8
Every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon we had practice for the play. Mrs Krobable wanted 'perfection' as she always said. The play was at the end of the year but she wanted us to feel it, live it, breath it. None of us minded practice. It was a ball. We played pranks on each other, tried out our best imitations of a British accent, tried on the different costumes.
One Thursday afternoon, while me and Patty were rehearsing a love scene in front of the rest of the cast, I happened to look out in the crowd and I saw a girl sitting in the back row of the hall watching us quietly, a half-smile on her face. I knew she must be Mira. She and Danny had the same deep blue eyes and black hair.
When rehearsal was over, I saw Danny walk over and talk to her and I went to introduce myself.
"Hey Darry, this is my sister." Danny said when he saw me approach.
"I'm Darrel- Darry" I said shaking her hand.
She smiled weakly but didn't say anything. She wasn't exceptionally pretty. Nothing compared to Patty McCormick. But there was something else that intrigued me about her, although I couldn't quiet put my finger on it.
She was friendly in a quiet way but she had such sad eyes. There was more to her than a quiet lonely girl and I wanted to find out what it was.
"We're going to see our dad for the weekend. His wife just had a baby" Danny said, taking hold of Mira's arm and pulling her up off the seat.
I took that as a hint to say that he wasn't going to hang out with me.
So I went and hung out with the old gang- the guys I'd grown up with.
I went to the lot straight after practice and sure enough they were all there. Dally was reading out his police record. The others stared on in admiration. He was so proud of his police record, that he broke into the police station to photocopy it and stick it on his wall. I don't know what he got out of that.
I liked him, in a way. I wouldn't trust him with a girlfriend or even with my mom for that matter, but he always seemed in control. A lot of people admire him. Especially Johnny, Ponyboy's best friend. He worships the ground Dally walked on. It was so odd because they're complete opposites. Johnny will never be anything like Dally.
Dally wanted to go to the drive-in to meet up with Tim Shepard so we all went along with him. As I sat there in front of the screen, I wondered why Danny never mentioned anything about his sister. I always talked about my brothers. It was as though there was some sort of secret. I was intrigued.