Fortunately, they didn't and he could still drive to meet Cherry later that night. He noticed that she didn't tell him when he was supposed to come. Cherry was just like that sometimes. He pulled up, and thankfully she was still there standing around by the stop sign. He leaned his head out the window and yelled at her. "Hey gorgeous! Don't make me run you over!" She flipped him off.

Cherry sauntered her way over to the passenger side and took her seat beside Dallas. "You are so late it's not even funny." She greeted, pointing a finger at him, and this time it wasn't her middle one.

"I can't be late when you never told me what time I was supposed to be here." He reminded her.

"I didn't? I could've sworn I-"

"It don't matter. I'm just glad you didn't make me pick you up at your house. I hate your old man. And I just have this funny feeling he thinks the same about me."

"Yeah? We'll he's not really my favorite person now either." Dallas' turn to give a knowing smile, but this one was a sympathetic, "yeah, I know that sucks" smile. No happiness in it at all.

He tried to change the subject. "So what's in the bag dollface?" She was holding a large purse, covered in moth holes and completely faded.

Her emotion returned back to normal. She seemed really anxious to see how Dallas would respond to her idea. That in itself worried Dallas. She pulled out two strips of black material, each bearing two large circular holes in them.

"What's that supposed to be?" He knew what they were; he just hoped he was wrong.

"Masks. I have some hardware in here too." She pulled out a rusty old sledgehammer, then a yet rustier metal pipe. The last item to come out of that purse was the most alarming. A small jet-black revolver now lay on her lap.

"Great. My girlfriend's packing heat." He told the steering wheel. He turned to face Cherry again. "And just what do you plan on doing with those!"

"The gun is only for emergencies. I don't plan on using it if I don't have to. As far as the other weapons, one of them is for you and the other one is for me. I could care less which. But the point is; Soc's have too much, and we don't have enough. If we do a little stealing, and then a little giving back, we might even things out a little-"

"Cherry, do you know what you're saying? This isn't our job, man. We can make it by just fine. Let's just take care of ourselves for once."

"Dallas, this involves property damage. Crime. When have you ever been one to pass up a chance to do any of that stuff?"She really hoped she was getting through to him. "I have a hammer." She pleaded, waggling the hammer tauntingly.

"I know… And it's really hot actually." He admitted shooting her a sideward glance. "But this isn't about property damage. This has to do with other people. I don't like people, baby, you know that."

"I know Dally, but the only reason I agreed to date you is because you promised you wouldn't be a so self-concerned anymore. And now look what you're doing." She crossed her arms against her chest, the hammer still held tight in her right hand.

He let out a breath, really wishing that breath was full of smoke. He was pretty stressed out right now. "Are you just doing this to feel like we're doing something good? Because people do community service for that, man. They don't shoot up gas stations to shut off their guilt."

"Well I'd say this is serving our community just fine. Greasers are our people. We gotta do it for them. Who else is gunna stick up for these guys? Who's gunna stick up for us!"

This did make it through to him. He understood this.

"What if you get hurt? Baby, what if we get caught? Jail is hard on people. I don't want to see that happen to you. I don't want to see that happen to you like it happened to me." She was touched by his concern. "And beyond that, they separate the girl cons and the guy cons. Do you know how awful that would be if me and you couldn't younno… do anything, until our sentence was over! I'd be dying, man!" Now she was going to punch him.

"You make me sick Dallas Winston!" She punched his arm, over and over, but she couldn't hurt him. He ended up laughing. Enough of that laughing and she had to forgive him.

"I want to at least try Dally. There's always a risk when you fight for something, right?"

He thought this over for a moment.

"So what, this is like a "steal from the rich and give to the needy" sort of thing?" He asked, giving in a little.

"Think of it more as like a Bonnie and Clyde sort of thing." Her smile turned playful.

"I kind of like that." He bit his bottom lip and raised his eyebrow.

"Except we'd have better intents behind our stealing than for riches and glory." She reminded him.

"But I like those intents." Dallas whined.

"Well maybe if we get really good at stealing we could work up to that. But for now this is just to make things better for the people we'd give anything for."

By now Cherry had made him forgotten any hesitation. He was starting to get interested in this idea. "Okay, so what are the masks for?"

"This may come as a surprise to you Dallas, but most people don't like getting caught when they commit a crime." She stared right into him as he shot her one of his malicious smirks. "Oh, and I also brought this along." She pulled out what looked like a wig. "My red hair would be a dead give-away. No one else in town has hair this color." She pulled all of her hair into a bun and then stuffed the bun into the back of the wig. It was a cute platinum-blonde bob. She didn't look bad, but she hardly looked like Cherry anymore.

