I walked over to Ben's house and he was waiting for me on the porch.

"You gonna be warm enough?" Ben asked me. I was wearing Dad's Tulsa Golden Hurricanes shirt with a turtleneck underneath.

"I'll be fine, Mom," I said sarcastically.

"Ha, funny," he said. "Just don't complain to me later if you're cold. Or expect my coat."

"Only gentlemen offer a lady their coat, Benjamin," I said. "Are you implying that you are a gentleman?"

He didn't answer. I gave in.

"I have a coat in my bag, wiseass," I said.

Ben just shook his head at me and took my bag. Kevin came out the door.

"Ready, Scout?" he asked.

"Yup," I said. "Just me coming?" I had expected other people might be tagging along.

"I'm picking up Kate," he said. Kate and Kevin had been on-again off-again dating for a few years. I played on the bvasketball team with her sister Sarah, but didn't hang around with her much since she was a sophomore. I liked both sisters OK.

"Oh," I said, and hopped into the back of Kevin's car. Ben followed and after a few tries and a little coaxing from Kevin, the car roared to life. Kate lived a few blocks away and from there it was only a fifteen minute ride across town to the University. Kate chatted nonstop the whole way, and I just spaced out staring out the window, until I realized everybody was silent and Ben and Kate were looking at me like they expected an answer.

"Earth to Scout," Ben teased.

"I'm sorry, what?" I had no idea what she had asked me. I hadn't heard a word she said. "Sorry, Kate, I was in my own world."

"That's OK," she said. "I was just asking how everything is going with you and your brothers. I mean, with your parents gone and all."

Gone. She made it sound like they were on a trip to Europe or something.

"We're OK." I said. I wasn't about to get into it with her, how Darry was about to crack from the stress of it all, we all tiptoed around each other like zombies, and I was getting stuck walking around Tulsa alone at night.

"Your parents were great," she said.

"Thanks." I tried to remember if I had seen her at the funeral to figure out if I should be thanking her for coming or not, but I couldn't remember. There had been so many people there. I knew she hadn't been there with Kevin, at least, since I had ridden in his car to the cemetery.

"So Kate, how's the cheerleading going?" I know Ben knew that I didn't really want to talk about my parents so he changed the subject, picking one he knew she would ramble on and on about. I squeezed his hand and gave him a look that I hoped he could read as thanks.

Kate was still going on, lamenting about something to do with the poor quality of the new cheering sweaters when we pulled into the stadium lot. Ben and I were out the door the second the car came to a stop, Ben yelling over his shoulder at Kevin,

"See you at the half." Whoever went to the games from our gang usually met at halftime back at the car – the guys to smoke and drink beer and us kids to get them to give us money for soda and snacks.

First I had to go down to the field to tell Darry I was there – he had told me the last think he needed during the game was to have to worry about us not making it there for some reason. Soda and Pony had received the same orders. Ben and I entered the stands and walked down to the first row and leaned over the concrete barrier separating the stands from the field.

I looked around for Darry. It was impossible to tell any of the guys apart in their full uniforms except for the giant linemen, but I searched the field for Darry's number, 44. Finally I spotted him down by the thirty-yard line talking to a few other players and a coach. I waited until the coach walked away and then yelled to him.

"Darry!" He turned and saw me and Ben and came trotting over.

"Hey guys," he said, taking off his helmet and setting it on the concrete barrier.

"Are Soda and Pony here yet?" I asked, They had left before me, in Steve's car.

"No, and they better get here soon or Pony's never riding with those two again. Darry wanted Ponyboy to ride out with Kevin- as I said, Soda and Steve get into too much mischief and Darry doesn't want us involved in any of it, but Pony argued with him, and somehow managed to get his way. I don't know why Pony would want to go with Steve anyway, he's never nice to us, but Pony loves it when he gets to hang around with Soda, so I guess he just puts up with Steve.

