Title- The Return of Jess

Chapter Title- Birthday Party

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

I walked home exhausted after work. My feet were sore from being on them all day and I needed an aspirin, I had a killer headache from the dinner rush. It was about 8 o'clock and I just wanted to fall into bed. I liked being a waitress, but I would never work those hours. Now I see why Lisa's replacement wasn't going to work both shifts. I wouldn't the next time it was offered.

I walked down the stairs into the basement. It was dark and quiet but as soon as I flicked on the light it got loud.

"Holy shit!" I screamed jumping down the last two steps to keep myself from falling. There were a ton of people in the basement. I looked around to see who I could recognize. Steve and Soda were in the corner, fighting off girls. Wait until I came back there. Anna and Michelle were talking to a bunch of girls and Sara was putting out bowls of potato chips. Man, I love potato chips. The first thing I did was walk over to Michelle and Anna.

"You-know-who didn't show up for work today, was it really that bad?" I questioned Anna. She spit out the coke she was drinking and started laughing. I guess it was. I walked over to where Steve and Soda were.

"Jessi!" Soda said and I stood next to him. I looked at the girls.

"I see you've met my boyfriend Soda and my half-brother Steve." As soon as I mentioned boyfriend they sighed and went away.

"What am I gonna do about other girls?" I asked him and went to see Anna and Michelle. Anna had stopped laughing, and they were waving me over.

"Jessica, this is Chelsea, Chelsea, Jessica." I nodded to her and she nodded back. She had brown hair that was really curly and was just below the chin. It was a little too short, especially with those curls. It would've looked really nice long. She was about my height but a little thinner. I recognized her from somewhere.

"Are you a waitress from The Dingo?" she asked me and I nodded.

"You spilt a drink all over my friend, Lisa." I rolled my eyes and looked at Anna and Michelle. They should've known if their friend was also Lisa's. Michelle shrugged and Anna seemed a little drunk. She was laughing at everything and if you said 'boo' she would've. I decided to go find Sara.

Sara was hard to find, she drifted into the crowd and would disappear. I eventually found her and dragged her over to where the four boys were standing. I was more comfortable with them and Sara then with anybody else. It seemed weird, that I was comfortable with a quiet girl. Normally, quiet girls made me uneasy. I suddenly realized that Two-Bit wasn't around. It was funny, Darry and Ponyboy were here, but Two-Bit wasn't. I heard him though, and he came over to us.

"There's beer over there," Two-Bit said pointing to the other corner. No wonder Anna seemed drunk.

"Figures, hey, Sara, Anna seemed a little drunk."

"Yeah, well, she can be quite the drinker. I don't like it that much."

"Neither do I," I told her.

"How come you don't like drinking?" Two-Bit said putting his arms around our shoulders. I looked over to Sara who had turned an unnatural shade of red.

"I dunno, never really tried," Sara said. Crap, Two-Bit would get her drunk and she'd have no idea what she was saying, or doing. Sara would do that, because she is a follower. Two-Bit led her away, just as I suspected. She looked at me, and smiled. I don't ever remember her smiling unless she was really embarrassed.

"She likes him," I told the other boys when they looked at me. They all said 'oh'.

"At least she's blonde," I said and smiled. I went to go talk to everybody because that's what you should do at a party. My mom had told me that, she used to throw small parties once in awhile. I didn't remember that much, she would always send me to Danielle's house or send me to my room for the night. I walked back over to where Anna, Michelle and Chelsea were. Chelsea looked at me.

"Hey, I'm sorry for the way Lisa treats you, she's a brat. I'm only her friend 'cause I've known her forever. She gets what she wants, and she's intimidating. I'm scared of her, and I admire you for standing up to her like that." I smiled, she wasn't like Lisa. She seemed to have feelings, and she also seemed to notice other people had them too.

"It's not that big of a deal, she just said some pretty nasty things about me. She's jealous of me because Soda's my boyfriend and he wouldn't even look at her." I wasn't going to mention the whole revenge thing. She could tell Lisa.

"Jess, we're spending the night, just us and nobody else," Michelle said pointing to Anna and herself. I nodded, that was fine. I guess they were spending the full weekend. I kept walking around saying hi to people. I saw Sara talking to a bunch of girls and laughing with them. She was drunk, I knew it.

"Sar, are you drunk?"

"Is it any of your business?" Okay, she was drunk. Where was Two-Bit? I'd have to thank him for this. I didn't find him until the Darry said he and Ponyboy were going. I knew they wouldn't stay long; the girls were too young for Darry and too old for Ponyboy. They were probably real bored. Darry said he was taking Two-Bit before he did something he'd regret.

A lot of girls started to leave at midnight. I had only been here four hours, but I had a really bad headache and my feet were worse. I sat on one of the beds and rested my head on my hands.

"Here ya go," Soda said handing me an aspirin and a glass of water.

"Thanks," I told him and swallowed the aspirin.

"Is Steve still here?"

"Naw, I think he left when Evie saw him flirting with another girl. She got mad and started to leave, he followed her."

"Oh," I said. They basement was really empty now. Only Anna, Michelle, Sara, Soda and I were down there. Sara was passed out on a bed next to Anna and Michelle was cleaning the place up. I got up from the bed and went into the closet. It was bigger than the normal closet, but not big enough to be called a room. I changed into my pajamas and crawled into the bed.

"Night Soda," I said and closed my eyes.

"Night Jessi," he said back. I felt him get off the bed and heard him go up the stairs. I fell asleep a little after that. Anna snored and Michelle was talking in her sleep. Sara was quiet, I hoped she wasn't dead.