Disclaimer: Uhh.. I don't own The Outsiders. How sad…
Author's Note: Okay, so I'm trying to update every weekend, but I'm really busy and sometimes that doesn't work out. And I know this chapter title is like taken from High School Musical, but it has absolutely nothing to do with anything like that. So anyway, just enjoy it and keep reviewing, please. 3
Chapter Eight- Breaking Free
A wave of gold swished against Cherry's full length mirror. She held the soft fabric of her dress in her hand and ran her thumb over it. It felt so amazing, and the color was unbelievably perfect. Cherry stood in front of the mirror with wet hair in a yellow robe with matching slippers. She had to get ready for the football game, but she couldn't wait to put on her dress. She decided that she was going to have fun at the dance, she couldn't keep worrying and pouting over what she couldn't change, so she was just going to have fun.
Cherry stretched and then placed her dress down on her bed. Her blue and yellow cheerleading skirt was sitting next to it, spread out nicely. Cherry wrinkled up her nose at the thought of having to wear the ugly uniform again. None the less, she picked up the skirt and slid it on under her robe. She sat down at her vanity and brushed out her hair, trying the front back in a yellow ribbon. She then applied a little mascara and blush. She looked so pale in the light of her bedroom. Finally, she put the blue and yellow paw print earrings in and stood up. She glanced at her dress on the bed again and smiled.
Cherry put on the rest of her uniform and laced up her sneakers before grabbing some pink lip stick, eyeliner and blush and putting them into a make-up bag her grandmother had gotten her for her fifteenth birthday. Then she found a silver necklace with a heart charm in the center and matching heart-shaped earrings. She tossed them in the make-up bag with her make-up and grabbed her gold heels that strapped in all different directions. She yanked her dress off the bed and ran down the stairs to wait for Marcia to pick her up.
"Is that your dress?" Marcia asked when Cherry stuffed the plastic covered silk in the back of her Corvette. Cherry nodded and smiled before tossing in her make-up bag and heels. "Is it gold?" Marcia asked when she saw Cherry's shoes flop down on the seat next to her. Again, Cherry nodded.
"What's yours look like?" Cherry asked pulling down the mirror on the visor as Marcia sped away.
"It's teal," Marcia said licking her lips. Cherry nodded and then turned to look out the window. The trees flew by outside and the colors seemed to blur.
When the Corvette pulled into the stadium parking lot, Cherry felt the usual knot in her stomach form. She loved to cheer, but she didn't like the crowd very much. Marcia zipped up the front of her blue and yellow sweater and began walking toward the field. Cherry followed, reluctantly. Inside, people were buzzing about and football players were warming up on the field.
"Girls, lets go over some of our cheers, now that Cherry and Marcia have decided to join us," Coach Wilson said as Cherry picked up two pom-poms from the sideline. Marcia gave Cherry a confused look, and Cherry only shrugged. Coach Wilson didn't like Cherry very much. Once, in seventh grade, Cherry had set her pet lizard in her locker and it had escaped and found its way to the gym. It turned out that Coach Wilson had been bitten by a lizard when she was younger, so she had a huge fear of them. She told Cherry that she would always remember what she had done, as if she'd done it on purpose. When Cherry had gotten a spot on the varsity cheerleading squad, she'd been amazed.
The squad went over cheer after cheer until the buzzer sounded for the game to start. The girls cheered louder as the football players re-entered the field. When the game started, Cherry and Marcia took a seat on the grassy part of the sideline, and shared a water bottle. Cherry was paying attention to the game when she felt Marcia grab her arm. Cherry looked at her, confused, but saw that she was pointing to the stands. Cherry turned around to see what Marcia found so amusing, to see Ponyboy, Soda, Dally, and Johnny sitting three rows from the front. When Cherry turned around, Ponyboy waved, and Cherry smiled back.
"I'm telling you Cherry, if that kid wasn't a greaser, I'd totally date him!" Marcia said in her high voice. Cherry laughed and nodded.
"Yeah, he's a nice kid," Marcia giggled and then turned her attention back to the game. Cherry did everything she could to not turn around again and wave to Dally, but during third quarter, she gave in and waved at him. He smiled and waved back but then turned to Soda to tell him something. Cherry felt her cheeks grow hot and she quickly picked up her pom-poms to join Maggie and the rest of the cheerleaders.
