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Lotsa love, degrassichick92

--Here's Chapter 3--

Chapter 3

- - - - -

"Great dinner you guys, how about I help do the dishes?" Gemmy asked wiping her mouth with a napkin and sitting on her plate which now had no food left on it.

"That'd be great if you want to…it's my turn to do dishes so…" Ponyboy said and stood up.

"Sure," Gemmy said with a smile and stood up as well, taking the final sip out of her glass of orange juice and then followed Pony into the kitchen holding her dishes.

"So," Sodapop asked, "Where'd you say you were from again?"

Danielle opened her mouth to speak but Gemmy cut her off from the kitchen, "New York City!"

"The big apple," Darry said as if in a daze.

Danielle stared down at her plate, which Ponyboy took a second later.

"How do y'all like it there?" Sodapop asked.

"It's great, Gemmy and I go to a school for gymnastics," Danielle commented.

"You girls do gymnastics?" Darry asked.

Danielle opened her mouth to speak but once again got cut off by Gemmy who was just walking back to gather more plates, "Dani's way better than me, gymnastics are like in her genes or something,"

Danielle gave a small smile as everyone else continued the conversation.

- - - - -

Danielle lay awake on the couch with a blanket wrapped around her, Gemmy had rolled off the couch and was now lying on the floor with a heap of a blanket covering up her figure, sleeping soundly.

Danielle glanced at a clock: 2:00 AM.

She sighed, it was hopeless. Going to sleep would be near impossible.

The moon was gleaming from the window and shining on her pillow, also casting a light on the pictures on the shelves.

She felt tears brimming in her eyes as she remembered her last night with her family after her parent's death…

--

"Pony, could you please put away the dishes?" Darry asked as he walked away from the sink full of clean dishes.

Ponyboy muttered something under his breath and then got up from his chair and began putting dishes in cabinets as Darry walked into the living room.

Danielle was sitting on the couch, her knees hugged up to her chest as she watched an old episode of I Love Lucy

"Hey kiddo," he said, taking a seat next to her.

She muttered a "hey" but kept her eyes glued to the television screen.

"You hungry? You skipped out on dinner…"

Danielle shook her head.

"You sure?" Soda asked, walking into the living room from the kitchen, wiping his hands off with a dishtowel.

"I'm fine," Danielle said, finally turning to her brothers.

"You've barely eaten or spoke since the funeral, what's wrong?" Darry asked.

"You had to ask? Mom and dad are dead and you have to ask what's wrong?! God, what is with y'all?" Danielle asked and sat up, stalking into her bedroom which she had to share with both Sodapop and Ponyboy.

Most people would find that sickening but Danielle didn't care, her brothers were her best friends.

She flopped onto the bed, burying her head under pillows sobbing, just as she did every night since her parent's death.

"Dani," Sodapop said, softly tapping on the door before stepping inside.

"Soda, can I please just be alone?" she asked, her voice muffled under the pillows.

"I figured you might want to talk to someone," he said, sitting on the foot of the bed, rubbing her back.

"No, I'm fine," she said, not looking up.

"Dani," Sodapop said warningly, "You're not fine and you know it. You barely eat, you barely talk, you're lucky you ever even get up in the morning to go to school,"

"What do you care?" Dani asked, "You dropped out of school last week,"

"Yeah I know," Sodapop said, "And I sometimes regret it, but I don't want you to drop out of school. I want you to stay in school, get good grades and hang out with your friends. Don't even get wound up into anything having to do with greasers, okay? Just be Danielle Allison Curtis."

"I just miss mom and dad!" she cried, finally getting up.

Sodapop draped an arm over her shoulder and drug her to his chest, letting her sob. Her tears seeped through his tee shirt.

"So do we, we just want you to be okay," he said, rubbing her back.

"I can't be, I miss daddy and mommy," she said, not believing she actually said "daddy" and "mommy", she hadn't called them that since she was five years old. Daddy and mommy weren't usually in a twelve year old girl's vocabulary, "they didn't deserve to die,"

"You're right they didn't," another voice said.

The two turned around and saw Darry leaning against the door frame.

Danielle got up and raced to her brother, wrapping her arms around him tightly, "I'm sorry Darry," she said in a near whisper.

"It's alright, its okay," he said, rubbing her back.

No one knew how much she was truly sorry for however.

-

Danielle lay in bed, Sodapop had fallen asleep on the couch so it was only her and Ponyboy.

Ponyboy's arm was sprawled across her flat stomach and his face was buried in his pillows.

She gently placed her hand on his arm and lifted it off of her stomach and onto the bed as she got out slowly and quietly, already dressed in a pair of Levis and a pink and white gingham blouse that was tied in a knot in the front.

She tiptoed over to the desk and reached under it, where her suitcase was already packed.

She grabbed it and then sat down at the desk, jotting down a short letter to her siblings:

Dear Darrel, Sodapop, and Ponyboy:

I feel really weird writing this to y'all…but I gotta.
I am really sorry about what I'm doing, but I gotta do it too.

Like I said, I'm sorry.

But this is what I gotta do, and this is the only time I can do it.

Love always,
Danielle Curtis.

She finished the letter with a small heart and then grabbed a small black and white photo of her and her brothers that was taken on Sodapop's fifteenth birthday, they were all sitting on the couch, Ponyboy and Danielle-the youngest of the siblings-were sitting on opposite ends of the couch, Darry was by Ponyboy and Sodapop was by Danielle, they were all grinning and Two Bit and Steve were behind the couch with their heads peeking out above Sodapop's and Darry's.

It was one of Danielle's favorite pictures.

She grabbed her suitcase and slowly and quietly opened up the bedroom door.

She tiptoed down the hallway as quietly as she could.

She heard Sodapop's peaceful snoring from the couch, she sat down her suitcase and sat the letter on top.

Grabbing her Keds, she walked over to one of the chairs and slipped them on her feet, her Levis falling just to the tongue of the shoes.

She pulled on Johnny's blue jean jacket that he had left at their house for over a month over her blouse and then pulled her hair into a ponytail.

She got up and grabbed her letter and dropped it on the coffee table in front of Sodapop.

In one swift movement of her legs, she grabbed her suitcase and quietly walked to the door, opening it up slowly and praying it wouldn't creak.

When it didn't, she opened up the screen door and stepped outside, closing both behind her very quietly.

She reached into her suitcase quickly and pulled out an envelope full of money that had been saved up since her fourth birthday.

She ran off down the porch steps and out into the night.

- - - - -

Tears were now streaming down her face and she wiped her eyes with the blanket and then snuggled against it, finally falling asleep.