Just after Darry spoke, Ben nudged me and pointed to the opposite goal line where Soda, Pony, Steve, Two-Bit, and Steve and Soda's girlfriends Evie and Sandy were just coming around the corner of the field to the stands. I had no idea how all of them had gotten there, I could only guess that maybe Soda had driven Sandy's dad's car… He had an uncanny knack for getting girlfriends' parents to trust him with their cars, and they probably didn't even know that he rarely even drank. I could tell just from the way Two-Bit was walking that he was drunk. I didn't really care, though. Two-Bit's never been anything but a silly drunk, around me anyway. He's not mean like I some guys can get. Darry followed my gaze and saw them coming, too.

"Good deal," he said. "At least I don't have to worry about you guys all night."

"We're fine, Darry," I said. "Go play. Good luck."

He gave my shoulder a quick squeeze and started back toward the field. Ben and I were turning to leave, when suddenly Darry called me back.

"Hey, Scout!"

"Yeah?" I figured he was gonna give me a lecture to stay away from the drunk college guys or something.

"You and Ben can sit in Mom and Dad's seats if you want." The team had a reserved section of seats on the fifty- yard line for parents and trustees, rich people who gave a lot of money to the school, stuff like that. Each player's family only got two seats and our parents had always sat there with the other parents, so none of us kids ever got to sit there before. I wondered why he was offering them to me instead of Soda or Pony, but I guessed maybe it was because Ben and I were the most separate two of the bunch. The rest of the guys hung out together but we were usually considered too young to hang around with them. Darry was looking at me like he expected an answer.

"Are you sure?" Ben asked. I guess he felt since he technically wasn't family he shouldn't sit there.

"Yeah. You guys sit there, OK? Any of the other guys would probably embarrass me around the other guys' parents."

He was definitely right about that. Two-Bit, or Soda and Steve with their girls around a group of parents and rich people might not be the best idea.

"OK, Dar," I agreed. "We'll sit there." I felt kinda proud that he thought I would represent him best. He smiled and ran back to join his team.

Ben and I stayed down at the base of the stands as the rest of the guys made their way through the crowd to us.

"Hey Scooter," Two-Bit came over and messed up my hair. "How's your date going?" He was always teasing me and Ben, though I knew the two of them liked each other.

He turned to Ben. "No monkey business on the first date, you hear? I got my eye on you, kid."

Ben did not even give Two-Bit the dignity of an answer. It was sometimes best just to not encourage him.

"You guys comin' up?" Soda asked. We usually sat in the very top row, down by the home end zone. That way we could stand up and lean against the back stadium wall.

"Actually, I think Ben and I are gonna sit down here."

Soda looked at me questioningly. He didn't get it.

"Darry asked… well, he wanted us to sit in Mom and Dad's seats." I knew Soda wouldn't care – he wouldn't be watching the game anyway, he'd probably be making out with Sandy the whole time and couldn't have cared less where he sat – but I hadn't considered Pony's reaction.

"How come you two get the good seats?" Pony is always acting like he has been purposely excluded. Sometimes I think he has some kind of complex.

Just to be obnoxious, I was about to tell him that Darry gave the seats to me since I took a ride with Kevin like he wanted Pony to, but then I knew that would just get Steve's dander up about Darry not wanting us around him so I held my tongue.

"You can sit with Scout if you want, Pony," Ben said. "You're right, I don't really deserve the good seats anyway, I'm not family."

I turned and glared at Ben. He knew how Pony and I didn't get along. I didn't really dig the idea of sitting through a whole football game alone with him and Darry's friends' parents.

"Forget it," Pony said. I don't think he was thrilled at the prospect either. "You can't smoke down there anyway."

I could tell Steve and Soda were eager to get up and stake out seats so I grabbed Ben's hand. "We're gonna go sit," I said. "See you guys at halftime."

"I'll be watching you two," Two-Bit tried to sound intimidating but tripped over his own feet as he said it while turning and just cracked a goofy grin and followed everyone else down to the end zone.

Ben and I were among the first to our section and found my parents' seats. These were actually seats, not bleachers like we were used to sitting in.

