Hi there, everyone! I am blown away by the support and followers I've received! I'm sorry I haven't updated in about a million years...I was struggling with continuing my story from where it left off, and I realized I should delete the end of this third chapter. If you read it again, the end will be a little different and more open for me to work with. This isn't exactly an update, but as soon as I finish this, I will be writing my next chapter. Thanks for your reviews and your alerts!

During the day, our friend July can be quite unforgiving, but the evenings are usually lovely. As the sun sinks lower toward the treetops, the air is warm with a fresh breeze: perfect weather for walks, ice cream, the drive-in, and enjoying a sit on the front porch with family.

This would be my very first time spending time with just a boy and me. I didn't show much interest in boys when I was in high school-all they ever cared about was sports and whispering vulgar things about girls. Just when I thought one would be different, speaking to me kindly in a class, I would see him with his friends and he would be joining in their jeering. I knew for some of them it was just an act, to appear cool to their friends, and that was the worst part for me-that one would care so much about being liked, being like everybody else, that it would destroy the very wonderful things about them that set them apart from the crowd.

Because this was my first date (Or, whatever it was, I still wasn't quite sure) I didn't know what to expect. I kept smoothing my yellow dress with my sweaty palms and fussing with my hair. During the day, I kept it in a tight braid that fell down my back, but Louise thought it would be nice for Darrel to see my hair down. My hair is thick, wavy, and has a mind of its own, thus why I kept it in a braid in the first place. I wasn't used to it being all around my face, and kept pushing it over one shoulder.

My mom always worried about being late and drilled into our heads at a young age that we MUST always be five minutes early, to everything. I had a tendency to be tardy whenever I traveled by myself-I was just very easily distracted-so I always tried to plan on leaving ten minutes early.

I absolutely loved this garden I always walked by on the way to the Tasty Freeze. A nice lady named Mrs. Harrisburg owned it, and it was so big and beautiful that she would sell her flowers for people to use in their weddings. Her daughter babysat some neighborhood kids and was a regular at my taco stand. She was tending to it when I passed, and we grinned at each other. "These cornflowers are coming in lovely, Caroline! I'll make sure to send some with Mary when she takes the little ones to your stand on Monday," she promised.

"Thank you so much, ma'am! I would love that!" I waved goodbye and kept on my merry way. As I was leaving, I noticed a group of boys turn onto the street in front of me. They were loud and a little rough, pushing each other, giving friendly punches and belly laughing. They didn't look enough alike to be brothers, but they sure acted like it.

"Darry said he wasn't comin' cos he had somewhere to be tonight," The shortest one explained, kicking a beer can down the street. His hands were shoved in his pockets. My heart jumped a little bit. Darry? Isn't that what Sodapop called Darrel?

"Maybe ol' Superman's afraid of his muscles deflating and went to the gym!" hooted a redhead with a skip in his step.

"Naw man, I think he's on a DATE!" I recognized that voice. Sodapop? It had to be him. There was no one else in the world with that golden hair.

"Nu-uh!" The first boy replied, shaking his head. "Where would he have met a girl, Soda? All he does his work! He doesn't go anywhere!"

"I'm tellin' ya, Pony, it HAS to be a date," Soda replied confidently, turning to the red-haired boy. "Before we stopped by to pick you up, Two-Bit, I saw him hunting in his room for something. And then I smelled COLOGNE!" He giggled to himself.

I felt my heart smile at that. I couldn't wait to see Darrel. I was debating on telling him I had been behind his little brother and his friends on my way over. I hoped they weren't on their way to the Tasty Freeze. "Maybe you're right, man," the fourth boy, a dark-haired, scowling thing, snickered as they stopped at the bus bench. I hurried past them, trying not to make eye contact, but out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Soda studying me as I passed. If he recognized me, he didn't say anything, but I thought I saw a smile playing on his lips.

As I approached the Tasty Freeze, I saw Darrel sitting on a picnic table outside. I had never seen him out of his work clothes, or looking so clean! He was freshly showered, in dark blue jeans and a black T-shirt. He looked so much more relaxed. He smiled at me as I walked up to him, his eyes taking in my dress. "Hey, Caroline. Wanna go get some ice cream?"

