Taking the Last Punch

Chapter 1: Introduction

"Sweet Pea! Time to get up." I feel Soda shakin me. "But it's the first day of summer! Doesn't that mean I get to sleep in?" I say rolling over. "You already have." Soda smiled. "Come on. Get up." He demanded and I sat up.

I'm sure my hair is a rats nest right now because I sleep like a wild animal and pretty much tear my sheets apart.

Sodapop stood up from my bed and went to the closet. I keep all my clothes in the closet and Pony keeps his in the dresser. Sodapop picked out some clothes and set them on top of the dresser then left.

I might be 7 but I have serious problems with putting outfits together so Soda usually helps.

I get out of bed and put on my clothes. It was a baby pink shirt with short overalls. I put my socks on and walked into the bathroom.

My hair is a mess. What do you know? I was right. I brush my teeth and walk out, heading to the kitchen.

"Darry can you help me with my hair?" I ask getting a plate of scrabbled eggs. "Yeah, get your hair brush and a pony tail." He said not taking his eyes off the news paper. I ran to the bathroom grabbing a pony tail and my brush and ran back to the kitchen. I gave them to Darry and sat on my chair and ate eggs. "You really don't hold anything back when you sleep, do ya?" He said pulling the brush through my hair. "Ouch! Ever heard of gentle?" I asked rubbing my head. He brushed through all of my dirty blond hair.

Sodas and Ponys hair is dark brown, Darry's hair is light brown like what my dads was and I have a hair a little bit darker than my mom.

Darry put my hair in a pony tail and gave me back the brush.

Soda and Pony where in the living room talking about something or another.

I jumped up and ran to put the brush in the bathroom.

I went back to the kitchen to finish my eggs. I put my plate in the sink.

The front door opened and the rest of the gang piles in. I run to Two-Bit and hug him. "Hey Green been!" He said picking me up throwing me in the air. Two set me back down on the ground and I high-fived Johnny. I like Johnny but he can be quite.

It was probably around afternoon.

Eventually everyone was eating chocolate cake and I sat on Sodas lap and played with his hair. All the seats where taken which is usual. I usually sit on one of my brothers lap when everyone is here.

I'm so tired I fell asleep in Sodas lap as they watched cartoons.

I woke up and it was pretty dark outside.

Pony likes looking at the sunset but I like looking at the stars on a cold night. Once we put a blanket on our yard and looked at the stars. I did it with my mom sometimes but she was always busy and Pony was always doing nothing.

I was sitting on the couch and it was just Dally, Johnny, Two-Bit, and Pony left. Everyone must have gone to work.

"Who wants to go to the movie?" Dally asked, must have been bored of Mickey. Everyone seemed to want to go.

"We gotta drop Sweet Pea off at Cathy's though. Two, you brought your car right?" Pony said. "I don't want to drive all that way. How about we just stay in tonight." Two compromised. Dally groaned. "What are we going to do?" He asked. Two shrugged.

"Buck has a party going on." Two said. "We have a little Sweet Pea on our hands incase you forgot!" Johnny exclaimed. "Well we minus well put one of those bedrooms to use. You two want to stay in the room with her?" Two-Bit asked. "No! Darry would kill me if I went to one of Bucks party. He would kill me 3 times if Sweets was at one. And incase you forgot I don't think Buck would appreciate a 7 year old at his party, I mean who knows what it could do to his rep." Pony said.

I nodded acting like I understood everything that was happening. I really don't, it's seems like bull to me. Party's are fun, I'm fun. Whoever Buck is he would want me at his party. "Good point." Dally said disappointed.

We ended up playing monopoly. We sat around the coffee table and Dally and I where a team. I sat on his lap and rolled the dice. Monopoly is so boring, why can't we play something like shoots and laters? It was getting really dark outside.

Dally lifted me off his lap. "I can't miss that party, Two you coming?" He asked and they split.

"We should probably make dinner sense Green Bean missed out on lunch." Johnny stated. "Food!" I say running to the kitchen and Pony and Johnny fallowed after.

"Can I have cake for dinner?" I ask taking out the chocolate cake. "Knock yourself out." Johnny said. Pony cut me a slice and put it on a plate for me then poured me a glass of chocolate milk. We went back into the family room and I ate my cake like there was no tomorrow. Johnny looked at me like I'm crazy so I stuck my tongue out at him. I finished that and had seconds.

Sweet Pea is an unusual name and Dad usually called me Green Bean and it caught on. Or I get called Sweets or Sugar. I don't really know why I get called Sugar but sometimes it happens.

Also people have trouble calling me by my name when they are mad at me or any of my nick names so when someone yells at me they me by my middle name which is Suzan.

I hate that name so much which is probably one of the main reason Darry calls me that when he yells at me.

Steve will call me that too when he has no reason. It gets really annoying so I call him butt munch.

He doesn't like Ponyboy that much even though Pony never does anything wrong.

Steve only likes to be around me if we are out eating or something so he looks like a nicer guy for the girls.

I get way more annoyed when Steve calls me Suzan compared to when Darry calls me that. Steve has no business calling me that. That's the one thing that annoys Soda about Steve.

I was resting on Johnnycakes lap as they watched some scary movie that I wasn't really paying attention to. I must have not gotten enough sleep because I'm so darn tired. I drifted off into sleep as the movie continued.

I woke up and it was dark with a red mist. I got out of bed to ask Mommy what was going on. I walked to the kitchen and there was a scary guy sitting there drinking a cup of coffee. He gave me a crazy psycho look and got up. I ran out the door, I wasn't controlling myself I couldn't control anything happening. I ran all the way to the park there was more of them. They all towered over me and-

"Daddy!" I scream waking up in a cold sweat. I was still resting my head on Johnny's lap but now Dally and Two are back. "Green beans, you okay?" Dally asked from the other side of the couch. I got up over to him and hugged him tight and he held me back running his fingers through my hair. "Sweets, what happened?" He asked. "I went to the kitchen and it was dusty and I wanted to ask mom what was happening and it wasn't mom. It was some scary guy and-" I stop and cried more realizing who the scary guy was. "What baby? What happened next?" Dally asked still holding me. "It was a scary version of dad. And I went to the park and there where more of them and they where gonna kill me." I say. "You're going to be just fine." He said rubbing my back.

"Where's mamma? I wanna tell her about it." I say getting up whiling my tears. Two jumps up from the floor and picks me up like a baby. "Mom and Dad are on a date night. Just go back to bed." He said carrying me to my room. "No! They would have told me. I want to call Mom!" I cry.

Where could they be? They always told me the plans. They wouldn't be out this late either. They never went out.

"Wake me up when they get back!" I whine crying harder, all I want is mom. "Okay, I will. Just go to sleep." Two said. He put me in bed, turned off the lights, and shut the door.

I heard him from the other side of the door, "Call Darry, it's happening again." Why don't they call mom? There must be something wrong with the TV, Darry is usually good at fixing it.