February 28, 1974

"Candy, you're shaking as much as one of those rat terrier dogs," I said, "You have to calm down."

"It's not like its bad shaking! It's nervousness. A good nervousness, at that," Candy said defensively.

"Well can try to stop happy nervous shaking?" Evie asked her in a desperate tone, "It's kinda hard to help you get ready with all your shaking."

"Well, excuse me for being nervous. I am just getting married in an hour and a half." She crossed her arms over her chest.

Candy and Soda's wedding. To be honest, we've all been waiting for this day since we were all in high school. The two of them knew that we were waiting, but they never said anything to encourage us. We still kinda teased them about it as we all got older from time to time, and their cheeks would turn pink out of embarrassment- which is part of the reason we all did it, but they knew we were just busting them. Even when they got engaged and we would mention it to the two of them, their cheeks would still bright pink.

"Where's your dress?" Marilyn asked Candy.

Candy pointed to the closet in the corner of the room. "It's in the bag hangin' on the door," she answered.

Marilyn nodded and went to tend to her dress. "So how many people from your family are coming to the wedding?" Sandy asked as she got Lucy ready to be flower girl.

Candy had a large family. Including her, her parents had five children- her being the oldest and the younger four all being her younger brothers. Her mother had four siblings and her father had six siblings- so she had a lot of cousins. She told me exactly how many first cousins she had once, I forgot though, but I can promise you there were a lot of them. Now granted, not all of them were at her wedding, but she was close with a lot of them so whoever she was close with was definitely coming. Then her parents had said she should invite a lot of her other family members and such. In summary, there were a lot of people from Candy's family.

For Soda's family that were invited, it was his two brothers of course and Marilyn and Cherry. Then me and Keith of course, cause we might as well be related to him too. Then Steve of course since they were best friends, then of course Evie cause they had become really good friends. Then Sandy and Danny since they were technically in laws since Marilyn and Sandy were cousins and Marilyn married Darry and whatever the connections were. Then he invited Keilah and her boyfriend Daniel, and then Mrs. Mathews too since everyone was close with her now.

Candy shrugged. "I don't really remember at the moment. I have it written down on a piece of paper where my parents are, so they know, at least. Either way, a lot of people," she answered Sandy.

"Is your dad gonna 'hand you over' to Sodapop?"

"Yeah. I'm his only daughter and according to my mom, he's always dreamed of the day he'll be able to hand me over to a guy he liked and trusted. Thankfully, he does."

"I think it's impossible not to like Soda," I chuckled.

Candy laughed. "I remember the first time he met my mom, he kept flattering her and complimenting her on everything from her appearance to our house, and he meant everything he said, and my mom blushed like a private school girl," she smiled and let out a chuckle.

"That pretty much happened the first time I really got to talk to Soda too," Marilyn chuckled, "Y'all know how in books that take place in the 1800s or somethin' like that, it'll say a girl swooned? Like in those books by people like John Jakes" We all nodded. "Other than Darry, he is the only person that has ever made me swoon, I swear." We all laughed at what she said.

"Random change, but Evie, thank you and Steve for settin' me up with Soda in high school," Candy smiled at Evie.

Evie smiled back, "Aw, thanks, Candy. And you're welcome for setting you up with Mr. Pretty Boy… see? I always told you there were perks bein' friends with me? But did you ever listen? No."

"What do you mean perks?" Sandy asked.

"I was goin' out with Soda's best friend Steve- I still am- and Candy here had a major crush on Soda. When he was ready to date again, he told Steve, who told me and we set them up."

Before anyone could say anything else, Cherry came into the room. "I got the bouquets from the florist," she smiled.

The bouquets she brought matched the dresses that Candy had chosen for us all to wear. She loved the color red, so every one of us had a red dress. Since she made me her maid of honor, my dress was a different shade of red, according to her. To me it did look darker than the other ones and what she had said to me was, "It's more of a scarlet cause it's darker so technically, it's not red." I just smiled and nodded when she had said that.

The bouquets that Cherry had brought were a few red and white carnations put together. Candy's of course was bigger and her's had a few pink carnations in it as well mixed with the red and the white. She didn't like pink, but it went with the bouquet. Then how the guys at a wedding usually have a flower in their lapel or whatever it's called, Soda had a red carnation and the rest of the guys had a white carnation. The only other man who had a red carnation was Candy's father, and he had both a red and a white one.

A lot of the other woman who was invited had either a red or white carnation. Candy's mother had two baskets set up in the front entrance so that the women who were invited would take one from the baskets and bring them inside the church sanctuary with them.

"Did you get the headpiece?" Candy asked her.

