When Darry and Kacie finally got home, the first thing he made her do was sit on the couch to ice her face for a few minutes. She didn't complain once of the pain she was in, even though a dark bruise was covering the entire left side of her face. Even Soda and Ponyboy, who'd worshipped this beautiful high school girl since the day they'd met her, came to ask if she was okay. She said yes each time, not wanting to bother anyone too much.

After a little while, Darry suggested they tried to study a bit, and they moved to the kitchen table, where he jotted down a few problems. It took a little while, but Kacie solved them. Too bad they were wrong... Darry said this in the nicest way possible, but it still discouraged her.

"Try 'em again," Darry said. This time he watched to see where she was going wrong.

"You're not even using the right formula," he told her after the first problem. She looked up at him.

"What?"

"The formula. That's not the one," he said, then jotted down the correct one. "Try that." She still got it wrong, and three more times after that. Darry couldn't see how she was getting something so simple so wrong.

"I give up! I don't understand this!" Kacie yelled at him after more failed attempts. He put his arm around her. Kacie felt sparks, and her stomach turning over, and butterflies flapping throughout. She took a deep breath, and tried to focus on the work.

"You can do it, Kace. It's easy," he reassured her. She sighed, loud, long, and over dramatically.

"But it's not, Darry. Geometry is the hardest thing in the entire world and I quit because I'm never going to have to use it in life ever," she said, starting to get annoyed.

"Do the problem again, Kacie," he told her. She shook her head.

"Nope."

"Just do it. I invited you over to practice so you don't fail. Why can't we just do that for a little while?" He asked. She blushed. As much as she had wanted it to be, it wasn't a date. It was a study session.

"You're right. I'm sorry for wasting your time, Dar," she said, picking up the pencil. He gave her a small smile.

"You weren't." And then after a moment, "Do you know what you're doing wrong now?" She shook her head.

"It's still wrong?" She asked, frustrated. He looked it over.

"Unfortunately." He scribbled out the real way to do it.

"I don't see how that's different," she said. He gave her a funny look.

"There's a different answer." She blushed.

"Oh... oh yeah." He laughed at her and she smacked his shoulder.

"Shut up! You know I'm bad at this," she exclaimed. Still chuckling, he spoke.

"You're not bad, Kacie. You just don't pay enough attention. You were doing the formula completely wrong, even after I gave you the right one," he exclaimed.

"No I wasn't. I was doing it just fine," she argued.

"No, you messed up right here," Darry responded, pointing to the exact place when he finally found it.

"Can't we just be done with this?" She exclaimed.

"Do one more problem correctly and we will be. Deal?" He asked.

"But what if I can't get one right?" She asked.

"You will." She nodded.

"Fine." He scribbled a problem willed with symbols and numbers bigger than Kacie could calculate, and she glared at the paper.

"I thought geometry was about shapes!" She yelled. He laughed.

"It is. Because when you're done solving, you can draw that shape, and tell me what kind it is," he explained. She scribbled letters, typed on her calculator, and spent 10 minutes on a problem that should have taken two at the most. She still got it wrong.

"I just don't get it, Dar! It makes no sense to me. None!" She said, close to tears.

"You'll figure it out. Watch me," he said. And she did. She watched his hand move as he worked out the numbers, most in his head, and ended with the correct answer. She just didn't know how he got it.

"But... how?" Was all she could say. So he went back and labeled every part for her.

"Here, try this one," he wrote down another equation for her, "and look at my directions as you do it." She did it slowly again.

"There," she said after a moment. "Done. And wrong too, right?" Darry looked in his textbook for the answer.

"No... Kacie, that's right!" He exclaimed. She gasped.

"Really? I actually did it?" She asked. He nodded, smiling at her like he was proud.

"I did it!" She exclaimed. He hugged her.

"You wanna try another one? Practice?" He asked. She laughed, still smiling.

"No!" Darry smiled at her giddiness.

"C'mon, Kace. One more then we can do something else. I want to make sure you really understand," Darry said. Kacie rolled her eyes.

"Fine. One... But why does it matter?" She whined. He laughed.

"Because I'm your tutor and I want you to get a good grade." Kacie's smile faltered when he said that. Her tutor? Just her tutor? She sighed, and he smiled at her, writing a problem.

"This... this looks complicated," she said. Darry agreed.

"It is. But math is just steps. Easy if you see it like that. Try it," he said. She did, carefully working out the numbers, taking a longer time than last.

"Is that right?" She asked when she was done, her voice meek. Darry checked it over quickly.

"Looks it. Nice job," he said. She smiled wide.

"Yay!" She said. He smiled back at her.

"Are you understanding now?" He asked. She shrugged.

"Maybe a little bit more. Thank you for your help, Darry."

"You're welcome," he said. She had expected more of an "It's my job," and felt glad that that wasn't what she got.

"So... what now?" She asked. He looked at the clock. It was 4:45 now.

"Well, I can walk you home now if you'd like, or we can wait for my parents to get back and we can go to dinner," he said. Not wanting to leave his company, she chose the second idea. He was okay with that, and by 5:30, they were getting ready to go.

"Do you have enough money, honey?" Darry's mom asked her son as the two of them were getting ready to leave.

"No... I was going to ask Dad for a little bit," he said with a slight blush.

"And who said he'd give you any?" She asked. Darry shrugged.

"Well, you're welcome to say for dinner here, Kacie. I'm a pretty good cook, if I do say so myself," Mrs. Curtis joked. Kacie looked at Darry. He shrugged again.

"I'd love to," she said, smiling.

"Wonderful. Dinner will be ready in an hour," Mrs. Curtis said. Kacie nodded and said thank you, then went to sit on the couch with Darry. Soda and Pony came out too, later on, and it was like she was already part of the family.

"Kids, dinner!" Mrs. Curtis shouted after a while.

"Ready for a family dinner with the Curtis's?" Soda asked Kacie. She smiled at him. Dinner went by slowly, Mrs. Curtis talked about Kacie's face a lot, and asked if everything was okay at home. She said her face felt fine, everything was fine at home, and they just had a little run in with some Socs. Mr. Curtis rolled his eyes at that, saying those kids need to get over themselves. Kacie agreed.

When dinner was over, Darry politely asked for the keys to the car so he could drive Kacie home. His parents said yes so he wouldn't have to walk home in the dark. As they drove, they talked about school. About the test tomorrow that Kacie was still sure she'd fail.

"You'll do fine, Kace. Just remember what I taught you," Darry said. "You'll do great." Out of the blue, she leaned over and kissed his cheek, then both of them turned bright red.

"I-I love how much you believe in me," she stuttered. Although Darry was blushing, he was also beaming, so she felt a little better.

When they got back to the Jones' home, Darry walked her up to her porch.

"See you tomorrow," she whispered. Darry put a hand on her bruised cheek, and let it linger there for a moment.

"Take care of that cheek," he said. His touch was like fire on her skin, but in a good way, like a healing technique. She wished he'd never let go.

"I will," she said. And that's when it happened. The two of them leaned in, and their first kiss together happened, slow and steady. Kacie forgot about everything. About her bruised cheek, about her sister and step-mom, and the pain they caused her at every waking moment, she forgot that her mother was gone, and that she had killed herself, and she forgot what a bad man her father was. For the first time in a while, Kacie felt happy. And it was the best feeling.

A/N: Awe! I think you really get a feel for the Kacie/Darry relationship in this chapter, especially in the part where they were studying math, which is probably one of my favorite things ever. What do you think?