"Chris? Chris? Christine!" I was jolted out of my daze by Hazel waving her hand in my face. "Huh? What?" I quickly snapped, turning to her. "What's up with you today?" Hazel asked. "Yeah, you're daydreaming even more than usual today!" Meg exclaimed. I shrugged, "Oh, I don't know. I'm just tired or somethin'." But I did know. I wasn't tired. I had something else completely different occupying my mind. Well rather, someone. I couldn't stop thinking about that Sodapop Curtis, for what I think are obvious reasons. And whenever I did think of him, I felt sort of weird. Well, "weird" isn't the right word. I don't exactly know how to describe it. My heart would start pounding, my palms would sweat, and I couldn't sit still. I felt miserable and wonderful at the same time. What was wrong with me? Why did I feel like this? I decided to ask Mom about it when she came home. Although, Soda wasn't the only thing keeping me distracted that day. I was also thinking of Johnny. He was also in the hospital when we found Ponyboy, but they wouldn't let us see him. I guess Ponyboy and Johnny had been hiding in an abandoned church out in Windrixville for the past week. Some little kids on a field trip had stopped there for lunch, when the church caught fire. Pony and Johnny ran into the fire to save the kids, and Johnny ended up getting hurt pretty bad. Real bad. Even Dally burned up his arm pulling him out of the fire, which is why he needed to be taken to the hospital too. There was also the rumble to think about. I discovered that they decided to go through with it. Tonight, the Greasers and Socs would fight. The Greasers defending, the Socs attacking. The Greasers had to win. They just had to. The Socs had taken this rivalry too far, and became downright bullies. I didn't want what happened to my brother to happen to anyone else.
Everyone was real tensed up at school the next day. There wasn't a lot of talking, just some dirty looks and cocky grins exchanged between the guys. I couldn't wait to get out of there. As soon as I did, I ran to the DX to try and catch Soda before he got off work so we could try to see Johnny. The gas station was open, but Steve and Soda weren't there. I figured they were out helping someone, so I just waited inside. After a few minutes, a guy walked in. I had seen this guy before. He was a Soc. I had actually seen him hanging out with Bob at school before, well, you know. He was just as much of a trouble maker as Bob was, and I could tell as soon as he saw me that he meant trouble. I tried to ignore him and tried to act like I was just looking around, but after a second, he approached me. "Hey baby!" He said, cockily. "Hi." I replied dully, without looking up at him. There was a brief and awkward pause before he tried again to start a conversation. "You go to Rogers High, right?"
"Yeah."
"Ya know, I thought you looked familiar! I think you're in my English class!"
I could tell his friendliness was fake. I plastered on an obviously fake smile, "That's nice." A sort of puzzled look took over his cocky one as I turned away from the aisle to the refrigerator next to the counter. Then, he followed and stood extremely close to me. "You want anything in here?" He asked. "No thank you." I replied sharply. I was getting irritated. He grinned and inched even closer to me to the point where I could almost feel him breathing down my neck. "What's a cute little thing like you doing here all by your lonesome anyway?" He already knew he wasn't going to get anywhere with me, he just wanted to get on my nerves. It was working. I just kept staring at the soda through the glass, hoping he'd leave me alone. But of course, he didn't. He reached behind me, opening the refrigerator door with one hand, and grabbing a coke with the other, leaving me trapped underneath him. "Leave me alone!" I snapped,trying not to let it show how nervous I really was. He just grinned and inched even closer. "Why should I?" I was starting to get scared, even though Soc guys did this to Greaser girls all the time, sometimes even more than Greaser guys did to Soc girls. I slowly reached behind me, grabbing the neck of a Coke bottle, ready to smash it over this guy's head. Just then, someone walked in. "What's goin' on?" It was Soda. I couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief. The guy immediately stepped away from me and looked at Soda, then turned and started looking around as if nothing happened. Soda walked up to me, keeping his eyes on the guy. He could tell I was scared. "He giving you trouble?" he whispered to me. I timidly nodded. Something seemed to snap in Soda's eyes. He was real mad. He stormed outside. He quickly returned with Steve following behind him and stormed up to the Soc. "I'm gonna have to ask you to leave." Soda demanded. The Soc scoffed. "Why?"
"Because you're causing trouble with other customers." The Soc just kept the same cocky grin on his face. He glanced at me, then back at Soda. "She your girl or somethin'?" he snickered. Soda was fuming now. "You're lucky she ain't." Then he turned and looked at me, trembling in the corner. "On second thought..." he considered, looking back at the Soc, "not so lucky." With that, I gasped as Soda threw his fist into the Soc's jaw. The Soc stumbled backward, almost falling down. Soda probably would've swung again if Steve hadn't grabbed him. The Soc stood there, dumbfounded for a moment. "I suggest you beat it, before he decides to floor you!" Steve grinned. The Soc glanced one more time at me, then back at Soda, before he turned and quickly got out of there. I just stared at Soda, still in a little bit of shock. Then, I started laughing. I didn't know what else to do! I couldn't believe what just happened. And apparently Soda couldn't either, because he started laughing too. Still laughing, I walked up and hugged Soda. He hugged back. Then, feeling brave, I kissed him on the cheek. He stopped laughing when I did that, and just stared at me. "Thanks Sodapop!" I beamed. A smile slowly crossed his face. "No problem!" Steve started making fun of him, and Soda punched him in the arm. "Anyway," I said, as I finally stopped laughing, "the reason I came is to see if you wanted to come with me to try and see how Johnny's doin'. Can you?"
"Yeah, I'll go with ya!" Soda answered. "Steve?" Steve shook his head. "You guys knock yourselves out. I got plans anyway."
