HIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!! What's up, peoples? Yes, it is moi, back with another chapter! Yippee! Does a happy dance!! Seven probably sucked, so I am giving you all a new one!! And Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere it is!

8

That night we played Sorry! for hours, and Two-Bit eventually left, and Steve and I decided to stay the night. We battled for the couch in a pillow fight war, and Soda jumped in making the stakes higher. Winner of the first round got the bed, and the remaining two had to battle it out for the couch. I ended up winning the bed, and I watched Steve and Soda duke it out, and I was surprised feathers weren't flying anywhere. Eventually it looked too fun not to join, so I jumped back in, and we all hit each other mercilessly until we were all laughing too hard to even stand, and we all collapsed on the ground. We were all breathing heavily, until I finally stood up. "I CALL THE BED!" And bolted for the bedroom. I heard Steve and Soda both running after me, and I raced into the bedroom, and slammed the door in their faces, and leaped onto the bed, before I remembered to lock it. Curses.

Soda and Steve burst in. "NOOOOO!" I screamed, laughing the whole time, while attempting to cover myself with as many pillows and blankets as I could. I felt Soda and Steve leap onto the bed and began to pelt me with pillows. I tried to kick them off the bed with my feet, and I think I succeeded in kicking Soda off, but he was back on the bed in a second, now going to tickle me. I screamed out with laughter, attempting to push him off of me now, but stopped when I felt Steve beginning to tickle me too. Now I had the both of them tickling me mercilessly and I was alone and unarmed.

That was when I realized that I did have a pillow, and suddenly burst from my fortress of covers, and started attacking the both of them. But soon Steve had a pillow, and Soda had run out for another one. So once again, Steve and I were locked in a pillow battle, when Soda burst in and then it was every man for himself. Or every girl for herself. Whatever.

Finally, after laughing until we cried, and exhausted from our antics, we collapsed onto the floor in a content and happy heap. "I think we should all just sleep in the living room tonight." Soda said, still breathing heavily.

"No way! We just had a hundred year war here for the bed." I said, still attempting to catch my breath. "Why don't we all just sleep in here? Soda and Steve, you can have the bed and I'll take the floor."

Soda and Steve agreed, and we all slept in the bedroom that night. We said it was because we all wanted the bed, but the truth was; we didn't want to be alone.

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The next morning I was awakened by a loud clap of thunder, and lightning flashed through the window. I sat up straight and rubbed my eyes, and heard the rain coming down fast and hard. I could smell chocolate from the kitchen. And then I realized something sadly and slowly.

Today was the day we were supposed to go to the carnival.

I got up from the floor and noted that both boys had left me alone in the room and had not woken me up. I checked the time; almost ten.

I walked drowsily out into the kitchen and took a seat at the table, surrounded by Soda, Steve, Two-Bit and Darry was cutting the cake. "Morning!" Soda said happily.

I looked up at him. There he went again, forcing happy so we didn't worry about it. I smiled back. "Kind of dreary, don't ya think?"

"Yeah, we can't go to the carnival." Soda said, taking a piece of cake that Darry offered him.

"Not the one outside, anyway!" Two-Bit suddenly exclaimed. Jumping up and out of his seat. Steve and Soda followed suit, and the three of them bolted into the living room.

"What're they planning?" I asked, looking up at Darry, who was showing one of his rare smiles.

"I don't know, but I have a bad feeling about this." He said, and we both walked into the living room. The first thing I saw when I walked into the room was a sheet draped over all the couches and T.V. It looked strangely like a tent and then I noticed that they had even taken string and connected the top to the ceiling somehow. Suddenly from some unseen hole in the 'tent' Steve appeared. It looked as if he had raided Darry's closet and put on one of his suit jackets and put it on over his own T-shirt and jeans.

"Welcome, welcome, welcome! Step right up and enjoy Sodapop's marvelous carnival of thrills, chills and excitement!" Steve exclaimed, spreading his arms out in a sweeping gesture. "Five dollars, please." He added, holding out a hand.

"Yeah, that'll happen," I said, pushing him out of the way and walking into the sheet fortress. Inside I saw two pillows on the far side and me and Darry sat down on them. Steve disappeared out of another entrance that me or Darry couldn't find, and suddenly I heard Two-Bit making carnival sounds.