When the game was finally over, Cherry, Maggie, and Marcia raced to the parking lot to get their dresses. They needed to change as fast as they could if they wanted to get to the dance on time.
In the bathroom, Cherry untied the ribbon in her hair, letting it fall in loose curls around her face. She used a paper towel to wipe off all of her old make-up and then applied more. She put the earrings and necklace on, then carefully took the gold dress out of the plastic and held it up in the mirror. She examined it for a few minutes and then slipped it over her head, zipping the back up tightly when she was finished. She looked stunning, the color went so well with her hair. Cherry slipped on her shoes as Maggie and Marcia came out of two bathroom stalls, both wearing their long dresses they had picked out.
"Cher, you look beautiful!" Maggie stated as she flattened down the front of her gown. Cherry smiled and turned back to face the mirror. She couldn't help but notice how nicely the small beaded tiara would fit on her head, and how wonderful it would look surrounded by her redish-gold locks. She quickly shook the thought out of her head, though, and turned back to her friends.
"Thanks," she said shyly. She felt like a queen. Marcia was wearing a teal dress that had thick sleeves and was cut low in the front and back. Maggie's dress was white and had a large bow tied in the back, it reminded Cherry a lot of a wedding dress. It's sleeves were long and off-shoulder, and it had tiny sequence around the top and bottom. "You two look pretty great, too," she said as she picked up her uniform and stuffed it into the plastic her dress had come in.
Marcia shook her head, "not as great as you!" Cherry felt herself blush and then walked toward the door. She motioned toward the hallway and Maggie and Marcia quickly ran toward the door.
The three girls met up with Elizabeth and Karen, who both wore green dresses. Karen's went to her knees, and it was covered in pink flowers. Elizabeth's was sleek and sparkly, and she was wearing a green bow in her hair to match. The five talked for a while before splitting up with their dates, leaving Cherry alone in the corner. She watched her friends for a while, but then decided she needed to enjoy herself. She spotted a lonely boy sitting on the bleachers across from Marcia and Randy, and confidently approached him.
"Hi," she said, smiling. The boy looked up at her and smiled back.
"Hey." He stood up and took her hand. "Cherry Valance, I'm David Patrone. It's so nice to meet you." Cherry blinked but continued to smile.
"I'm sorry, but how did you know my name? I don't think I've seen you before." David smiled and looked at the floor before answering.
"You're a cheerleader, I'm on the football team. My number is 74." David's blue eyes sparkled and Cherry laughed.
"I'll take note of that," she said smiling broadly. "Would you like to dance?" She gestured to the dance floor and David nodded wildly. Cherry laughed again and led him onto the floor. She noticed Bob dancing with a red head just a few yards away from David and Cherry. Her hair was long, and she resembled Cherry in many ways, including her slim figure. Bob glanced up when he saw the wave of gold take its place in front of him. Cherry glanced over to the couple again, seeing Bob grin at her and run his hand through the red heads long hair. He winked at Cherry, who wrinkled up her nose and turned back to David.
"So, aren't you running for Homecoming Queen?" David asked as the song ended. Cherry nodded but found it hard to look David in the eye. She was rather embarrassed, she hated the thought of people thinking she was snobby, which is exactly how it seemed. "I've never seen a runner not have a date." Cherry blushed, apparently having a date to the dance was a bigger deal than she'd thought.
"Well, I guess I just didn't bother to try to find one," she lied. She really didn't care whether or not she had a date, but saying she'd not tried to find one was a huge lie. All week she'd been asking boys if they had dates to the dance, hoping they'd say no and ask her. None of them did that, though. "What about you, what's your story for being dateless?"
"My girlfriend broke up with me on Thursday. I didn't really have much time to find someone." Cherry nodded as David spoke, curious to who is ex-girlfriend was. Another song started playing and David went to get two glasses of punch, leaving Cherry alone in the middle of the dance floor. She sighed and felt a tap on her shoulder. She turned around suddenly to find Bob and his Cherry-look-alike standing behind her. Cherry shifted her weight to her left foot and put her hand on her hip.
"What?" she snapped as Bob's grin grew wider. The red head was chomping on a piece of very blue gum, and her lime green and yellow knee length dress fit a little big around her hips. None the less, the fluorescent dress looked amazing on the girl, and Cherry couldn't help feel jealous for a second.
