PONYGIRL CURTIS-

The next day we woke up at six in the morning. Darry and Buddy were busying packing the car and trying to get Ponyboy and Sodapop up. They didn't notice me sneak around the back of the house where Steve was waiting. He was standing next to the bushes where I had waited for him for our first date. He smiled and kissed me on the cheek as I came around the side.

"I wish you weren't leaving." He said as we pulled away.

"Me too. But it's only for a little while. Then we can be together for New Year's eve." I said hopefully.

"Yeah. I guess so."

"Ponygirl!" we heard Buddy yell from the house and heard his heavy footsteps coming our way.

"Bye." I said quickly.

"Bye." He said and kissed me quickly before disappearing down the street.

Just then, Buddy found me.

"Hey, what are you doing out here?" he asked.

"Huh? Oh. I was just, waiting for you."

"Out here? It's freezing." He said suspiciously. I could tell he was contemplating what I had said as we stood in the yard.

"I was getting ready to go back in when you came out." I said, looking away from his interrogating gaze. He sighed.

"Alright, go on and get in the car." He said, putting a hand on my shoulder.

I rode in the truck with Darry and Sodapop while Buddy and Ponyboy rode in Buddy's car. Soda and I sat in the back seat of the truck and I looked back at Steve waving from his front yard waving at us as we drove away towards the highway. I waved back and watched a smile spread across his face. I smiled back as I waved and sat back in my seat.

"What was that?" soda asked, looking out the back window. Steve was already gone and Soda was looking back at an empty road.

"Steve was just waving at you, but you didn't see him." I said and opened my book. I read my book for a while until my eyes got heavy and fell asleep on Soda's shoulder.

A few hours later, Darry shook me awake and we were at a restaurant for lunch. I hopped out of the truck and stretched my legs as we walked up to the restaurant. We sat in a booth next to the window. Darry said we were somewhere in Arkansas by now, but we still had three more states to go through.

I was still tired and picked at my burger and fries. Buddy talked about his family and how much fun we were going to have in Virginia on Christmas. Pony and Soda talked about what they wanted for Christmas and what they wanted to do on Christmas, Like baking cookies like we used to with mom and dad. That was mom's favorite tradition. She would buy different colored icing and sprinkles and for us to decorate them. It was Sodapop's favorite too. Dad and Darry liked going into the woods and cutting down a real tree for us and bringing it home. Me and Ponyboy always liked watching Christmas specials and sneaking into each other's room and talking about what we wanted and what we got for Mom, Dad, Darry and Soda. Dad would always take us out to the mall to shop for presents and then Mom would take us to buy dad's. I rubbed my eye impatiently as a stray tear fell down my cheek. I was relieved when I saw no one noticed. I hated thinking that this would be our first Christmas without them. I opened my book in the car again to try and keep my mind of mom and dad.

That night, we stayed in a motel in Tennessee. Buddy, Soda, and Pony shared a room and Darry and me were in the one next door. I put my sweater on that evening and went out into the parking lot to the payphone. I put a my money in and dialed Steve's phone number. I waited impatiently while it rang and worried that I had wasted my only dime on a call when Steve wasn't even home.

"Hello?" I heard his voice on the other line and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Steve? It's Pony." I said.

"Hey, where are you?" he asked.

"Tennessee. I'm not sure what city though." I heard him laugh on the other end.

"When are you going to get there tomorrow?"

"I don't know. Buddy says sometime tomorrow afternoon. How are you doing?"

"I'm okay. My old man's passed out now."

"I wish I were there right now. Then you wouldn't be alone on Christmas."

"I'll have Two-Bit. I'll be okay don't worry about me."

"Alright. I have to go before Darry realizes I'm gone."

"Okay, I'll see you when you get home." He said and the line went dead.

I walked back into our room and Darry sat at the small table in the corner, flipping through a magazine.

"Where were you?" he asked, not looking up.

"I, I forgot my book in the car." I said and sat on the bed.

"Well then where is it?" he asked.

"Huh? Oh, it wasn't there." I said.

