When I woke up that morning my back was a bit sore. One of the damn springs had been poking me again. But I didn't mind it that much; it was a lot better then nothing. I had gone down stairs to the kitchen to see how much food we had left. To my relief there was enough cereal to last at least a week so I figured it be okay to have a bowl for myself. So I sat down at the table and looked out the window. It was a real pretty Saturday morning. I could see Mrs. Hannigan outside in the garden. I don't know what else she could be possibly doing to that garden though. It was already blooming with flowers and every other plant Mrs. H could get her hands on. It looked real pretty too. There were a few rocks in it that led to a little bench I had built for her in my shop class. Mrs. Hannigan loved that bench. She would spend her morning gardening, and then she would grab some coffee, a good book and just sit there admiring her garden while reading. That was something both Mrs. H and I both loved doing, except I wasn't big on the coffee part, the stuff was to strong for me. I preferred a coke.

I looked up at the time and realized I ought to go get ready for work. I went up stairs and tried finding an outfit. Most of the clothes I had were Bryan's that he had grown out of. Also had a few of Lee's shirts they he had lent me and I just never gave back. I had a few pairs of jeans and shirts some were loose and baggy, but I still had a few that fit my figure. Looking threw my mess I managed to find a clean pair of jeans. Pulling them on was a little difficult though. They had just been cleaned and were a bit snug. Looking at the time again I realized I didn't have time to be fussy. I grabbed one of Bryan's old plaid shirts and threw it on. I tied it up at the front so it fit a little tighter. Running down stairs to the bathroom I brushed my hair. As usually it flipped out at the ends without me needing to do a thing. I brushed my teeth really quick so I decided to take a mint just in case. I heard my ride pull up at front so I quickly left a note on the fridge to tell Mrs. Hannigan where I was going. She knew I had to work today but her memory was going so I knew it was always best to leave a note, just in case.

I then ran out the front door to see Lee waiting there in his car. It was a pretty nice car to and Lee looked pretty good riding in it. Lee was a real good-looking guy. He was tall with a real nice build. He had dirty blonde hair, and I set of baby blue eyes to go with it. Lee and I were best friends; we had been since he had found me in the park after I had finally ran away from home. I remember the night so perfectly too. I was sitting on the swing sets bawling like a baby when Lee and Bryan had come along. Bryan had sat in the swing next to me asking what was wrong while Lee had just started pushing me on the swing. Almost instantly we all became best friends. I just felt like I could trust them with anything. If it weren't for them I'd probably still be wandering the streets aimlessly searching for some purpose to life, I might even be dead. Without them I honestly don't think I could have made it. I loved Lee and Bryan so much and I missed Bryan every day, me and Lee both did.

"Hey pretty lady," Lee said with a grin as he was clearly checking me out.

I hopped into the car and then gave him a playful punch. He just laughed and handed me my usual bottle of coke. I seriously couldn't leave without that stuff. In fact it was Lee who had gotten me hooked on it. But now he was paying the price for it. Every morning he bought a coke for himself and one for me before he came to pick me up. Lee worked a few blocks away from the store I worked at so he always picked me up which meant he was always buying an extra bottle of coke.

I looked over at Lee who seemed to have a smug look of triumph on his face.

"Are you just gonna tell me what you did last night or am I gonna have to beat it out of you?" I asked with a grin.

"Well since I've still got the bruise on my arm from before. I guess I'll just tell you," he said as he rubbed his arm with a smirk, "Well you know that girl Jen?"

I looked at him and couldn't help but role my eyes. Lee was a lady's man and that's a fact. Honestly I don't think I've ever known him to be in a relationship that lasted more then a month. But then again I had no room to talk. But I didn't go around sleeping with guys like Lee did to girls.

"Slutty Jen?" I asked with a grin, "Or the real smart one?"

Lee smiled, "The real smart one."

I looked at him a little shocked. I was assuming it was slutty Jen. I never could remember the girl's last name all I knew was that she had a rep for sleeping with pretty much any guy. But smart Jen was a fairly rich girl. Lee was a greaser so Jen's parents encouraged her to stay away from us. But all and all Jen was a nice girl she was in my Math class. She was real smart. I liked her. We got along pretty good; we even hung out a few times when her parents were out of town. But I was rather curious to see what smart Jen had done with Lee.

"Really?" I asked with one eyebrow raised, "How drunk was she?"

Lee gave my a playful punch in the arm, "She wasn't drunk thanks. I would never do that."

Lee couldn't even keep a straight face. We both knew full well that's exactly something Lee would do, but hey don't get me wrong he's a great guy. Plenty of girls had a crush on him. He had a job and typically paid for his things. He shared a house with his friend Gary and Lee paid half the rent. So he was a really good guy. But Lee was still well… Lee for lack of better words.

"So what did you do to her?"

"I did nothing to her thank you very much. I was walking home from work and she happened to be walking in the same direction as me and I saw some Socs following her from down the street so I slowed down and walked with her. She really appreciated that too. The Socs following her were some real creeps. We got to talk and turns out she is pretty nice like you said. Also turns out she's real good-looking too. So guess who's taking her to David's party tonight?"

I couldn't help but smile. Lee typically wasn't this excited about taking a girl out. I think if he were this excited every time he took out a girl he would have died of a heart attack by now. Lee was the type of guy who liked to try and play it cool. But I could tell he was pretty excited about tonight. But I also knew Jen had, had a crush on Lee since I introduced them a few months back. But of course Jen's parents would die if they ever found out about Lee. But Jen had been in a real rebellious mood lately so it didn't really surprise me that she had finally decided to make a move. And it made me happy that Lee seemed to like Jen. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he really did like her.

