Merry Christmas everyone! I'm BAAACK! With a short story.

I own Ash, of course, and Stephanie, the others were created by S.E. Hinton, anways, here it goes.


I'm screwed, I'm definitely screwed. Hi again, it's me Ash, and, well, I'm screwed. What happened was that the Curtis' are having

a Christmas party so we all drew names because we're doing the secret Santa thing, and I got Darry. What the HELL am I

supposed to get DARRY? I hardly know the guy...

Now, let's take a look at Darry, he'd tall, dark, and handsome, works too much, and plays to little. Maybe I should get him

Scrabble...

Nah...well anyway, me and Sandy are at the mall right now so I better start looking.

"So, what does your brother like anyway?" Sandy asked, she was Two-bits secret Santa.

"Beer, blondes, and beds," I said absent mindedly but Sandy laughed.

"Come on Ash, you can do better than that!" Sandy elbowed me in the side and I grinned.

"Get him some fuzzy dice for his car, or better yet get him a nude calendar, he'll love you forever for THAT!" I snickered.

"You know, when you smile you remind me a lot of Two-bit," Sandy commented.

"Really?" I asked, surprised, "I never noticed."

It's the truth, I don't think I look much like my brother at all, aside from the hair and ees, we have totally different faces.

"I looked through every stupid store in the mall and ended up getting Darry a dumb book. I mean, I like books and all, it just

didn't seem very sentimental.

But, just then, something, or should I say someone, caught my eye. I could have sworn that girl walking through the food court

was...

"Stephanie!" I called. She looked up, saw me, and smiled.

Stephanie Cantoni is a girl I used to know, with long dark brown hair, blue eyes, tanned skin, perfect smile, perfect figure, she

was on the track team when she went to high school and was runner up for Homecoming Queen her senior year. Also, she's

Darry's ex-girlfriend. She was twenty now, as gorgeous as ever, and apparently home for the holidays. She had gone to college,

which is the reason she and Darry had broken up. He had to get a job but she wanted to move on to better things in life and

unfortunately that meant leaving Darry behind.

"Hey Ash!" Stephanie exclaimed and gave me a hug, "Sandy! How've you been?"

"Fine, thanks," Sandy smiled, also giving a hug to Stephanie.

"How's college?" I asked her.

"Okay, I guess. It's not Highschool, I'll tell you that!" Stephanie laughed and we laughed with her. "Still with Soda?" Steph asked

Sandy and we looked at each other, laughed, and told her a very short version of what had happened with her coming home from

florida, her being engaged, and, well, you know the story, right?

"Wow! I missed out on a lot!" Steph sighed and, naturally, I wondered if she was thinking about Darry.

"Yeah, well, I'm cupid!" I grinned and Sandy laughed.

"She sure is! This girl's a strong believer in love!" Sandy shook her head.

"Yep, it's the truth!" I said a matter of factly.

"Love, I remember love," Stephanie said, "don't let go of it, Ash, you too Sandy, it's not worth it."

"Oh no," I said, "Don't do that to me."

"What?" Stephanie asked.

"Don't make me think you're in love with Darry still or I might want to reunite you two."

"Would you?!" Stephanie asked and my jaw dropped. Sandy wasn't nearly as easy to get to as Stephanie.

"Well, I can try. Want to come to a Christmas party?" I asked, "It's on Christmas eve at the Curtis house," I said.

"Alright," Stephanie agreed.

It's starting again! Round two of the battle of love! Sheesh...

That Evening

That evening I called Pony up to see if it was okay to bring a friend to the party and he said it was fine, the more the merrier.

As I was talking on the phone Two-bit barged in my room and started tickling me, and believe me, fighting of you brother,

being tickled, and talking to your boyfriend at the same time is no easy task.

So the next day, the day before the party, making it Christmas eve eve, or December 23rd I hung out with Sandy and

Stephanie. Angela is, well, married now. A shock I know, but she got married to her brothers friend...she HATES the guy

too. I think she's going to try to get a divorce or annulment soon, I hope so anyway. She's to young to be married.

