Maggie woke up groggy the next morning and stumbled out of bed. It had token her forever to get used to the couch and her new surroundings. She had stayed up all night just staring up at the ceiling and waiting for sleep to come, but it was kind of hard.
She sat up slowly and tried to straighten the kinks out of her back, hissing as her muscles made their own squeal to the movement. She had had dream after dream about the old gang, which didn't help with her sleeping pattern either. She had thought about waking Saul up for some sleeping medicine, but had decided against it. She didn't want to intrude on him any more then she already had.
She slowly got to her feet. The stained carpet made a soft squish underneath her feet and she tried once again to relieve her back of the kinks. She sighed with pleaser as her back finally started to unravel and stretched a little more. She yawned heavily as she started to walk towards the bathroom, her eyes half closed. She tripped unexpectedly and fell to her knees, making a loud thud.
"Ah, shit!" she heard a very deep voice say from behind her. She crawled up so she was on all fours, her back muscles screaming at her again. She looked to see a guy around 17 lying on the floor, clutching his stomach. She pieced it all together quickly, figuring she must have tripped over him. She stared at him wide eyed as she took in his tall, slender, and muscular form. He was making his way up the 10 Hottest Guys Alive list and was in a tie with Sodapop. His hair was shaggy and a light brown color and looked disheveled. He actually resembled James Dean quite well, and that was defiantly a plus! She suddenly gasped, realizing that she had sat there for a few minutes staring while he laid there in pain.
"I am so sorry!" she told him as she crawled to him and stopped a couple of feet away.
"Its ok." he grumbled, finally opening his eyes to reveille deep, piercing, wide chocolate brown eyes. She almost fainted looking at him.
"Who're you anyway?" he asked as he sat up slowly and rubbed his tired eyes.
"I'm Maggie." she said simply.
"Just the person I was looking for." he said quietly. "Val said he had met some girl on the street. I came over to check you out, but by the time I got here you were already asleep. So, I crashed on the floor. You were having some nasty dreams when I got here, too." he stated, all in one breath and panting afterwards. Maggie blushed for the first time in a while and looked down.
"Sorry about tripping over you."
"Really its alright!" he told her as he leaned up some more, reveling his tight abs and well toned arms.
"Pete Alford." he told her as he stuck out his right hand to shake hers. She smiled slowly and shook it sternly.
"Val told me about you. Said you got a fiery temper and would probably fit in just fine." Pete said with a chuckle. Maggie nodded, remembering how she had gotten to be so cold. And that led to thoughts of Dallas and Johnny and Ponyboy and Steve. She shook her head violently to get the thoughts to go away. She felt a little on the crazy side having to do so.
"You ok?" Pete asked as he narrowed his eyes at her skeptically. She nodded quickly.
"Fine. Just a little head ache." she lied. Pete nodded.
"You hungry?" he asked as she got to his feet and helped her up, too. She nodded hastily. "Ok. Let's go eat." he said rubbing his stomach. Maggie walked to the couch and threw on her converse shoes. Memories flashing through her head of the day she had gotten them.
Flashback
"Its a present from all of us to start your life here." Darry explained, a stupid looking grin plastered on his face. Maggie just nodded slowly as she reached out and took the present from Darry. She looked down at the present and then back up at all of them before untying the bow and taking the paper off.
A blue tee shirt lay in side with a pair of worn out and faded jeans and at the bottom lay a pair of black hie top Converse shoes. Maggie smiled, just the kind of clothes she liked.
"I swiped the shoes for you!" Two Bit exclaimed happily, gesturing madly with his finger to the shoes. Maggie smiled even wider. He was so stupid sometimes and she was beginning to realize it.
"And Darry picked up the pants for you at a rummage sale." Pony added.
"And...well, we're not quite sure where Dally got the tee shirt from." Soda explained as he scratched his head and looked at the tee shirt. Maggie looked over at Dally and raised an eyebrow. He just shrugged, not showing any emotion like always.
Maggie could feel the tears stinging her eyes as she once again shook her head of the memories. It felt like she was never going to stop thinking about the old gang. Everything here reminded her of them. She didn't belong here, she knew. She belonged with her family back in Tulsa, but she had to get over it. This was her home now. She wouldn't be able to bear going back and seeing Dallas like that. She was afraid if she did then she would just end up hurting herself even more them being this far away from them. She knew if Dally woke up and she wasn't there that he would understand, but the problem in that was the IF. If was the big word in that sentence and it weighed on her conscious a lot. What if Dally never woke up? What if he stayed like that forever? Would Maggie stay in New York forever if that happened?
