"Candy."

"Mm?"

"Candy, wake up."

"Wuuut, go away!"

"Candice, it's important!" Someone shook me, making me jump and sit up too quickly. I swayed a little, my vision going spotty from how fast I sat up.

"What," I groaned. "What time is it?"

"It's seven-thirty. But this is important. Have you seen Ponyboy?"

"Huh?"

"Ponyboy. He ran out last night. Have you seen him?"

I shook my head.

"Wh-why would Pony come by here?" I asked around a yawn, stretching and popping my back. I groaned in satisfaction.

"I don't know. Darry and I have been up all night looking for him. We're so worried."

"Why would he not come home?"

Sodapop sat down on the edge of the bed. "I don't know. It was all an overreaction. Ponyboy said he'd fallen asleep in the lot on accident. With Johnny. Well, you know, he came home. I guess I was asleep because next thing I knew I heard Darry startin' to shout at him. I stepped in, told Darry to quit it and he got after me and Pony tried to get between us and--jeez, Darry feels awful. I've never seen him so upset with himself. But Pony, he--he ran out and we haven't seen him since. But we're scared, Candice!"

"Why are you scared?" I asked dumbly. "Pony's probably with Johnny. Come on, how much trouble could they have gotten into?"

"I don't know. I heard there was some kind of a commotion down at the park. But, shit, if the police get involved, they're not gonna take too well to us with Darry and they'll put us in a boys home."

"Shit, Soda. I don't know where he'd be, but believe me, I'm gonna help out as best I can. You better believe that."

"Yeah," he said.

"Candice--" Soda and I looked up to see Arnie in the doorway. "Sorry to barge in. You know I'd usually knock. Did you hear what happened down at the park last night?"

Soda and I both shook our heads.

"Well, I was coming home from the bakery--there's donuts in the kitchen, by the way--but they've got that whole place police taped off. Lotta blood. I heard it was one of those Junior Douches."

Arnie said there's two kinds of JDs. There's the Juvenile Delinquents, which is what you'd call someone like anyone of the greasers; then there's Junior Douches, which is what you'd call any of the socs. I thought it was pretty clever, and very humorous.

"Shit," I said. "Do you know who?"

"No. I didn't get too much. I just asked a cop what was going on. He just said a kid got stabbed."

I shuddered.

"God. What coulda led to that?" I said.

"Only one person we could ask."

That one person happened to be Dallas. I got dressed in some jeans and a t-shirt and pulled on one of the flannels I'd stolen from Sodapop a long time ago. I was real bad at accidentally stealing shirts. In fact, most of the shirts I owned probably weren't even mine. Who's sleeveless top is this? Oh, that might be Steve's. And this hoodie? Probably Ponyboy's. I stole from everybody.

The thing was, it was never on purpose. I'd just grab a shirt to borrow and take it home, forgetting I even had it on and then I'd just never return it. A shameless crime. I'm sure if any of the guys stayed over at my place, they wouldn't have to worry about if their shirt got dirty (not like they did, anyway), because they could just take back one of the many I'd stolen.

I told Arnie I was going out. Soda and I, both without a vehicle, made our way across the neighborhood to Buck's, where Dally lived. I pounded on the door. A moment later, a drowsy Buck answered. When he saw me, he perked up a little.

"Hey, Candi--"

"Where is Dally?"

"Ah, Candy, he's asleep--"

"We need to talk to him. Go and get him!"

"Jesus. Everyone needs to talk to Dallas. He got like a secret business goin' on that I should know about?"

"Who talked to him earlier? Did Darry come by? Two-Bit?" Soda said.

"No," Buck said, hitching his sweatpants up a little bit. "Just two kids. Johnny and something really weird like Horse or somethin', man."

"Ponyboy!" I exclaimed.

"Yeah, that's it."

"My kid brother was here? And Johnny? Johnny was here, too?"

"Yeah, I guess. They came looking for Dallas earlier."

"Well, let us the hell in, dammit. We need to talk to him, too."

"Seriously?"

I shoved past him, now well beyond frustrated, and marched up the stairs into Dally's room.

"Dallas!" I shouted.

He jumped up in a heartbeat. "Goddammit, Candy Cane. What in the hell d'ya want? It's eight in the damn morning, man."

"Where are Ponyboy and Johnnycake?"

"Why'd you think I'd know."

"Because Buck told Soda and me that you talked to them last night."

"Yeah, but I don't know where they are."

I narrowed my eyes.

"I know you know where they are."

"Shit, kid. It's the asscrack of dawn. Why don't you go bug someone else?"

"You're an asscrack," I said.

"Shit, wake up on the wrong side of the bed?"

I shook my head. "Whatever. But, if you don't know where they are, maybe you could at least help us look for them."