"Umm… I don't know. Let's see…. Jared Rink?" I asked with a smirk.

"Me!" he said with a grin.

I laughed, "You really like her don't you."

Lee looked at me for a second then smiled, "Yeah I think I really do."

Lee pulled over in front of the store and I hopped out.

"You coming to David's party tonight?" Lee asked as I walked round the front of the car.

"Yeah I'm meeting Dale, Jon and Louis there." I replied as a headed towards the door.

"Who, who and who?" he asked in a protective manner.

Lee always knew who I was flirting with, the rare guy I was dating, the guys who liked me. Lee knew most of the guys in our neighborhood and told me which ones not to go near. And I always listened, well almost always. Lee was real protective over me, especially since Bryan was gone, he figured he had to make that up to.

"Jon Smith, Dale Johnson and Louis Kelly. They're part of Sheppard's gang."

Lee nodded his head, "I guess that's okay then."

"Thanks for the permission," I said rolling my eyes as I opened the front doors, "Later Lee."

"Later Sugar." He said as he drove off real fast.

He was lucky that I didn't chase him down the street. I hated being called Sugar. It was like one of my biggest pet peeves. If I weren't already running late I would have gone after him.

Leon watched me enter taking the time to point at the clock. I was ten minutes late.

"Sorry," I said with my best puppy dog eyes.

"Just don't let it happen again," he said with a smile, shaking his head.

Leon was a good guy. He knew I'd been through a lot lately. And besides he was pretty laid back about a lot of things. I was late more often then I was on time, but Leon didn't really care. Sometimes I'd stay later to make up for it. But I brought a lot of business in for him. So as long I was there at a decent time, he didn't mind.

The day was pretty dull. A few people came in, and bought some stuff. Nothing real exciting. It was getting near six and that's when I got off so I was just trying to clean up a bit before Desiree, the girl who worked after me, came in. I was just getting ready to go when a group of guys walked in. I looked up at them and saw four guys. And they clearly saw me. I was heading over to one of the isle to put a can back and they had taken the time to go down on the other side of the isle. I was trying to play along and act like I didn't notice them but I definitely did. Though I had never met them before, I knew who they were. They knew Lee, and hell I knew everyone Lee did.

I walked back over to the cashier and they followed me over to the newsstand. I had gotten a real good look at the guys. One of them had blonde hair, so blonde it kind of looked white. I had seen him around before, Dallas Winston. Lee had told me to watch my back around Dally but hell I figured I could handle what someone like Dallas Winston could hand out. The other guy had black hair from what I could tell. He had that cute little puppy dog look about him, but I could tell he was shy. I'm pretty sure his name was Johnny but I could have been wrong. But as I looked at him again I knew it had to have been Johnny. Lee had told me about the beating some Socs had done to him, the guy had been wearing rings. Johnny had a scar on his cheek and I could definitely see it. The other guy looked a bit drunk. But I knew who he was, Keith Matthews. Everyone called him Two-Bit. I'd never met the guy but Lee sure got a kick out of him whenever he was around. I took a long stare at the last guy. He was real good-looking that's for sure. I'm pretty sure he was Curtis. Though I couldn't think for the life of me remember what his name was. I knew his brother worked down at the gas station. He was one of the guys I enjoyed flirting with but I'm pretty sure his girl Sandy didn't. And I had seen the oldest one once, he had been working outside and it was real hot out. So he had taken his shirt off and he had looked real good with it off. Looking back at this guy though I felt a smile appear on my face.

I was pretending to re-arrange some of the papers up front but I really wasn't. Setting them down I decided to say something.

"Do we have to do this all day?" I asked with a smile as I slowly headed towards the door.

They followed, "Oh we will if we have to baby." I heard one of them call out.

"I was merely asking if we had to," I said with a grin, "I was more then aware you would. Hell who wouldn't? I mean look at me."

I did a nice little twirl in front of them. Then I 'accidentally' dropped the papers I was carrying and made quite a show at of picking them up. And I could tell they enjoyed that. Once I stood up and brushed myself off I looked up and saw that they all had grins on their faces.

"Any ways, " I said after none of them seemed to be able to think of a comeback from my comment, "I'm Kate."

"Nice to meet you Kate," said the Curtis boy, "I'm Ponyboy."

I smiled at Ponyboy. Something about him just made me feel different. I was a pro flirt and the right words just seemed to roll of my tongue. I typically didn't think to hard about what I was going to say next. But with Ponyboy around, I wanted to make sure I said the right thing, no the perfect thing.

"Ponyboy Curtis?"

"The one and only," he replied.

I smiled at Ponboy as I listened to him introduce everyone else. But of course I had been right about their names, I'd like to think I was hardly ever wrong. But that was a lie in itself.

"So where are you boys headed off too?" I asked as I took the time to strike a cute little pose.

"Well we were heading over to David's party," Dally answered in an almost bored matter as he took a drag of his smoke, "Wanna come?"

"Well I'm already meeting some guys there. But hey if you're all there, and I'm there. Who knows what could happen," I said as I left the store.

I could hear Two-Bit and Dally holler a few things at me as I walked over to Lee's car. I merely laughed and as we drove by I blew them a kiss. Lee looked at me kind of funny but just shrugged it off. He hadn't noticed Dally was one of the guys standing there, so I didn't here a lecture or anything. He merely warned me to be careful like he always did. I don't know why he spends all that time drilling that into my head though, I honestly wish he could get it threw his. As he pulled up to my house I quickly hopped out and waved good bye. Once I was inside I said hi to Mrs. Hannigan before running upstairs to my room. I wanted to make sure I looked not just good, but great.