Steve?"

Soda nodded. "She's a tough little piece of shit, that's for sure. Didn't show no weakness about it... just said it like it was cold, plain fact."

"Well, then... don't let her know, I don't think she'd like it-- but would you kinda watch out for her?"

"Dar, come on..." Soda sighed. "I don't go to school with her and that's where the worst is gonna happen. I wanna help her but she won't like it one bit. This isn't a good idea."

"Just if you see her in any sort of trouble... well you'd help any other greaser girl, this ain't no different. Don't go lookin' for ways to help her, but offer if the situation calls for it."

Soda gave Darry a weird look. "I woulda done that anyway..." he said.

Darry grinned. "I know you would, Pepsi-Cola. Thanks."

Cherry Valance, hours after faking a headache, was still awake. It wasn't too late, only ten, but she could already tell she wouldn't get any sleep with her guilt. Sighing, she rolled over in bed, switched on the light, and reached for the phone to call Alice.