Chapter 1
"Hey, Ames, wake up, sleepyhead!" I groaned and rolled over in bed. Unfortunately, the side I rolled over on was not the side the wall was on, and I rolled right out of bed and onto the floor with a loud THUMP! My second oldest brother, Sodapop, didn't notice, he head already moved on to wake up my twin brother, Ponyboy.
Who am I? I'm Amy Curtis. My friends and family sometimes call me Ames, though. I'm the youngest member of the Curtis family, even though Pony's my twin. Ponyboy was born approximately three minutes before me. And both of us were born three months prematurely. God, were we tiny babies, I've seen pictures. But Pony's the lucky one; he escaped from the premature birth with nothing, but a tendency to get sick more often than most people. I, however, wasn't so lucky. I got a whole host of health problems. Not only am I prone to sicknesses, but I also have cerebral palsy and asthma. Cerebral palsy affects my muscles, every single one of 'em. I was deprived of oxygen at birth and that caused some sort of injury to my brain. So, I got CP. I can't walk very well, and I get tired a lot sooner than most people, which is why when we go out I usually use a manual wheelchair. I also have very bad balance. But I can walk unaided...barely. I have this awkward stride that's sometimes gotten me in trouble with the cops because they thought I was drunk. But I don't drink, neither does Pony. The one difference between me and Pony, though, was the fact that he smoked and I don't. It's bad for my asthma. I have enough trouble breathing as it is, if I tried smoking, I'd be dead.
I look like a girl version of Ponyboy, people say. Big surprise, since we're twins. I have the same greasy long hair, so light brown its almost blonde. I have the same cloudy green-gray eyes as Pony. I have long legs, which is kind of a nuisance. I mean, I'm tripping all the time anyway, longer legs just gives me another thing to trip over. But back to that morning.
I untangled myself from my covers and went over to Pony's bed. Pony always has a bit of a hard time waking up. I usually sit on him to make him wake up. This particular morning, I chose his ankles to sit on. Pony groaned and tried to kick me off his legs. He was unsuccessful.
"Ames...quit sitting on my legs!" I giggled. We went through this routine practically every morning.
"Not until you get up. Darry's making his usual Saturday morning breakfast." I got up, freeing Pony's ankles, and turned on the light. Then I returned to Ponyboy's ankles.
"Ames...the whole point of Saturday morning is to sleep late." This comment was somewhat muffled, as Pony had covered his face with his pillow to shield his eyes from the light. Before I had a chance to respond though, Darry came in. Darryl, or Darry for short, is my oldest brother. He's around twenty or so. He seems a lot older though. Maybe that's because he had to grow up real fast when Mom and Dad died, and he was left with two brothers and a sister to raise, especially a sister with health problems like me.
"Amy, get off Ponyboy's legs." Darry directed. "Pony, get up. You can't sleep the day away. Anyhow, the gang's here." The gang is Keith Matthews, but everyone calls him Two-Bit, Dallas Winston, but everyone calls him Dally, Steve Randle, Soda's best buddy, and last but not least, Johnny Cade. Johnny's sorta like the gang pet. He has dark hair and wide, expressive eyes that reminded Pony of a lost puppy. He's jumpy and nervous, particularly because he got jumped by some Socs a few months back. Socs are our enemies, the type of kids that get into the paper for being good one day and then get in the paper the next day for stealing or something like that. We're Greasers. We're all greasers, the whole gang. Our name comes from the phenomenal amount of hair grease we use to slick back our long hair. I'm a Greaser girl, always have been and always will be.
"Hey, Ames, wha'tcha thinking about?" Darry asked, seeing that I was staring into space, which I do often. I shook my head to clear it of the lingering thoughts.
"Oh, nothing." I yawned, then said without thinking "I wish I had a couple more hours of sleep." Darry, Pony, and Soda, who had come up behind Darry while I was lost in my thoughts, burst into laughter.
"Golly, Ames, you're gettin' more like Ponyboy every day!" Darry commented. I grinned.
"I guess I am." And with that, I started downstairs to say hi to the gang. My day had begun.