Soda's point of view

Chapter Eight

"Anna Maria Chevalier, Princess of France." I can't believe Anne's a princess!

"Case dismissed. You are all free to go." She stood and walked over to us. Darry was the first to talk to her. "I'm proud of you for admitting who you really are." I couldn't believe that he was proud of her. I gasped. "You knew who she was! You knew she was a princess."Darry slowly nodded. "Yes, when I first saw her I knew she was familiar. When she started swearing in French I knew who she was."

"Guys, I'm real sorry I lied to you. I want to explain everything to you." Anne whispered, her head down.

When we walked into the house everyone sat near the couch. "The first couple of years aren't that important so I'll start when I was 6. My mom had invited a friend of hers to France so I could meet them. I was furious about it and I didn't want anything to do with them because I thought they would be as stuck up as my mother and everyone else we knew, except for Asher. Asher and I were best friends and we were betrothed to be married. The family I met had three sons, Darry, Ponyboy, and Sodapop. I thought they were the best people I had ever met, even as great as Asher. During your stay Soda and I became best friends and Darry was friends with us too and Pony was always trying to tag along and I thought he was the most adorable little chubby toddler. I thought it was a fairytale and I was so happy. But when Soda and I fell in love we knew we were going to have to say goodbye. We were too in love to say goodbye so we decided to get engaged. We were to be married the moment we were both 18. When Asher saw Soda propose to me, that was when he became cruel. After the curtis' left to go home, Asher began beating me and when I was 10, he raped me. He was 16 at the time and even after continually beating me I still loved him. But after he raped me I couldn't stand to be around him. When I was twelve I told my mother but she didn't believe me until recently. As I suspect, that was the reason why she finally agreed to let me live abroad. For about 3 years my mother and I have had a deal that if I trained and prepared myself she would let me live abroad. The day before I met you guys, she told me I was fully ready. When I came here, I had no place to go but you guys brought me into your home, I finally felt like I had those 10 years ago." I listened with all of the others and as I did, I twisted my silver ring on my finger. I realized that it had not been my parents who had given me my ring, but by Anne.

"I think I'm beginning to remember you. I remember your beautiful laugh and cute little smile." I recalled.

Anne's point of view

All I had ever wanted was a family like myself but I always imagined a mother and father, maybe a sibling or two but I never imagined that family being 7 boys. I continued to stay with the boys, though I did pay my keep after the trial.

I still slept on the couch. It was mid August and I was woken by someone shaking my shoulder. When I opened my eyes Dally was standing over me. "What the hell do you want you bastard?" "Ah, is the little princess still tired?" He asked with a fake pouty trial had been about a month ago and the gang were still the only ones who knew my secret.

"Shut up and tell me what you want." I snapped. "It's almost 3 so you should get up." I sat up and rubbed my eyes. I ran to the bathroom for a quick shower. My mother sent me puffy dresses similar to the ones that I used to wear. I pulled on a sea foam blue one that came up about 7 or 8 inches above my knee. The dress only had one strap that went over my right shoulder. It was way too fancy for public but I liked to wear them around the house. I came out of the bathroom and Dally just stared at me. "Wow, you look hot." I sat on the couch next to him. "Thanks Dal. So, do you want to go do something?"He nodded but still couldn't stop staring. I put on light blue high tops. On the inside of the dress I had my mother add a pocket to carry the blade Dally gave me. Since the trial, no Socs had come up to me and I had met a few greasers, such as Tim, Curly's older brother. We went to the arcade for a little while. We played different games I had never heard of, like fighting games but I always beat Dally.

"Come on Anne, let's go to a movie or somethin." Dally suggested after being stomped at almost every arcade game they had competed at. I laughed but agreed. We got to the drive in theatre and a realization had dawned on a Dallas. "You can't go under the fence in that dress." I laughed before grabbing the fence and climbing up to the top. After balancing on the top and showing of my skills of walking on the top of the fence I turned and did a swan dive flip before landing on my feet. I looked at a shocked Dally on the other side on the fence and couldn't hold back a laugh. "Wow Dallas, you should see the look on your face. Dally jumped the fence less gracefully than myself and we went to the front to find some seats. The movie was Psycho, which is one of my all time favorite movies of all time. It was a couple of years old so I had seen it so many times I practically knew the entire script. I got up in the middle of the movie and went to try to scare someone. I spotted Two bit's car and decided he would be the perfect target.

I squatted by the door behind the passenger seat and grabbed a rock.I threw it hard at some cans in front of the car and Two bit got out of the car, playing right into my plan. I quickly climbed into the back of the car. That was when I spotted Steve and Soda coming back to the car with popcorn and beer. Two bit got back into the car and I was so silent. I probably had a couple minutes to scare him because Soda and Steve had stopped to talk to someone. After a scary part in the movie I could tell Two bit was freaked out and I took that opportunity to lock all the doors. I cackled, "You're never getting out of here." Two bit screamed so loud and the other boys came running over.

"God, Anne. You scared the crap out of me! How did you even get in here." Two bit barely managed between deep breaths. By now Soda and Steve were there trying to figure out why he screamed. I was sprawled in the back seat with an uncontrollable fit of laughter. "It would spoil my fun if I told you how I got in." I hopped out of the car with a grin on my face. "Hey darlin' s" I nodded to the other boys. I turned back to the car. "I didn't realize you found this movie so scary." I turned on my heel and went back to sit with Dally.

When I sat next to him I leaned on his shoulder. He smelled like beer but I didn't care. I just lay there until someone tapped on my shoulder. When I turned around Tim's face was inches from mine. "Hey baby, what are you doing with someone like Dallas. Why don't you just come with me."

I gave him a smile spun from sugar and climbed over the seat I had been sitting in. "Well okay, handsome. Let me hold your hand." He handed me his hand and I turned around, pulled it over my shoulder and flipped him onto his back. "Sorry, you're not my type." I climbed back over the seat and settled in. I just couldn't sit still though. In two days I was going to be enrolled in a real public school again. I haven't been in one of those since I was 13. Dally walked me back to the curtis' gave me a goodbye and walked away.