"Whoa, so this is how the other half lives," Ben said, sarcastically, folding my seat down for me.

"Thank you sir," I said.

"So how many six-packs you think Two-Bit consumed so far?" Ben laughed.

"I don't know… more than one, less than four. Can you imagine if Darry let him sit here?" We both had a good laugh at that.

The game started and the seats around us started to fill up. I had to chuckle; some of these people were dressed like they were going to the opera, not a college football game. Men were wearing suits and the women were in heels. Ben and I whispered to each other non-stop about the people around us, making up stories about how they were late because the maid had done a poor job polishing the silver steering wheel on the limousine, or that "That dreadful butler" had failed to notify them of the fact that it was time to leave. Sometimes we didn't even have to say anything, we just both noticed someone ridiculous at the same time, turned to each other at the same time to comment on it, and just broke up laughing. I don't think the people around us even noticed though. I wondered if my parents had talked to the others. I'm sure they must have; both of them were so friendly, they could have a conversation with strangers and walk away like they had known each other for years. I wasn't exactly the type to start a random conversation with people more than twice my age that I didn't know, though.

The game itself was close but as the first half ended, there was no score.

Ben and I fought our way through the well-dressed crowd back to the parking lot to meet up with the guys for halftime. We met up with Kevin and Kate at his car and they decided to come with us to find my brothers and the guys, but since we hadn't come together I didn't know where Steve (and whatever other car they had come in) had parked. We wandered over to the area where I had seen them come in and eventually I could follow the sound of Two-Bit's voice through the crowd to locate them. Pony was leaning up against the front of the car smoking and Soda, Steve and the girls were sitting on the trunk. Two-Bit was flirting with some college girls in the neighboring car, but when he saw us coming he turned his attention to us. The girls shot us a look of eternal gratitude as they headed off in the other direction. Two-Bit came straight up to me and Ben.

"He lay a hand on you, Scooter? I'll kill him." Two-Bit loved this game.

"Actually, I just had my way with her in Kevin's car." Ben said this with a completely straight face. My jaw dropped. Ben was not usually the joking type. Two-Bit's reaction was priceless, as he was first shocked that Ben had said it and then overcome by amusement. Obvioulsy he got the joke.

"Oh, come on you guys," Pony couldn't deal with any kind of sexual innuendo at all. Steve knew this and whenever he really wanted Pony to get lost he'd just start talking about what happened between him and some girl. Pony's face would turn red and he'd beat it out of there.

"Have a beer, kid, Two-Bit cracked one open and handed it to Ben. He accepted it and took a sip. I sometimes wondered why Kevin didn't mind Ben drinking or smoking sometimes while Darry would go ballistic if he so much as heard that I had taken a sip or a drag…I guessed it was mostly because I was a girl. Kevin was a good brother, just like Darry, but Ben had a lot more freedom than I did. Darry had the whole gang trained too. Ben had me hold his beer for a minute while he tied his shoe, and I saw both Two-Bit and Pony watching me like a hawk to make sure I didn't sneak a sip. I really had no chance at delinquency, somebody would rat me out in a second.

Kevin gave Ben a few dollars for a soda and I hesitantly went to the back of the car to talk to see if I could get some money from Soda. I wasn't worried about Soda or the girls, it was Steve – he was always aggravated when I was around, especially when they were with girls. I poked my head around the corner of the car and Sandy spotted me.

"Hey, Scout," she said, "Come on around." I really liked Sandy. She was just so… real, I guess. She didn't pretend to be tougher or smarter or prettier than she was – and she held her own in all those areas.

I came around the back of the car. Soda and Steve were arguing about something football-oriented.

"Boys," Sandy said, and rolled her eyes. Evie and I both laughed, which got the boys' attention. Steve had a beer in his hand and now he looked drunker than Two-Bit. He sneered at me.

"Looks like your goddamn pain in the ass kid sister's here, begging for cash," he said.

There was a palpable silence. I felt like I could actually hear Soda's brain processing what had just been said. It was a very uncomfortable silence and, feeling like I had caused it, I decided to end it.