Darrel insisted on paying for my strawberry cone, and he ordered a chocolate fudge one. We sat out at the table quietly for few minutes, licking our rapidly melting ice cream. I didn't know how to bring up what I had heard on my way over, but I hoped to someday meet his friends. They had seemed like a jolly bunch. I was just about to ask about them when he suddenly spoke up. "So. What else do you like to cook?"

I smiled. "Oh, everything! I just love trying out new recipes, new techniques. But my favorite things to cook are breakfast foods! I could eat breakfast all day long!" My mind ran away with me for a minute, wondering if this date would go anywhere, making plans of what I could cook for Darrel if he asked me to be his girl someday, and then I remembered he was sitting right next to me. "What's your favorite food?"I asked, trying to shake my hopeful imaginings.

He thought for a moment as chocolate ice cream dribbled down his large, tan hand. The cone looked so small in his hand. He smiled softly, and a little bit sadly. "I love a good chicken pot pie. My mom used to make it for me on my birthday." He was quiet after that, looking thoughtful, and I pondered what my next move would be. I didn't want to talk about his family just yet-for most people, family is not a very complicated topic, but for him, it seemed to be something to save for another time. Especially on account of the fact that he didn't strike me as much of a talker.

He took a deep breath and said, "You told me that you want to be a teacher...AND open a restaurant? Tell me more about that." As I gushed over the adorable ways of children, making people feel at home, and making sure people who needed food had it, his sea colored eyes never left my own. They were quiet eyes, sad eyes, maybe with a little bit of hardness to them. I liked the way they crinkled in the corners when he laughed at some of the things that I had heard kids say, and he smiled and said, "I bet you'd be great at that," when I told him I just wanted people to feel loved and cared for at my restaurant. I rambled on and on, and he seemed genuinely interested in what I was saying.

After about a half an hour, we both were starting to get a little restless, and he suggested we walk around the block.

"Okay, Darrel," I began as we walked past Mrs. Harrisburg's garden. She glanced at Darrel, raised her eyebrows, and winked at me, all without him noticing. I disguised my laugh as a weird sneeze, which he promptly blessed me for. "I just told you all about my dreams. Now, I wanna know about yours."

He looked uncertain. "I'm not sure. I've never really had dreams." He thought for a moment, and then chuckled. "In high school, I wanted to be a football star."'

He was tall and broad-shouldered. His arm muscles bulged, and he had the solid, sturdy build of a football player. "Well, I bet you could be!" I encouraged, but then I thought about how kind and quiet he was to me, and how gently he had treated Sodapop when he was hurt. I wondered how aggressive he was able to be. The boys looked like greasers, so Darrel must have been one, too. But greasers and Socs get in fights all the time, and Darrel didn't seem like the type to fight.

Darrel was still thinking, as he noticed I was waiting for him to continue. "I think I'd like to be anything that helps people. Like a doctor, or a police officer." He paused and grimaced a little bit. "Or a social worker."

"It is a beautiful and selfless endeavor to spend your time serving your fellow man," I replied, quoting my father.

Darrel and I wandered for another hour, talking about what it might be like to do different jobs, favorite foods, and the Pritchard house project. As much as I tried to set it up, Darrel never really talked about himself. I was going to wait and see if there would be a second date to talk about family. I really wanted to tell him all about my sweet sisters who wanted to meet him so badly.

"Well, I need to be heading home," I said around seven. He was hard to read-I couldn't tell if he was sad to see me go or not.

"Alrighty."

We both stood there staring at each other, each waiting to see what would happen next. "I really enjoyed tonight. I liked getting to know you better," I offered.

"Yeah. Yeah," he stammered. "Yeah." I waited to see if he had more to say. He looked so frustrated with himself, and I wasn't sure what he was trying to do. "Me too." He paused, his eyes darting around. "I'll see you on Monday?"

"I think you will," I replied, trying not to chuckle. "Bye, Darrel."

"Bye, Caroline." We were both going in opposite directions. I turned to walk back toward my house. I remembered that he was the kind of person that glanced back at you when you were walking away, and when I turned, I saw that he was, but he shyly waved and quickly turned back around, heading toward the east side of town.