I was feeling a lot better today, since Dally's been back I've been sleeping a lot better. I only woke once or twice the past couple of nights, only because Dal would put his arm over me in his sleep and the weight of it panicked me awake. But for the most part it was great. I was feeling a lot better as a result and started being able to work on stuff during the day.

Unfortunately Dally had to go back and see Buck as he had a few things needing doing so Thursday and today I was home alone most of the time, aside from Pony and Johnny but they were off doing other things when they realised that I'd be ok. It was good though, I got a lot of work done on my project due next week. We had to make an item of children's clothing for our final assessment, so I had picked a girl's party dress to make, I thought it would be easier and more fun to experiment with rather than an item of boys clothing. And it was almost finished, just had to hand stitch a bow on and it was done to hand in on Monday. Ponyboy started exams on Monday so he was going to hand it in to the textile teacher for me. I wasn't really wanting to go into school and face my classmates, but Darry had spoken to the school and they were fine with it and said they'd sent my assessment report home with Ponyboy at some point during the week.

Today however I was going to get started on the curtains for Johnny's room. Christmas was only a month away so I wanted to get them underway for Darry's big reveal. I got Two-Bit to measure the windows for me and then sent him down to the textile traders, with very strict instructions, on what I needed. I knew he'd be a while so I just started on the laundry while I waited for him. It was becoming an ever growing mountain over the past few days, now we had Johnny and Dally to add to that pile, and I wasn't feeling up to it recently so I'd let it get out of hand. It was going to take a while to get through seeing as it was well and truly winter and it was too cold to hang on the washing line outside so I set it up in Johnny's soon-to-be room to dry. That would give us an excuse to keep people out of it by telling them it was our laundry. Darry had already locked the back door so people couldn't use it and interrupt the space.

Finally Two-Bit made it home and put a couple of bags on the dining table for me to dig through.

"Excellent, you actually managed to get everything. And not too bad of a colour choice." It was a nice deep blue, I had half expected him to turn up with bright orange or pink or something ridiculous but it was good.

"Shoot kid, don't sound so surprised, I could be an interior decorator!" I just laughed as he helped himself to a beer. "Also did some shopping of my own whilst I was down there, here ya go." Two-Bit pulled a roll of glittery silver thread from his pocket, along with some gold thread, which I knew cost a fortune but I'd be wanting some for a while. Then from his other pocket I got a packet of smokes, excellent I'd been running out, I was smoking a hell of a lot more over the last week, with good reason.

"Aw awesome thanks Two!" I gave him a hug which he just shrugged off.

"It's nothin' kid, you need cheering up so here I am at your service."

Two-Bit spent the rest of the afternoon messing about in front of the television and drinking beer. Apparently he was getting himself 'in the zone' for tonight's rumble. I just set about marking out the curtains and getting them started.

Eventually Ponyboy and Johnny returned home, this time with Diane, she was coming over for dinner and was going to hang out with me and Angela during the rumble. She was pretty new to all this and was a bit worried about what might happen tonight. The guys were all meeting at the lot at 7 and the Socs were apparently turning up at 8pm so it was going to be a long night.

Diane and Pony hung about in his room for a bit and Johnny stayed out here with me and Two. I wasn't too worried about them going off alone together, Pony was a good kid and I doubted they'd be up to anything much in there, probably just reading or doing homework knowing him. But when Angela arrived at 5pm she was ready to create mischief, she loved nothing more than to embarrass Ponyboy. I guess she was outnumbered at home and so she liked the fact that she could get away with it with Pony. He didn't mind so much, he was used to Angela's antics. I thought they'd have been good together if she hadn't been 2 years older than him.

I managed to drag her away from eavesdropping at his bedroom door and made her help me get started on dinner. She was a good distraction and it was nice having a girl to talk to, someone that could kind of understand what I was going though. Ange had had her fair share of run ins with guys and so she was able to cheer me up and help me get over it. Currently however she was talking about her latest conquest, Tim's right hand man Mark, he was over here the other night talking about the rumble. Apparently they'd hooked up last Saturday night, at a party she had been trying to convince me to go to when I was meant to have gone out with Dally. And since then her and Mark had seen each other a few times.

"Well Tim found out yesterday and hit the roof."

"As you'd expect."

"Yeah I guess so, but whatever, he got into it with Mark a bit and they had it out, but I'm pretty sure he's still coming to the rumble tonight so maybe I'll see him after. Tim wouldn't say much about it."

