I slept till twelve that day, and I found Natalie flopped on the sofa watching cartoons. "S'up?" I asked her as I grabbed a coke from the fridge.

She didn't respond, only flipped the channel.

I blinked and stopped at the doorway of the living room. "You ok, Nattie?"

"I'm not leaving Sodapop."

"Sure you ain't." I muttered as I drank the coke. "Did you hear my mom's decision?"

She turned her eyes to me. "What decision?"

I sighed and looked around. "Never mind," I turned away and headed for the garage. I'd take a ride in my mom's Firebird and forget about my problems. I'd forget that Ponyboy wasn't going to be around anymore, and I'd forget that I would be leaving Johnnycake.

I opened the door to the garage and froze before I even took a step into the cold room. Sitting there with a huge ribbon it was a yellow Diablo Lamborghini racer. I sprinted to the driver's side and found the keys sitting on the seat. Stupid, but perfect for me.

"You're father decided that you should stay."

I looked at the door and standing there was my mom. "Dad decided, as in you didn't have a word?"

"I figured you might as well stay." She said.

I nodded. "Thanks."

"You still need to be packed by Saturday. And it's Friday."

"I'll get the guys to help me. Later!" I jumped into the car, opened the carport door, and sped off down the hill and onto the open road.

It was the middle of the day, but amazingly enough to drive through was open and showing movies. I drove up and let people gawk at my car. I parked in a spot and propped my feet up on the wheel of the racer.

"She's leaving tomorrow…" came a soft voice.

I peered out my side window and saw Ponyboy and Johnny walking towards the concession stand. My windows were tinted a lot, so they couldn't see into the car.

"And she hasn't even come by and said so much as 'I'll miss you'."

"Oh, come on Pony," Johnny said as he paid for a coke. "You know she'll drop by."

"Right before they leave." He muttered.

A girl walked up to them, and Pony's eyes lit up.

That infuriated me.

"Hi Pony."

"Hi Cherry."

Johnny nodded to his friend and walked off to watch the movie that had started.

"What are you doing here?" Pony asked.

"You know. Hanging out. You?"

"Trying to get something off my mind."

The girl looked at my car and smiled. "That's a cool car."

Pony looked at it. "Yeah. Never seen one before."

"That's because it's mine, you bastard." I snarled to myself.

They started talking at the stand, and I shifted in my seat.

I pulled out a cigarette and lit it. I rolled down the window and blew out the smoke

Two-Bit walked by and froze. "My God…CAL!"

I turned my head and didn't even get a glimpse of anything when something hit me. I grunted. "Two-Bit!" I yelled. "You're choking me!"

He jumped back. "Sweet car!"

I opened the door and got out. I shut it and leaned on the door. "Thanks. My parents got it for me since the Corv got busted. Guess what?"

"What?"

"My parent's are letting me stay."

"Yeah? No kidding?" his eyes lit up.

"No kidding," I blew out the smoke and glanced at Pony, who was staring at me. But I knew he hadn't heard what I had said.

Two-Bit threw his arms around me, taking me by utter surprise. "Congrats, girl!"

I blinked. "Eh?"

He let go and slapped me on the head. "Go tell Johnny! He'll turn so white he'll look like a ghost!"

I smiled. "Stay with my Lam?"

"No problem baby!"

"No joy riding. In fact…" I reached through the window and grabbed the keys. "Just in case." I smirked at him and went off the find Johnny.

Ponyboy's eyes followed me, and the girl he was with stared.

I went up the stairs of the metal seats where the people sit that don't have cars, and spotted Johnny sitting with Dally. "Yo, Cake!"

Johnny turned his eyes and jumped up. "Callisto!"

I smiled. "Hey Johnnycake!"

We hugged and he took a step back to look at me.

"What?" I asked, looking myself up and down. "Have I been gone that long?"

He smiled. "What are you doing here?"

"Showing off my Lamborghini racer. Wanna see it?"

"Sure!"

"Cool. Come on," I led him down the stairs and to my car where Two-Bit was getting a crowd of girls. "Back off, back off!" I snapped, and stalked up to the car.

Two-Bit was talking with Cherry, that girl Pony was with. And Pony was looking at Two-Bit.

"Two-Bit, what the hell do you think you're doing?" I asked sharply.

He turned to me. "Hey babe! Look at all these chicks wanting to see your car."

"Yeah, MY car." I snapped.

He blinked. "Sorry."

I sighed. "Na, I'm sorry. Shouldn't have yelled at ya." I reached into the crowd and grabbed Johnny's arm. I pulled him up and he stared at the car.

