A couple of months later

It was a good day to be outside, real warm and sunny. I had left the house really early this morning on Darry's old bicycle, the one he'd given me a few years ago. I'd gone down to the cemetery to visit my parents like I did at least once a week. It was nice in the cemetery, quiet and all, and I had ended up staying there a few hours longer than I'd planned. When I finally realized that it was time to go, the sun was almost set and I could easily imagine the way Darry would be yelling at me when I finally made it home.

So anyway, I was quickly making my way towards the house when I saw Ponyboy walking towards home as well. Huh. He'd probably gone to the movies like he always did whenever he was bored.

"Hey, Pony!" I yelled after him. He turned towards me and grinned. I finally reached him and got off the bike.

"Hey Mel. Where you been?" He asked as we began to make our way towards the house again, me dragging my bike after myself slowly.

"Just hangin' around." I lied as casually as I could, although Pony probably saw through it. I didn't want him to know I spent so much time at the cemetery; I didn't want him to think I was weak or anything, although it was just plain stupid to be embarrassed of the fact that I missed my parents horribly. I knew he did too, and wondered, once again, why it was just so damn hard to talk to any of my brothers about mom and dad.

"Really…" he looked at me weirdly, and I just shrugged as an answer. The annoying thing with having a twin is that he always knows when you're not telling him the truth.

"So why didn't you have any of the guys pick you up from the movies?" I changed the subject with the first thing that came to my mind. "It's kind of a long walk all the way from there, isn't it?"

He turned his head and frowned at me. I grinned in an exasperated kind of way.

"I bet the thought didn't even cross your mind."

"Sure I thought of it!" he tried to defend himself, but once again, I just knew he was lying. "I just wanted to walk, that's all."

"Of course you did." I shook my head at him. "You've still gotcha head in the clouds, Pone. You know it drives Darry nuts when you do stuff like that."

But Ponyboy wasn't listening to me anymore. Instead, he stiffened and jammed his hands in his jean's pockets, walking faster all of the sudden. I wasn't stupid, and I knew my brother well enough that I could read his body language quite easily. We were about two blocks from home, and we were in danger, that much was obvious. I walked faster to match his long stride and whispered;

"What is it?"

"Red Corvair trailing us." Pone spit between his teeth. "Socs."

"Shit." I swore, daring to cast a look behind us. And sure enough, there it was, following us closely.

"Take the bike Caramel. Get outta here."

"No chance in hell. I'm not leaving you alone to get jumped by these assholes."

He cast a glance in my direction and seemed to realize that arguing with me would be pointless.

"Stay close to me." He whispered and I nodded tensely, reaching for the blade inside my pockets before realizing that I'd left it in my other jacket back at home. I was wearing one of Soda's old ones, faded grey and way too big for me. Cursing myself silently, I reached for a curl of hair and twisted it nervously between my fingers. That's when the Corvair pulled up beside us. Ponyboy grabbed my hand and pulled me behind him as I let go of the bike and let it fall on the pavement. The Socs circled us. My back was pressed against Ponyboy's and I could feel him trembling. I slouched, hitching my thumbs in my jeans and trying to look tough, knowing Ponyboy was doing the same on the other side. There were five Socs circling us, all of them taller than we were, and stronger looking too. We were totally going to get our butts kicked.

"Hey Greasers." One of the guys said in an overly friendly voice. He was on my brother's side and I couldn't see him. "We're gonna do you guys a favour and cut all that long greasy hair off."

Yeah, and slit our throats open too. Would you like whipped cream on top of that, sir? They started cursing us and then one of them grabbed my arm tightly. I jerked away, punching him in the face in the process. I tried to aim for his nose; big dudes always cry when you break their noses. On my other side, Pony had been thrown to the ground, but before I could go and help him, another one came at me and grabbed my hair roughly. I kicked and punched, but he had a good grip on me and I couldn't seem to be able to get away. His arms came around me and he laughed, feeling my skinny body inside the too-big jacket.

"Hey, this one's a greaser chick!" he yelled at the others who were pinning Ponyboy to the ground and visibly scaring him with a blade. The guy I'd punched brought his face really close to mine, smelling of beer and expensive aftershave. The other one was still holding me closely from behind and I couldn't move an inch.

"We could've fun with this one," he whispered at me as I thrashed against the strong hold uselessly. I could hear the other ones hurting Ponyboy and it was just sickening. I spit at the Soc and he punched me in the face so hard that I my vision went black for a few seconds.

"No, she's just trash. Useless, dirty and worthless piece of shit. Aren't you, Grease ball?" the second one whispered sweetly in my ear from behind me. I managed to bring my knee up and hit the one in front of me in the balls as hard as I could. He bent forward, cursing in pain, and the other one threw me against the ground roughly, kicking me hard. I gasped for air, curling in a small and tight ball on the pavement, expecting more blows and getting weirdly more anxious when none came. I could hear people running but I was so dizzy that nothing seemed to make sense.

