All characters and situations belong to S.E. Hinton except for the character of Johnny's cousin, Arielle. Thanx for the great reviews and keep them coming. Aah, I feel so special. Still, there's no real action! What am I doing?!? I need to hurry things along, so I'm trying. Is it weird to submit a review to yourself, cuz I did that. Anyways, on with the story.

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By the time we got back to the hotel, I thought I knew enough about this town to write an entire novel. Johnny just kept talking and talking. He was really hyper from the excitement of meeting his old buddies and the prospect of meeting some more. He went over all the details of Soda's and his conversation. He kept interrupting himself with little explanations of and about the stories behind their private jokes for my better understanding.. I only half-listened as I usually do, but Johnny barely noticed or minded. At least I was listening and commenting frequently.

When we got back, I ordered some late lunch since it was already 3:00 p.m. Johnny didn't want much so as to save some appetite for dinner, but I was hungry and ordered a grilled chicken salad, rolls, iced tea, and a slice of blueberry pie. I finished it all within the half-hour. After that I was quite full. I'm not sure how Jonathon passed the time, but I set the alarm and took a nap. I had a pleasant dream about Paul Newman, but it was totally PG-13. Darn.

When I awoke, I heard the door open and looked up to see Johnny entering the room in a towel, but soaked nonetheless. "Swimming," was all he said to my questioning look. "Naw, I was gonna guess horseback riding," I replied with a mock shocked expression. He just playfully glared at me and I guess he headed off to the shower. I myself had to shower also and headed for the second bathroom. My, this might be a small town, but they sure do know how to pamper guests. There were bath oils by the dozen around the tub and it was very large and elegant. When you want the best, you get the best. The room was embroidered in a pink color scheme that took me back to the memory of the subtle glow of the firelight behind Thomas's private rose garden that night on our six month anniversary. It looked kind of like those fantasy things they talk about in the movies, and reminded me of the likes of Scarlet O'Hara but in a more modern and smaller scale. Anyways, after some admiring time, I didn't want to let such a convenient set up go to waste. Bubble bath, here I come.

~~~ Some time later~~

I stepped out of the draining bathtub smelling of strawberries and roses. Mmm, nice combination I think. Now to pick out something to wear. We hadn't even unpacked yet and we were already going out to socialize. Oh well. Hmm, let's see. It's going to be dinner at that boy's house; ugh what was his name? I'm so terrible with names. I can never remember them until I embarrass myself and ask the person what it was. I hate that. After all, he was a nice boy and if I can remember the articles of the constitution verbatim, then I should be able to remember these simple things. For a first impression dinner, I'll just wear my silk, frill-lined, knee-length, apricot dress with the pale pink flower designs and see-through satin shoulder sleeves. It wasn't quite sleeveless, so it wasn't quite risqué. Elegant and delicate, yet it was still the most high top in fashion. Of course it should be for what it cost. My classy coral stilletos, from which I had received numerous compliments, accentuated the ensemble quite nicely. My hair I decided to clip the upper half back for a nice drawn back impression, but still down for that natural appeal. The crazy mass of auburn was a nice, tamed curly tonight. I wasn't exactly in my usual conservative fashion, but no one should mistake me for a prep or *(rolls eyes)* high school girl.

I looked at the clock. Oh my goodness! It was almost seven! "Johnny! Let's go," I yelled out. Tardiness is not something I value. "I was wondering when you were gonna get out. I was about to send out a search party." He grinned at me and we headed out. We arrived at the Curtis house at about a quarter after. I felt nervous, but I didn't know why. I guess meeting someone new always makes me feel anxious. Plus, I hardly knew any of these people if not at all and I had no idea what was in store for the evening. Oh well, I thought, here we go.

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I heard the door slam. 'Ooh, yay, my frivolous brother is home.' I thought to myself. I almost felt bad afterwards considering I really held nothin against Soda. He was always in a pretty good mood, though I don't blame him. Good looks, nice girl, all right home. If only he hadn't dropped out of school. I had to get this homework done or Darry would blow his top for sure. "Hey Ponyboy, guess who we ran into at the DX?" I really didn't care, but decided to humor him. "Who?" I asked in a monotone. "No, you have to guess." I hated these stupid games he liked to play. No one could ever be straight with me around here. I never got any respect. No one cared a cinch about what I felt or what I wanted to do or.... "Hey Pony? You all right?" Soda asked me in his concerned manner. He really looked out for me sometimes. Darry did too I guess. Or maybe he was just nosy. "Peachy," I told him with a glare. Great. Now I was in one of my moods. I think he could tell. "Well you'll cheer up when you hear this. We ran into Johnny Cade at the DX." At first I couldn't believe my ears. Then my eyes widened with shock and a sudden rush of surprise ran through me. "Yup. I couldn't believe it either. He came into the DX with this really nice lookin Soc girl and Dallas in the front seat. Man we talked about almost everything under the sun. His cousin, she was real quiet, but I dunno. I think she was just trying to give Johnny his space. Dally told us she could be a bit of a firecracker when he was kind of gettin on Johnny about hangin with Socs, but that's all he'd tell us. Come to think of it, she did look like a real upper class Soc, but a really cute one. She looks a little too old for Steve and Dally, y'know like she's in college or sumthin."

