A/N: Just for re-clarification... there is another Scout Curtis on fanfiction. She belongs to Erinskie (she just posted, almost exactly when I did, which is kind of funny) and she is Pony's twin. This Scout is different than my Scout. We wrote them at different times, in different places, and they are different characters. We just happened to give our characters the same name :-) She knows about my Scout, and I know about hers, and I think that says a lot about the kind of encouragement for good writing that should be happening here on fanfiction. I think her story is awesome, and I can read her story without confusing her Scout with mine, and I hope all our mutual readers can, too!

Friday night, right after dinner, I started in on him.

"So, Darry, when you go on your date, what time would you have to have her back home, you think?"

He looked at me suspiciously. "I don't know."

"Well, what do you think? Midnight?"

"I don't know. What are you really asking me, here, Scout?" he asked.

"Well, I thought maybe I could go hang out with Anna while you guys go out. I mean, it's a weekend, and you have to pick her up and bring her back anyway, so maybe I could stay with Anna. Mr. Harvey will be right there, in the restaurant and everything, so you won't have to worry."

I could see Darry thinking about it. I knew he liked the idea of me having girlfriends. Lord knows; I spent enough time with boys.

"Okay," he agreed, "but only because it's a weekend."

I spent all of the day on Saturday just waiting for it to be time to go to Anna's. Soda and Pony both laughed at me at dinner, where neither Darry nor I really ate anything.

"So who here has a date, you or Scout?" Soda asked Darry, making fun of both of us.

"Shut up, Soda." I almost added something about him not having a date, then I remembered about Sandy and I caught myself, thankfully. That would have been worse than mean.

"I'm just glad to hang out with another girl," I said. It did get old, being around boys all the time. "Being around you guys so much is becoming damaging to my intelligence." Ponyboy smacked my knee under the table and it could have turned into a full-on wrestling match if Darry hadn't stopped us.

After dinner, Darry showered and got all dressed up for his date. Pony and Soda gave us an immeasurable ration of crap as we left.

"You two be careful," Soda called out after us.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Pony called, laughing. I heard Soda laugh back at him for saying that.

"You? You wouldn't do anything!" Soda said.

"Shut up," Pony said to him, and they forgot all about picking on us and started in on each other.

Darry was chuckling at them as we jumped into the truck.

"So, where are you taking her?" I asked, as soon as we were on our way. "Dinner? The movies?"

"What, are you writing a book?" Darry asked.

"I just think I should know, in case of emergency," I said, trying to sound serious.

"Oh, is that so?" He asked. "In case of emergency, you can call Soda at home. He's your backup guardian. Nice try, though."

I shrugged. "Well, just treat her really nice, okay? She's great."

"I know, Scout," he said. "I know she is."

"Hey Darry?"

"What?" he sounded wary.

"You smell really good." He did; he smelled like soap and the aftershave my Dad used to use. To me, that's what good men smelled like.

"You're funny, Scout," he said, fake-punching me in the shoulder.

When we got to Angelo's, Mr. Harvey sent us upstairs. Alison answered the door, ready to head out with Darry, and she sent me into Anna's room.

"Bye, Scout," Darry said. "Use your manners," he added. That always took my breath away, a little.

"Bye, Darry," I said, then added, unable to help myself, "Use your manners."

He laughed, shaking his head at me, as he and Alison headed downstairs. Seeing Alison in everyday clothes instead of her waitressing clothes, I remembered how pretty she really was.

"So what do you wanna do?" Anna asked, the second they had left.

"I don't know," I said. "What is there to do?"

"Let's take Ali's makeup and I'll do your hair and makeup and we can talk." Anna was way more into the girly stuff than I was, most of the time, but I was willing to go along with it. This certainly wasn't something anyone would ever offer to do for fun at my house.

"Won't she be mad?" I asked. I had no idea what older sisters let their kid sisters do with their stuff; my only experience was with older brothers, and I knew better, from an early age on, than to touch anything of theirs without permission.

"She won't care. She gives me lessons sometimes. I'll just tell her I was practicing. Go sit on my bed." She went off into the bathroom to get Alison's makeup. I went into her room and sat on the bed.

Just a moment later she was back, with a bag of makeup like I had never seen. I had never been that interested in how my Mom got herself made up, but from what I could tell, she never used anything but mascara and lipstick. I didn't even know what half the stuff Anna brought in was for. It certainly hadn't looked like Alison had been wearing much makeup either.

"So, you gonna let me doll you up?" she asked.

"Well, I sure wouldn't know what to do with all that stuff," I said.

"Well, then. Let's get down to business," she said, turning on her radio. "You want anything to drink?"

"I guess so... a soda?" I asked.

"I can steal a beer for you from my Dad's, if you want, " she said.

I thought about it, how Two-Bit had said it made everything easier. I was kinda curious about it. I knew Darry would be back, though, and didn't want him mad at me after his date. I knew you could smell when people had been drinking beer. You couldn't be friends with Two-Bit and not know that.

