"Kelcie, what did you say to Lucy?" Sodapop asked when I walked in. Great, she came and squealed on me. And everyone was there.

"It wasn't just me!" I shrieked. "Lucy said things to! She said I moved at the speed of a turtle on a hot day!"

"I said there was nothing wrong with that!" she cried. Dally was stroking her hair, but she batted him away.

"Kelcie, you've been nothing but harm to us for years!" Ponyboy shouted. "All you've done is yell at us and treat us like garbage! What do you think of us, anyway?"

"To be honest," I whispered, "I think you're all great people."

"Then why do you think you're so much better?" Dally asked.

"I don't!" I yelled.

"There you go, yelling at us again!" Ponyboy accused.

"Look, maybe we should just try to settle things," Johnny offered. Have I mentioned how much I love him?

"Hang on, Johnny," Darry interrupted. "Right now I think we oughta tell Kelcie how we feel."

He stared me down, and I knew how possible it was for Darry to kill me. In my head, I prayed to God that I would survive through this.

"You've always been incredibly competitive with Lucy," he said with no emotion, "and I don't know why. What has she ever done to make you feel like you had to one-up her all the time?"

"She's always doing things first," I complained. "If I get kissed, Lucy's been kissed and it's longer and better than mine! Lucy gets everything before me, and not only is it before, she does better!"

"I thought you said you didn't like the way I was taking things!" Lucy cried. "You always seemed to think you were better than me!"

"Sometimes she does," Becky replied grimly.

"Do you honestly think Lucy's better than you?" Sodapop asked. "None of us is better than the other."

"That's not what you've been making it seem," I sneered.

"Me?" Soda asked, seeming pretty surprised.

"All of you, but mostly you three brothers. Through my entire life Lucy always gets praised and I'm always left in the dust! I thought you guys cared about me!"

"Kelcie, this is all in your head!" Dally yelled. "We've praised you just as much as we've praised Lucy. And why are you so jealous anyway?"

"Who knows?" I asked, throwing my hands in the air.

"You know!" Two-Bit cried. "And you think we don't care about you? Kelcie, we've always cared about you. There's no one that we care for more or less."

"Oh really?" I asked, staring him down. "Ever since I've known you, you've always been teasing me and making me feel stupid. You hate everything about me!"

"That's what he does!" Jacklyn squealed. "He's always been making jokes about all of us, and you've taken them too seriously."

"Yeah Kelcie!" Ponyboy agreed. "Don't you know how to take a joke?"

"What's so important about knowing how to take a joke?" I asked.

"So we don't get into situations like these!" Becky snarled.

"Fights like these happen!" I shouted. "Sometimes the best way to settle something is with words! You're all against me, and sometimes I think Johnny's the only one who cares about me!"

Every pair of eyes focused in on Johnny. I had put him in a spot, which I definitely shouldn't have done. Johnny didn't do well when he was put on a spot like this.

"What do you think of all this?" Jacklyn asked.

"Look, Kelcie, I care about you," he answered. "But I care about them too. And guys, I noticed something. You've been grilling her so hard on how she's so competitive with Lucy, but you're forgetting about someone else she's not been so sweet to."

"Johnny's right," Darry agreed. "We're forgetting about the way Kelcie treats Two-Bit."

Then all eyes traveled from Johnny to Two-Bit. He wasn't looking at anybody but me, his face serious, which was a rarity. All of a sudden, I felt myself feeling really bad for him. For as long as I could talk, I've been giving him the hardest time of anyone. Before I could start tearing up, he started talking.

"Kelcie, I don't know where I went wrong," he laughed a sad, unsure laugh. "I've always tried to be a friend to you, even if it meant a little joking around. Look, I'm sorry if you took it personally, but everyone needs to know how to take a joke at one time or another."

My rage came through and replaced my pity. Everyone needed to learn how to take a joke? Ha, not me! I walked up to him, and punched him in the face so hard that my hand hurt when I pulled it away.

Two-Bit fell down, clutching his forehead and making some type of groan signaling that he was in pain. I only felt some shame, but there must have been more there that I wasn't uncovering. Johnny put his hand on my shoulder, and I turned around to face him, giving me that blank look again. Only this time, it wasn't mysterious in a good way.

"What did you do that for?" he asked, his voice trembling.

"If someone had been offending you since you could speak, you'd do the same," I snapped.

"My folks have done nothing but abuse me since I was born. And I never once did what you just did till I knifed that Soc. But a punch coming from you at Two-Bit probably feels a lot worse than that knife did."

The others were just staring at me, and they all looked uncomfortable.

"You didn't have to punch the guy!" Ponyboy scoffed.

"He gave you that apology and you punched his lights out!" Darry was bellowing now. That's worse than any type of yelling in my opinion.

Two-Bit was sitting up by now, Jacklyn helping him be stable and probably assuring that he'd be okay.

"Hon, you know I hate to do this," Johnny whispered, his voice shaking because he was crying. "But I have to. Kelcie, I think we should break up."

That was when I decided this was a nightmare. I'd wake up and everything would be right again, and I could start over. Right now, I needed a redo more than anything. I needed something that would make Johnny take back his break up.

"Wait, what? You're breaking up with me?" I was almost speechless, even though I was expecting it. I just never knew it would be so hard.

"Yeah, and I'm really sorry. You gotta understand that if you're not gonna respect them, I can't be with you no more."

Then I got from angry to sad. Tears were hard to cope with when you didn't want them to come, which they did. And they came hard.

"Fine, if you all don't want me here, I'll leave. You never have to see me again." Just as I was reaching for the door, something pulled me back.

"YOU CAN'T GO!" It was Two-Bit.

"Oh yeah?" I asked. "And why wouldn't you want me to go?"

His eyes zoomed in on me and he looked like he felt more pain than anyone else in that room did. "Because I love you, Kelcie," he admitted. "I've always loved you. You mean too much to me, and I can't let you go."

Even after what he had said, I knew I had to leave. I couldn't take this anymore. Fighting was what I was meant to do, but if it was going to cause me so much pain, I had to leave. And I did.

I didn't hear anything when the door finally slammed behind me. Now that I had nowhere to go, I thought of where I could go so they never had to see me again. California might be safe, so that's where I decided to go. And I wouldn't tell them where I was getting my redo either. Maybe my life was meant to be without them after all.

Johnny, I kept thinking. Johnny. Johnny. Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny. Did he really want to break up with me? Was I asking for it? I know I was. But I'd never forget Johnny Cade, and he was the one part of leaving that made me want to stay. But I wouldn't. I couldn't.