"We've got fuck all money to pay these bills with!"
Brenda shoved her hands through her hair and tipped it up slightly to give her brother an exasperated look.
"Well if people didn't go falling off ladders-"
"Someone pushed my ladder!" he protested adamantly.
"Or you were being reckless again and thought it'd be a good idea to try and beat the roofers at their own game. Again."
"They move so slow-"
Brenda swung her leg under the kitchen table.
"Mother of God!" Sonny shouted angrily, leaning down to hold his leg as he cussed her out.
"Man you cuss good." Bennie stated as he came into the kitchen, searching for a glass and found none before taking a gulp of milk from the container.
Brenda huffed and slapped him across the back of his head.
"Disgusting. Wash a glass and pour it, you cretin."
Bennie rolled his eyes dramatically before doing what she said. Brenda turned back to the stack of papers on the table.
"Well we have to pay them so..."
"How do you suggest we do that exactly?" Sonny snapped.
"Don't get mad at me, you handicap. I already work two jobs and that still ain't enough."
"Mrs. Connor down the street wants her house painted." Connie announced as she watched the TV fuzz in and out.
"What's that got to do with us?" Sonny demanded.
Connie turned her head to face him, a sneer planted on it that made her look startlingly like their Grandmothers.
"Well, stupid, it would seem like she's willin' to pay for it."
"Yeah? How much?" Brenda asked.
"More than we got now, isn't it?"
Brenda shrugged, conceding. They generally didn't hide the money problems from the kids.
"So, Roy could do it, since he hasn't got a job." Connie suggested with a grin.
"What!" Roy popped up from where he was lounging on the chair.
"What? You don't. You spend all your time laying 'round the house." Connie told him.
"So do you!"
"But I'm a girl. You're a boy. Waitressin' jobs are all full up now and I'm too young to be one of those high-tech operatin' ladies for the phones."
Roy looked distressingly at his brothers.
James shrugged.
"Man, I'm workin' after school at the factory, loadin' shipments and whatnot. Pull your weight."
Roy groaned and flung his head back.
"So, that's settled. Roy, tomorrow after school I want you talking to Mrs. Connor about the job. Kay, you've still got that babysitting job down the block for the O'Keefes' right?"
Kay turned around from her sketchpad and nodded quickly.
"She's got them after school again tomorrow until dinner." Connie confirmed.
Brenda nodded and gave a sigh. She'd be grey with wrinkles before she even hit twenty-five at this rate.
Kay squirmed in her seat. Her legs hung off her chair and couldn't touch the ground so they were getting twitchy. She hated these seats, the ones that were too high. She shifted again, pursing her lips. Mr. Garner's class was horrible, because he wouldn't let her change her tall seat for a shorter one. Said she got what she got and she should be grateful she had a chair. She suspected he wasn't too kind on kids from her side of town.
She flicked her eyes across the class to where Connie say, leaning back onto two legs and looked like she was sleeping in the back of the room. Mr. Garner didn't pick her too often for class. Kay thought he was probably a little unsure 'bout her. She wasn't just greasy, like the girls they both hung with, but there was something scary and dark in her twin's eyes. But Kay had long since gotten over that. Connie made it a point that she wouldn't do nothing to ever hurt her. Mr. Garner on the other hand...
Connie sat back in her chair and Kay was sure if she put it on two legs like that she'd fall back and hit her head on the desk of the Soc behind her. She was too tiny for the chair to do that. Unfortunately, Garner was into assigned seating, so Connie sat away from her, all the way across the room, with some other hood kid, dark tanned boy with real long greasy hair that hunched in his seat and never spoke a single word. Johnny Cade, she knew him. Most people on her side of town knew everyone else, either by face or reputation. And although the twins were some of the youngest in their grade, they still knew Cade. Kay knew he hung around with that kid that Sonny used to jockey with, Winston. Dallas Winston, the scariest hood she'd probably ever meet. Except maybe those Shepard brothers.
Johnn'y eyes, dark as the night she swore, flicked up and widened when they met hers before ducking down the table top again.
"Miss Landon, the question please." Mr. Garner drawled, looking very amused to have caught her off guard.
Sure she wasn't paying much attention, but she didn't talk. She had nothing to say to the man. He got a real kick outta takin' a rise with her though.
She stared at him in a sort of imploring way she had and tilted her head inquiringly to the side.
"Well, will you answer, Miss Landon, or do you once again not know the answer?"
Kay felt her face get awful hot.
"Nah, I don't know the answer, but if you stopped looking down Emily Vaughn's shirt long enough to teach the class, I might know it."
Kay started putting her books; complete with torn covers and dog-eared pages with stains on it, into her bag.
"Miss Landon I was speaking to-"
"Miss Landon. I know. So I answered."
"The other one."
"Well, you've got two in this class, Sir," Connie said with a condescending smirk, "so how was I to know?"
Mr. Garner did this thing he did where his face would get real red and a vein looked about ready to bust in his neck.
Connie stood from her seat, smacking a bubble of gum and strode for the door, a ready Kay at her heels, hand stuck out for a piece of gum herself. She turned once to look over her shoulder as she left, Socs rolling their eyes and making lewed gestures. One of the few neighborhood kids attending class, Johnny Cade himself, met her eyes once again before, slower this time, looking at the table.