"They'll be fine," Dally said.

"They're kids, Dallas."

"So are you."

I rolled my eyes. "But everyone knows where I am."

"That's because you gotta yell every time you go anywhere. Hard not to know where you are." I went to charge at him, but Sodapop had been quick to grab my arm and hold me back.

"Dally, just keep your eyes peeled, man. Darry's going crazy looking for Ponyboy. Neither of us slept all night."

"Yeah, I'll keep 'em peeled. Like an orange."

I let Sodapop lead me out of Buck's place and we made our way back to his house.

"You sure are irritable today," Soda laughed.

I sighed and shrugged.

"I think Dally knows where they are. He just doesn't wanna say." Sodapop nodded.

A lot happened over the next couple days. Dally got hauled into the police station because they was wanting to ask him about the dead kid at the park. I found out it was Bob Sheldon, one of the guys who'd jumped me and Johnnycake those months back. There was another kid, Randy something, who'd been there with Bob and the other socs when Bob was killed. Randy was the one who'd knocked me unconscious.

When Dally got back, he explained to us that the fuzz'd hauled him in because they thought he'd had something to do with it. Dally was always getting hauled in, even if it was because he so much as glanced funny at a cop. The socs told the fuzz that two kids had been there, one with reddish hair and another with jet black hair; some greaser boys. The one with black hair was the one that had killed Bob. Dally told the cops he thought Johnny and Ponyboy had went on down to Texas and Two-Bit just about bailed on out down there to look for 'em, too. Soda kept asking Dally where they really were, but Dally said he didn't know. I knew he did. He had something to hide and he wasn't telling us. Soda told me he seen Pony's sweatshirt over at Buck's in Dally's room.

What the fuzz didn't know was that if Johnny really did kill the soc like they said, it had to have been in a self-defense kind of thing. Johnny wasn't one to randomly go up to a guy and kill them. Shoot, the kid was scared of his own shadow. And that was 'cause of all the hell he'd been through his whole life, and that jumping a few months back surely didn't help, either.

The police came by to talk to me on Tuesday just because I was always over at the Curtis house and I was helping trying to find Pony and Johnny. They asked me where I thought they was and I said I didn't know, but I told him that that Bob guy had jumped me and Johnny a few months back. I told him it couldn't'a been revenge or anything because Johnny Cade didn't just go out looking for revenge, but he would have pulled his knife if he thought he had to. I cooperated okay, they said to have a nice day, and then they left. I hadn't done anything wrong, but talking to fuzz sure made me sweat.

I didn't hear too much about what the socs were saying about all this, but I was just hoping they weren't gonna talk lies. If the socs said Johnny was a ten-foot-tall purple elephant with pink horns, the fuzz'd believe them. They declared a rumble. So far it was our gang and the Shepard outfit; both gangs were rallying up other greasers, too. Even Ryan, who wasn't usually one to fight, was going to partake. The guys kept telling me they didn't want me to join. Not a rumble like this. I'd been in a few scraps before, usually just a guy who was hitting on me and I'd punch him or whatever, anything to be disgusting enough to get him to leave me alone, but I'd never been in a rumble before. Darry especially seemed strictly against me joining.

See, there are advantages and disadvantages of hanging out with guys all the time when you're a girl. You get to act like a guy sometimes, but other times, like when it comes to big fights, they recognize that you're a girl. And they didn't want any other guys hurting me. It wasn't a sexist thing. It was a big brother v. little sister kind of thing. Even Steven was kind of apprehensive about me joining and he was usually the one that always clapped me on the back if I did ever punch someone.

On Thursday, I went over to Buck's to see if Dally was there because I wanted to ask him if he could bum me a few smokes. He usually had a few packs on him because he loved snagging them from gas stations when he could. I caught him just as he was leaving the house.

"Where ya off to?" I asked.

"No where," he said stiffly, like he was trying to dismiss me. I wasn't having it.

"Gotta smoke?" I asked.

"Nah, man. I gotta go, though."

"Why're you in such a hurry, Dal?"

"Goddammit, Candy Cane. You're such a pain in the ass. What's it to, ya? Huh?"

"Because I wanna know. You're actin' shady."

"Jesus. I'm gonna go--" he dropped his voice to a low whisper and jerked his head back, beckoning me over. "--I'm gonna go talk to the guys. Now skat, cat, alright?"

"No," I said. "I wanna see them. Take me with you."

"For fuck's sake," he huffed. "Get in the car." I followed Dallas into the car and he took off down the street. It was a real tuff car.

"This Buck's?" I asked.

"Yuh," he replied. "Let me borrow it. Since everything's mostly cooled off, I figured I'd go up and see them, see how they're doin', yuhknow."