I really didn't care about some stupid broad that took away one of my best friends. After this kind of thinking, my happy surprise was soon replaced with anger. Maybe even hatred. For more than a year I had no one to talk to. I was utterly alone. Soda was no help. He always tried to look on the bight side, not even considering the dark emotions people feel everyday. When I tried to talk to him about Robert Frost, he thought the man was too depressed and had no life. So did Two-bit, but I should have expected that from him, not from Soda. He wasn't depressed, he was just talking about subjects of which Soda and Two-bit could not comprehend. So all this time I kept everything to myself. All my anger, my hatred, my loneliness, everything I felt whether good or bad was bottled up inside me. The only way I knew how to get it out was to let it travel through my fists. That's how I got suspended from school a few months back. I got caught fighting on school grounds too many times. The principle of our high school called Darry from work to "remove this young delinquent from our school grounds immediately." I was too afraid of what Darry was gonna do to me. He "slaved everyday so I could have the best education I could get and the best home to live in". Now I got kicked out? I couldn't stand all the yelling I was gonna get, the disappointment. So I did the only thing I could do. I ran. I ran and ran until I finally collapsed on my knees from exhaustion. When I caught my breath enough to look at my surroundings, I saw that I was merely half a block from the train station. I couldn't go back home. Darry would probably disown me, so I hitched a ride on the train as a stowaway, and through the whole night I slept, never even considering to look back the whole time I was awake.

My flashback was interrupted by Soda's next astonishing statement. "They're coming over for dinner tonight. I told him to come around about seven. Why are you looking like that?" They were coming over? Tonight? No, I...I wasn't ready. What was I gonna say? No, I can't think like this. They're just two stuck up people from stupid far away. Johnny was probably just another stupid guy from out of state who was what they called "new vouriche" since his new family had oh so much money. What if he thought he was too good for us? No, that aint right. Why would he accept a dinner invite if he thought that? Maybe just to see how much worse the gang had gotten since he left? Well he'd be proven wrong, you can bet your life on it. I didn't know what to think. My old best friend from over a year ago was coming over to visit.

I hopped in the shower and got ready since it was already five thirty. I heard the door slam once again as I was drying my long hair, getting ready to reapply my grease. Darry must be home I thought. My hunch was confirmed when I heard a loud "Whoop" from the kitchen area. I guess Darry was excited. He really liked Johnny too and when we heard that his family from Florida had taken him, he was real sad. Maybe he was happy that I'd get to see him again. I chuckled at what might be going on through his concerned mind. "Maybe this will be good for Ponyboy. He might just shape up once he sees how well off Johnny is and that he was never abandoned." Maybe Darry could be right. What was I thinking? Look, I told myself, you are not eager to see some EX-friend who decided to turn up for the summer, got it? Great, I told myself, now I'm talking to you. Doh! *slaps head* I mean myself.

When I came out of my room wearing just my jeans and a light cotton blue T-shirt, the smell of roast chicken and bread was wafting through the whole house. I looked at the clock. Five till seven. When I got to the kitchen, Darry was busy checking the oven. I saw a chocolate cake on the counter, obviously for dessert, or appetizer. You never knew in this family. I looked over at the noise coming from the living room. Soda and Steve were wrestling and Two-bit was playin a game of poker with Dally. I'm sure the whoops and howls could be heard down the street, but no one cared. It was Saturday night and most people were probably making a lot louder sounds of a lot less innocence.

We waited around until about ten after seven and still no one had come yet. Two-bit was trying to sneak a bit of chicken only to get his hand slapped by an irritated Darry. Where were they? You could cut through the tension in the room with a butter knife. Everyone was doubting if they would actually show. I knew they were, because I was too. I had almost given up on them with all kinds of excruciating revenge details running through my head that I could inflict if I ever ran into him in a back alley on the East Side of town when we heard a car pull into the driveway. We all looked around at each other and stood waiting, staring intently at the door.