I woke up, still very tired from the rough sleep last night. I kept tossing and turning because I couldn't stop thinking about that thing that touched my waist. Pretty soon, I started getting apprehensive at every little noise. I started thinking that the thing will come back again. I know I might sound crazy. But I just hate being alone at night. Even though the boys were right down the hall.

My short, dark hair covered my eyes. My hair was thin, and short, with the ends surrounding my face, and barely touching my shoulders. Two Bit said I would look bad with long hair, and that I'd just look like a real weirdo-hippie type. But, what does Two Bit know? But then I knew he was right, when Soda said that I looked real pretty with short hair, and bangs. He said that no other girl can put a look like that, and look good. Soda's a real lady's man. He can soften any girl up.

As for my eyes . . . They were also dark, very dark actually. My cheekbones were kind of high, and I never really dig the way I looked. But I was proud of my shape. I worked out a lot, but I didn't want to get all bulgy like. I had a nice figure, not because I was lucky, but because I nearly killed myself from doing three hundred sit ups a day. If you were a Greaser girl like me, you got into fights. And let me tell you something, it's pretty tough fighting when you're out of shape.

I saw Darry laying out some plates on their kitchen table. I smelled eggs and ham on the table, as I sat up. I stretched out my arms and yawned.

"Morning Dan," said Darry. I smiled and mumbled, "Morning."

After I folded the sheets and laid them tidily on the couch, (I'm a neat freak when I'm at someone else's house. But at home, my room's dirt) and I walked over to the table. There were four plates on the table, each with four different types of eggs, and a few slices of ham. In the middle of the table there was half of a chocolate cake.

"I still don't get how you can eat chocolate cake for breakfast," I said smiling, as I took my seat, with the plate of scrambled eggs were.

"It's a Curtis brothers thing," he said shrugging. He added, "Plus, chocolate is tuff."

I laughed, as Soda and Pony came in and took their seats as well. It looked like they had just woken up because their hair was a mess. But, that hardly mattered to Soda and Pony. They had the tuffest hair in town. Pony's was a nice reddish, and Soda's was a golden. As soon as they sat down, they started shuffling food into their mouths.

"Good morning to you too," I said looking at them, as I took a bite.

"Mmfl," mumbled Soda through his chews.

Pony swallowed. "Morning ya'll."

Darry shook his head, as he laid three chocolate milk in front of us, and poured himself some coffee. He then took his seat and started eating. It felt pretty weird eating with the guys a lot of the times. I mean, usually at meals with my own folks, it was all peaceful like, and polite. We even had to dress nice at our dinners, and not talk with our mouth full. At the Curtis's- well it's quite different. I'll just say, as long as there's food on the table, nothing else matters but shuffling it down their throats. After I had finished with my food, I asked to be excused. Then, I headed for the door.

"Wait, where you going?" asked Darry quickly.

"I'm going to check on Johnny before we head to the drive in and junk," I said.

"Oh . . . okay, I'll walk you. I have to head for work anyway," said Darry, excusing himself. He quickly added to his brothers, "Don't forget the dishes."

Darry grabbed his jacket, and opened the door. He smiled, and he let me walk out first, as he followed behind me. We started walking on the sidewalk, quietly. It was a sunny day, but it was also kinda windy. I folded my arms hoping to keep cool. Darry was looking at the pavement, his hands jammed in his pockets. He finally spoke.

"Any reason you heading for Johnny's?"

"You know the drill," I said. "His parents are total jerks, and I just can't imagine Johnny suffering through that. He must feel so alone at home."

Darry nodded. "It's hard with Johnny. He may look small, but he's very brave. Other people don't see him the way we do. That must be real hard for Johnny too."

"Yeah," I said. I really cared about Johnny. He was like the little brother I never had. Even though we were just one year apart. Darry rubbed his hands. He was so tough.

"You look real strong and tuff up there, roofing houses and junk. Real manly like," I complimented. He grinned, and his eyes shone. I rarely see him glow like that.

"Really? It ain't as glamorous as being a star, like the Paul Newman you adore."

I laughed. "I'll choose you over Paul Newman any day."

