Hello, all! Not giving an excuse for being so late on this chapter other than that I'm a lazy writing procrastinator bum: the truth. So, if you are reading this still, I GREATLY appreciate it, and hope that you'll forgive me. Made a long one for you this time.

Another thing. About the "eating oranges, mmmm, apples" thing in the second paragraph. It's a very long story about a friend of mine who can't get enough of an inside joke and jotted it into my story area and every other area of my Palm Pilot. looks glaringly at friend So, be confused, be happy!

Sorry for the awful format here. My Word is being horrible to me and not working with stars or tabs, so I've prepared a bit of explaining for you:

More than one space between the sentences means that it's a time later. One space between each sentence is paragraph difference. Words in bold (such as now), means that it's an author's note.

Thanks everyone and sorry for the confusion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Slamming my car hood shut, I hopped over the backseat and popped out my mirror from the headboard. I looked like I had been hit by a truck… literally. My hair was disarrayed horribly and I massaged the black eye that I had acquired from trying to calm a frenzied "let's-hit-the-new-girl" four year old in the park yesterday. In the end, I had ended up with a Dairy Queen Dip Cone in my hair and a sand bucket in my face. Geez… I was beginning to regret finding that stupid park.

Pink or red? I had found my lipstick. Dabbing a bit of it onto my lips, I caught sight of the gang pushing through to pile into the stadium from my rear view mirror. They were eating oranges. Mmmm… too scared of apples, I suppose. I went into hyper drive. Rule #1 in Prepping Up, Volume 532: NEVER APPLY MAKEUP IN FRONT A GUY". I was officially denying the laws of womanhood.

Smearing a bit of mascara onto my eyelashes, I snapped the mirror shut again. Keys, money… I kissed my fake George Harrison Drivers License for luck and jumped out of the car from the side. The old woman in the car next to me was staring at me strangely, so I flashed her a triumphant smile. She must have thought that I never used doors.

"Bonjour, my friend." I plopped down next to a happy-looking Ponyboy with a cocoa in one hand and about five billion Laffy Taffys in my other. At the sound of a snort, I snapped my head toward him, and at my mock glare, he nodded towards the items. I scoffed. "Ponyboy Curtis has obviously never had cocoa on a summer day, has he?" That was the Notch of Doom. Without hesitation, his socket blew and he was laughing his head off like there would be no tomorrow. I smiled genuinely, my purpose fulfilled. It was nice, no, better than nice to see him laugh. Not only did he seem to be one of those who needed to, but he had the sexiest face as the shadows from the sum grazed over his cheeks and his brilliantly white teeth lit up his smile. It was like heaven.

And, of course, it was then, when I was falling in love with a smile that the entire gang decided to appear. I felt that razzle de dazzle on my hair from one of their hands and started to blush. Don't know why. Guess it was one of those days.

It had been Soda, the beautiful movie star brother of Pony's, yet at a glance at the moment, I found Pony to be far higher on that scale in comparison.

The game… wasn't a game.

It ended up being this horrible scrimmage of both teams practically killing each other, and Darry and I were so close to going broke betting against each other on who would go out next that it felt like casino night.

His face at my idea of betting my polish on it when I ran out of money was priceless.

So, it ended up being more of the never-forgotten Friday nights.

Each of us had our own "becoming tired" issues. Two-bit buying every bit of candy out of the concession stand (I wasn't very happy about that), Steve whooping at the scandally-clad cheerleaders(who never went on after ten minutes) every five seconds, and me going nuts with random moments and Texan accents.

It was great.

Maybe that's why we were all laughing when they asked if they could take me home.

I had blubbered about it with stars still in my eyes, and we had all agreed that I would go along with them. After all, I already had my bag, nothing was at home that I needed for an overnight stay, and naturally, I wasn't too welcome there anyways.

Ponyboy, as always, didn't ask and just left me to my thoughts.

I wasn't that fidgety actually. Staying with guys overnight was a usual thing for me back in California, and I wasn't too worried about the major dangers of it.

I hadn't learned to fight for nothing.

Pulling into the driveway behind them, I blinked my eyes sleepily, and pulled out the key.

I didn't really feel like moving anything. Too tired.

In a trance-like state, I pulled off my seatbelt, and climbed out of the car. Blah, stupid fog.

Trotting up the steps drowsily, I entered through the door Darry was holding open. I was literally about to fall over in sleepiness, and found it rather odd that I had driven at all.

I didn't even notice that as I fell asleep on the couch, my pillow became Pony's lap. Even less did I see the pleased smiles on Two-bit's, Soda's, and Steve's faces.

Well, there it is, folks! The next chap. I'll try to get the next one up much sooner, and being Jules is coming over for a week next week (yay!), I believe I'll have a good reason!

Jules Sab