So You're Leaving?

Caroline

Dally awoke the next morning to see Johnny standing at the window, looking out over the back yard towards the woods. "What's so interesting out there? If it's a girl in a bikini or something, you should have woke me up sooner," Dally quipped groggily. Johnny jumped a bit, turning towards him. "What?" Then he just rolled his eyes and turned away from the window. "What were you looking at?" "Nothing. Hey, look, I gotta go to church, man. You wanna come?" Dally raised his eyebrows. "Me? Go to church? Yeah, right." Johnny shrugged. "Suit yourself. I'll be back in a couple hours." Dally mummbled something as Johnny left. Good old Johnny, he thought as he drifted back to sleep. Still going to church. It was nearly noon when he woke up again. He smelled something really good coming from downstairs. He threw on some clothes and headed for the kitchen. "My goodness," Wendy exclaimed when she saw him. "Do you always sleep till lunch time?" "No," Dally said. "I usually don't get up till dinner." Wendy smiled and went back to making what appeared to be mashed potatoes. Although, the last batch of mashed potatoes Dally had seen were green. But he was a long way from the kitchen of Sodapop Curtis. Dally filled up a glass of water at the sink. As he was starting to drink, he happened to look out the window and he nearly choked. "Who is that!" he asked, putting the glass down on the counter. Outside in the yard was Johnny. And he was talking to a girl! And a pretty one at that. She was wearing a pale green dress that hung just below her knees. Her hair was a soft blond and was pulled back in a long ponytail. She looked shyly at Johnny as they talked. She was definately not a greaser. But, Dally mused, not really a soc either... Wendy looked over his shoulder. "Oh, that's Caroline," she said with a smile. "Isn't she sweet? I think she likes him." Dally just kept staring out the window. Wendy lauughed. "We didn't think Johnny was ever going to talk to a girl until he met Caroline. There was a different one coming by here every day for a while-" "Girls?" Dally asked surprised. "Oh, yes! Sometimes a few of them at a time. Asking if they could copy his notes, help them study... oh, they had all kinds of excuses." Dally looked away from the window for a moment to stare bewildered at Wendy. She just kept working on the mashed potatoes. "He's quite popular with the ladies, from what I understand." "Johnny?" Dally asked shocked. "The same Johnny that's afraid to even make eye contact with girls!" "Well, yes!" Wendy replied. "He comes into this small town all dark and mysterious... looking just a little dangerous to those girls because he's from the city. And you know how he is underneath it all, so soft spoken and gentle...The girls just ate that up. But you're right," she said looking up. "That is the shyest boy I have ever seen! He just didn't know how to intereact with any of them. Except Caroline." "Yeah, well, back home the girls are... different." Dally said looking back out the window, a somewhat guilty expression passed across his face. "We kind of told Johnny to stay away from the girls in our neighborhood. We might have... overdone it a bit." "Well," Wendy chuckled. "Whatever you told him, it sure sank in. But I knew he and Caroline would hit it off. Something just told me..." Wendy watched Dally as he looked out the window. He was squinting slightly, his eyebrows lowered. She smiled to herself as she realized what he was doing. He was studying Caroline... sizing her up, making sure she was ok. "Johnny met her at school," Wendy said trying to give Dally a little information about the girl. "She's very nice. She has a wonderful family and she goes to the same church as we do. Johnny's just completely smitten by her." But Dally had come to a conclusion by himself that Caroline was acceptable. And then a sly grin formed on his face. "Smitten, is he?" "Oh, now Dallas!" Wendy raised a spoon of mashed potatoes at him, suddenly realizing that she might have just made a big mistake and given Dally far too much information. "Don't you embarass him." Dally looked at her innocently. "Why would I do something like that?" Wendy just looked helplessly after him as he bounded out the back door. But by the time Dally got out to where Johnny was standing, Caroline was already walking down the driveway. Johnny stared after her, Cupid's arrow portruding almost visibly from the center of his chest. Coal was lying at his feet, chewing on a stick. He saw Dally approahing and thumped his tail. Johnny didn't notice. Dally put his hands in his pockets and strolled up beside him. He cleared his throat after a minute to announce his presence as Johnny had not heard him approaching. Smitten people were apparently a bit hard of hearing. "Who was that?" Dally asked with more than a hint of suggestiveness in his voice. Johnny glanced nervously at him. "Uh... Caroline." "Ohhhh,Caroline. Hmmm...Caroline... Caroline Cade someday perhaps? Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?" Dally grinned at him. Johnny just reddened and walked back towards the house, Coal following close at his heels. "Aw, c'mon, Johnny! I'm just kiddin' around!" Wendy was glaring daggers at him out the kitchen window. He raised his hands innocently. "What?" Johnny went upstairs and changed out of his church clothes. Dally came into the kitchen to face Wendy. "Now, what did I tell you?" she scolded. "To get up earlier? Now I see why! Man, if I'd known I was gonna miss all this, I might have even gone to church!" Wendy looked at him exasperated and went back to her cooking. "I've got a good mind to serve your dessert to the goats." Dally just grinned and headed upstairs to rib Johnny a little more. Johnny was tieing his sneakers when Dally appeared in the doorway. Johnny just looked at him for a second and then flopped down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. "Go ahead, man. Get your jollies." Dally just shook his head. "You've got it bad, don't you?" Johnny grinned sheepishly. "Yeah, I guess I do." "She ain't bad, Johnnycake, she ain't bad at all. Now, you be careful, though-" Dally pulled a chair up beside Johnny's bed and sat down very seriously. Johnny knew immediately where this conversation was headed. "DALLY!" he exclaimed, sitting up in alarm, his ears turning as red as Ponyboy's always did. "Look, man, I only just met her a few weeks ago. I don't think we need to have this talk!" Dally bit his lip and nodded. "All right. But, when the time comes, I'll give you some pointers!" Johnny wrinkled his nose in disgust and hopped off the bed. "I don't need any pointers. And besides, what do you know about nice girls, anyway?" Johnny narrowly missed Dally's swing at him and he took off down the hallway and down the stairs