"He is a lot older though."

"Like you can talk… Dally's 19!"

I laughed, "Yeah I suppose so, Tim's 20 though same as Darry right? And Mark's almost 21 isn't he?"

"I can see your point. But he's soooooooooo hot, and tuff, and he has a motorbike, so Tim can suck it." She carried on this way for the next half hour whilst we got dinner together.

By this point everyone else had turned up from work and were in various stages of progress before the rumble, most of it involved beer. Dally on the other hand never drank before a fight. He wanted to be clear headed when he went in, I guess he didn't need the beer bravado like everyone else did.

I grabbed Dally and myself a plate of casserole and settled next to him in front of the television. It was 6pm Friday night and that meant one thing, Rawhide was on. Dally loved Westerns, and he loved Clint Eastwood so Rawhide was easily his favourite tv show. It was the only thing he actually sat down to watch regularly. If he ever went to the movies for anything other than to create mischief it was to see a western flick. Even though he grew up in New York, his dad was from Texas and he was born in Dallas, hence the name, so I think his affinity with cowboys stemmed from there. It was funny seeing him in a rodeo or with horses like a true Texan cowboy but with his thick New York accent. I think his mum was from New York and from what I gathered and assumed from what little he told us, his mum wanted to move back there when he was a baby to be nearer her family so she dragged his father with her. I thought to myself that this probably had a lot to do with his father's behaviour after that. But I never dared talk to Dally about his parents. If he volunteered information about them that was fine and he did in passing from time to time, but if anyone ever questioned him on it or his childhood then they copped it. So I never bothered, I figured he'd tell me if he wanted me to know.

We settled in and everyone was relatively quiet whilst we watched and ate, most going back for seconds. After the show however the excitement broke out and the house was a mad house whilst everyone finished off getting ready and carrying on. Steve and Soda were messing around wrestling, Pony was off sucking face with Diane on the porch and Two-Bit was arm wrestling with Johnny. You could see the pride on Dal's face when Johnny won, he loved that kid. Johnny was surprisingly tough for his size and personality. It always baffled me why he never fought back with his parents, he could easily cream his drunk of a father, but I guess he loved them and didn't want to hurt them.

At 7o'clock everyone decided to make their way over to the lot, Angela asked Steve to get Mark to come back here after if he was there, Pony gave Diane one last kiss and I gave Darry a hug as he left. Dally was last to leave and he stopped to talk to me on the porch for a second.

"I know Bob ain't gunna be here tonight but I'll get him later ok? But Two-Bit told me who the others were that were there that night so we're gunna make sure they get what's comin' to them."

"Ok, just don't do anythin' stupid ya hear? And if the fuzz show just book it outta there."

"Don't worry dollface, I'll be back here later, keep the bed warm yeah?" He kissed me, gave me a wink and ran off to catch up with the rest of the guys.

I locked the door behind me when I went back in, we never usually locked our front door, there was always someone home or someone coming and going so there was no point. But with the rumble going on in the lot which was just down our street I wanted to be safe, never knew if anyone would come bothering back here whilst all the guys were down there.

I looked at Diane and Angela who were making polite small talk in front of the television and declared, "I need a drink."

Angela could not have looked more pleased, she jumped up and over to her bag and pulled out a bottle of vodka, where she got the stuff from I don't know but she seemed to have a never ending supply.

She sorted glasses whilst I grabbed some bottles of soda and we sat back down with Diane. She looked a bit apprehensive of the drink we were offering her, I'm guessing she hadn't ever drunk before. Ponyboy may have only been a month or so off 15 but in this neighbourhood that wasn't too young to drink. He didn't drink much, took after Soda I guess but he'd had his share of wild nights hanging around with the gang, Darry didn't mind a drink, especially now that he didn't play football any more.

Angela passed the glass to her, "Trust me Diane, you're gunna need one tonight."

So she took it and after an hour or so we were having our own little party, when we turned the tv off we could hear the occasional holler from down the street, I'm guessing the Socs had only just turned up, late I'm guessing. I checked the clock and it was 8:45 so depending on what happened we could have a little while yet so we turned the music on and made the best of the time whilst we waited to see what the outcome was. Usually I'd be on pins waiting at home for everyone, worried about what state they'd turn up in, if the fuzz would show or if I'd end up making a trip to hospital or worse. But Angela was keeping my mind off things and I had faith in Dally, I knew he could take care of himself.