A WORLD OF STRANGERS
LILLY HARMON WAS A SOC LIVING TEENAGER in tulsa, oklahoma. she grew up wearing cardigans over turtlenecks, skirts the hung above the knee, decorated with mary janes. this was a typical lifestyle of you were a soc in tulsa. lilly saw the other side of tulsa and wished to rinse out the horrific memory of it, she didn't think it'd be really bad but the other side of tulsa had all the greasers living in it. greasers were lowlife, homeless, and dangerous. lilly didn't hate greasers but she had to for her parents who would kill her if they found out she was messing around with one.
lilly grew up with an older brother, chris harmon. he was the senior quarterback of the football with a few full ride scholarships waiting for him. her brother was the a-list celebrity of will rogers high school, people would see his name on the local newspaper for his football skills. his life was the dream, dating vanessa williams from cheer team, going to parties every friday night, and soon graduating at the top of his class.
lilly and chris grew up close until chris reached high school and lilly was still in 7th grade. she'd watch her own older brother fade away from the dinner table, living room, and even his own bedroom. she started seeing less of him as he progressed. she felt lonelier at home as her parents, violet and james harmon, were busy constantly working. her mother was a seamstress for local brands and her father was a supervisor at an engineering company.
she only found comfort in her best friend, debra bassett who is the same age as lilly but just a few months older. she would always be at debra's house to gossip about boys or just random stuff. debra was truly her only comfort friends out of all the other people she's talked to. debra was her ride or die.
over on the east side was 15 year old, ponyboy curtis who lived in a cracked house with his two older brothers, sodapop and darryl curtis. it's just them all living together but it wasn't always like that, it took a rough ride to make that happen. about 6 months after ponyboy's 15th birthday, his parents were killed in a car wreck, getting smashed against a train after a date night. ponyboy still grieves and hides his pain like his older brothers, but he'd still get nightmares of the crash.
ponyboy and his brothers had no other option but to fend for themselves, darryl working two jobs every week, sodapop dropping out of high school during junior year to work a full time job at the dx. ponyboy had no job other than joining the varsity track team. his group of friends describe as the fastest of them all. his three idiot friends; dallas winston, two-bit matthews, and steve randle mostly call him speedster. however, just like lilly, he only found comfort in one friend who is johnny cade.
johnny cade was like the puppy of the friend group, everyone vowed to protect him at all costs, whether it was from the socs or even his own parents who treated him like nothing else but a punching bag. johnny slept at ponyboy's house a lot or would sleep in the lot to avoid being a burden to the house, despite the fact that darryl doesn't want him to sleep outside or at his own house with all the beatings his parents give him.
although lilly and ponyboy sound like strangers to each other because if their differences, they knew each other pretty well enough to just have a few conversations in the hallway or class. however, lilly didn't want to fall for a boy like him because of the standards she's grown up with from her parents. ponyboy fell in love with the curly headed girl, he thought of the way her nose would scrunch up when she'd laugh at something he said or her sense of humor, even the way she'd talk about books and poetry. his two main favorite things.
if only lilly knew she was falling for a boy like that.
THE 9TH PERIOD BELL RINGS FOR THE STUDENTS OF WILL ROGERS HIGH SCHOOL, lilly harmon throws the first cover of her textbook for geometry on top of the pages she did nothing but skim through. lilly found herself in a relief of pain when she walked out of her geometry honors class, meeting her best friend, debra bassett who was waiting by the door for her.
they walked shoulder to shoulder to the cafeteria, lilly was a bit annoyed that day because she had forgotten her lunch at home which meant she'd have to buy the school lunch. debra was swinging around the lunchbox in her hand that only had a sandwich and bag of fruits.
"gosh lil, did you see sodapop curtis today?" debra gasps, referring to the boy from the dx.
"debby, again." lilly rolls her eyes, "i don't walk to school just to visit sodapop curtis like you do."
"don't be mad about always riding with your lame brother every morning to school." debra sasses.
"i ain't mad, it's just-"
lilly was about to finish when she heard her old brother, chris' voice come down from the hallway.
"greaser's head got a swirly!" chris screams as him and his friends run away from the 2nd floor bathroom.
lilly and debra turn around to see curly shepard stomp out of the bathroom with drenched, flattened hair. everyone but lilly was laughing at the juvenile who was hiding their face. even his frenemie, two-bit matthews was howling at the sight.
lilly grabbed debra's sleeve and led her away from the scene. they got out just in time as curly shepard was dragged away by principal mulvin. lilly was shoved just a little by curly, he turned to smirk at her only to receive a disgusted looked by her.
they made it to lunch but the room was practically empty, debra spots ponyboy curtis grabbing his tray with his best friend, johnny cade. lilly grabs two trays for her and debra, following the small line. lilly was right next to ponyboy curtis who turned and was immediately taken back, he's never been this close to her in an empty room.
"howdy, lilly." ponyboy goofily greets.
"how do you do, pony?" lilly smiled at him.
ponyboy was already trapped in her gaze but snapped out of it, "doin' alright, and you?"
"i'm okay but i'm just starved." lilly answered.
"hey umm... if you want, you could come sit with me and debra."
"that's really nice of you but johnny and i were heading to the library to study for that chemistry test." ponyboy sadly rejects.
"it ain't a problem, pony." lilly shook her head, "if you change your mind, you know where we're at."
debra and lilly grab their trays off the metal table, walking in sync to their small 4 chaired table. ponyboy and johnny were about to leave the cafeteria, he turned around to look at lilly one more time, he was blushing when he realized she was smiling at him.
THEY WEREN'T STRANGERS AFTER ALL