Dallas just looked at her. "The red hair isn't a wig too, is it?" He seemed genuinely concerned.

"Of course not." She tucked a runaway strand of red back into the bob. "Okay, so the way I see it, we can just patrol the other side of town for tonight. Drive around looking for Socy areas. I doubt we'll have much trouble finding someone with more money than they need. We'll find out what people won't be home during the night. We'll see what gas stations are open late, what places have loose security, and what places we'll need to avoid."

"Whatever you say, babe. Let's just hope no one notices a rusty piece-a-junk car with two Greasers inside it driving around."

"I'm sure there won't be any trouble."

What a joke. There was no way to avoid trouble when you stuck out as badly as they did. Degrading stares followed them wherever they went as they slowly drove through Socville.

"God, I wish they'd quit looking at us like that." Dallas said as he resisted the temptation to make every one of those uppity onlookers bleed. Cherry felt the same disdain for their glares of pity and contempt. But she was less likely to make anyone pay for it.

"I wish someone would remind them that deficiency isn't a disease." She said as she pressed herself back against the seat, trying to make herself less visible.

"And if it is, I really hope they all die from it." Dallas responded as he fired a glare at a particularly rude couple who had to be in their mid-forties. Cherry chuckled.

"Pull in on this street." She told Dally, directing him into a neighborhood lined with immaculate houses. He did as he was told, but he wanted gripped the handle of the hammer more than he wanted to grip the steering wheel. This place was setting him on edge. Which made Cherry appreciate his willingness to even do this.

The street was quiet and perfect and so unbelievably uncomfortable for the two of them. Cherry busied herself by taking notes about the houses.

"What are you doing?" Dallas glanced over at her notepad.

So far it read:

Merrian Street:

1390- Low Windows, sturdy-looking door, high backyard fence

1392- Reinforced windows, fancy car in the driveway, open garage door

1394- Old lady on front porch, don't rob the elderly

1396- More low windows, more fancy cars on the driveway

1398- Socy teenagers live here, and they leave the gate open.

"Aren't you a thorough little thief?" Dallas swooned, surprised that Cherry's dreamy attention to detail was actually going to be put to good use criminally. Cherry blushed, and Dallas couldn't help but be disappointed that he couldn't compare the shade of her blush and the shade of her hair like he usually could. Not that he didn't like blondes.

"We'll survey a few more streets, and then we'll see if we can find any potential local businesses to hit. Then we can get back to our Greaselands." She told him as she scribbled more notes down.

"Home sweet home, huh dollface?" He grinned as he turned up the radio.

After nearly 45-minutes of recording the security of most the houses around the south side of Tulsa, Cherry and Dallas finally made their way onto Main Street, to analyze the businesses. It was pretty late at night when they left their side of town, and now it was even later. Pretentious forty-year-old couples were replaced by nighttime-loving social vultures. And they didn't look too happy to see Greasers on their side of town. One group in particular decided they didn't like Cherry and Dallas at all. Evidently, the Socs from the convenience store earlier that day.

Their pristine little mustang pulled up right beside Dallas' vehicle as they drove down the road. They rolled down their windows and shouted loud enough for Dally to hear, though he was trying to ignore them. "Can't get rid of you guys now can we? You Greasers are like a rash, you know that?" The Socs laughed at their own joke and threw some wadded up garbage at Dallas' window. "Nah, nah, I'm sorry I didn't mean that… What I meant to say was trash! You Greasers are like trash!"

"Don't mind them Dallas. Just drive." Cherry warned, sensing the apprehension that was tightening Dallas' entire body up.

"Why can't I just teach them some manners?"

"From the man who doesn't have any? That hardly seems like you Dally." She countered.

But when they pulled up to a stoplight, Dallas had to do something. "You still have that pipe, baby?"

"Don't." She thought it over for a moment. "Okay, just a little. That car is way too nice." She handed over the pipe as he rolled down his own window. Right as the light turned green Dallas flicked the pipe out of his open window and scraped it against the gleaming paint of the Soc's mustang. And promptly drove away.

"Get those no-good Greasers!" One of them yelled, obviously outraged. They revved up their engine and cut off Dallas so he couldn't drive any farther. Then two of them came out and stood outside both Cherry and Dallas' door.

"Oh no." Cherry whispered.