She shook her head again and finished tyeing her shoes before getting up and noticing that Pete now had on a white shirt, boots, and torn up old dirty jeans. He nodded to her and scribbled a note on a piece of paper before leading her out the door. Maggie watched as they passed some of the same drug addicts she had seen when she had first come. They even passed some that were new. She shivered when she stepped outside into the busy streets. It felt so weird for her here, not that she didn't love it, but it just felt weird. Her body, her mind, and her heart knew that it wasn't home, but she just kept telling herself to get over it.
"So how'd you end up in New York?" Pete asked as they walked down the street, a girl or two occasionally turning to check out Pete and scowl at Maggie.
"I got into some trouble back where I lived in Oklahoma." she told him, giving him the same lie she had given Val.
"Your a long way from home." he said a warm smile on his face as he pushed people out of his way. Maggie nodded.
"You have no idea!" she wanted to scream at him, but instead she just whispered it.
"So you met Val and Saul, which means you still have Dwain, Bennie, and Carson to meet. Don't worry about them though. I'm sure they'll come around sometime. You know you're real lucky to have run into Val when you did. He's real popular around here. He's got a lot of power, and if you stick with him and the gang it means your automatically protected." Maggie nodded slowly, liking how it sounded so far. Protection was always good, but could they feed her? A short trip of guiltiness flooded over her as she thought about what she was thinking. Could they feed her? What was she now, helpless? She had eaten out of dumpsters before, she could do it again.
"How'd you guys all meet each other?" Maggie asked as Pete lead the way into a small nice looking dinner on the corner. He lead her to a corner booth and she sat down across from him.
"Well, Bennie, who you haven't met yet, is Val's half brother. So they grew up together. Saul, me, and Dwain grew up together. And Carson just joined the group about 2 years ago." Maggie nodded and looked up at the waitress who had just gotten there. She reminded her a little of Angela. Long jet black curly hair that was in a messy ponytail. She had dark red lipstick on and lots of mascara and eye linger. She was really skinny, Maggie noticed, she probably made her living off of working 3 jobs and taking drugs.
"I'll take the usual." Pete told the waiter, smiling up at her. The waiter nodded slowly as she wrote something down and then turned to Maggie.
"I just want some toast, orange juice, and scrambled eggs, please." ordering what she would have eaten back home with the other gang. She noticed now that she was starting to train herself not to think about the gang. She was starting to be able to suppress her thoughts better.
"What's your story kid?" Pete asked suddenly, giving her a serious look.
"What do you mean 'what's my story'?" she asked, glaring at him.
"I know your lying about the trouble thing. So, what's the real story?" Maggie looked down at the table quickly, afraid of what would happen if she didn't. She was too afraid he would be able to see right through her fake smile and fake happiness. She wanted more than anything to spill her guts to someone about everything that had happened, but she didn't know if that was the best idea right now, especially since she didn't know these people very well.
"You can trust me Maggie. I'm not gonna hurt ya." he told her as he folded his hands behind his head seriously. Maggie sighed heavily and looked up for him. She looked strait into his eyes for the first time she had met him and started in on her story. She told him everything from meeting Dally to to leaving Tulsa, and then she made him swear not to tell anyone else that he knew in their little "gang". Pete's expression had turned to shock when he heard Dally's name and this sparked some curiosity in Maggie.
"How do you know, Dallas?" she asked suddenly, figuring that if he got to ask her questions then she got to ask him questions.
"I don't. I just know the name." Maggie studied him for a little bit before finally deciding that he was telling the truth. A little while later the waiter finally brought their food out and Pete started to dig in.
"You need a little salt in your orange juice!" Pete said randomly before dumping some salt in her orange juice and laughing wildly. Maggie glared at him playfully, looking from her orange juice to Pete and back again.
"Yeah?" she asked, her glare still playful and a smirk on her lips.
"Yeah!" he said back in between fits of laughter.
"Well, you need a bit of ketchup on your omelet." she said as she squirted a big glob of ketchup on his omelet. He picked up his fork and ate a piece, making a funny face.
"That tastes really nasty!" he commented as he took a swig of his coke.
Character Review:
Val Fields- Leader of the Tigers.
Saul England- Smart, big brother of the group. Like Darry in his own way.
Pete Alford- The Sodapop of the group. He's drop dead gorgeous, a bad boy, AND he's really smart!
