My Uptown Girl

Yule Special

It had only been a month since the kiss between Shirley Davis and Sodapop Curtis, and they never spoke a word about it. Shirley had stopped going over to the Curtis house as much as she used to, as it was too awkward to be in the same room as him.

The other Greasers definitely suspected something was up between the two. It was hard not to see anything, as she and Sodapop avoided each other completely when Shirley was spending time with them.

"Hey, Shirley. Ponyboy's inside." Darrel greeted her at the door, allowing her in. Ponyboy had asked her for help on an English essay, as no one else in the house could help him with his homework. Shirley took off her jacket and placed in on the sofa, making her way to Pony's room that he shares with Soda.

The door was shut, and just as she was about to knock, someone turned the knob and opened it, walking out. Soda paused when he saw who was at the door.

"Hey, Shirley."

"Hey, Soda."

They didn't say anything else. Feeling awkward by the sudden silence, Shirley moved around Soda to enter the room so she could greet his younger brother, Pony.

"Shirley! Just in time!" Pony pulled up a chair, to the desk he was using to do his homework, and ushered her over. Shirley sat down in the chair and placed her bag on the floor.

"I'm gonna go see Sandy, Pony. Don't wait up on me. There's food in the fridge."

"Sure thing, Soda." Pony dismissed him and went back to his work. Soda waved farewell to Shirley and left.

"So, how come you're doing homework when school just got out for Christmas break?" Shirley remembered when Cherry had shown up at the diner during her lunch shift even though it was a Tuesday. Confused, Shirley asked if Cherry has possibly skipped school to get some lunch. Cherry just laughed in response and told her it was time for their Christmas break.

"I fell behind on a project so my teach asked me to do this over the break." He handed her a paper packet, that had the instructions for the essay on it. Shirley read through the instructions and turned to her younger friend.

"So you have an entire month to write about your favorite movie? You can literally write this in a day."

"Yeah, I know. I just suck at grammar so my teach asked me to get someone who spoke good so they can help me with that."

"And you chose me?"

"Well no one else speaks as nice as you."

"I'll take that compliment."

"So how do I do this? I don't want to write the essay just to keep rewriting it."

Shirley taught Pony how to write a draft for his essay. Since it was an informative essay, she taught him how to lay out his paragraphs and even wrote his first draft so he could get an idea of what to do.

"Shirley, I got called into work and I was wondering if you could keep an eye on Pony until I or Soda get back."

"Sure thing, Darrel." He nodded to her and said his farewells, leaving the two behind.

She laid on the bed, waiting for Pony to finish his first essay so she could point out any mistakes he made and help him rewrite it. When he was done, he handed her the sheet of paper and she read through it, taking a red pen and marking out any grammatical errors or incoherent sentences. When she was done marking everything, she handed it back to him so he could rewrite it.

"You know, this is not what I had planned for a Thursday evening." She teased.

"What did you have planned?"