Stephanie, it turns out, has been working part time as a night manager at a nice restaurant near her school's campus. She says

she likes it and think she'll probably stick in the restaurant business after she graduates. She hasn't had a boyfriend since Darry

and really misses him. Sandy mentioned that if I marry Ponyboy, she marries Soda, and Stephanie marries Darry then we'd all

be sisters in law. That's about the time I threw a pillow at her. Pony and I have been together for about a month and a half

now, and Steph isn't even back with Darry yet so why should we already plan our weddings?!

The Party

"Do I look okay?" Steph asked who was wearing a black skirt, long red sleeved shirt and a Santa hat.

"Gorgeous!" I replied underneath my elf hat. I wasn't joking either, Stephanie could never look bad.

"Agreed!" Sandy chimed in who was wearing antlers on her head with a red clown nose as a joke.

"Now, you're not going to run away, are you? Because if YOU do I won't be able to catch you like I did Sandy," I cast a glare at

Sandy who flashed a huge smile at me.

"No, I won't, I promise," Steph nodded. I always looked up to Stephanie as an athlete, even when I was in middle school, she

held the schools record for the fastest time to this date. She is still an incredible athlete.

"Splendid!" I smiled and clapped my hands together, "Shall we?" I asked and then knocked on the door.

As usual, inside we could her a fight break loose over who was going to answer the door so we just decided to walk in, past the

pile of bodies, over to the other girls.

"Thanks for inviting us," I called over my shoulder as Soda, Dally, Steve, Pony, and Two-bit looked at us from the heap of

people they had formed.

"Hey, Johnny," I said as I walked past him.

"Hi, Ash!" He said a bit louder than usual, I think he's finally starting to get comfortable around me. He should, I am dating his

best friend after all, speaking of which...

"Ash!" Pony hugged and kissed me, "Glad you can make it!"

"Me too," I said. "Um, but could you explain the socs...?" I asked.

My long time rival Cherry Valance and her friend Marcia were there at the party.

"Well, I just found out today too. Dally is secretly dating Cerry and Two-bit is with Marcia."

I blinked, looked at my brother who smiled and shrugged and shook my head.

"Poor girl..." I said.

"I heard that!" Two-bit snapped and I laughed.

"Did you bring your friend?" Pony asked, who probably expected Angela to be there. "Yeah," I said and nodded towards

Stephanie who was talking to Evie.

Pony looked at her for a minute and then did a double-take. "What? You've got connections with both of my brothers' ex-girl

friends now?" Pony asked.

"Yes, it gives us something to talk about," I said sarcatically. "She wanted to come," I said and shrugged. "You think Darry'll mind

the fact she still loves him?"

"Well...no...how does this ALWAYS happen?" Pony asked.

"It's the Curtis curse!" I laughed.

Through the night we played games, sang Christmas carols, and I think just about everyone made out with someone throughout

the party aside from Darry and Stephanie who hadn't even SEEN each other yet, but eventually they did, it's a small house so

they were bound to run in to each other at one point or another. It was funny because Darry jumped almost ten feet in the

air...okay that a BIT on an exaggeration...but you know what I mean...

"Stephanie!" Darry yellped in shock.

"Merry Christmas Darry!" Stephanie said with a nervous smile on her face.

"You...you came back!" Darry said in disbelief.

"Yeah, I came home for Christmas...to stay," Stephanie replied.

They stood there for a minute, starring at each other, then they kissed. No Santa Clause my ass, I AM Santa...okay I'm not, but

hey, Christmas magic is in the air everywhere! Everyone is in love on Christmas...except for Johnny but I'll get to him soon, just

you wait and see! I WILL find someone for Johnny, but we'll save that for my next story!


Okay, that wasn't my greatest story ever, but I wanted to put something up for Christmas, and that's what happened. Darry

NEEDS a girl ANYWAY! HA! Thanks for reading! R&R please!