"Uh huh." He said, unconvinced.

I looked away and turned the t.v. on. This was going to be a long week.

SODAPOP CURTIS-

The next morning we were all up at the crack of dawn again. We piled into our cars and set out for Virginia. We were all tired from sleeping on those motel beds and we were all a little cranky. Buddy sipped his coffee while he drove and Ponygirl was content with a book on her side of the back seat. So, I was left to find something to occupy myself.

I tried looking out the windows and taking a nap, but I can only sleep so long before I can't anymore especially in a car that's bouncing up and down and going sixty miles an hour down the highway. Gradually, I started to squirm when I got bored. I was tapping my feet, moving in my seat a lot. I couldn't sit still to save my life. Pony would look away from her book occasionally when I would nudge her by accident with my foot. Buddy adjusted his mirror and looked at me from the driver's seat.

"Soda, you gotta go to the bathroom or something?' he asked.

"No, just bored." I said with a sigh. He nodded and continued down the road.

"Hang in there. We'll get there soon. Only about three or four more hours." I groaned and heard Buddy and Pony chuckle.

We drove forever. The hours passed like days and I was sure I would die of boredom. When we did get there, it was dark and cold. My legs were asleep and my eyes were heavy. We pulled in to his parents' driveway in front of a house as big as Sarah's, if not bigger. It was white with red shudders. It was decorated with lights of every color and wreaths on all the doors and windows. The front lawn was trimmed and green, even though it was winter. It had a nativity scene in their yard and plastic reindeer. A woman ran out to our car and Buddy got out to meet her.

"Hi mom." Was all he could say before she ran to him and covered his face with kisses. Ponygirl and me laughed in the back seat and Buddy helped us out and carry our suitcases inside. Darry and Ponyboy met us inside and Buddy introduced us to his family. his dad looked a little older than ours. He had a few gray hairs and wore a red sweater. He had on reading glasses and shook mine and Darry's hands. Buddy's little brother Chris was maybe a year younger than me. He had dark brown hair and greenish brown eyes. He smile and shook my hand. He wasn't like Sarah's family at all. Buddy's little sisters were looking at us from down the hallway, pointing at me and giggling. I smiled and Buddy introduced us to their housekeeper, Maggie. She had long blonde hair and dark blue eyes. She reminded me of Sandy a little. She had a warm smile and a soft laugh. I smiled at her and she helped me with my suitcase.

"You're for Oklahoma?" she asked as she set it on the bed in one of their guest rooms.

"Yeah." I answered. "It's alright I guess. I ain't lied nowhere else."

"Wow. When I was a kid I always moved around with my dad. We lived in Kentucky, Maine, Georgia, Texas, almost anywhere you could think of."

"That doesn't sound all bad. I' sure you got to see a lot. A lot more than someone who lied in the same place all their life."

"It was fun to see everything. But, I never had a lot of friends. I had depression and anxiety issues for a long time because I didn't have many friends."

"I never had a lot of friends either. Just four guys that lived in my neighborhood. What did you parents do?" I asked and she hesitated.

"Oh, my father was a, a business man and had to move a lot for his job."

"Oh, my father was a construction worker."

"Was?" she asked.

"He, and my mom died about a year ago. So it's just me, Darry the twins, and Buddy, now that he came."

"Oh. I'm sorry to hear that. My mother died when I was ten. I remember how hard it was."

"Yeah." I agreed. We talked nearly an hour more about how we grew up she told me about her mother before she died. It wasn't long before we were talking like we had known each other for years.

PONYGIRL CURTIS-

We all sat at the dinner table that night like we were all a family. I was happy for that. Buddy's family weren't like Sarah's brother and sisters. They wanted us here with them. Buddy's mom talked about taking me, Ponyboy, Chris, and Buddy's sisters, Linda and Ruth out to get presents for everyone. She said she wanted to get a real tree, and decorate cookies and everything else families do on Christmas. For the first time that day, I felt like it might be a merry Christmas without mom and dad. It wouldn't be the same, but at least we would be happy.

