Chapter 24
It's August and it's Soda's party tomorrow, he's going crazy about it. Luce is getting a gig sorted out, she told me that it means that greasers can come to the club where she works and have a party. I can see what is going to happen, there will be a fight and things will get damaged and the manager will look for Luce, who won't be there cos she will have come home with Soda for some time alone while everyone else is partying. I don't mind, not really any of my business what they do. I'll just pity Luce in quite when Darry tells her off for scampering when the fight happens but knowing Luce she will shrug it off. Sounds familiar. Guess it runs in the family.
We all got him presents, Me and Pony got him about a years supply of hair grease, Darry and Pony are always complaining that he goes' through all the grease like it's going out of fashion, so we fought we'd buy him enough to last him a little longer than normal. I don't know what Luce got him, in fact I'd rather not know! I've been working at the DX more lately, the reason is that De came round last month and she needed help, mom and I think his name is Paul are both out of work and De is doing all the house work and cleaning for this Soc family, that Luce found for her, it hardly pays though. She was getting behind on paying bills, so I said I would help, so from the usual 5 hours I put in at the DX, I'm now working full days during the holidays, that same hours that Luce does. I give half the money to De and then half of the remaining to Darry and Luce and the rest I keep for myself, I'm saving up, and I have no idea what for, but when I decide I got some money already saved. Luce and me had a lot of arguments about me working more but I said it was the only way I could help De seeing as she wouldn't leave mom. I made De promise that she wouldn't give mom the money and she agreed.
As I'm working all the time, Pony and Johnny have been hanging round at the DX a lot, Boss says they're like my shadows, really they're just bored. Dally ain't been round, he's been in trouble with the fuzz again. He knocked this guy out cold last week all because the guy asked him to pick some rubbish up, he just span round and cracked him straight in the face, he went down like a sack of potatoes, Dal would normally have gotten away with it except the gut was a Soc, so of course he told the Fuzz and now Dal's laying low at Buck's
Tim Sheppard is out to get Two-bit or so the rumours say, apparently Angela tried to get Two-bit and he fobbed her of saying he already had a girlfriend, which he does her names Cathy and she's as you can guess blond, though Two-bit always tries it on with all the blond girls he hasn't cheated on Cathy, he just messes round. So when he turned Angie down she had to save face, I guess, she told Tim that he's called her a slut and he wouldn't go with her if she paid him' when I heard this I fell about laughing, one Angela wouldn't have said that, she would have said that Two-bit had said he only like girls that were blond and stupid and second Two-bit wouldn't say anything like that, yeah he rips the piss out of people but he wouldn't be as Pony said 'that malicious' but Tim's still after him, if he finds him well Two-bit will be black and blue unless he doesn't find him and finds something or someone else to jump. Dal's lying low so I doubt he will jump in, Dar might but he'll sock Two-bit as well for not using his head.
Pony and I are going to the nightly double to night, we haven't been in ages, I've been busy working and Pony has been hanging with Johnny and Curley. De and Johnny are out at the moment they've gone to the lot, it's too noisy here. Steve's got the radio on full blast playing some rock song and Two-bit is the same with the TV and then there's Steve and Soda themselves fighting cos Soda tried to cheat at poker again. Luce is in the kitchen making cake and Darry is sat reading the paper, I don't know how he can concentrate, I'm sat on the floor writing and I'm getting a headache, I better take so aspirin before I go out, I don't need a headache while watching a movie.
I really hate him and Luce too. How can you make a sick kid go to school, easy they get you out of bed, shove 4 aspirin in your hand and a glass of water and tell you to get dressed cos you're late, you tell them your sick and they turn round and say it's your own fault for eating chocolate cake and Pepsi in fast succession and then pretending to go to sleep but actually sneaking out to Tim's party and then they tell you not to say you didn't cause Two-bit brought you home and then told them this morning. So there I was sat in the nurses' office with a temperature and vomit down my boyfriends t-shirt which was thrown on this morning while I was being dragged around like a rag doll and being lectured at by my eldest sister and my boyfriend's eldest brother.
