Ponyboy's POV:

Chapter 2:

I cant believe summer's over already and that school's finally here I kinda like
school, but I can really hate it sometimes. It gets to you, especially High School. The work,
the people, the teachers.. it gets to be too much. I was sure as shitI was gonna be late, but
Soda the speed-demon made sure I wouldn't complain later and drove me to my first day as
quick as he could.

I saw everyone scrambling in the hallways lookin' for their friends and such, watching on
as greasers and soc's gave each other dirty looks and bumpin' into each other on purpose,
just lookin' for a fight. I shook my head and tried my best to avoid any trouble, I wouldn't
mind any later in the year, but not on the first day.

As I looked around for my homeroom, I noticed people staring and
pointing at me, whispering to each other. I gritted my teeth. I hated when people did
that. I could practically hear every word they were sayin'. That's the one who was good
friends with the greasy kid who died in that fire, and the badass who commited suicide
by police cause he couldn't take it anymore. I hated how people could be so damn
two dimensional.

I was the second in the classroom, the first was this blonde chick
who I'd never seen before. I looked at her once as I walked in and then walked up to
my new homeroom teacher. It was Mr. Grey, He had Soda and Darry in his class a
years back for English, and I knew he'd recognized me. He didn't say anything to me,
but he gave me my schedule and smiled.

"Michael Curtis, have a seat behind Miss Finch."

I guessed it was the blonde chick, only 'cause she was the only other
one in the class, so I went on. She stared at me as I sat behind her. She had big blueish gray eyes
that reminded me of Dally's, and long straight blonde hair that made her stand out. She was pretty,
real pretty. She turned away and stared back at the board. I wanted to break the silence so I asked
her what her name was.

"Alice," she said. "Alice Finch. Nice to meet you..uh.."

"Ponyboy, my buddies call me that. You're not from 'round here, are you?" I asked.

"Nah, I moved here from Nebraska a few weeks ago. My Aunt decided to move where everything
was slower. I don't know, I kinda like it here, but It's really not that different from where I was
before like I thought it would be."

"That's cool," I said. She liked to talk, that was for sure.

"So," she went on, "Why do they call you Ponyboy?"

"Eh, It's just a pet name my parents came up with when I was a kid. I liked horses and stuff like that so they
figured Ponyboy fit me, and then my brothers started callin' me it, and it's been my name ever since." I never mentioned
my parents to anyone really except Johnny, Darry, and Soda. It felt good reffering to them.

"It's cute," she said smiling. I liked her smile. It was comforting in a way.

We'd been talkin' for a while until we realized everyone else was in class and the bell rang, but it was fun.
We have a few classes together, and I'm kinda happy to be honest. She reminds me of Johnny, timid and
shy, but tough and fun. She dug okay as far as I was concerned.