I changed into my best pair of blue jeans, a button up shirt that was dark blue at the top and faded into white with the sleeves rolled up to my elbows and a tie at the front on the bottom, working boots, and my leather cuff bracelet. I was dressing somewhat nice, like I said, I liked making good first impressions.

Suzie, Candy and Evie all were able to come. Evie's parents had met Darry before and trusted him. Candy's parents were ok with it since me and Sodapop would be at the house. Suzie's parents were a little harder to convince. They asked to meet up with Darry so they could make sure he was trustworthy. Her parents were a little over-protective over her since she was the youngest of four, so I guess it was understandable in her case. But after they met up with him, they must've said he was ok considering she was coming.

I sat on the front steps with Sodapop and Ponyboy waiting for Steve and Evie, Candy, Suzie and Two-Bit. Dary went to get Marilyn while the others all said they would walk to the house together. The four came walking up and the three of us stood up. We all were dressed "proper" I guess you could call it. We were all dressed basically the same as we always did, just neater. We couldn't dress too different since she might be coming around more after this and we didn't want her to get used to us being the way weren't. I mean, Darry never actually said if she was from the Soc side of town or the Greaser side of town, so we basically just took a shot in the dark and that's how we decided to dress.

I went over to Two-Bit who was dressed in his usual jeans, Mickey Mouse shirt with cut sleeves, leather jacket and boots. This shirt was blue, I didn't know how many he had, I just knew I'd never seen him really with a different design on a shirt. He kissed me and smiled when he pulled back, "Good evening, Miss Johnson."

I chuckled at him and smiled, "Good evening, Mr Mathews."

"Get a room, you two!" Sodapop teased.

"You shouldn't be talkin' there, pal," Two-Bit teased and Candy's cheeks got pink as she bit back a smile.

"So when's Superman and Lois Lane getting' back?" Steve asked as we all went inside.

Evie rolled her eyes at her boyfriend. "He said none of that tonight, remember?"

He shrugged at her. "Then I'll get it outta my system now."

"What side of town is she from?" Ponyboy asked.

We all exchanged looks. "Darry never said," I shrugged.

"Even if she is a Soc, she couldn't be that bad if she's with Darry. Right?" Suzie gave a hopeful look.

Two-Bit shrugged, "We can only wait and find out."

Darry came back with Marilyn about ten minutes after we all got there. I'd be lying if I didn't think she was beautiful. She had red hair the same color as Lucille Ball except it was straight and ended at her shoulders, hazel eyes, and was a little shorter than Darry. She was wearing a white skirt, red pullover with sleeves ending at her elbows, white flats, red shoulder bag and red string bracelet… well, I'll give her points for her appearance.

"Everyone, this is Marilyn," Darry said and put his hands on her shoulders. She smiled and said a quiet "hello" as he introduced us one by one. You couldn't really tell unless you were a girl, but she looked nervous and uneasy about being in the room with everyone, especially the younger guys. Evie, Candy, Suzie and me decided to take her outside to the front porch. Kinda to ease her obvious nerves that we ofur could see, but that the guys couldn't. As soon as we sat down, she obviously eased up. "So you from around here?" Evie asked as we sat down.

Marilyn shook her head. "I've only been here about four years."

"Where'd ya live before here?" I asked.

"California… I went to this high school called Rydell High, my family moved here when I was sixteen. I have a cousin Sandy there too."

We all thought of Soda's old Sandy. "We know a Sandy. Is your cousin a blonde?" Suzie asked.

Marilyn nodded. "Yeah, she's a blonde. She graduated from that school in '59 and moved there from Australia in with me and my parents. Is that the Sandy you know?"

We all relaxed. "We know a different Sandy, she moved to Florida with her grandmother a little while back. She used to date one of Darry's brothers," Evie explained.

I looked at Candy, who looked uncomfortable talking about Soda's Sandy. "So, how'd you and Darry meet?" I asked Marilyn to try to change the subject. Candy gave me a small smile and I nodded at her.

"Well, we had the same classes in sophomore year at school cause of our last names. Plus, he played football and I was a cheerleader so we saw each other a lot. We talked sometimes, but not a whole lot. I actually had a crush on him all throughout junior and senior year," she chuckled and her cheeks got pink, "But after graduation, it was hard to keep in contact. Then I heard about him and his brothers with their parents, then his youngest brother and that boy so I didn't make any effort to contact him cause I figured he already had enough to handle. I went back to California for college and then I came back here, and I ran into him the other day, and here we are."

"Are you and him a thing?" Candy smiled.

She bit back a smile. "I think so."

The guys all called us back into the house not long after. Darry looked just as nervous as Marilyn did before we took her outside. Maybe the guys all talked with him to calm him a bit? I don't know. But knowing those guys, they probably didn't. Sure, Two-Bit once talked with Ponyboy and Johnny, we all knew it, but that was like, the only "girl advice" those guys ever really had. Any of 'em. Plus those two were the youngest other than me- but I wasn't a guy. Any girl advice those guys wanted, they always came to me.

