Chapter 1: New Home

I saw sitting in the back of my older brother's car, bored to death. There was nothing to do. My little brother was laying on me and sleeping, my baby sister was sleeping; one of my older brothers was driving and my other brother was talking away. I just remained quiet in the back seat. I never really started a conversation. I just talked if someone asked me a question. Then my brother, the one would wasn't driving, turned around and looked at me. "You wake kiddo?" he asked. His name was Mark. He is 17. He has shoulder length dark brown hair and blue eyes. He wore a black boy's tank top, a pair of long blue jeans, his hair greased, and a black jean jacket, which he was not wearing at the moment. He loved to grease his hair. He would never leave our house until he greased his hair. It drove my parents crazy. I though it was funny. Mark failed some many grades, he decided to drop out. The only thing he was good at was building things and doing things with his hands. Mark is a juvenile delinquent (JD) but right now, he was on his best behavior, which is a surprise to me.

When we lived up in New York, Mark had his own gang. He was the leader even though he had people in his group older than him. He loved to fight. I don't think there was ever a time he didn't come home and wasn't bleeding somewhere. He has so many cuts on his face and arms. He thinks it makes him look tough and it does. But if we ever went to a nice place to eat, my mother would yell at him to cover his arms. Surprisingly, Mark hasn't gone to the police station yet. He always runs away when the cops show up.

"Ya; I'm awake," I said. My name is Martha. I'm 14 and in high school. I skipped a couple grades so there's how I'm in high school already. I never really like to fight but if I must fight, I will. I'm a pretty good fighter. Just because I' a girl, that does not mean I'm weak. I'm pretty strong. That's what Mark said. I like to dance, act, draw, and create things. Like my brother, I can be a JD but most of the times, I act innocence. I had a strapless on and low rider shorts. I wore slip on sandals but now I had them off. I looked at my arms and saw my make up came off. You could see a cut from my shoulder down to my wrist on both arms. I even had two cuts on my two legs. It went from the thigh down to my ankle. How I got them, I don't like to talk about. I have long amber colored hair and blue eyes. I had my hair in a high ponytail right now. It was sure hot in the car.

"You're going to like it here in Oklahoma," my other older brother, Tyler, said. He was 20. He really looked like he was 16. He would be going to college but because of this move, he might not go. When we lived in New York, when I looked out in the morning, I would see girls waiting outside for him. I was still in elementary school when Tyler was starting high school when that happened. After a while, the girls stopped coming. He was so polite to everyone. He had a long honey colored hair and blue eyes. Everyone in my family had blue eyes but our hair was different. Tyler was wearing a white t-shirt with no sleeves, jeans and had his hair tied back. Mark's hair was never tied back unless we had to get dressed up. Tyler's specially was in the medical field.

"Why did we have to move?" I asked. "Tyler, you could have been our guardian."

"I know but I can't take care of all you by myself," he said. "Besides, Mark and I want to see Anthony. I know you don't have much memories of him Martha." He was right as always. I don't really have any memories with Anthony. All I know is he's 22, is was the first child in our family, and is a well respected lawyer. I heard he come argue a lot. Mark could be a lawyer but he wouldn't obey the rules.

"Besides, why would you want to live in that house after what happened?" Mark asked.

"Be quiet Mark," I said. "You know I don't like that memory." What happened at our house was too horrible; I can't put it into words. All I can say is my father was a drug dealer and my mom finally called the police and told them. Then my father killed my mother. What happened after that was horrible.

"Sorry kiddo," he said as he turned back around and began to smoke a cigarette. Then Tyler gave him a talk about smoking. Mark has always smoked. It was bad for our younger brother, Benny and our baby sister Marissa. I tried smoking once and I hated it. Then I got in trouble with my mom. She told me on TV for a week. Benny woke up and looked at me. He looked like Mark with the dark hair but he acted completely opposite of Mark. But Benny is still young. If Benny ever grew up like Mark, I don't know what I'll do. Benny looked around, trying to remember where he was. Then he remembered where he was. You could tell from his face expressions. He was six.

"Are we there yet?" he complained. "I'm hungry."

"We're almost there," Tyler said. "Just five more minutes Benny."

"Alright," he said. "Martha, can we go look around town and maybe see a movie when we get there?" Benny loved movies; especially action, horror and mysterious. I don't like horror so if he wanted to see a horror movie, he had to ask Mark or Tyler to take him.

"Sure," I answered. "But first we need to see where we live." Tyler turned a corner and we saw a bunch of kids in a parking lot. They were fighting. We drove right past them as a kid pulled out a blade. Boys must carry blades around here too. Mark always did and so did I, especially if I took Benny and Marissa somewhere. I never use it but you never know when you might need it. Soon we arrived in the neighborhood. Benny and I looked out of the window and saw what our new neighborhood would be like. It wasn't what I imagined. There was trash everywhere; houses looked like they could fall apart at any minute and more things. It was like the ghettoes in New York.