They walked around town for a bit before they met up with Evie and Steve for lunch. Sandy Owens met up with them. They were walking down to the DX, where Steve and Sandy wanted to go spend time with Sodapop Curtis. Connie knew the kid, came from their neighborhood, hung around with her history partner, Cade. Honestly, Cade made her twitchy. He was so jumpy and he was almost as quiet as Kay and she was used to Kay, not him. Kay could scream a hundred words at once to fill to the silence without sayin' a thing, all Connie had to do was watch her, so it never felt silent. Johnny Cade was just quiet.
"You know, Con, I heard some things about your guy." Evie started.
Connie rolled her eyes.
"Don't matter. I don't listen to those loose lipped hens anyway."
"They said some pretty interestin' stuff though."
"I heard some awful stuff 'bout him too." Sandy said.
Connie spent her not even a glance. She couldn't understand why Evie tolerated her, really. She was standard greaser girl, but tried to act like she wasn't. Like a clean girl in a greasy body. It didn't fly with Connie, girls like that never did. She liked who she was, where she came from. People who could accept themselves were low to her.
"Told you, Eves, I ain't listening to it."
"Well others are. Said he's been going to Buck's pretty often, using a room there..."
Kay made a sort of humming sound, practically too low to hear. Connie sighed. Kay didn't like her boyfriend, thought he didn't treat her right, and sometimes he didn't, but honestly, Connie only had so many options here. Humming, now that Connie thought about it, was probably the only sound Kay made, and it was when she was upset, and it was a basically non-existent sound that lasted less than a blink of an eye.
"See, a girl that trusts her man, like she should. Why y'all trying to turn her against him?" Steve Randle said.
Steve and Evie had been dating a fwe months, maybe two, now. He was an alright guy, didn't have a real good home life, was real handy with a car and ran with a pretty tough crowd, not like the Shepards or nothin', but tough enough. He treated Evie decent and that's what Connie really remembered about him. She'd pop his jaw a good one if he didn't.
Truth was, she knew she was being cheated on. Never with the same girl, she thought, but still. But she only had so many options and besides, it was her he always came back to. But she was determined to make it a point not to screw with her man. He may treat her right, besides the other girls, which was good because she'd clock anyone who didn't, but he wouldn't stick around if things got tough and he'd ditch, she knew he would. That's why they always made it a point to be careful. So when those lucky condoms she poked holes into finally managed to knock some slut up, there'd be a clear message. Stay away.
"I'm not tryin' to turn her against nobody, Steve. But he ain't treatin' her right." Evie said with an eye roll as they walked into the station.
"Sure sounds like it."
"Sounds like what?" Sodapop Curtis asked as he leaned across the counter, smiling.
Connie had to admit, the boy was good lookin'. Most girls thought he was a doll. Even Kay's eyes widened slightly, like always, and she blushed. Luckily for her she didn't turn too much a different color thanks to their skintone.
"Connie Landon's guy's apparrantly decking out on the side says some girlies back at school. Evie here thinks Connie should believe it, while Connie, like an upstanding girl, says she won't." Steve replied, leaning beside his buddy.
Sodapop grinned and shook his head.
"She should believe whatever she thinks. I don't know nothin' bout it so I can't really say."
"Thank-you." Steve said, like Sodapop's word closed the whole topic.
Evie put her hands on her hips and gave Connie a half amused look. Connie shrugged, absently twirling a lock of her hair.
"Hey, baby." Sodapop greeted Sandy who flitted over to him to give him a kiss.
"How's school?" Sodapop asked.
"Boring." she said with a pout.
He grinned again.
"Kinda slow overe here too."
She smiled and he slung an arm around her shoulders.
"When your man get out?" Evie asked Connie.
Connie shrugged, watching Kay look at some magazines on the rack.
"Dunno. Later. He'll swing buy when he gets off."
"You guys should at least spend lunch together." Sandy said.
Connie shrugged again.
"We don't do the lunch thing. He's got work and I'm not walking all the way over there."
Evie gave a hum of agreement before cocking her head.
"Think your sister will let you come to the Nightly Double tonight?"
Connie pursed her lips as she thought.
"I came home too late last time but...she's workin' a late shift tonight, since Sonny ain't workin' since he busted his leg on that ladder."
"Oh, so it was a Landon Darry brought from work the other day. He wasn't sure. Said he swore like a Landon." Sodapop said brightly.
Connie laughed.
"So your brother was the big guy standing in the living room when Bren walked in. She couldn't figure out who. Had to remind her later. Sonny probably cussed your brother out something good."
"From what I heard, yeah. Cusses just like James then?"
"Worse."
Sodapop laughed.
"Boy howdy, hate to be on the receiving end of that Landon."
"Yeah, so do the rest of us." Connie said, rolling her eyes and cussing her brother out good naturedly.
"Just like that." Evie teased.
"Lady-like." Steve taunted.
Connie stuck her tongue out.
"Why'd you leave, before, I mean? When you came tp pick us up for lunch you weren't comin' from the school." Evie asked.
"Garner picked on Kay. Told him to stop lookin' down Emily Vaughn's shirt long enough to teach the class and someone might actually know the answer to his question. Walked out when he started getting red."
Evie shook her head.
"Brenda's gonna love that."
"Don't I know it." Connie muttered.
Brenda was gonna tan her for skipping classes again, worse off, once again taking Kay with her.