Katelyn's POV

I was in my room reading when I heard Dad come home. I looked over at my clock, it was only 8:00. That's early for Dad, even on a Wednesday. He started talking to Robert about us moving. I was glad he was trying to get us our own place. Uncle Robert didn't seem too happy about it though. I'm not really sure why, but he wasn't. Their voices started getting louder and next thing I knew they were yelling at each other - again. I tried to go back to reading but something Dad said caught my attention.

"No, we're going somewhere real nice. Somewhere on the west side of town."

What?! Maybe I hadn't heard right. I put my book down and listened.

"I've got enough money now. I'm getting Katelyn out of this dump."

I wanted to be out of this dump, yeah, but not on the West side. Not where all the Soc lived. There's no way. I walked out into the living room. "Dad?" I looked at him questioningly but he didn't answer. "I thought we were thinking somewhere close to here. I thought we had a neighborhood picked out."

Dad looked at me and lowered his volume, "I got more money now Princess. We can get something nicer than that."

"But I don't want something nicer Dad. I'm happy here." I was pleading. I didn't really like to, but I didn't want to move to the West side either.

Dad's eyes narrowed and his voice got firm. "You are not growing up in this neighborhood. This is not place for a young lady."

By this time I was getting mad. He hadn't asked me if I wanted to go there, and he wasn't listening either. He never listened any more. "Dad please, I..."

"No! We're moving where I say and that's final." He yelled.

"You don't care what I think, do you?" I found myself yelling too. I'd never yelled at my dad before. "All you care about is you and your stupid job!" And with that I ran out the front door. I was so mad I could barely see straight, but I kept running. I would go to the Lot to see if Johnny was there. I always felt better after I talked to him. He could understand what I went through at home.

I got to the Lot out of breath and looked around. Johnny wasn't there. The wind was blowing hard, it looked like it might rain. I shivered and crossed my arms. Maybe he was at Pony's house. I turned and headed that direction.

Pony's POV

After supper, Soda, Steve, and Johnny started up a card game; I think they were making up the rules as they went along. They had the radio blaring some Elvis song. Two-Bit was sitting in front of the TV, volume turned up loud enough so he could hear it over the radio. I think he was paying more attention to the card game than the TV though. Darry was trying to read the paper and I was sitting at the kitchen table trying to do my homework. Darry suggested that I go to my room to work on it. I probably would have gotten more done that way, but I didn't really feel like being alone right now. Besides, what I was working on wasn't that important.

"Hey Two-Bit" Darry said, "If you're not going to watch the TV then why don't you just turn it off, or at least turn it down."

"I am watching, and if I turn it down I won't be able to hear it because of that music." Two-Bit threw a handful of his popcorn in the general direction of the card game.

Darry wasn't getting any where with Two-Bit. "Hey Soda, turn down the radio."

"What?" Soda asked, not looking up.

Darry's voice raised a notch "Turn down the radio!"

"Sure, just a sec."

It must have been an awfully long second, because the radio never got turned down, and neither did the TV. I heard the door open and Steve say "Hey'a Katelyn, what's shaking?" Katelyn didn't answer. I looked up. Her eyes were like ice. I remembered the first time I had seen them that way. It was the day of her mom's funeral. She had cried a lot that morning, but when she got home that night, the tears were gone and her eyes were hard. Cold. Like Dally's. No more crying, she was tough. That look mostly returned when she was really angry or just wanted to shut off the world.

She walked over and sat down next to Two-Bit in front of the TV. Two-Bit offered her some of his popcorn, but didn't say anything. We had learned pretty early on not to mess with Katelyn when her eyes were like that. Even Soda had gotten belted once. Katelyn had come into our house that day, and me and Soda could instantly tell something was wrong. I'd seen that look enough in Dally's eyes to figure on leaving her alone. Soda musta figured he could get her to smile. Improve her mood a little. He'd sauntered over to her, leaned down with that reckless grin on his face, and made some smart-alec remark that I couldn't quite hear. She'd swung hard, catching him square in the jaw, before marching back outside. We left her alone after that. I tried to turn my attention back to my homework.

"Hey, no cheating Soda." Steve said, "That's cheating."

I could hear a slight pout in Soda's voice. "It isn't either, and you should be careful who you call a cheater."

"Well, I say it's cheating. What do you say Johnny?" When Johnny didn't answer he turned to Two-Bit. "What do you think?"

"I think it's kinda hard to cheat when there aren't any rules to begin with."

I glanced up and saw Soda stick his tongue out at Steve.

"Soda, please turn the radio down!" Darry shouted.

"Then we wouldn't be able to hear it. Two-Bit's got the TV up too loud."

"Soda, you can't do that! It's cheating."

"It is NOT cheating!" Cards went flying, as well as some more popcorn.

Maybe I would be better off in my room. I started to pick my books up when Dallas threw the door open and came in cussing. We could all tell he was real mad about something, but he didn't say what. He just started pacing around the house, cussing and smoking his cigarette. It didn't add anything positive to the room, but I sure wasn't going to say anything to him, and I didn't figure anyone else would either. We didn't exactly feel like getting our heads kicked in.

"Shut up Dallas Winston! Just shut up!" Katelyn yelled suddenly, without taking her eyes off the TV.

Dally stopped pacing. "What did you say to me? Hey, I can say whatever I want." He wasn't yelling, but his voice sounded so angry and hateful it was scary.

Katelyn's voice matched his "So can I, and I said you should shut your mouth or go somewhere else 'cause none of us wanna hear it right now."

She stood and turned to face Dally. Their eyes met like two pieces of clashing metal. You could almost see the sparks flying. Everyone got real quiet, and you could hear the radio AND the TV quite well. If either of them had been facing anyone else, they would have belted them long before now. But Dally, as cold and tough as he was, didn't often hit girls, especially one that meant so much to us. Katelyn must've thought that if she swung at Dally, it'd just give him an excuse to swing back, and she was probably right. So they stood there, the tension rising and their anger fuming. And then Steve did something so stupid he can never say I'm scatterbrained again.

Steve actually walked up behind Dally and touched his shoulder. "Hey Dal, why don't you..." Dally turned and flattened him and then walked coolly out the front door.

Everyone stood still. Almost like we were frozen in place. Then Katelyn headed towards the front door. She stopped by Steve and looked down, "Way to go Hot Shot." And then she was gone.

I would have laughed if the whole thing hadn't been so serious.