Cherry nodded and placed it on the table next to where Evie was doing Candy's hair. "I meant to ask you, why is the headpiece so important in your family?" she asked Candy.

Candy shrugged. "I'm not really sure. According to my mom, my great grandmother wore a floral headpiece on her head when she got married, and then he daughter did, and then my mom did and all the other girls in my family who've gotten married on my mom's side have worn one. It's kinda like a tradition I guess. When the girl gets to the front when her dad hands her over, he puts it on her head as some sort of symbolic thing. At least in my family it's like that and it always has been. I didn't want to break the tradition since it's kind of a big deal in my family," she answered with a slight shrug.

"No offense, but it kinda looks like one of those things those hippie girls'll wear sometimes," Evie said cautiously.

"I know it does, and I didn't want to wear it for a while since the hippies protest the war and soldiers. When Soda came back a few times, there were a bunch of hippies at the airport callin' him names. They did it to Keith too, remember, Rain?"

"Unfortunately," I sighed.

"Like I said, only for tradition. If it wasn't tradition in my family, I would have just wore nothin' on my head."

For about an hour after that, we all continued to ger ready. Cherry did everyone's makeup while Evie did everyone's hair. Marilyn continued to tend to everyone's dresses and Sandy did any alterations or adjustments to Marilyn's dress. While Sandy did that, I helped getting Mariah and Lucy ready in their little dresses.

After an hour, there was a knock coming from the other side of the door. "This is Danny," a voice called from the other side, "Are you girls almost ready to start?" Sandy went over to the door and called back through, "Yeah, we'll be out in five minutes!"

We all went out to the hallway where we met up with the guys and Candy's father; he was a really nice guy. I met up with Keith and he smiled when I met up with him. "It's always kinda weird seeing you in a dress," he said with a smile.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "A good weird or a bad weird?" I asked.

"Good weird."

I smiled and kissed his cheek. "Then enjoy it now cause you probably won't see it again till someone else gets married."

As the wedding started, I looked over Steve and Evie's shoulders and saw Soda smiling at the front. He looked nervous, but a happy nervous just like Candy. I turned behind me and saw Candy loop her arm with her dad's.

First to go of any of us was Darry and Marilyn, little Mariah walking as best as she could with the two of them. After them was Ponyboy and Cherry, then it was Steve and Evie, then it was Keith and me. After we all went, Candy's father and she started to walk to the front. When they got there, he placed the headpiece on her head. Candy hugged him tight and he kissed her forehead. He then turned to Soda and said, "Take care of my baby girl, son." Soda smiled and nodded at him as he went to go and sit down.

The service lasted about an hour. During when Soda said his vows, Candy started to tear up. He even paused to say how he thought it was cute that she was tearing up. Evie leaned over to me and whispered, "Good thing I used the right makeup."

After the wedding, Candy's parents had rented a hall for the reception. Her and Soda had tried to convince her parents that they didn't need that at all, but her dad kept saying how he couldn't do all that stuff for her mother when they got married so he wanted to make up for it in a way by doing it for Candy. To be honest, I thought Candy's family relationships with her parents were cute.

At the end of the reception, one of Candy's cousins said she should throw it behind her since it was tradition- and her family was all about tradition. After five minutes, she had agreed and nearly every girl in her family who wasn't married gathered, along with Cherry- only cause Evie grabbed her arm and dragged her over. Marilyn, Sandy and I decided to sit and watch, considering we all had our kids with us.

When Candy turned and threw it behind her, the three of us watched as it flew and landed in Cherry's arms. Candy ran over and said something to her, both of them smiling. I leaned over and nudged Marilyn's arm. "I think you're gonna have another sister in law sooner or later," I chuckled and acknowledged to Cherry.

At first I liked this chapter but as I kept typing I started to hate it. If I ever become a real author with real published books, I'm gonna be like those actors who can't watch their own movies or singers who can't listen to their own music. I'll be an author who can't read their own books.

Anyway, so guess what? I started reading "Tex" this past Monday! I've been waiting for two months to read it! I was reading it last night and Tex gets drunk and says: "what I couldn't figure out was, if drinking made you sick, why anyboy'd want to do it?" and I got so happy cause I always wonder that and I was running around the apartment yelling like "FINALLY SOMEONE ELSE SAID IT THANK YOU S. E. HINTON THIS IS WHY I LOVE YOU." so yeah. I was seriously so happy. And ironically, the dude who play's Tex's older brother Mason in the movie version played James Huntoon in the tv mini series version of John Jakes "North and South", who is the wimpy politician who is married to Patrick Swayze's characters sluttly younger sister and it's gonna be weird seeing him as Mason.

So yeah, anyway- hope you liked the chapter! Peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=