That night after dinner, me and Ponyboy put on our coats and walked around Buddy's neighborhood with Chris as our guide. He showed us the library, where his friends lived, and his school. It was a lot bigger than our school and Chris said almost one thousand kids went there. He was real nice. He had a warm smile with even warmer dark brown eyes. He said he liked to read too, and Ponyboy started talking about all the books he had read with him while I walked ahead and looked at all the perfectly cut lawns. Each one had perfectly trimmed hedges and lights and wreaths just like Buddy's house. Every house on his street was perfectly decorated and they all reminded me of the neighborhoods on the west side in Tulsa. Only this time, guys in madras weren't gunning for me and Pony with switchblades. It was quiet and still.

When we walked in, Darry and Buddy were in the living room with Buddy's dad. They were talking about politics when they heard us come in.

"Hey," Buddy said as we walked passed him. "How was your walk?" he asked.

"Fine." I said. "I was just going to get ready for bed." I said and nodded towards the clock which read eleven.

"Alright. I was about to head there myself." He said, stretching.

BUDDY CAMPBELL-

I sat in the living room until late that night. I couldn't sleep. so I sat up, looking at the pictures of Linda, Ruth, and Chris on the mantel. My senior picture was still in the same place that it was when I left.

"Can't sleep?" I heard someone asked behind me and I jumped. I turned to face my dad.

"No." I said.

"Me either." He said and went to the kitchen. I heard a cabinet click open and the rattle of glass before he returned with a plate of cookies mom had baked.

"I have to eat these on the sneak or that mom of yours will have a cow." He said with a grin. I smiled and took one. he sat next to me on the couch.

"Your brothers and sister are nice." He said. "Very polite. Was that your doing?" he asked. I shook my head.

"No, they were like that a long time before I came along." I said.

"They are great kids." He said. "I'm proud of you."

"I copy you more than I want to admit." I confessed.

"Raising kids is hard. Especially teenagers. I'm proud of you for sticking it out and being there for them."

"They're my family too." I said. He nodded.

"I know. A good man is someone who does what he has to for his family. and you've got more family than most." He said and I thought I had it easier than he was giving me credit for.

"Thanks dad." I said. "Mom looks a little pale." I said.

He sighed. "She's not as healthy as the doctors want her to be. But she a lot better than she was a year ago."

"I know. Last Christmas she couldn't get out of bed." I said, remembering my last Christmas. It was the worst Christmas I could remember. I didn't want to hear any more about mom and how she was still sick. She was fine. I thought to myself. She's fine. I got up and stretched again. "I'm gonna go to bed. We gotta get up early to get the tree anyway." I said and he nodded as I padded down the hall to my old room.

PONYGIRL CURTIS-

I called Steve that night. It was almost twelve thirty and I hoped he was still up I went downstairs and punched his phone number into the phone in the living room. The phone rang and rang with no answer. I was afraid he was asleep, or worse, his dad kicked him out again and he couldn't go to our house for the night. I was relieved when he answered the phone.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Steve. It's Pony."

"Oh. How was the drive. Did you get to Virginia?" he asked.

"Yeah. We made it. You should see the house we're staying in. it's bigger than soe of the houses on the west side."

"That big?" he asked as astonished as I was when I saw the house for the first time.

"Yeah. And they are almost a thousand kids that go to the high school over here."

"Wow. What's his family like?" he asked.

"They're nice. Nicer than all the socs put together." I said.

"That's not too hard to beat." He said.

"Well, how are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm fine." He said. "Two-Bit is still Two-Bit and Debbie says hello."

I smiled. "Tell her I said hi." I said.

"I will. Hey, I wanted to know-"

"Wait!" I hissed in the phone as I heard someone come downstairs. I peeked down the hallway. It was Buddy.

"I have to go." I whispered and hung up before Steve could get another word in. Just as the Phone hit the receiver, Buddy came in and asked who I was talking too.

"Oh, I was talking to myself." I said. He nodded.

"Well, go on back to bed. We have to be up early." He said and I hurried up the stairs before he could ask any more questions.