"I'll just see you at home, Soda," I said. "Bye Sandy."

Soda wasn't gonna take it, though. He shoved Steve, hard, against the car.

'What the hell's your problem?" Steve shoved him back.

"My problem is how you just talked about my sister," Soda said. I didn't like how this was going.

"Forget it, Soda," I said.

"No, I won't," he said. "He has no reason to talk about you like that." Soda never really seemed to catch on to how much Steve disliked me and Ponyboy.

"It's fine, Soda. Don't worry about it." Soda was unconvinced.

I moved toward him and looked him in the eye, speaking too quietly for Steve to hear.

"He's drunk, Soda. Just forget it, OK?"

He stared down at me for a minute. "You're something, Scout," he said. He reached in his pocket and passed me a few dollars.

"You too," I said, and turned and left. I grabbed Ben and we walked back to our fancy seats.

The second half was much more exciting. The two teams matched each other touchdown for touchdown, and with only about two minutes remaining Tulsa was making a convincing drive. The whole stadium was alive with anticipation as the huddle broke. I watched Darry run over to his position.

The play started and as the quarterback dodged the defense and looked up I saw Darry sprinting for the end zone, at least two yards ahead of the closest defender. The quarterback spotted him, ducked under a block, and rocketed the ball towards Darry. Unfortunately the pass was a bit too long, and it looked like it might get past him, but somehow Darry sprinted toward it, extended his arms and leaped forward just in time to grab it and gather it in toward his chest. As I screamed out in excitement, however, two huge linemen came out of nowhere, hitting him in midair and slamming him to the ground. I swear I heard bones grinding against each other and suddenly everything was in slow motion.

Darry hit the ground in the end zone, still cradling the ball, and the referees arms went up signaling a touchdown. Then the bodies of both linemen came crashing down on top of him. I stood up, covering my mouth with my hand. The linemen gathered themselves up and climbed off Darry, but he lay still. The linemen both bent down over him and motioned to the sidelines. The Tulsa coaches and trainers went running toward him from the bench and that was enough for me. I jumped from my seat and ran through the crowd down to the concrete barrier, fighting my way down to the end zone. As I got there Darry still lay on the ground, unmoving. I leaned over the barrier and screamed at him, trying to climb over.

"Darry! Get up! Darry!"

I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Soda. He pulled me back over the barrier and held me tight.

"He's OK, Scout. He's OK. Look. He's getting up." I turned again to see Darry slowly getting up, shaking off the hit. The coaches eased him to his feet as the crowd exploded in applause in acknowledgement of his tremendous catch.

I was surprised to realize that my eyes had filled up. I had been more scared than I had realized. With Mom and Dad around, I had never felt scared about Darry getting hurt playing football, but now I realized that if something ever happened to him, there was no safety net. Then I would be an orphan for real.

Soda sat me up on the barrier. I stared at the field. The rest of the gang was there, behind us.

"He's OK, Scout," Soda was rubbing my back. "Look," he said.

"DARRY!" He yelled.

Darry turned towards us and gave Soda a thumbs-up. Still, I was upset. Relieved, but upset. Soda got it, and turned me around and hugged me.

"It's OK," he repeated. "He's fine, Scout." I took a deep breath and pulled back. I looked at Soda and wiped my eyes quickly. I was OK. It had just scared me, that's all.

"I'm OK," I said.

"Why do you put up with her shit?" Steve suddenly appeared behind Soda. Clearly he was even drunker than before.

"What?" He spun around.

"She's crying about a football game," Steve said. "She's a fucking baby. Why do you even let her come anyways?"

Soda turned but held my hand, still.

"I'm not crying," I said.

"Asshole, that's our brother," he said. "She was worried about him. He's her parent now, practically."

"Whatever," Steve said. "I'm sick of her shit, and your little brother, too. They need to fucking grow up."

Soda let go of my hand and faced Steve. "You watch your mouth," he warned.

