Dally and Tim continued walking back to Tim's house. Tim began talking about some socs he had fought the other day and Dally's mind began to wander. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate a good fight, he just preferred actually doing the fighting rather than hearing about it, not to mention the fact that Tim wasn't exactly the king of story telling.
Eventually they reached Tim's house and found Ponyboy sitting in a chair in the living room. "Hi guys," he said.
"Pony, what are you doing here?" asked Dally.
"I came to tell you that there's gonna be a bonfire at school Friday night."
"Why did you come to tell us that? It's not like we want to go to some lame high school bonfire."
"You have to go."
"Why?"
"It will be a fun diversion from this moronic plot."
"I'm not convinced. I mean, school spirit isn't exactly my thing."
"There'll be socs…"
"Can we fight them?" Dally brightened.
"I suppose."
"Then I guess I'll go."
And so it was decided, that Friday night found Dally, Ponyboy, Johnny, Soda, Steve and Two-Bit at the dance. "Well, this is a waste of time," said Dally, "And what's Soda doing here? Didn't he drop out? And how old are Steve and Two-Bit, are they still in school? And for that matter, how old am I?"
No one answered Dally's questions and there was a long pause in which no one said anything. Finally Cherry Valance walked over and said, "Hi guys, how's it going?"
Ponyboy said, "What about you not saying hi to me at school?"
"What?" she said, looking bewildered, "We're not at school."
"But this is a school sponsored event."
"Well I didn't say anything about school sponsored events."
"So, you don't care if your friends see you talking to a greaser?"
"No, not really."
"Then why won't you talk to me at school?"
Cherry seemed like she was about to answer but then she noticed her friends walking over and said, "Don't you ever talk to me like that again, you filthy greaser!" Then she and her friends walked away.
"That was weird," said Johnny.
"Yes. Yes it was," Pony agreed.
Then they noticed Angela Shepard walking towards them. "Oh look," said Dally, "It's the whore."
"Hey!" she said, "You can't talk to me like that. I'm gonna tell my brother, Tim, and he'll make you sorry you were born!"
"I doubt it. Why would he waste his time defending your nonexistent honor/"
"True," she agreed, "Hey, wanna meet my new friend?"
"Not really."
Ignoring Dally's answer, she shouted, "Hey Mike, come an' meet my brother's friends!"
Mike walked over and said, "Oh yeah, we're already acquainted."
"You guys are friends?" Soda asked.
"Well, I'm usually a loner," said Mike, "But Angela's tuff."
Johnny whispered to Pony, "Our enemies are joining together. This could turn out badly."
"Yeah," Pony replied, "But then, the socs are together too and they're way more dangerous and we've been able to handle 'em so far."
"I guess."