June 1, 1972

"I think the train is running late," I sighed.

Candy crossed her arms over her chest. "I think so too," she nodded, "You doin' ok?"

I nodded. "Tired, but that's not unusual lately." I let out a light chuckle and so did Candy.

The two of us sat on a bench leaning against the station. Ponyboy would've been there to greet his brother, and Cherry with him, but they still were away at school. Steve and Evie were inside the station. Darry and Marilyn would've been there, but Mariah had a cold.

Cherry and Ponyboy now both went to the University of Oklahoma. Cherry had already gotten her bachelor's degree, but she wanted to go higher cause she wanted to be a pediatric doctor, but she couldn't go there right away due to money issues. She had to wait a while before she was able to work out everything with the money and everything else involved to get at least a little bit of a scholarship. She did manage to get one, it wasn't very big, but it was enough that her family could afford to pay the rest of within a few years.

"Ok, so we asked one of the workers why the train is late," Evie said as her and Steve came out from the station toward me and Candy.

"The train got pushed back an hour cause of the train before theirs," Steve explained.

"That explains the past twenty minutes," Candy huffed.

Evie nodded. "And they said inside that the train would be an hour to an hour and a half late cause of it."

Candy and I both exchanged annoyed looks. "So we have to wait here for at least another hour?" I asked.

Steve nodded. Candy sighed, "Well this sucks."

The four of us went inside after that to kill some time. I went to the payphone along with Candy to make some calls- to Darry and Marilyn, Mrs. Mathews and Keilah- saying their train was late, so the two would be getting there later than any of us planned. From the reaction from the four, they were annoyed by it.

Would you be happy if it happened to you?

Steve and Evie left a little while after. They both agreed that since the trains were delayed that as soon as they got there, it should just be us there for them. I didn't quite understand their logic, but I decided it would be easier to smile and nod to the two. From what I could tell from Candy, she had the same idea as I did to just smile and nod as the two walked off and away from the station.

Like we were told, the train came an hour and a half later than it was supposed to. Steve and Evie were long gone by them, so it was still just me and Candy there waiting for the two. When the train stopped, the two of us got up from the bench we were sitting on and walked to the edge of the platform, or at least as far as we were allowed to go behind a line.

The train came to a full stop and the doors on each car slid open. Candy and I knew that the two would walk out from the same car at the same time, we just didn't know which car of the long train it would be from. It was a long train with what looked to be about twenty different cars attached. It also didn't help that everyone got out of the train nearly all at one time. With everyone coming out all at once, it made it even harder to find them- not to mention me and Candy were pretty short so that didn't help at all either.

Till we heard two people yelling, "Rain!" and "Candy!"

The two of us turned in the direction of the two familiar voices and saw Two-Bit and Soda close to running to us. We me them halfway and had a very cliché movie scene: a kiss and hugging each other tight. Yes, like I said, cliché- but those types of things were based off of real life events or things that happen in everyday life or experiences… right?

"You two seem happier than usual when you get back," Candy smiled.

I smiled and nodded in agreement, "Yeah, what's goin' on?"

Two-Bit handed us a folded up a piece of paper. His smile was still in place right along with Soda who said, "Read it, but not out loud." I looked at Candy, who shrugged, then unfolded the paper. Candy leaned over to read it too:

We can't tell anyone else this but our commanding officer let us tell you two. He heard that next year both sides of Vietnam and the United States are gonna be signing a cease fire. He said he may be wrong but he heard that from his own commander by accident. But cause of it he let our whole unit go on leave for a long time, depending on the cease fire.

Candy and I both looked at the two of them with curious expressions. Two-Bit and Soda just smiled and nodded as our answers. "This is so great!" Candy yelled and hugged Soda, while I did the same to Two-Bit.

Once we all left, Soda and Candy went to go see Darry and Marilyn since he was back while Two-Bit and I went back to our house. At first he couldn't get over how I had gotten since when he first left. Lucky for him, Evie made me take a picture every week while he was gone so it was like he didn't miss a thing. I wasn't too fond of the idea but unfortunately, I gave everything consent to do what we all did to her to me- and she approved of Evie's idea. I was outnumbered.

"So are you gonna continue with it till the end?" Two-Bit teased when he finished looking at the printed pictures.

I couldn't help but let out a chuckle, "How 'bout once every month instead of once every week?"

He chuckled and nodded. "That's a deal."

"Good… so how exactly did your commanding officer find out about the cease fire?" My voice was quiet even though we were in the house.

"Well first, he's got lots of connections. Then one day he was in the offices and he overheard it from the next room. Not much has been goin' on anyway, so he told us we didn't have to go back unless he called us or somethin'."

"Is it just you and Soda that know? Or the other guys in your unit know too?"

"A few other guys there know, but not all of 'em. I asked if I could at least tell you, and Soda did the same for Candy and he said yeah, as long as it was just you two and that you two don't tell no one else, alright?" I nodded and he did the same.

I asked if we could go for a walk after that and he agreed. I don't really know why, but both Marilyn and Mrs. Mathews said it would be good. I had actually gotten pretty fond of walking in the last few months. Candy would always walk with me, and sometimes Mrs. Mathews and Keilah would come too. Marilyn said she would eventually, when Darry wasn't so nervous to be left along with Mariah. Cherry did when she would come home from school and had no work to do. Evie said she would start to come when it was the middle of August, considering the date was in the beginning of September.

I stopped walking and looked at Two-Bit. "I just realized something."

He gave a look that was both confusion and nervousness, "Nothin' bad, right?"

I shook my head and smiled. "No, of course not."

He nodded and obviously calmed down. "Ok… so what's goin' on?"

"Ok… it's June right?"

He nodded again. "Right."

"And the due date is in September right?"

Another nod. "Right…?"

I let out a nervous chuckle. "That's three months."

He thought for a moment till he looked back at me. "We have three months, " he repeated. I looked back at him and for some reason the two of us busted out laughing. People all throughout the park started to look at us kinda weird, but we didn't care and just kept laughing despite everyone's looks.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't scared. Don't get me wrong, I was excited too. But I didn't know anything about how to raise a kid. Sure, Two-Bit helped with his sister and he still does a lot, but she's a girl. What if it was a boy? You'd think I'd know how to handle a boy considering I spent the majority of my life surrounded by guys, especially these guys, ever since Ponyboy was a toddler. I even remember helping Mrs. Curtis with him sometimes when I was little… maybe this would be the same?

This chapter is kinda corny and for some reason, and I had to force myself to type this chapter… I don't know why, I just did.

Anyway- guess what?! I'm going to an Elvis Presley impersonator concert on June 20 with my mom's cousins wife(I think my second cousin?) and their daughter's daughter (I think second cousin once removed?) and their son's son (irony, daughter's daughter, and son's son)!... I have no shame whatsoever, and you know why? Cause he's a hunk-a, hunk-a burnin' love (that was so corny).

Anyway, hope y'all liked this chapter! Plus it's almost summer so yay! Peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=