Chapter 8 =D yay! read away.

Chapter 8

I watched Sodapop walk down the hall and then walked into the drama room. When I walked in Karen dropped her jaw practically to the floor.

"Who is he?" She demanded.

"What are you talking about?" I asked so confused.

"You just walked in here with the biggest smile on your face. Obviously there is a guy involved. So it's best you tell me before I have to hit it out of you." I could tell Karen wouldn't let up on this. So I found myself telling her all about Soda and the lunch thing and everything.

She didn't know who I was talking about at first but when I told her a bit of a description she caught on real fast.

"Oh he's the one that works at the DX! Oh he's really something. He looks like he jumped outta a movie." Karen apparently agreed that he was good looking too.

All through drama we kept on whispering to each other about what I should do next and how I should invite her along one time for lunch. We got in trouble a couple of times for it too. I was finally being more like myself again.

Drama ended and I went to science. I didn't really want to go to science to be quite honest, but I went anyways. I didn't really feel like getting suspended. I went to the science room and prepared myself for the class when I sat down.

When the class started the Mr. Calf did a homework check and then took up the homework. For the rest of the class we took notes. Soda and I were joking the whole time too. I'm pretty sure the teacher gave us a couple of glares for talking so much, but the lights were off so I wasn't sure if I saw right.

At the end of the day, Soda did what he had since the first day of the school year. He walked me to my locker and outside. But today when he walked me outside he didn't say goodbye right away.

He brought his hand up and scratched the back of his head. "I was wonderin', maybe you'd like to hang with me and some of the guys outside school sometime." He looked at me and we locked eyes.

"Yeah. You can show me more places." I said with a joking smile. "When?" I asked.

"Maybe Friday. I could get some of the guys into it. We could go to the Nightly Double or something."

"Alright. We'll go over some details tomorrow okay?" I suggested.

"Alright, see ya." He said and started walking away.

"Bye." I said and walked the other way. Another day I got to go home with a giant smile. Maybe moving here wasn't that bad.

* * *

We went over all the details on Thursday and it was set. We were going to meet up at the variety store we had gone to and go to the Nightly Double from there. Soda said I wouldn't be the only girl there because Steve was going to bring his girlfriend Evie, but it didn't think it would bother me that much if I was going to be the only girl with all the guys.

I was getting ready before I had to leave for the variety store. My mom said she'd drive me so it saved me the walk. I looked at myself in the mirror. I thought I looked pretty good. I was wearing a black pair of jeans and a light pink long short sleeved shirt. I pulled on a navy pull-over sweater and fixed my hair again. I had pulled back some of my hair in a clip but it was mostly all down. I had a light pink eye shadow on and I was ready to go. I just hoped I didn't look too ready.

My mom and I left the house and she dropped me off at the variety store. When I got out of the car my mom drove away almost immediately. I felt kind of stupid just standing there waiting to I decided to go sit down and wait. Of course once I did they came.

"Hey, there she is!" Two-Bit exclaimed. He sounded kind of funny.

"Hey guys," I said walking over. I noticed there were some more people this time. One had very greasy black hair. The other actually had no grease in his hair. I studied his face as much as I could. He wasn't ugly, but next to Soda he didn't compare. If he was by himself he would look much better.

Pony and Soda said hi to me as they were all walking over. I noticed a girl with Steve as they came closer. I guessed that it was Evie.

Soda started introductions again. "Laurie this is Johnny and Dally," He said pointing to the black haired one and the other next. Johnny said hi shyly and Dally just nodded in acknowledgement.

"I'm Evie." Steve's date said. I guess Soda must not have remembered she was there.

"Hi." I replied. I wasn't good with meeting people all the time. Besides there were a lot of meetings for me in the past week.

"It's too early to go to the movie. What do ya think we should do?" Pony said.

"Walk the streets bein' wild and crazy!" Two-Bit exclaimed enthusiastically. I started laughing. He amused me.

That's basically what we did too. We were just walking the streets doing anything and everything we could. I became more talkative after a little and found myself talking a lot with Two-Bit, Pony and Johnny. This was weird seeing as Soda invited me, not them. I did notice however, that Dally would flirt with anybody. When we were in a store Dally had tried to pick up the cashier. I think she was buying it too, but thankfully we left before anything happened.

We finally decided to go to the movies and when we got there, I heard Dally saying something about going in the "other" way. But he ended up staying with us so I must've heard him wrong. We got seats in the area for people without cars and I ended up sitting between Sodapop and Ponyboy. I felt kind of fidgety though but I didn't know why. I sat beside Soda everyday, but maybe it was just the fact that it was outside school. All I knew was that I was self conscious.

I kept crossing and uncrossing my legs and folding and unfolding my arms. I kept playing with my fingers and running my hands through my hair. I also kept shifting in my seat trying to get comfortable even though I already was. I saw Ponyboy glance at me through the corner of his eye. I guess my movement was noticeable.

"Wanna come with me to get some cokes and popcorn?" Soda asked.

I looked at him and thought about it. It was still the sponsoring things so it wasn't like I would miss any of the movie so I agreed. Soda offered to get other people some stuff, but the rest of them had gotten stuff while Soda and I had gotten seats.

We were standing in a line to pay after we had gotten food and drinks and we hadn't spoken at all. It was an awkward silence too. I wanted to break it but I didn't want to sound to eager to talk or anything.

"Havin' fun yet?" Soda asked with a smile.

"Yeah, you guys are entertaining." I replied jokingly. I was relieved that he had broken the silence, but after saying a couple other things we didn't talk. Thankfully though, we were back at out seats with the movie starting so we didn't have to worry too much about talking.