Tyler finally stopped the car. "We're here," he said. Benny and I could out first. I dropped my sandals out of the door and put them on. Then I walked around, opened the car door and took Marissa out. She was only two months old. My father killed my mother last week. He's in jail now for about 50 years. I then asked Benny to help me unpack. He took his stuff and I grabbed my stuff and Marissa's baby stuff. Tyler and Mark got out and took their stuff. Then we walked up to the house together. If my brother was a well respected lawyer, why did he live here? Tyler knocked on the door and someone answered it. A guy answered it and he looked like our father. I hide behind Mark. I didn't like my father at all. He had a perfect shade of brown hair and blue eyes.

"You're here; come in," he said. "Our neighbors and their friends are here too." We entered and I saw five other boys. They all had their hair greased. My brother Anthony came up to me and took the bags I had. Tyler, Mark and Benny all set their stuff down in the same place Anthony set my bags down. Then he pulled up chairs for us and he sat down. I kept Marissa in my arms though. She was surprising still asleep. She'll probably wake up soon because she's hungry. Anthony's house was nice. It was clean and neat.

"Martha," Benny whispered to me. "Who is this guy?"

"He's our oldest brother Anthony," I said. Benny never knew Anthony. In fact, Benny didn't know we had another brother. He don't here form him much.

"Look guys," said one of the guys. "The female already has a child. She don't look as old as Ponyboy." Then he laughed and got hit in the head by of the other boys. Both boys wore a blue shirt with said DX Gas Station but the one who said the comment had no shirt under it. But the other boy had a white shirt under it.

"Behave Steve," he said. "Sorry about that. He doesn't know when to keep his mouth shout."

"It's alright," I said.

"Allow me to introduce everyone," Anthony said. "These are our neighbors. The one who just made that comment was Steve Randle and the one who apologized is Sodapop Curtis but he's called Soda. Then there's in older brother Darrel Curtis, who we call Darry and he's wearing the black shirt. The blondie is both Darry and Soda's younger brother Ponyboy Curtis. And finally the guy wearing Mickey Mouse is Two-Bit Mathews. Guys, this is my family. The boy with greased hair is Mark. The calm boy is Tyler. The girl holding our baby sister is Martha, the baby's name is Marissa and the little boy is Benny." For someone who hasn't seen our family for a while, he sure knows everyone well.

"I'm not little," Benny said as he stood up. "I'm a big boy." We all started to laugh. "What is so funny?"

"Ben," Mark said. "You will be a big boy when you let me grease your hair." Benny didn't like people touching his hair. He liked it a pacific way. Benny thought the grease would mess it up. Mark made a deal withBenny. When Benny letMark grase his hair,we would consider him a big boy.I looked down at Marissa and saw she was awake. I stopped laughing and she began to cry. Then there was silence in the room except for Marissa crying.

"Excuse me," I said as I got up and went over to her bag. I pulled out a baby bottle, walked back over to the chair and put the bottle in her mouth. She drank to drink it.

"You're good with her," Darry said. "How old is she?"

"Two months," I answered.

"Who's child is she?" Steve asked.

"You need to shut you trap greaser or I'll shut it for you," I said. I could be nice but his guy was asking for it.

"Steve got talk to by a girl," Two-Bit said. Soda started laughing and Steve tackled him. Benny walked over to Anthony and told him he was hungry.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Is anyone else hungry?"

"No," I said. "He likes ham and cheese Anthony."

"We're fine," Darry said. Then Anthony disappeared into the back with Benny behind him.

"Anthony!" Mark yelled. "Are we aloud to smoke in here?"

"No! Take it outside Mark!" he yelled from the kitchen. Mark didn't go outside. He just stayed there and didn't have a cigarette. I looked over to Ponyboy and saw he was staying quiet.

"Ponyboy," I said. "How old are you?"

"14," he answered.

"So am I," I said.

"What grade?"

"Sophomore."

"Same here." Wow; I didn't realize we were so much alike. Benny came back in with a sandwich on a plate and he was singing. Benny always sang when he finally got food when he was hungry. It was cute and he had a good voice. He should take some singing classes. He sat down on the floor and began to eat. Marissa finished her bottle and I had to burp her. I put her head on my shoulder and I held her little body. I patted her back and she burped after two minutes. I walked to her bag and pulled out some of her toys and blanket. I put the blanket and set Marissa on it. Then I placed her toys near her. She rolled onto her stomach and crawled to the toys.

Benny finished eating and ran into the kitchen. He came back in with Anthony. "Can we look around town Anthony and see a movie?" Benny asked.

"Sure but who's 'we'?" he asked.

"Me and Martha," he said.

"It's alright with me," Anthony said.

"I'll go with them," Ponyboy said. "So they don't get lost."

"Okay," I said. "Mark, give me your hair grease." I liked greasing my hair. Mark got me hooked on it. Mark ran to his bag and threw me a small container. I walked into the bathroom, and greased the top of my head and part of my ponytail. I looked in the mirror as I put the grease in my hair. I walked out, grabbed my jacket before anyone sees my arms, put the jacket on, and Benny, Ponyboy and I left.