Last night I had totally forgotten about the party and after my eating contest with Soda and drinking contest with Pony. I went to bed only to wake up 5 minutes lately to realise what I'd forgotten, so I got up and chucked on my jeans, t-shirt and converse and descended my drainpipe to the ground below and set off, really I shouldn't have been out it's been getting bad lately for us greasers, we can't go anywhere alone or with another person, the Soc's are always drunk and cruising round in their mustangs looking for someone to jump. Now if your Dally they don't bother you cos everyone is afraid of Dal same for Tim, Two-bit just flicks out his switchblade, Steve once held off 4 Soc's with a broken Pepsi bottle, I can't see anyone jumping Darry and I don't think they'd jump Soda, if they jumped Johnny now they'd be sorry, ever since he got jumped last time he's been carrying a blade with him, now carrying a blade ain't that bad , I carry one and I carry a Swiss army knife, thing is Johnny didn't used to be the type to carry a blade but he's different now, jumpier and a lot quieter, he's still the best poker face and cleans me and Pony out of smokes regularly, now if he's jumped he wouldn't think twice about bringing the blade out. And using it.
So I was in the school office and I've actually permission to go home I was doing it by the book. Sadly Darry can't come and get me so on last resort I had them call Buck hoping to god that Dal was there he was and he wasn't happy I'd woken him up, but he came and got me I could see he was about to yell at me when he came into the office to get me, but he didn't say anything then he saw me, picked up my school pack and swung his head telling me to follow. The secretary frowned and told him that he should be in school he just turned back to look at her and sneered before throwing his now finished smoke at her. He then followed me out of the door leaving it open. On any normal day I would have grinned, laughed and said something but I new the next time I opened my mouth it would be a stream of puke coming out not a Tia classic one liner. Choosing Dal to bring me home was my only choice, Steve wouldn't let me in his car for fear I would Ralph or something. I couldn't ask Two-bit cos his car was broke and he had gotten a lift from a friend (Steve), its not fair Steve gives Two-bit a lift but me, Dal and Pony we would leave out in the rain. He doesn't like Pony he sees him as a pesky kid, he sees me a trouble maker he can have a laugh with at times but I'm still crazy, Dal I thing Steve is a little scare of, I don't blame him most people are scared of Dal. I was, kinda still am. I know if Dal was angry enough with me wouldn't hesitate to knock my head off. I'd give him my best shot back but it wouldn't do any good.
So I'm home now, Dal is surprising a good doctor, I'll call him a good nurse but he'd probably kill me he is being good though, he sent me up here told me he'd get medicine and some water he then said he'd go and tell Luce I was home. Well that was 4 hours ago. Pony and Johnny came home they had a free period last so they came to check on me. I really hate being ill, especially being sick, cos being sick always makes you cry, well it makes your tear ducts leak so I don't know if you call that crying or not.
Pony and Johnny of course think it's hilarious, I can normally handle my drink, I can drink as much as Dal and then live through the hangover the next day, but last night I was drinking mixers. I can drinks mixes; you know all different things put together, deathly bad to people, so I started drinking mixes as dares when I was younger, so now I know to brace myself when I drink them. But last night oh my god! What ever Tim and curly were handing out could have brought the dead back to life, the stuff must have been really old or from some foreign stuff, god it was bad to drink but the after taste hit you like a tonne of bricks, I drank 2 mixers and was out of it. Past out and had to be brought back by Two-bit, that reminds me I need to thank him and then hit him round the head for telling Dar and Luce this morning but I should have known that boy can't keep a secret to save his life. I'll just threaten to shave his sideburns off that'll teach him.
Well Pony and Johnny have gone down stairs, I've been ordered to get some sleep, HA! Like I can do that knowing they're down there and not forgetting the fact I can hear the god damn TV dearly from my bed room on the second floor, the TV is on the ground floor, that's how loud they got it.