I sat in the hospital waiting room with Ponyboy and Jerry. The two both took out a cigarette of their own. "Haven't we had enough smoke for one day?" I thought.

Another reason I thought that was cause I didn't like smoking. Even though I was basically surrounded by people who smoked, not to mention about three-fourth's of the people on the East Side of town smoked. Whether you're a girl or a boy, if you're from the East Sid and you didn't smoke, people would sometimes look at you funny. I always ignored the looks but thankfully the gang knew I didn't like to smoke myself, they wouldn't tease me about it like some people in town did. And when those people would, they would stand up for me and say things like, "Maybe she don't like, so what? What's that gotta do with you?"

The doctors and nurses said Ponyboy was fine, he just had a few minor burns, nothing major. Even though I wasn't near the fire or the building, the doctors still felt the need to check me out and make sure I was fine. They kept saying that I had gotten pretty close to the fire and smoke, considering how big the fire was, and that's why they wanted to make sure I was ok.

The two were still talking but stopped when someone walked in. Both Ponyboy and me looked up to see who it was and saw Sodapop walking toward us. Ponyboy jumped up, ran to him and hugged him tight. When they let go, Soda ran his hand through his younger brother's now blonde and short hair, probably teasing him about it.

Then I saw Darry come in through the doors at the end of the hall. He watched his two younger brothers, looking both nervous and happy to have Ponyboy back home. If I heard right, he had said Ponyboy's name. Ponyboy then yelled his name then ran over to him, even faster than he had ran to Soda.

"Where's your family?" Jerry asked, taking me outta my thoughts.

"What?" I asked.

"Your family… are they coming to pick you up?"

"Oh, uh… yeah. Yeah, I think so."

"We can drive her home," I heard Darry say.

Jerry looked at them then me, "You're friends with them, right?" I nodded. He stood up from his seat, "I guess I'll be going then." He waved then walked down the hall out the doors.

"So that's where you and Dallas disappeared to," Soda teased, "Darry was 'bout ready to file a missing person's report for the two of ya."

Considering the brother's said they would drive me home, I stayed at the hospital with them pretty late. I agreed, but I refused to stay over their house for the night considering Ponyboy had just gotten back. I figured the three needed at least one night where none of us were staying over. They had tried to convince me that they didn't mind, but I just kept telling them that they needed that one night.

To sleep overnight, we called Two-Bit asking if I could stay over his house for a day or a few days. Thankfully, he didn't get drunk that night so we called him while sober. He said his mom and kid sister were outta town for a week or two, but even if they were in town currently, they wouldn't mind if I stayed over.

The five of us all agreed that it'd be a pretty dumb idea for me to stay at my own house considering how much excitement we had, just during the day. Then the fact that I said no to the Curtis' brothers. Soda suggested calling Steve, but then he remembered that me and Steve didn't get along too well and we'd probably kill each other at some point during the night, plus his dad wasn't the greatest and we all knew it. If I wanted to deal with Steve's dad, I just would've slept at my own house.

I nearly fell asleep a few times while I was still with the three brothers. For a while, Soda had started to play around and act like he was a reporter. He went around to the doctors and the nurses around the floor we were on, asking them questions ad a whole bunch of other stuff. At one point he even started to interview me, and somehow I managed to answer his questions through my laughter.

I guess I did eventually fall asleep while the four of us were there, cause I really only remember up to a little after Soda was interviewing people. "C'mon Rain, we gotta go," Darry said quietly. I nodded and got up from my seat, following the three out the doors and to his truck.

They drove to my house first for me to get a few things from my room. I snuck in through the window and locked the door. I grabbed a small bag and put a few pairs of clothes in there, grabbed my own personal switchblade, then a few photos I thought of best: the most recent of me and the gang, and one of us all when we were all just kids- before society took its toll on how we were treated just cause of what side of town we lived on.

After that they dropped me off at Two-Bit's house. When we got there, Two-Bit was sitting on his front steps playing around with his show switchblade. He looked up at us when Darry drove up. He put the blade back in his pocket, stood up and walked to ward the truck. He took my small bag from me and headed toward the house while I got out the truck and waved goodbye and goodnight to the three brothers as they drove off.

"So you were at the fire?" Two-Bit asked as we walked inside.

I nodded and followed him in, "Yeah… I think it was the worst experience of my life."

"Wanna talk?" He sat down on the ocuch.

I sat down next to him and let out a sigh. "I don't think I'm ready to yet…"

"Alright… I won't force ya to. But when you do, I'll be right here."

"Thanks. I just wanna think 'bout it as little as possible as long as I can."

"I can respect that… ya look exhausted though. C'mon," he stood up, "I'll show you where you can sleep."

I followed him to a room that looked like it probably belonged to his younger sister. "She won't mind me sleepin' here?" I asked.

He shook his head. "She won't care… unless you mess up one of her posters," he chuckled.

I gave a small smile and looked around the room. "Elvis," I smiled, "Girl's got good taste."

"I guess… anyway, if ya need anything, I'm in the next room over, alright?"

I nodded. "Yeah, thanks."

"No problem… good night, Rain."

"Good night, Two-Bit." After that, he left the room.

Kinda smaller I know, but I never update on weekends so be happy

Plus I typed this on my new laptop so yay!

Ok, peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^=