He laughed and looked down. I stared at him for a while, and realized what I said. I suddenly frowned hoping he didn't get the wrong idea. I didn't want to hurt Darry in anyway. I mean I loved him like a brother, but geez-

"Here we are," he said looking at Johnny's house. I looked at it too.

"Yeah, well . . ." I said.

"Yeah, see you later," he said and started walking.

I felt empty, but I managed to say, "Later." Not very cheerful like, but this has never happened before. I stepped onto Johnny's porch and knocked on the door. I heard sudden yells, and things being thrown. Frightened, I took a step back. I knocked again.

"Crikey!" a man's voice yelled. The door swung open. A big man stood there. He looked down at me. "What on blazes do you want, girl?"

"I'm sorry to bother you, Mr. Cade," I said trying to look passed his shoulders, "but I was wondering if Johnny was there?"

"He ain't here girl!" he snapped.

I shuddered, then looked at him. "Do you know where he went?"

"Hell no!" he said. "Does it look like I know? Get away from here girl, don't know what you want with Johnny! Get! Blimey . ." He slammed the door.

I sighed discouragingly. I hated his father. I couldn't imagine a father like him. I walked away from the Cade house, and wondered where Johnny could have gone. Suddenly I saw three Socs walk pass me. What were they doing here? I heard a part of their conversation.

" . . .wimpy greaser. Poor kid, we left him beaten," one Soc said.

"Why do you sound so disappointed?" the other Soc asked.

"Because we didn't have a heater with us!" he replied and they all laughed.

Frightened, and angered, I was about to go up to them and beat the tar out of them. But I was outnumbered, and they were at least nineteen. I couldn't possibly take them out on my own. Plus, if I acted like a greaser, then they won't tell me where that greaser was. I casually walked up to them.

"Beating up a greaser this early in the morning, boys?" I asked.

They looked at me strangely, then all exchanged glances.

"Get away greaser," one of them said, and I paused in my steps. I then caught up with them again and said, "What makes you think I'm a greaser?"

"You dress like one, you live in these parts. We ain't stupid,"he said.

"Must be, I'm middle class," I lied. I wasn't dressed like a Soc, so that wouldn't have looked right. Their faces loosened.

"Yeah, poor greaser left him right around the corner over there," he said.

"Is that so . . ." I said and ran off around the corner.

It was colder now, and I sweated as I saw the greaser- it was Johnny. He didn't get beat up too badly. But he was pretty blown out from the punches those Socs threw around his stomach. I knelt beside him, and wrapped my arms around him. He was breathing slowly and I didn't want to say anything, to hurt him any further. I rocked him gently, and we both knew, even without words, that we were lucky. Even without words we communicated. Those stupid Socs. Why did they have to go looking for trouble? We never did anything like that! Just because they were richer, and dressed nicer. I felt Johnny's tears fall on my skin. He then said softly,

"Don't tell the others."


Later that night Pony, Dally, Johnny, and I went over to the Nightly Double. Dally wanted to sneak in, but Pony, Johnny, and I protested. We had enough money to get in the legal way. Stubbornly, he said no way and went around the other corner to sneak in. I sighed, then an idea popped into my mind. Pony and Johnny were about to follow him, but I stopped them. I signaled them to follow me. They agreed, knowing that Dally was crazy. I went up to the cashier and took out a dollar. It was only a quarter each without an auto.

I handed the cashier a dollar and said, "You see that guy over there on the corner? That's our friend. He's just trying to save us a seat, so here's his pay."

The cashier gave me a weird stare. "Whatever. You people are weird."

After we had payed, Johnny and Pony laughed. So much for the illegal way. We sat down, and we spotted Dally eyeing two chicks a few seats away from us. A little annoyed, I rolled my eyes. He started flirting a bit with them, and I finally hissed his name. He just looked at me, grinned, and winked. He then whispered the dirtiest thing I've ever heard, and my stomach did a back flip. Pony turned red, and Johnny quickly left to get a Coke. I followed him.

"That was likely of him," I said sarcastically as we walked to get a Coke.

Johnny sighed. "Dally isn't such a bad guy. He's just . . . he's just Dally."