"Get out of the car you goddamned grease!" One of them yelled; the one on Dallas' side of the beat-up Chrysler.

"I don't know if you want to do that, man." Dallas responded calmly.

The Soc stepped back, maybe preparing to smash Dallas' window, but then hesitating as if he thought better of it. No, like he suddenly thought of something better to do.

"This girl of yours. This girl here. Are you, uhh… paying her for her services?" He laughed malevolently at his own joke again.

"Hey man, it's not like that!" Dallas shouted, suddenly furious and defensive of both his dignity and Cherry's. Cherry was just trying to ignore them. And fight back angry tears.

"Cause she's real pretty you know. And I've got some friends who could pay that little moll a lot more than a Greaser like you ever could!-"

"That's it!" Dallas screeched as he threw open the door of his car, hard enough to knock the wind out of the Soc who was leaning on it. Then he kicked him hard in the knees, until the Soc was doubled over in pain. Unfortunately, his friend was right behind him, and he had an elbow that really did some damage on Dallas' left cheekbone. They fought like that for a while, two against one, until suddenly one of the Socs' eyes went blank and he fell forward.

He had been kicked in the back of the head. And the only person behind him was Cherry, standing on the hood of Dallas' car. She had re-duct-taped her boot, and this time she hid some chunks of metal under the tape in the toe of it. That one boot of hers was now a weapon on its own. And Cherry was just as surprised as Dally was, as he stared, mesmerized, up at his girlfriend with the collar of one of the Soc's shirt still in his hand. The other hand was balled up into a fist that he had been planning to smash right into the Soc's nose until he saw her.

Dallas slammed Socy's face against the door of his mustang and left him there lying on the ground. There were two more guys in the back seat, but at this point they were just hoping Cherry and Dallas wouldn't know they were in there.

"Forget class Blondie, you are the best delinquent I have ever met, and that's saying something for as many as I know. For what it's worth; I'm impressed." He motioned her over, and she hopped off the hood into his arms for him to carry her over to her side of the car.

"That's a real nice thing to say Dal. You've got me tearing up." She examined the fresh mark on his cheekbone. "And I hope that injury you have there bruises. You know I like the way they look on your face." She said, lightly kissing the mark. He smirked and put her back in her seat.

"I have a feeling this one is gunna bruise." He informed her on the injury's status. He could almost already feel the mark filling with tints of nasty yellow and deep plum.

It took the whole ride home before Cherry spoke again.

"Hey Dally? Thanks for stickin' up for me back there."

"Nah, I just wanted an excuse to beat up those…" He stopped himself before he finished with a cuss, seeing how each word he had just said seemed to dishearten Cherry. "Don't mention it." He cleared his throat. Dallas still thought he was allergic to being polite.

"Well… Maybe tomorrow we can make some plans for the heists we'll be doing. I appreciate you doing this."

He didn't say anything. She had almost shut the car door before he spoke up. "Younno Cherry, I think you're a bad influence on me." He said, almost quietly.

"Me?" Looking at this relationship you definitely would expect Dallas to be the bad influence out of the two of them.

"Yeah. I mean, I thought I was getting real good at only looking out for myself. It took a while to get like that too. Now you have me, I don't know, caring and stuff. I don't know what I'm gunna do. How dare you Cherry." Dallas wasn't trying to be cute when he said this. He honestly meant what he said.

He really wished he didn't have to care about Cherry. She was the last thing he needed. When he had flirted with her before, he didn't expect to actually fall in love with the girl. But as fate would have it, it happened. And now he was just as vulnerable as he hoped he'd never have to be. At least when it came to the redhead hanging onto the door of his car right then.

Cherry was still just looking at him. Dally had a bad feeling she was savoring what he had just said.

She didn't want to end the night like this, she was just too full of emotions that if she merely slept on them, she'd probably wake up with some kind of emotional hangover. She had the thrill of a fight embedded in her right now, a feeling she had grown to love. She had the gnawing anticipation of her latest plan to better the Greaser community. And now she was sharing an oddly sentimental moment with Dally, someone she didn't get "sentimental" out of often.

She opened Dallas' door, took his hand and led him out of his car. "Be real quiet and we won't wake my parents up."

Dallas was surprised. He knew Cherry, and it wasn't ever her that initiated these kinds of things their relationship. He wondered what was different about her. He almost laughed out loud when he figured it out.

"Cherry, you really should wear that wig more often." She stifled a chuckle as she snuck through her front door, Dallas right behind her. It was something about putting on an alternate persona that could always make you feel more daring.