Evie, Steve's girlfriend, looked mortified behind him. I was worried Soda was gonna start a fight right there with him, so I pulled him away, toward me.

"Let it go, Soda. I don't care." I didn't. It was no secret to me that Steve didn't like me or Pony hanging around., though this was the first time he had actually admitted it to Soda.

"Yeah," Steve taunted, "Let your goddamn toddler sister tell you what to do. You're a fucking pussy, Curtis."

Soda started toward him again but I held tight to him and Pony came over and took his other arm.

"Let's just go, Soda," Pony said. "This isn't the place to make a scene." I was grateful that he had the presence of mind to take the high road. Pony can be really hotheaded sometimes too, but us having a fight here in the end would only reflect poorly on Darry.

"Get the hell out of here," Soda said to Steve.

"Fine by me. I don't need to be hanging around with little kids anyway. Let's go Evie." He took her arm and pulled her roughly away. I could see her mouth the words "I'm sorry" to Soda and Sandy as she turned to follow Steve.

Two-Bit put his hand on my shoulder. "Don't you pay him no mind, Scooter, he just can't hold his liquor so well as others, such as myself." He was even drunker than Steve, but with none of the negative effects.

"It's fine, Two-Bit. I know he doesn't like me."

"It's not fine," Soda said. "Nobody talks about you like that." Sandy was trying to calm him down by distracting him, for which I was eternally thankful. She was kissing him from behind on the neck and I could see him warming up to the distraction.

While our argument had transpired, the game had ended. People were filing out past us.

"Let's go see the hero," I said. All the players hung out for a few minutes after the game down in the end zone so parents and friends could congratulate them before they hit the showers.

When we got there, though, Darry was surrounded by a huge crowd and it seemed silly to sit around there waiting when we would see him at home in an hour anyway.

"I think we should just go," Kevin said. I knew he wanted to bring Ben home so he could go out with Kate alone before she had to be home for curfew.

"You know what, Kev?" I said, "I'll just go home with Soda. You guys go ahead."

"You sure?" Ben wasn't thrilled about being in the car alone with them, I could tell.

"Yeah, I should, Ben. Just to calm him down."

"You shouldn't, Scout. Steve was being an asshole. He was right to be pissed off."

"I know. I just… I just wanna go with him and Pony, OK?" Two-Bit had already found himself a ride back to the neighborhood, to Buck Merrill's bar, probably.

"Alright," Ben said, glancing at Kevin and Kate, "but you owe me one."

"I owe you two," I said, and squeezed his hand. "Bye, Ben." I craned my neck around him. "Bye Kevin, bye Kate."

"Seeya Scout," they said, and disappeared into the crowd.

Unfortunately by the time I had said goodbye to them I had lost Soda and Pony in the crowd. I looked for a few minutes, and then not even seeing Darry outside anymore, I figured that I'd better go look for his truck. Soda didn't know I wanted to ride with him, and had he already left, Darry was my last chance for a ride. I certainly didn't want to be calling Tim Shepard for a ride home from the University.

I wandered around the players' lot and found Darry's truck. I wasn't worried it would be locked – I couldn't remember the last time we had locked a vehicle. I opened the door and hopped into the passenger seat. I leaned against the window, using my coat as a barrier against the coldness, and thought about the events of the night. Before too long I heard footsteps and the driver's side door opened.

"Hi,Dar," I said. He nearly jumped a mile in the air.

"Jesus God, Scout, you trying to kill me? You scared the hell out of me."

"Sorry," I said.

"Why didn't you go home with the others?" He asked.

"Well, it's a long story. They didn't just leave me though. I told Kevin I would go with Soda before I told Soda and then he had already left."

"Well, at least it wouldn't have been our fault if you had no ride this time. So did you have Shepard's number with you?"

"Ha, funny, Darry, no."

He started the truck and pulled out. I considered all I could tell him, about sitting in the fancy seats and making up stories about the people, about being scared he was hurt, about the drama with Steve.

"That was a really great catch, Darry." was what I said.