The movie was pretty good. I don't really know what we saw though. I think it was some sort of comedy horror. I was laughing when some people were screaming so I couldn't tell what kind of movie it was. At one part it was supposed to be this really scary scene and I burst out laughing. Everyone was looking at me so I just ducked my head and pretended to look at the ground, although all I was really doing was attempting to contain my laughter. Soda had nudged me playfully then and I heard him laugh lightly.

We waited for most of the people to leave before we went anywhere.

"What'd y'all think of the movie?" I asked Pony and Johnny because the others were having their own conversation.

"I thought it was alright." Johnny stated.

"I liked it," Pony said at the same time as Johnny said what he thought. We had just exited the drive-in and Soda stepped by my side.

"So what'd ya think?" He asked.

"I thought it was good." I admitted.

"You also thought it was funny. Laughin' at scary parts." He mocked me.

I playfully shoved him. "I thought it was funny," I said in defense. I looked around as we walked. It was really dark out. All the others were being really loud, I wondered if someone was going to say something to them.

"Do you gotta go home yet?" Soda asked.

"I dunno actually. I never said a time I'd be home at." I explained.

"You should hang out with us for a bit." Soda paused. "If you want I mean."

"Soda, I ain't gonna just not wanna hang out with you guys all of a sudden. I'm not like that. You have to do something that pisses me off before I don't hang out with ya." I said. Soda nodded to say that he understood what I was talking about.

"Hey Soda man, are we goin' back to your place?" Dally asked.

"Oh well me an' Evie are gonna do our own thing, see y'all." Steve said and we said goodbye.

"It don't matter, I dunno what I'm doin' yet." Soda replied to Dally.

"I was thinkin' of headin' to Buck's, wanna come Dal?" Two-Bit offered.

"Sure man." Dally said. He walked past me and when he did he looked right at me. I looked at him back and fortunately I couldn't see his expression. It was too dark for that. I didn't know much about Dally but I didn't know if I wanted to or not.

"Hey Soda, me an' Johnny are gonna go home. See ya around Laurie." Pony said.

"See ya guys," Johnny said and walked away.

I looked at all of them leaving with a blank expression. Then I started laughing. "Did they rehearse that or what?" I asked still laughing.

Soda was laughing now too. "You never know with them."

We ended up going to a park. There was a little jungle gym type thing and I decided I wanted to sit at the top of it. It wasn't very comfortable though seeing as it was made of poles. It looked kind of like a dome the way it was shaped. There wasn't much to the park. I tried looking for some swings after I was at the top of the dome thing, but I had no luck. Then again, I could hardly see two feet in front of me.

I looked back to find Soda. I couldn't find him. I started panicking. I didn't want to be all by myself at a park I didn't even know of. I was about to climb down when I felt someone sit beside me. I jerked my head over and saw someone. My heart almost stopped but then I realized it was Soda.

"Oh my God Soda! You just scared me half to death!" I yelled. I was trying to catch my breath from my mini heart attack. "God, I thought you were someone else." I said and he laughed. I nudged him. "It's not funny." I defended myself jokingly. I sighed and looked back at the stars.

"It sure is beautiful." I said more to myself but Soda replied.

"Yeah. Sometimes Pony makes me stop and look at the stars," Soda said in a 'tell-a-story' kind of voice.

I kind of dazed off after that. I don't think Soda was talking though so I didn't feel too bad about it. After a while Soda did speak up.

"We've been here awhile." Soda stated.

"What time is it?" I asked.

"I don't know."

"We should probably go," I said getting up and then realizing I was on the jungle gym. I caught myself just in time. I would've fallen on my face. "I'm okay." I let myself know. Soda just looked at me and laughed a little.

"How're you gettin' home?" Soda asked as we walked away from the park.

"My mom I guess." I stated.

"Kay, well we can go to my house and you can use my phone. Alright?" Soda suggested.

I hesitated. "No Soda." I protested. I felt bad. "I don't wanna impose or anything. I can just use a pay phone."

"I ain't gonna make you use a pay phone." I could tell that Soda wasn't going to let this go.

"Alright, alright, I'll use your phone." I surrendered.

We walked to his house and I took a deep breath before we went inside. When we walked in the first thing I noticed was cigarette smoke. Next, I noticed that Two-Bit, Dally, Pony, Johnny and Steve were sitting at the table playing cards. There was also someone else there, but I had no idea who it was. When we first walked in I don't think anyone noticed, but then the door slammed and they looked up to see who it was.

We were then ambushed by hello's and long-time-no-see's. The one I didn't know, whom I realized then was very large, walked over to me and Soda. I felt very uncomfortable near him. After all, if I took one wrong move he could squish me in a second. By the way, knowing that you could get squished any second is not very reassuring.

"Hello," The big guy said as he walked over. I couldn't bring myself to say anything. I shifted my head a bit to look at Soda.

"Hey Darry, this is Laurie, she's gonna use the phone to call her mom to pick her up." Soda explained.

"Hi," I said shyly.

"I'm Soda's older brother Darry," He said sticking out his hand. I took and he shook my hand in his firm grip. "Phone's over there." He pointed to the corner of the room.

The rest of the guys became very loud again. I dialled the number anyway and plugged my other ear in hopes to hear better. It rang and rang but no one picked up. I hung up and thought about the number. Had I dialled it right? I picked the phone up again and dialled only this time slower. After two rings someone picked up. It was my dad, so I asked to speak with my mom. We figured out a time because my aunt and uncle were over. I hung up after we agreed on what we were doing.

"Well?" Soda asked since he was listening to my end the whole time.

"She's gonna be here in 45 minutes to an hour, is that okay?" I asked.

"Yeah it's fine." Soda reassured me.

"Are you sure I mean, I don't want your parents to be mad that I'm here or anything." Once I said that, I regretted it immediately.

kay so that was chapter 8. Thanks so much for the reviews! they are greatly appreciated. please keep them coming!