"Caramel!" Someone yelled and hands turned me over on the ground to face them. I blinked crazily into Sodapop's face, not understanding what was going on.

"Are you alright? You're not hurt, are you?" he threw questions at me anxiously, making me sit up as my head continued to spin. I could see now that the gang had just come to rescue us, chasing the Socs away in the process. I guess Ponyboy had yelled for them to come or something. Weirdly enough, I hadn't heard a thing. Ponyboy. I looked around me, relaxing when I saw him sitting a couple of feet away with Darry at his side. He was cut on the face and bleeding crazily. Something suddenly touched my chin and I jerked away.

"Easy," Soda's voice said gently as he put a finger under my face again so he could have a look at it. "I just wanna see how big a shiner you're gonna get."

"I got a black eye?"

"And a hell of one too." Soda grinned at me and put a hand on my shoulder comfortingly. "You okay?"

"Yeah." I just answered, already getting up so I could make sure that Ponyboy was alright. Soda seemed to understand what I wanted to do and put a hand under my arm to help me stand. Before I could get to Pony though, Darry came storming towards me. He grabbed my chin as gently as Soda had, turning my face sideways to have a good look at my eye.

"Shit," he said when he saw it. He dropped my face and stared right into my eyes. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, fine." I answered tiredly. Ponyboy stood up and came near us. Just looking into his face, I knew that he was fine, a little spooked, but fine. Weird mind-reading twin thing.

"What the hell happened?" Darry asked the two of us. Soda went to put an arm on Pony's shoulders and I felt weirdly isolated, watching the two of them while I was left standing alone. By then, most of the guys had come back and were listening to Darry as he started to chew us out.

"What does it look like happened Darry?" I just said. "Some Socs jumped us, no big deal."

"Actually, it is a big deal, Caramel." My oldest brother snapped, crossing his arms on his chest. "What the hell were the two of you doin' walkin' on your own?"

"We weren't alone, were we? We were together." I replied, feeling my temper rise quickly.

"We were just coming home from the movies." Pone said anxiously.

"Of course you were. The movies, as always. Didn't it ever cross your mind to call someone to come pick you up?"

"No, I didn't think-"

"You don't ever think," Darry cut in, "not at home or anywhere when it counts."

Before Ponyboy could even open his mouth to answer, Darry turned to me; "and what about you, huh? You were gone for an entire day!"

"I just went for a stroll-"

"Do you really expect me to believe that you walked around town for ten hours?"

"Just drop it Darry." I answered, fed up, putting a hand on my forehead and closing my eyes. My head was beginning to pound something awful.

"Leave 'em alone Darry. It ain't their fault if the Socs like to jump us. They didn't get hurt, no big deal." Soda said before Darry could say anything else, and I was relieved when my oldest brother just shrugged like he couldn't care less and walked back towards the house, his fists jammed in his pockets. Ponyboy came towards me and nudged me with his elbow as the others started to joke around about how the two of us really needed Two-Bit as a personal bodyguard and how it should be a full time job.

"You okay?" he whispered and I nodded again, eyeing his cut warily. He brought a hand up to touch it absentmindedly.

"Soda says it makes me look tough."

"I can't believe they pulled a blade on you. Fucking assholes."

"Yeah, it was a bit scary."

I grinned at him, wondering why he always tried to sound tough. It was so obvious to the rest of them that he wasn't one of them hoods who never got scared. I couldn't understand why it was so important to him to be all hard and unfeeling. Ponyboy shouldn't be like that.

"Just a bit, huh?"

I laughed at him and he grinned back. Dally came towards the two of us then, Johnny close on his heels. They asked if we wanted to go to the Nightly Double tomorrow night. I shook my head, knowing that I would have to do homework, maybe go to the library tomorrow, but Pony said that he could come. Lucky bastard.

"You think Darry will let me go?" he asked me as the two of us started to make our way towards the house again after I'd picked my bike up and said goodbye to the gang. Soda was staying behind but said that he would be home soon.

"Yeah since it ain't a school night."

"What are you gonna do?"

"Homework, mostly." I sighed heavily. "I'm behind on my schoolwork and Darry is gonna roast me alive if I bring home another C from school."

"Ah, right."

"Well, you'll have fun. It's so unfair that you got the brains and I only got the looks."

"Who said you had the looks?"

I slapped his arm playfully and he grinned down at me. Tomorrow would definitely be boring, but maybe he would tell me all about the movie when he came back in the evening. Maybe he'd even explain my math homework to me and help me finish it quicker. Ponyboy was just awesome like that. I knew I was really lucky to have a brother like him. I wished I could tell him but it would probably just come out sounding corny. So instead, I wrapped my arm around his waist and he put his arm around my shoulders. That simple gesture was enough for him to get it. Awesome telepathic twin thing.