"Nah, just soda's good," I said.

"Okay, get your hair back out of your face for me," she said, and took off for the kitchen. I took out the elastic I had been using and pulled the front part of my hair back off my face, resecuring it in the elastic. Anna returned with a Pepsi for me and a beer for herself. I was pretty surprised; I knew people my age who drank- Ben did, sometimes- but usually in secret, not at home with their parents around.

"Your Dad lets you drink beer?" I asked.

"He doesn't know. He and Ali drink a beer after work, usually, to wind down. He doesn't keep track," she said. "I only have one once in a while, when I feel like being a rebel," she laughed. I thought about Darry letting me drink beer and had to laugh, too. There was no way.

"What are you laughing about?" she asked.

"Nothing. Just that if I drank beer at my house I'd be dead, for sure," I said.

"You might be surprised," she answered. "My Dad just doesn't even notice."

There was always beer in our fridge, and she might have been right; maybe nobody would notice. Interesting. Tonight was not a night I wanted Darry on my case, though; I wanted him happy. He deserved it. So I was sticking with Pepsi.

"So, you gonna make me into Miss Oklahoma or what?" I asked.

"You bet I am," Anna smiled and picked up the makeup bag.

After an hour or so, she was satisfied with what she had done with my face and she started in on my hair. She rolled it in curlers and put some sort of shower-curtain thing over it as she let it "set." Next she dragged an entire bag of clothes out of her closet and announced: "These are for you. They don't fit me anymore."

"C'mon, Anna. Seriously? A whole bag? Darry won't let me take that." She knew all about how Darry was anti-charity.

"So, we'll just do it a little at a time, then," she answered. "I can just bring a couple things to school each day and give them to you at basketball and you can take them home in your bag."

"I guess so," I answered. There was no way Darry would not notice if I started wearing clothes he had never seen before, but I guessed I'd just wait for him to mention it, and deal with it then.

Anna seemed satisfied with what she'd done with my hair so finally she brushed it out, put a barrette in it, and stood me up.

"Okay, you can look now," she said, pushing me over to the mirror.

I didn't know how to react to what I saw. A stranger stared back at me. My usual straight hair was all curly and, well… just…big, for lack of a better word. The makeup probably did make me look a little older, but it certainly made me look quite a bit trashier, too. I looked like the greaser girls that were always flirting with Soda and Steve down at the DX. This was not a look that Darry would appreciate on me, I was pretty sure.

"I think it's a little bit much, don't you?" I asked.

"Well, I was going for the dramatic look," she said.

"Well I think this might be a bit more drama than Darry is ready to see on me," I said. "I hate to destroy your handiwork, but I'm gonna have to wash it off before he gets back."

"Aw, you're no fun," Anna said. Then she looked at me standing in front of the mirror and suddenly said:

"You know, Scout, you're getting boobs."

"Anna," I said. I knew she was right, though. My body had been changing, and I had been trying to cover up that fact as best I could, which hadn't been that hard because most of my clothes were too big on me after the whole church/hospital week. Both Pony and I had lost a bunch of weight.

"No, really. You are. You should probably start wearing a bra." She didn't really sound critical, more like she was just trying to be helpful.

"I know," I said, "but it's not exactly something I want to talk about with Darry. Or any of the boys, for that matter." Though the thought of bra shopping with Two-Bit momentarily amused me. He'd probably be the least embarrassing to ask, actually. Though he'd joke about it for all eternity. Yeah, that was not going to be happening.

"I guess that is tough," she said. "I'm lucky to have Ali around, because I wouldn't want to talk to my Dad about it either. Let me see, maybe I have something for you in that department."

Anna had been wearing a bra since we met. As well as being much taller than me, she was way ahead of me in the puberty realm as well. Last fall during basketball season, she had started her period and since then had asked me at least once a month if it had happened yet for me. I was in no hurry. I was glad that my mom had given me "the talk" a few months before she died; the thought of having to sit through that with Darry made my toes curl.

"Here, try this on." She pulled out what had to have been one of her first bras ever.

"Now?" I asked.

"Yeah, now. I'll turn around." She turned and faced the wall.

I pulled my shirt off my head and put it on underneath, struggling a bit with the hooks in the back but eventually getting it. I put my shirt back on and looked in the mirror. Things didn't look all that different under the loose shirt, but I had to admit to feeling a bit more, well, contained.

"Okay," I said. Anna turned around and took a good look.

"You need to tighten the straps. Here," she reached down the neck of my shirt and adjusted a few things. It did feel better when she was done.

"Perfect. Problem solved," she said. "I think I have one more like that one too, somewhere." She began digging in a drawer in the vicinity of where she had found the first one. Finally she pulled it out and put it in a bag with one of the outfits from the bigger bag she had pulled out earlier.

"Thanks, Anna," I said. I really did appreciate it. I had been thinking about the bra quandary for a while, especially since I knew I was the only girl on the basketball team not wearing one yet.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror again and remembered about the makeup.

