On The Outside (A The Outsiders FF) #Wattys2015

Chapter 19

"Wake up, Sleeping Beauties! Wake up!" Soda hollered, jumping up and down on the bed. I shielded my eyes from the early morning sunlight that shone in through the window and sat up along with Ponyboy.

"We're up. What do you want?" Ponyboy groaned. Soda hopped off the bed and waited for us by the door, hopping in excitement.

"I made chocolate cake for breakfast, so you better hurry up before Two-Bit, Steve, and Luna eat it all. And Darry called the courthouse last night so after breakfast we have to go there to legally adopt you as our sister, Dakota." Soda said.

I got out of bed, got dressed, and met the gang in the dining room. Everyone stared up at me when I entered the room and awkwardly sat down next to Steve.

"Just an hour or two away from officially becoming a Curtis, kiddo." Darry said, walking into the dining room from the kitchen and patting my shoulder, smiling down at me. I beamed at him then at everyone at the table, squirming in my seat in excitement and happiness.

"Can we come, too?" Steve asked in between bites of cake, his mouth stuffed.

"Why would you want to?" Soda laughed, standing up with his plate and taking it to the kitchen.

"We've got nothing better to do. And I want to see how it goes." Steve replied, licking his plate now. I burst out laughing at him, and he just stared at me, chocolate cake coating his face.

 "You think this is funny, huh?" he said, putting his plate down and stared me in the eyes warningly. I knew he was playing around, so I just nodded.  "Well, you don't want me to do what Two-Bit did to you the last time he had chocolate cake on his face, do you?" he questioned. I shook my head, stifling my laughs.

I finished my slice of cake, which was surprisingly good, and had to wait for Darry, Soda, and Ponyboy to get dressed. When they finally came back, they were in suits. They looked different since I wasn't used to seeing them all dressed up.

"Okay, let's go." Darry said, straightening out his suit jacket and heading out the door.

* * * * * 

We impatiently waited for the judge to say something, anything. Darry was sweating nervously, Soda was tapping his foot, and Ponyboy was drumming his fingers on the desk in front of us. The rest of the gang and the girls were sitting behind us, watching.

They judge stared down at a sheet of paper in her hands, her glasses perched on the tip of her nose. She was keeping us in suspense with her silence, but she eventually looked up at us.

"Well, everything seems to be in order here. I now place Dakota in the custody of her new older brother, Darrel," the judge finally spoke. "Court adjourned."

Darry, Soda, and Ponyboy all jumped up and brought me in for a group hug, nearly smothering me. They were cheering in my ear and laughing.

The large, heavy doors of the courtroom swung open, and several police officers marched in. They looked as if they were guarding someone, but they were all larger than the person so I didn't know who.

"If you don't mind, could you kids leave? We're supposed to decide this girl's amount of time in jail." one of the officers confronted, jabbing a thumb at whoever they were surrounding.

"Oh, sorry, We were just leaving." I apologized, scooting out from behind our desk.

Before we left, I took a glimpse at the unknown person as they made their way up to a podium. Red, bouncy hair that came down just below her shoulder blades. She was too recognizable, and I knew right away who it was. Cherry.

Cherry snapped her head back to look at us, smirking evilly. My eyes widened and I had to force everyone through the doors.

"What was that all about?" Kimi questioned, a confused look plastered on her face.

"That was Cherry the officers were bringing in. She gave me a mischievously evil look, like she had a plan or something," I said, glancing nervously at the giant oak doors. I could hear a few of the guys swearing under their breath. "Let's just get out of here."

The whole ride home, tons of questions raced around my mind: What was Cherry's plan? What was she going to do? Was she going to succeed? I dreaded the answers that I hoped to not come.