It was then that I noticed how massive this tent really was. The boys must've worked really hard to get this thing up. All of a sudden, a flashlight came through yet another opening behind me and Darry, and Soda stepped into the 'spotlight'. I stifled a giggle. Soda had found one of those hats with pompoms on the top and earflaps on the sides and dangly strings hanging down from them, and was wearing it along with another one of Darry's suits; the whole suit. Pants, jacket, tie and all. He had even managed to fine some old winter gloves. He walked in wielding a hula hoop, puckering up his face and looking extremely serious. Darry was smiling again, and I was holding back giggles, even though bursts cut out of my closed mouth.

Sodapop took a dramatic bow, and raised the hula hoop. Two-Bit was now doing a drum roll noise, and I realized that he was the one behind us with the flashlight. Steve's hand came out of the side opening again, and tossed a stuffed dog through the hoop. Soda took another bow and me and Darry applauded. We were both laughing now, and the rest of the morning carried on the same way, including daring trapezes in which Soda and Steve nearly killed themselves by doing somersaults through the tent and the living room, almost destroying the T.V. in the process. Two-Bit warded off Steve who had put on an orange shirt and drew whiskers on himself with marker. By the end of their make-shift 'carnival', me and Darry couldn't catch our breath we were laughing so hard and the boys were proud of their work. They took a bow, all three of them, and me and Darry stood up and applauded loudly.

Soda and Steve suddenly looked at each other, and attempted to do somersaults at Darry and me. We both jumped out of the way, and the two ended up getting entangled in the sheets, and all five of us heard the crack as the tent came crashing down around us. I screamed as the sheets all came down in a flurry, burying us all in an avalanche of fabric. "Soda! Steve! Two-Bit! Darry!" I cried, fumbling my way out of the mess. "Anyone?" Steve emerged next and began to search for Soda.

"Soda?" he exclaimed, pushing away fabric to search for him. "I'm coming, buddy!" He dove back into the fabric and I started laughing all over again. Two-Bit emerged next, and Darry crawled out next to me. Steve and Soda finally emerged again, and we all laughed. I looked outside. The rain had stopped and the sun was shining slightly.

"Hey…" I said, keeping my eyes outside. The guys all looked at me. "Let's go to the lot." So we did. We played football in the mud for hours. Darry and Soda against me, Steve and Two-Bit. We forgot about keeping score, and it seemed like old times again, before all of the sadness. Before all of the problems that our little gang had encountered. Before the murder, the disappearance, the distance between all of us. Just like it was. For now, it was all it was ever going to be.

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After hours of playing and getting filthy, we all headed to our respective homes to take showers. We all agreed to meet tomorrow and go spend some time downtown. I stepped into my house quietly and slipped off my muddy shoes. I walked through the house quietly, both relieved and scared that I didn't hear Dave snoring. I went into the bathroom and made sure to lock the door, and opened the window in case I needed to make a quick escape.

I slipped off my clothes and stepped into the shower, turning the water to hot and letting it fall over my body. I took what was left of our shampoo and spread it through my tangled hair, trying to get it straight. I got all of the mud off, luckily, but it took a lot longer for my hair. After combing through for 20 minutes, I managed to get it good enough, and the conditioner finished it off. It felt good to take a shower, felt like I was cleansing myself of my troubles. But I wasn't, and eventually just turned the water off, and dried myself. I wrapped a towel around myself and walked to my room to find new clothes. I slipped on my old white tank top, and my gray sweat jacket on over that. I pulled on some jeans with rips in the knees, and grabbed some socks that were lying around. I walked back out of my room, not bothering to dry my hair and slipped my sneakers back on. Just as I was about to walk out the door, the phone rang. "Hello?" I asked.

"Jesse!" Soda's frantic voice on the other end said. "Ponyboy's back!"

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That's it! Ok, guys, I know I majorly screwed up the timing on this, cause I thought Pony and Johnny were gone for 2 weeks, but it turns out it was five days. -.-'. I may edit the chapters to fix it, but if you can, use your imagination and pretend they were gone for that long. .

Johnny Cade's Gal: Lol. Yeah, nobody's hanging in there! Glad you still like the story. Can't wait to hear from you!

bunny94: Hey! I told you to stay away! Fine, whatever. Sodapop? Really? Eh, well. tallies one for Soda.

You know the drill, ladies and gents. Poll is still there, and please, please, please review. Kay, byes!