While we were eating, poor Marilyn was bombarded with questions. Mostly by Sodapop and Ponyboy. "We heard about Rydell High. Your cousin was there the year that dance was on that bandstand show, right?" Two-Bit asked.

She nodded. "Yeah, her fiancé, Danny Zuko, won that year. But with someone else cause there was this whole big thing, but they're fine."

All the boys except Darry sat there with awestruck faces, mostly Soda and Steve. "Wait, wait, wait… your cousins' fiancé is Danny Zuko?" Steve asked.

Marilyn nodded and chuckled a bit at his excitement. "Yeah, why?"

"We heard about that drag race he was in at that place! Thunder Road I think you all call it? Someone we know from work was there in California and watched from a distance and told us about it," Sodapop smiled.

Evie, Candy, Suzie and me all exchanged looks. Marilyn chuckled again at the excitement shown by the two best friends. Darry gave a nervous chuckle. Two-Bit and Ponyboy looked at the two smiling like little kids who had seen something for the first thing and automatically loved it. "Well, him and my cousin are coming down here sometime soon, maybe you two could meet them." Marilyn gave a smile at the two happy teenagers.

Evie and Candy gave each other weird looks. The smiles on the two faces grew at what Marilyn had said. Ponyboy gave a look of slight confusion since he'd never actually been to a drag race, only heard about what actually goes on at them. Two-Bit looked interested, but not nearly as much as the other two. Suzie and I looked at each other and gave a slight chuckle at the scene in front of us.

…two hours later…

Dinner with Marilyn went well. She was really nice. Her, EVie, Suzie, Candy and me all planned to have a day without the guys around. I wasn't too keen on the idea on spending the whole day without 'em. Don't get me wrong, I liked those girls, but I'd grow up with those guys and still was just more comfortable around them.

Everyone except me and Two-Bit left the house. They'd all gone to walk their girlfriend's home. Two-Bit was helping me clean in the kitchen and dining room. "Marilyn seems nice," I said.

He nodded. "When you all were outside, Darry told the rest of us what part of town she's from. And she ain't no Greaser."

"She's a Soc?"

He shook his head. "Middle class, as what most people call it."

"Well that makes life easier." He nodded and I saw him frowning a bit. He was quiet, and that was odd. Never had I seen him like that other than a few times, and it was when something was bothering him. I walked over to him and gave a concerned look. "What's wrong?"

He looked down. "Ya hear about Curly Shepard?"

"He's still in the reformatory, ain't he?"

He shook his head. "Kid got drafted…"

My eyes widened a bit. "Curly was sent to Vietnam?"

He nodded. "Yeah… Tim told me yesterday when he came over to the garage."

"I thought you and Curly didn't get along too well?"

He chuckled. "Shoot, no one gets along well with the Shepard's. They don't even get along with each other."

I nodded. "That's true… but what're trying to say?"

"He got drafted, Rain… more and more people are getting drafted every day."

I started to panic at what I assumed he was saying. My mouth gaped open and my voice was quiet, "You're not saying you…"

He shook his head quickly. "No, no I didn't… but I'm scared. I mean, it could happen, ya know."

I eased up a bit but was still nervous, and tried to hide it. "You won't..."

"But I'm eighteen, it could happen. I just don't-"

"Can we please not talk about this right now?" My voice was still quiet and I stared at the ground. I could tell he was scared at the whole thing and that it could happen, cause it really could, but he just kinda sprung it on me and I wasn't ready to talk about this sort of thing.

He sighed. "I'm just scared…"

"I know… I am too… but whatever happens, happens… and we'll get through it."

You can probably see where I'm going with this… my friends who I ask for suggestions and ideas and their thoughts on things said it would be a good thing to have that. I mean, it was my idea, and I was telling them cause I want it to go along right with the times and right around here was when the Vietnam war was taking place and people were really getting drafted. But let me just make this clear, don't nobody come here saying that I'm making fun of war and the military and veterans cause I'M NOT. Most people have no respect for veterans or active soldiers and it makes me sick to my stomach cause these people in the military risked and are risking their lives for millions of people they don't even know and the fact that there are people who don't appreciate that makes me sick. Both my grandfathers were in WWII and Korea, my one grandfather (my dad's dad) was held as a POW (prisoner of war) in WWII and when he was sent back home he weighed 80 pounds, that's not good for an adult, not really anyone, and especially for a man with his height and his health conditions. And there's another man me and my dad see in Passaic named Anthony who is a homeless soldier and we always see him and help him out whatever ways we can and it breaks my heart seeing him there without a home… so NOBODY come and say that I'm disrespecting soldiers and veterans and their families with anything that happens in this story in the future, cause I'm not.

Sorry for that little rant, just people who don't respect them just really piss me off… anyway, expect a lot of things that were problems in the late sixties leading into the seventies in this coming up so it goes along with the times as things and people were changing, music was changing, mindsets were changing, just everything was different. There were hippies, mods, the Beatles, drugs, Woodstock in '69, just craziness.

Again, wow… long author's note (blame my Italian parents and genetics)