"Whoa…"

I laughed. "Like it?"

"Sweet…" he glanced it over.

"Hey, Johnny! Did Cal tell you the news?" Two-Bit asked his friend.

Johnny looked at him. "What news?"

"She's staying!"

I blushed when Johnny turned his eyes to me and he really did turn white.

"You're staying?!"

"Yep!"

He threw his arms around me and hugged me tight.

I laughed. "Circulation… I need blood flow!"

He blushed and let go. "Sorry."

Pony looked at me and locked eyes.

I licked my lips.

Cherry turned her eyes from Pony and to me. "You're that new Soc, aren't you? The one that got in a crash at the track?"

I blew out the smoke of my cigarette and muttered, "Soc I ain't. The crash at the track, yeah that was me. You're kind busted up my Corvette and let me tell you this, I won't ever forget or forgive it."

She blinked. "You're acting like I did it."

"Who knows. Maybe you did," I glanced at Pony, and saw he was glaring at me. "Hey Johnnycake, you want a ride? I need someone to help me pack."

He blinked. "I thought you were staying?"

"I am. But I'm moving into Ted's place. Want to help me?"

"Sure. Two-Bit, you wanna come?"

Two-Bit was flirting with around five girls, and didn't seem to notice Johnny's question.

I rolled my red eyes. "Come on Johnny," I opened the driver's door and got into the car.

Johnny jogged around the racer and got into the front seat. "What changed your parents minds?"

"Oh, nothing much really." I started the car and backed up slowly as not to hit anyone. "My parents are still going to NY, and I'm not sure about Natalie, but I'm staying. My mom won't care what Natalie does, so she'll probably end up staying with Soda."

"Can I ask you something?" he asked, shifting in his seat.

"Anything Johnny." I said as I pulled out of the drive-in and onto the freeway.

"Are you and Ponyboy fighting?"

I laughed. "He's got a nice girlfriend. I don't suppose I would call it fighting."

"Cherry? She isn't his girlfriend. She's just a Soc that he knows from school."

"They looked awfully damned chummy." I grumbled as I turned off the freeway and went down my street.

He stared at me. "You got it all wrong… Ponyboy doesn't like her like he likes you."

"Plenty of people like me," I said as I went up the hill to my house. "That doesn't mean I like them. It's what they do that determines whether or not I declare them a friend, not what they say."

I parked the car and jumped out.

Johnny followed me into the house and up to my room. "He just thought you weren't going to say goodbye…"

"Damn right I wasn't gonna. Because I'm not leaving. Why should I say goodbye if I ain't leaving?"

"He thought you were. You never made any indication that you were staying."

I shrugged. "He should know me better then that. I don't leave my friends, unless they do something to betray me." I pulled out a suitcase from my closet and shoved some clothes into it. "You gonna help me or not?"

He swallowed and looked around. "What do you want me to do?"

I threw him a backpack. "Put all my CD's and tapes into there. And my books, if you find any on the floor or something." I finished shoving all my shirts into the suitcase and put a pair of pants in when it got full. I got another suitcase and started filling it with my pants and shorts.

"You shouldn't judge Ponyboy just because he likes a Soc or two."

"All the Socs are the same."

"But, you're a Soc and you aren't like the rest of 'em. Neither is Natalie."

My hands froze and flexed above the suitcase. "Whatever." I pulled on my belly button ring and shut the second suitcase. "You done with my CD's?"

"Yeah." He zipped the backpack and looked at me. "What else?"

I looked around and rubbed my chin. "My blankets, probably. I'll need a nice sized bag for that."

He looked at my neck and swallowed. "Why are you still wearing that wrecked thing?"

I smiled. "Because you got it for me. I ain't gonna throw something away just because it's cracked. It's still useful."

"How?"

"It reminds me that I have a reason not to kill myself."

"Kill yourself?"

"I tried to kill myself twice back in New York. That's part of the reason we moved here." I said as I grabbed my pillows and shoved them into a plastic bag.

"I'm sorry…"

"Why? Because life was so damned horrible that I wanted to die? Na, don't be sorry about that." I shoved my comforter and two blankets into another bag and tossed them out my door. "I think that's everything…"

He looked around the room. "You're staying because of us. Why?"

"What makes you think I'm staying because of you? I'm staying because if I go back home, I'll have to join some gang. I don't like gangs." I said as I grabbed the two suitcases and dragged them out of the room.

"You going to go see Ponyboy?" he asked as he followed me out of the room.

"Help me take these things to the car, will ya?"

He grabbed the suitcases and took them down to the car.