"This is Candace," he said proudly. Cherry raised her eyebrows and studied the girl harder. Then she glared at Bob.
"What's your point?" She asked, annoyed. Bob laughed and wrapped his arm around Candace's shoulders. Candace smiled and then continued chomping loudly on her gum, looking Cherry over as if she were a judge for a dog show.
"She's my girlfriend," Candace smiled again and then extended her hand.
"You must be Cherry Valance, I've heard so much about you," she said in fake happiness. Cherry wrinkled her nose but took Candace's hand anyway. "I go to North Academy. It's a rich school, you know?" Cherry's eyes grew wide as she dropped Candace's hand. Bob laughed lightly and tugged on Candace's shoulder to move on. Candace, however, stayed planted in the spot she was in.
"Is that so, how nice for you," Cherry said unenthusiastically. Candace nodded and blew a large blue bubble.
"It's too bad you couldn't go there, it's really nice, if you can afford it. But I've heard you're very happy with all your little unfortunate friends," Candace said happily. She felt so proud in telling off Bob's ex-girlfriend. Cherry's mouth dropped open, and when she realized what Candace had just said, she snapped it shut again and gritted her teeth. Bob ran his hand through his hair and looked at the ground.
"Excuse me?" Cherry managed the word through gritted teeth as David came up behind her.
"Is everything okay here?" he asked putting his hand on Cherry's shoulder in a friendly manner. Cherry nodded and straightened the front of her dress out with her hands.
"Yes, everything is fine, let's go sit over there, baby." Cherry hated using the word, but for the first time in her life, she felt like she needed to prove something to Bob. Candace was a phony, and her personality was nothing like Cherry's. Bob only wanted Cherry to feel horrible about not excepting Bob back, so he made up a lie, that was only partly true, to get even.
"Woah, so what was that about, baby?" Cherry shook her head, embarrassed.
"I'm so sorry. That's my ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend, who he told that I was poor!" Cherry was so angry with Bob, and this time her friends weren't there to help her out. She quickly glanced around the room trying to spot Marcia and Maggie. She saw Maggie sitting on a chair by herself on the other side of the gymnasium. She looked so sad, but Cherry didn't feel like trying to cheer her up, she'd probably got dumped again. Marcia was a few feet away with some blonde guy, holding a bottle of beer. Randy was sitting three chairs away from Maggie watching his girlfriend dance wildly with some other guy.
"It's okay, I just got a little confused," David said lightly as her handed Cherry her punch. She look it and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.
"Thanks, but I think I need to go outside for some air. I'll catch up with you later." Cherry smiled quickly before turning and running through the double doors leading to the outside world.
Cherry leaned against the big white pillar holding up the school building and sighed. Bob always seemed to ruin things. She almost wanted to tell herself that she should've stayed with him just so she wouldn't get hurt, but she knew it would be a lie. He didn't even seem to like Candace, he probably just used her to hurt Cherry's feelings. She sniffed and looked up at the stars.
"I had a feeling I'd find you out here." Cherry heard Ponyboy's voice behind her and smiled. She didn't turn around, only nodded and continued gazing at the stars. "I saw what happened in there, and for some strange reason, I feel the need to apologize." Ponyboy stood beside Cherry and followed her gaze to a brilliantly bright star.
"For what?" Cherry asked, still locking her gaze on the stars.
"For being your friend," he said quietly. Cherry turned to look at him with sad eyes.
"Pony, that isn't your fault. If I didn't want you to be my friend I would've said something. You're a really sweet kid. And Bob's a jerk, he doesn't know what it's like to have real friends," she paused and let out a sigh. "I didn't think I knew what it was like either, but I have you guys." She leaned forward to hug Ponyboy and then turned back to face the building. "Now don't you have a dance to get back to?" Ponyboy smiled and started walking back up the steps.
"You have to come back in too, you may have won," he winked before turning and walking back up the stairs to the school. She finally realized what it meant to have real friends, and that no matter how hard she'd try, she was always going to have a label. But she was okay with it now, because she didn't have to stick to that label, she could change. She could break free.
So anyway, I hope you liked it. I think it was kinda longer... ish. haha. I hope you guys review, I enjoy reviews.