Kaleidoscope- a Cherry Valance fanfic

Track Practice

The rest of the week went by about the same; three boring classes, some small talk with Cherry, another boring class, lunch, and another four boring classes. Ponyboy, Johnny and I had grown closer. I liked being their friends, but I was starting to feel guilty about my crush on Cherry. Pony gushed about her a lot, yet she never talked to him. I know what we had was purely platonic yet I couldn't help but think about her all the time. I thought about the way her red hair flowed so perfectly over her shoulders, how her smile seemed to light up the whole world, how her voice was so enchanting it would snap me out of any daze, no matter how far she was. In my eyes, Cherry was perfect.

I sat in the living room, watching Mickey on TV with Two-Bit. It was early in the morning and I was waiting on Pony and Soda to finish getting ready.

"Y/N?" Pony called.

"Yeah?" I said.

"Wanna come watch my track practise after school?" he asked.

"Sure, Pony," I smiled.

After that, we were off to school. Again, nothing interesting happened. I had learned over the course of the week that I had no room for fun here. I couldn't do anything because basically, every teacher in the whole institution was waiting to pounce and get me kicked out. I was annoyed, but what are you gonna do about it, you know? School ended so I walked to Pony's locker. He was already there putting his books away.

"So, where's your track practice?" I asked Pony. He must not have noticed my presence, though, because that caused him to jump.

"Jesus Y/N! You can't just sneak up on people like that," Pony said

"It's not my fault you didn't see me!" I said between laughs.

"Haha, very funny," Pony said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

I playfully shoved his shoulder and we began the walk to the field.

"You ever think about joining a sports team here?" Pony asked.

"No," I snorted.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because I'm bad at sports and it would be a waste of my time," I answered

"Are you saying track is a waste of time for me, Y/N?" Pony asked in mock shock.

"No, I'm saying it would be a waste of my time," I said back.

"That doesn't make any sense," he said as we walked onto the field.

"Really? It does to me," I smiled.

"What else do you have to do with your time, anyway?" Pony asked.

"Uhh I've got plenty of things to do, man," I said.

"Oh, yeah? Like what?" Pony smiled.

"Like uhhh... Hey, Pony, look! Track is starting! You better hurry up!" I said pointing at some members warming up.

He rolled his eyes, smiled and handed me his backpack.

"Hey, I didn't come here to carry your bag like some damn servant!" I yelled after him.

"What'd you think I invited you for?" Pony yelled back.

"I hope you fall and scrape your knees!" I yelled one final time before sitting down on the bleachers. 

The first thing I noticed after sitting down was the cheer practice going on. I scanned the faces and noticed all of them were socs. As I was about to take one final look, Cherry walked in. She was also wearing those tiny cheer uniforms, the same as everyone else's, yet she seemed to look 10x better. For the first 30 mins of practice, my eyes flickered between track and cheerleading, though it was hard to keep my eyes off of Cherry at all. She must've been a captain because she seemed to be leading the other girls and her back was towards me, unlike the rest. The teams took a break halfway through, but Pony stayed on the tracks, talking to one of his team members while drinking water. I felt someone sit next to me, so I looked over. Next to me sat a tall, stocky guy. He wore a dumb grin and looked like a total meathead. 

"Hey," he said, sending me a smile.

"Hi," I responded, giving him a tight-lipped smile.

He looked away for a little while I cocked my eyebrow in confusion, wondering what he wanted. Soon he scooched over to be closer to me.

"You're new here, right?" he asked.

"Yep," I said, scooching away from him.

"So, you need someone to show you around or something?" he asked, yet again moving over to be next to me.

"Nope, I'm good, thanks," I said moving away from him once more.

"Aw, come on baby, don't be like that," he pouted, moving over and throwing his arm around me.

"You know what? I'm thirsty, I'm gonna go get some water," I said motioning to the school building. He was about to come with me before I stopped him, gesturing for him to stay, "You, you stay here, though"

I dashed off into the main building, looking around for a water fountain. I turned my head to look behind me when I crashed into something- or should I say, someone, else. 

"Oh- shit, sorry." I proclaimed, looking over to see who I had bumped into.

"It's alright," Cherry giggled.

"I should've been looking where I was going," I said.

"No, really, don't worry about it," she smiled, "what're you doing in school after hours, anyways? You don't strike me as someone who likes school. "I mean you're practically halfway out the door when the bell rings."

"I'm here with Ponyboy. He asked me to come to watch his practice," I said.

"Is he trying to impress you or something?" she giggled again.

"HA! You're funny!" I laughed.

"Are you sure? I mean you two do spend a lot of time with each other," she smiled.

"Oh trust me, he likes someone, but it is not me," I said, "and since when do you focus so much on me, Valance?"

"I don't..." she muttered, smiling and looking at the ground.

"Alright, whatever you say, princess," I said, rolling my eyes.

She narrowed her eyes and looked me up and down.

"Have you ever considered joining the cheer team?" Cherry asked.

"No. Never in a million years," I said.

"Why?" She asked.

"Well for one, I can't do those little jumping around moves you do. Two, I really don't wanna be around all those other soc girls, and I don't think they wanna be within 5 feet of me. And number 3, I don't wanna wear those dumb little uniforms." I spoke.

"What's wrong with my uniform?" she asked.

"Nothing, don't get me wrong, it looks great on you, but there's no way I'm hopping around in one of those for free," I said, motioning towards her outfit.

"You think I look great?" Cherry blushed, her cheeks pink.

"Like you didn't already know that," I said.

"Thank you," she smiled.

"Anytime," I smiled back.

"You know, you're not so bad, Winston," Cherry said.

"Who said I was, to begin with?" I said.

She smiled, then began to walk back out to the field. She stopped a couple of feet in front of me and looked back, nudging her head and signalling for me to walk with her. We walked side by side down the halls and out towards the field in a comfortable silence until we split and went our separate ways. I sat back down where I was before and watched Pony's practice- or at least, tried to. My eyes always back in Cherry's direction, and occasionally, I even caught her looking in mine.