Chapter 2:
I looked at her for a long time. June did sort of look like me. But she seemed way too proper. And I'd never met her before. Was something going on that I didn't know about?
"Are you serious?" I asked her.
"I think so," she replied. "If you're Ponyboy Curtis, then I think you're who I'm looking for."
"What's your last name?" I asked.
"Sen," she said.
I thought about that for a minute, and then remembered my parents.
"Sen's my mom's name!" I said. "Or at least, it was. She died a few years ago."
"I know," June replied. "My parents told me about it, but we never got a chance to come visit you. They died just last week."
I was starting to get it now. She was alone, so she was looking for her family to stay with. Before I could say anything, June continued.
"My mom gave me this note before she died." She took out the piece of paper again and showed it to me. "She said that I'd met Darrel before, but neither of you two."
"Then I guess you are my cousin," I said, still a little confused.
Someone called from around the corner in some other language, I think Chinese. Last I checked, there were no Asians in this city. But June let out a little "oh" and ran around the corner. After a moment she came back with another girl about her age. The other girl had silky black hair that she let fall to her shoulders, with a little pearly barrette on the right side. She was wearing a faded red shirt and jeans, and her skin was pale as blank paper.
"I'm sorry, Ponyboy," June said. "This is my friend Shing Hwa. She's Chinese. She doesn't have a family, since she immigrated here alone, so we stick together."
"Does that mean she's coming home with me too?" I asked.
"We are going home?" replied Shing Hwa, with a very strong Chinese accent.
"Umm…" June looked through another book, which looked like an atlas of some sort, and found a map of the city.
"It's kind of a long walk home from here," I said before she had a chance to study the map in full. "But if you want to come home with me, at least June can, so I guess it's okay if you do," I told Shing Hwa. She smiled, small and sweet, and said something to June in Chinese, to which June responded in Chinese.
"But do you mind talking in English?" I asked. June looked up from the map.
"Oh, sorry," June said. "Sometimes we do that."
"Well, it's getting dark. Darry's probably getting worried. We'd better get going. By the way, you'll probably want to call him Darry, not Darrel, and you can call Sodapop Soda for short."
"Oh, sorry," June said, embarrassed. We walked around the corner, me in front, the girls following. Oh boy, I thought. Wait and see what Darry says when I walk in the door with two girls. That'll be good.