"Really, I have to get this off my face before Darry comes back, he'll have a heart attack if he sees me all greaser-chick-ed up like this." Anna was laughing as she followed me into the bathroom and watched me scrub it all off. By the time I was finished, my face was all red from the scrubbing. The hair alone actually didn't look that bad; just different. I was still waiting for it to grow out so I could go back to my braids.

"So what should we do now?" she asked.

"What time is it?" I asked. She glanced around the corner at the kitchen clock.

"Ten-thirty," she said. C'mon, let's see what's on TV. Maybe there's something on this late that kids aren't supposed to see." Anna definitely seemed to be in more of a hurry to grow up than I was. Even though she was a year older, she seemed a lot more eager to break the rules than I was most of the time. I guess maybe it was a little easier for her; she didn't have Darry and a whole horde of boys watching over her like a hawk to make sure she didn't get out of line. I felt a little jealous. I almost wished I had taken her up on the beer; God only knows when I'd ever get another chance to try one.

We turned on the television and flopped down on the couch. Not much was on, just a bunch of movies that neither of us were particularly interested in watching. I had to admit, I was getting a little tired.

"So, how's Ben?" Anna asked.

"He's fine," I answered. For some reason I just didn't want to talk about him to Anna.

"Did you kiss him yet?" she asked me. I remembered the kiss on the cheek he had given me before court, and the one I had given him after. I felt my cheeks get red and hoped she wouldn't notice. I hated to admit it, but I had been thinking about Ben quite a bit lately.

"No," I half-lied. "What about you? Who are you kissing these days anyway?" Anna had had a short fling with a boy from the freshman basketball team a month or so ago that both began and ended with a brief but intense kissing session behind the gym bleachers.

"Oh, I don't know, I hear your brother Soda's single now," she joked.

"Don't ever say anything to him about that, Anna," I warned. "She broke his heart. He was really in love with her."

"Why'd she take off, anyway?"

"I don't know." I had my ideas, but nobody seemed to want to tell me, for sure.

"I don't know," Anna said, "I think maybe I'm gonna go for a sophomore next, though," she said. She probably would, too.

The news came on and most of it was about the war going on in Vietnam. That was another thing, in the back of my mind, that I worried about; that Darry or Soda would have to go fight in the war. I wasn't sure how that worked; whether they could make them go when they still had me and Pony to look out for, but I tried not to think about it, especially when they showed young man after young man coming home in a bodybag. By the time the news ended and the Tonight Show came on, both Anna and I were struggling to stay awake. Finally, we heard Darry and Alison talking to her Dad, who was downstairs cleaning and closing up the restaurant. Their voices came closer and, eventually, they came through the apartment door, Darry wearing the biggest smile I had seen on him in ages. He stopped short when he saw my hair.

"Whoa, was there some beauty parlor activity going on here tonight?"

"Yeah, Anna did it," I said. Ali examined me.

"Not too bad, Anna," she said.

"Thanks," Anna said. "You guys have fun?"

"We did," Alison said, smiling and blushing. Gosh, she was pretty. Almost in the same way as that Cherry at the rodeo, just that her coloring was different.

"You ready to go?" Darry asked me. I guess he could tell I was pretty tired.

"I just have to get something out of Anna's room," I said, and disappeared down the hall. Anna followed me. I took the bag with the clothes and bra that she had given me and glanced in the mirror again.

"Do you think he'll notice?" I asked, "about the bra?"

"Probably," Anna said. "Guys are always looking at girls' boobs."

"Anna! For Christ's sake, he's my brother!"

"I'm just sayin…" she answered.

It was obvious when we came out to the living room again that there had been a good-night kiss in our absence. Both of them were blushing now.

"So, I'll call you after court on Monday, let you know how it goes," Darry said. Crap. Court. I had forgotten all about that.

"Okay," Ali said, letting her hand slip out of his, slowly.

"Let's go, kiddo," Darry ushered me out the door.

"So, where'd you two go?" I asked him immediately when we got into the truck.

"I'm not telling you anything," he said. "You'll tell the boys and I'll never hear the end of it."

"I wouldn't. Well, did she have fun, at least? And you treated her real good?"

"Yes, I think, and yes," he said.

"Did you kiss a lot?"

"Scout," he warned.

"Okay, okay..." I stopped.

"What did you do?" He asked me.

"Well, Anna did my hair and put makeup on me, and we watched TV."

"Makeup, huh? That must have looked interesting."

"I washed it off. I don't think you would have liked it. I looked like the girls at the DX."

"Probably not, then. That all you did?"

I thought about the beer Anna drank and offered me, and the bra I was now wearing, and all the talk about kissing.

"That's all," I said.

I think, for the first time ever, I was starting to know what being a teenager felt like.

A/N: For some reason this chapter and the last one were really hard to write. I hope they don't suck too much! It's really hard when you're not actually at the awkward age of twelve and a half to remember what it feels like to be there. And to go through all that awkward stuff with only brothers… ugh.

Please review and let me know what you thought.