"Well, this is awkward." I said, staring at the screen.

"Rayna, care to explain?" Soda asked.

"Yeah, just not right now."

Darry gave me this look that just made me give in, "Okay fine. I ran away."

"Why?" Dally asked.

"Because of people." I said, looking down.

"What people?" Darry asked.

"My dad, and cruel people at school. My dad was nice, before my mom died. Then he turned into an alcoholic, he just completely ignored me. Like people at school. Sense I'm Bipolar, I go to counseling. A lot of people at school think ADHD is just an excuse to not do homework or something. They think Bipolar is a disease you can catch, which it's not. People just take me as a manic that should be put in an insane asylum," I explained, keeping my head down, "I couldn't take it anymore. As soon as I got home from school, I packed up and left, and now I'm here. You going to send me back aren't you?"

"No, but we will figure this out." Darry said.

I looked up and smiled at all of them, "Thanks, I would probably be dead by now if it wasn't for you guys."

"No problem, kid." Dally said, messing up my hair.

"Hey, hey don't mess up my beauty." I said, fixing my hair.

They laughed. "After all you went though you still smile and laugh. I respect that," Soda said.

"Thanks, I like how you're always happy too." If only they knew. I might show that I'm happy but on the inside it's killing me, everything is killing me.

"Alright let's go to bed it's getting late," Darry said.

That night I fell asleep on the couch, and woke up with a hard thump.

"Get off of me." Dally said, pushing off.

"Sorry, didn't see you there." I said, laughing.

"Sure you didn't."

I turned serious, "No really, I was sleeping I couldn't see." I finished and broke into laughter, uncontrollably.

"It's not that funny." Dally grumbled, and got up to go to the kitchen.

"Yeah it's not that funny, that you have to wake me up." Steve said, rolling on his side, facing the opposite direction of me.

I crawled over to him and said loudly in his ear, "I'm so sorry Steve I didn't mean to wake you up."

He grabbed his pillow behind his head and wacked me in the head making me fall onto the couch.

I grabbed the pillow I used and wacked him in the head repeatly, until he got up and started hitting me with the pillow.

We were laughing so hard we woke up everyone else in the house. Two-bit told us to shut up but stopped when he saw what we were doing and joined in.

Pony and Soda came out joined in too. Johnny just sat in the chair, he slept in last night watching us.

We were having a pretty good fight, all man for himself. Until Darry came out, that is. He stopped everything and we had breakfast.

I wasn't very hungry, I'm never hungry in the morning. I remember that, that made my mom the most mad, when I didn't eat breakfast.

I would try to eat in the morning, try to force it down, but I ended up throwing it up later on.

"Aren't you going to eat?" Darry asked, eyeing my untouched food.

"I'm not that hungry." I said, no I wasn't hungry at all.

"Just try it, Soda didn't cook it." Pony said, trying to make me feel better.

"Nah, I think I'm going to go take a shower, where's the bathroom, exactly?" Soda lead me to the bathroom, down the hallway.

I ran upstairs got my clothes, and hopped in the shower. After I got out, I brushed though my hair, making it straight, letting it naturally curl on its own.

I went out to the living room, and the 'news' was on, once again. This time my father was on there, "Please, come home. Please who ever has her, bring her home,"

I grabbed 2 pillows put it to my ears, curled up in a ball on the couch, started rocking back and forth, while humming. It helps me calm down.

I could still hear my father through, "I got a 1000 dollar award, if anyone has her, bring her home. If you're out there baby, please come home. We can work this out."

The news reporter came back on, "Such, a sad story. I hope the police find her,"

"I hope they don't." I commented, still rocking back and forth.

Darry turned off the TV all together, seeing what it's doing to me. I felt a hand on my back, and I squirmed.

"Whoa, calm down." I looked up, Soda was sitting on the arm of the couch.

"I don't like people touching me." I admitted, I stopped humming, and put the pillows down.

"Why are you rocking back and forth like that?" Dally asked.

"Because I can….Because it calms me down, and it's also a habit, so you might see me doing it for no reason, but don't be alarmed, I'm not going crazy, yet."

I stopped, and stretched out on the couch.

"I'm bored." I whined, trying to get the hair out of my face by blowing it.

"How about we play some football, we can finally have even teams." Steve suggested.

"Is there a chance I could get hurt in this game called football?" I asked, trying to sound like I never heard of it.

"You never played football?" Soda asked in shock.

"Yeah I played it before with my older cousins, which are all old and out of their house now, but yeah I used to play it."

"Well, yeah there is a likely chance you will get hurt." Two-bit said, looking disappointed.

I jumped up on the couch, pointing a finger in the air and yelled, "Then the football field, or where ever were playing at, awaits!"

I jumped off the couch running to the door, stopping looking back at the gang and said, "I don't know where this place is."

"Come on kid." Dally said, pushing me out the door.

We walked most of the way. I would walk in front with Soda, Two-bit, and Steve, but every now and then I would skip up in front, and after I got far I stopped and waited for them to catch up.

"I never met a kid with so much energy before in my life," I heard Dally say.

"Thanks, that's a compliment." I yelled back.

He grinned at me as I skipped in front of everyone again. I saw a car coming down the road, but ignored it.

The gang ran up to me, all of a sudden. "What?" I asked.

"Those are socs." Soda said, pointing at the car that passed me. It was a blue mustang.

"This is our territory." Dally growled.