"I can't believe you wouldn't tell Darry or even Sodapop where they were."

"Hey, they was hiding and I wasn't gonna give 'em up. Especially Johnny, man. The cops wouldn't'a given them a chance to explain themselves. At least this way they can blow off some steam and the cops will find out the real truth before goin' and arresting them. They know now anyway that it was in self-defense. 'Sides. Ponyboy told me not to tell."

I sighed, rolling my eyes and running a hand through my messy brunette hair. "So, where we goin' to, anyway?"

"See Johnny and Ponyboy."

"No shit, Sherlock. I mean, where are we going to see them?"

"Near Windrixville."

He drove on. We were mostly quiet the whole ride. I tried to play music a few times, but he kept turning it off. By the time we got to Windrixville, I was about ready to hop out of the car. Dally parked down the street and then he led me up to the church where he said Johnny and Ponyboy had been hiding out. I was glad I'd brought a jacket. It was colder than you wouldn't believe. I just hoped those two hadn't been turned into popsicles.

We got up to the church and we sneaked around until we found a busted window to climb through.

"Careful, Candy Cane. Don't want you cutting yourself."

"I'll be alright," I replied and followed him through.

We spotted Ponyboy first and, for a minute, I didn't think it was actually Ponyboy. He'd lost a lot of weight in the last couple days and he now bore platinum blond hair. A little bit away from Pony lay Johnnycake, his hair shorter, but still jet black like it was the last time I'd seen him.

Dally nudged Ponyboy with his shoe. "Glory. He looks different with his hair like that."

I couldn't help but grin. Different was an understatement.

Ponyboy sat up and rubbed at his eyes.

"Hey, Dally!" he exclaimed. A second later, he saw me and greeted me the same.

"Hey, Ponyboy!" Dally replied. "Or should I say Sleeping Beauty?"

"How's Sodapop? Are the fuzz after us? Is Darry alright? Do the boys know where we are? What--"

"Hold on, kid," Dally interrupted. "I can't answer everything at once. You two want to go get something to eat first? I skipped breakfast and I'm about starved."

"You're starved?" said Johnny suddenly and I remembered he was there.

"Is it safe to go out?" Ponyboy asked. He looked like he could leap right outta his shoes.

"Yep." Dallas reached into his shirt pocket and, finding it empty, turned to Johnny. "Gotta cancer stick, Johnnycake?"

Johnny tossed him a package.

"The fuzz won't be lookin' for yo around here. "They think you've lit out for Texas. I've got Buck's T-Bird parked down the road a little way. Goshamighty, boys, ain't you been eatin' anything?"

"Yeah," said Johnny, looking almost appalled. "Whatever gave you the idea we ain't?"

"For one thing, you're both paler than me. For another, you've both lost a lotta weight," I said.

"After this, get out in the sun more. You look like you've been through the mill." Dally scratched his jaw, then said, "Hey, Ponyboy, I gotta letter for you." He fumbled in his pocket for a second then pulled out a piece of paper.

"A letter? Who from?"

"The president, of course, stupid. It's from Soda."

"Sodapop? But how did he know?"

"He came over to Buck's a couple of days ago for something and found that sweat shirt. I told him I didn't know where you were, but he didn't believe me. He gave me this letter and half his paycheck to give you. Kid, you ought to see Darry. He's takin' this might hard..."

"He feels so bad. Don't think I've ever seen him so distraught," I added, but I didn't think he was listening. I asked Dally for a cigarette as Ponyboy read the letter from his brother. I lit it and leaned back against a wooden beam. Probably not good thinking on my part, since it looked like it was about to turn to dust if you so much as sneezed in its direction, but it held and I just stood there and smoked it.

"How come you got hauled in?"

"Shoot, kid. Them boys at the station know me by now. I get hauled in for everything that happens in our turf. While I was there, I kinda let it slip that y'all were headin' for Texas. So that's where they're lookin'. Goddammit," he said, aiming that last bit at his cigarette. He liked Kools best.

"You sure can cuss good, Dally," said Johnny.

"Sure can. But don't you kids get to pickin' up my bad habits."

"Too late for me," I said and he rubbed my head hard before doing the same to Ponyboy.

"Kid, I swear it don't look like you with your hair all cut off. It used to look tuff. You and Soda had the coolest-lookin' hair in town."

"I know. I look lousy, but don't rub it in."

"Do y'all want somethin' to eat or not?"

"You'd better believe it," said Ponyboy.

"Gee, it sure will be good to get into a car again."

"Weeeeeell," Dally said. "I'll give you a ride for your money."

lmao sorry if this sucks balls but like yeah also sorry i haven't updated since 1945 but yeah