((Ponyboy's POV))

"Come on Kristina please." A lady said pleading with her daughter.

"No, I hate stupid cheerleading I want to play with them." She said pointing at the football players and pouting.

"Shh! Stop it you're a young lady!" her mother hissed

I guess she thought that was an insult because I heard her yell back, "NO YOU'RE A YOUNG LADY!" and saw her stick her tongue out at her mom.

I glanced over at Sodapop and rolled my eyes when I saw him grinning ear to ear. Soda's liked girls since birth. I didn't think much about her at the time, but give me a break I was 7.

Well this girl had on the white and blue cheerleaders outfit for Yellin. That's our school. And she had long golden blonde hair and crystal blue eyes filled with frustration.

She looked over at me and Soda and her eyes softened and she got a big smile upon her face.

"Just let her be Katherine." Said who I assumed was her dad and with that the girl jumped off the bleacher and came up to Soda and me.

"Hi I'm Kristina." She said still beaming. She had one of those smiles you just had to smile back at, kind of like Soda's.

"Hi I'm Sodapop and this here is my brother Ponyboy, we're here for our brother Darry's game."

I waited for the "that is your real names?" but she didn't change expressions at all when he said that.

"Well I should be there cheering for your brother but I'd much rather be out there on field playing." she said tossing her pom poms.

"Well you wanna play with us?" Soda asked and Soda's best friend Steve came up.

Steve contrary to Soda, didn't like girls since birth. But hell Soda liked everyone since birth so that's not really saying much.

"Why are you guys talking to a girl?" He said wrinkling his nose.

Kristina stared at Steve for a good 30 seconds and then her eyes lit up. She looked down at the football on the ground and picked it up.

"Hey Ponyboy, go long." she said getting ready to throw the ball.

I looked over at Soda and Steve. They just shrugged.

I figured why not so I started running down the grass and stopped about 30 yards away.

"Keep going!" She shouted.

No way can a little girl throw this far but she looked like she meant business so I did as she said. About 20 yards later I saw her reach back and throw the ball higher than any quarterback on Darry's team.

"What the..." I thought out loud and started running further and faster.

I was a good runner.

After what seemed an eternity the ball dropped in front of me. We all looked at her dumbfounded and she just winked at me and grinned at our shock.

That was the day Steve started liking girls.

From that day on we hung out with Kristina alot. She wasn't like the other girls I knew. She wasn't obsessed with her barbie dolls and didn't think boys had cooties. Incase I didn't mention this; Kristina was 8 at the time. I was 7, Soda was 10, along with Steve, and Darry was 13.

We all stayed pretty close until I was 10. One night Kristina's mom was coming home from work and drunk driver hit her head on. She didn't survive. Kristina's dad took it pretty badly and they moved that same week. We didn't ever get to really say goodbye. It was pretty rough she was a best friend to all of us at this point. I mean this girl got along with everyone and when I say everyone, I mean it. You'll see what I mean later.

We were all pretty bummed out for a while, but you get over things easier when you're younger. I guess you just realize their aint nothing you can do so you just move on. That's just the way it is. You make new friends. End of story.

I was so very wrong.