"Great, so tell them to leave." I said, looking at the gang.

"Wish it was that easy kid." Steve said.

I looked across at the socs, watching us from their car. I grabbed Soda's hand, "Come on there's only like 4 or 5 of them and there's 8 of us. If they pull anything we can handle it. In the meantime, let's play some football."

Soda looked down at me and gave me an innocent smile. I smiled right back and grabbed Steve's hand too, and started to pull both of them down the side walk.

I pulled them, while walking backwards. Watching the gang behind Soda and Steve laugh.

"So you guys been friends for a while?" I asked.

They smiled at each other and Steve said, "Since grade school we been best buddies."

"Really? That's so sweet!" I said, innocently.

"You're a cute kid you know that?" Soda asked.

"First of all I'm not a kid, and second of all I might be cute now but just you wait, when I get older I going to be on the news for murders, and trying to destroy the world." I said, seriously, which made them laugh so hard they fell on the field we were on now.

"What? What did I say that was so funny?" I asked.

"Nothing kiddo, their just immature." Darry said, which was the only that didn't fall down laughing.

"Tell me about it." I said grabbing the football from Dally, and sticking my tongue out at him.

Dally chased me, until I climbed up a tree.

"Come down." Dally demanded.

"Okay." I said. I was 4 branches up, and jumped off from there.

"Aren't you scared of you know….dying?" Two-bit asked.

"Nope, should I be?" I asked.

"Yeah kind of." Two-bit said.

"Uh…guys look whose coming." Pony said, pointing at the group of socs we saw earlier in the car.

"Hey greasers." The leader, well what looked like a leader said in a cruel voice.

"Yeah?" I asked cheerfully.

"I wasn't talking to you." He snapped.

"Actually you were talking to us greasers, I'm a greaser. So that means you were talking to me too, thank you very much." I said, putting my hands on my hips.

"You have a smart mouth on you." Another soc boy said.

"Thanks, I wish I could say the same for all of you. Wait, no I don't."

"You're going to regret that." They said.

"That's funny, that's what everyone else said too, but I'm still here, and I'm not going to say if their still here or not. Cause I really don't know if it's possible for a 13 year old to go to the cooler for murder, I mean helping them sleep peacefully." I said, smiling.

"Watch your mouth grease." The leader warned, in a threatening voice, which I ignored.

"See now your just confusing us all. First you say I'm not a greaser then you say I am. You're hurting my brain." I said, grabbing my head. I tend to show off when I'm mouthing someone off.

The soc gave me this look like he wanted to kill me, so I smiled and waved at him. Maybe he just needs a hug, I thought.

Someone tapped on my shoulder, I looked behind me to find Johnny.

"Yes Johnny?" I asked.

"I don't think you should do that." Johnny said, in a quiet voice.

"You should listen to him, if you know what's good for you." A soc said.

"Shhh…" I said, holding a finger up to him, "He's trying to speak here."

"Does it look like I care?" the soc sneered.

"I don't know, does it look like I'm looking at your face?" I asked, facing the opposite direction of them.

"You should, I think you will like what you find."

I broke down in laughter right then and there, "Awe he's so ugly when he's trying to sound tough."

The socs couldn't take it anymore, the leader walked up to me, and lifted me off the ground.

Dally punched him right away, making him let go of me. Soda helped me up, "Are you alright?"

"Yep, besides the fact I been dropped." I said, cracking a smile.

I pulled Dally back before he could throw another punch.

"Hey I was about to break his nose." Dally yelled.

I patted him on the shoulder, "Now Dally that's not very nice. Anyways we all can't pay a hospital bill or bail you out." I pulled him away while the socs stalked off to their mustang, the leader holding up his middle finger at us.

"Oh and beep to you too." I yelled.

"Did you just say beep?" Dally asked.

"Yep!" I said, proudly.

"Maybe it's not such a good idea to play football." Pony said.

"Yeah maybe we should just go home." Johnny suggested.

I looked at him, and just stood there and stared.

"Why are you staring at Johnny?" Soda asked me.

"Because I think he's been possessed." I said.

"Why do you say that?" Dally asked, getting interested.

"Because words came out of his mouth," I threw my hands up in the air, "It's a miracle."

Dally smiled, like a real one, not one of his favorite smirks or grins. I hugged him, "Awe you smiled, the world just loves me today."

I let go and gave Johnny a light hug, "I love your voice, it's so soft and quiet, but at the same time it's raspy and rough. It's just-I love it!"

"Jesus, have you ever been told to calm down?" Steve asked me.

"I don't know how many times exactly, I lost track at 4, I don't like counting." I started to skip to the sidewalk.

"Come on, I'm hungry." I added.

"Finally you have an appetite." Darry said.

"It comes and goes," I said.

We walked back to the Curtis and had lunch, I actually wanted to watch the news so I went to the living room once I got my PB&J.

I turned the TV on, the news was already on. They were finishing up the weather. So I ate, and when I finished the new reporter came on.

She said, "Updates on the missing 13 year old, Rayna Hunter. The award's been lifted to 1500. Her father is now included in the search-"

I turned off the TV, my jaw dropped, "He can't do that. Can he?" I asked the gang.

"Yeah, he can." Soda said.

The doorbell went off then. I curled up into a ball, fearing the worst. Darry went to get it and came back saying, "It's for you."

SORRY FOR THE ERRORS. R&R.