I grinned and could tell that Johnny really cared about him. I've always knew that Johnny looked up to him. I adore Johnny Cade. He was some guy.

"You know," he continued. "He's the only person, who's like my true brother, you know? I mean, I don't have parents that care about me . . . I wish my parents care about me. I might be stronger than I am if my parents believed in me."

Stronger? I thought. He's the strongest person I know, putting up with his folks.

He then looked at me. "I wish my parents were like yours. You're parents are cool."

"Huh?" I said surprised. "Well . ." I didn't really know what to say. Our folks were so different, but he's never said anything like that. What was I suppose to say? After we got a Coke we headed back to our seats. I managed to get a glance of Dally walk by, but I wasn't sure if Johnny had noticed. We took our seats and I saw a red headed girl, and another girl chatting with Pony. I tried to just give out a smile, and ignore them, as Johnny softly said hi. I looked up at the screen. Suddenly Dally came back with some Cokes. I didn't hear much (I was trying to ignore this moment as much as possible), but suddenly the red headed chick threw her Coke in his face. Shocked, and wide eyed I stared at Dally, who eventually gave a sly grin. I sighed.

"Leave them alone, Dally," said Johnny. Dally gave him a look. "Go ahead. You heard me, leave them alone." I kinda smiled at Johnny's bravery.

Dally's jaw dropped, but then just jammed his fists into his pockets, and walked off. I started to go after him, but I didn't want it to look that I objected to Johnny, or show that I had any feelings for Dally. But, I had to do something, so I got up and walked passed Dally, and turned a corner where I was sure he would walk into. He did.

"What's up?" I asked, jamming my hands into my pockets.

"Nothing," he said looking down. I guess he was still pretty startled about Johnny.

"Are you all right?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm all right," he finally looked up at me. He smiled.

"You sure do got some pretty face," he said slowly.

I grinned. "You wanna hang?"

He shook his head. "I kinda slashed Tim Shepard's tires and I'm afraid him and his gang will come looking for me. And I busted my blade this morning, so I got nothing. I'm going to try and hang low with Buck Merril. I'll see you later, babe."

"Okay, later." I said and he left. That went well. I started to go back to Pony, but then I didn't want to go back to those chicks again. I just walked around the drive in, throwing straws at some people, making them think it was their buddy, then starting a big food fight. I also started throwing rocks at the girls roller skating around, making them fall. It was pretty funny at first but then I started getting bored. I should have gone with Dally. I don't get Dally Winston, but that's the thing. That's what I like about him.

After a few minutes I started getting lonely. I decided to go up to Pony and just watch the rest of the movie. Yep, they were still there talking to those two chicks. Pony looked up to me and smiled.

"Where have you been?" he asked. "This is Cherry and that's Marcia. That's Danny."

"Hi," I said trying to force a smile. Johnny saw me and said,

"They're nice. Join us Danny."

I started to say something but then someone suddenly grabbed my shoulders and yelled Boo! Shaken, I turned around. Two Bit stood there grinning widely.

"Hey Danny! Geez, what scared you?" he laughed and hop next to Marcia. Yeah, real gentleman like. They started talking and I just sighed. Then Two Bit turned to me.

"If you're interested, Tim Shepard's looking for you."

"What?" I asked, surprised. Why would Tim want me?

"He says that he knows you know where Dally is. Since he doesn't know, he knew you would know."

"How would I know where Dally is?"I demanded.

Two Bit shrugged. "I don't make the news, I deliver them. Anyway, Curly spotted Dally slashing his brother's tires and all, and they wanna beat his head in-"

I started to run. I had to look for Dally. I couldn't let Dally get hurt. I couldn't. I think I love him, but I don't know. This was either stupid, or I was bored, or this was love. I had to go find Dally, so he would be all right. There was no other way to tell Dally how my feelings are for him. I can't wait, so I guess I should tell him now. I didn't know what I should say, but I knew I was going somewhere. I can't live if Dally got hurt, and that he would never be the same. But he always survived. He always got through it no matter what. And now he had to know. He just had to know how much I cared for him.