Ashley Curtis... Ponyboy's sister...

Dinner with the Outsiders.(a.k.a. The bane of my existance) - chapter 2

We're all here sitting at the dinner table. Or tables. We had to bring in extra tables and chairs to be able to fit all 8 of us. 6 of us are sitting. Everyone except for Dally and I. I already hate him. "Oh goody," I thought, "I get to talk to Dallas Winston. Lucky me." Note the sarcasm.

"Ash," Pony said through a mouthful of baked chicken, Darry's specialty, "Where are our manners? Here," he stood up, "Sit down stay a while." A few other guys stood up, offering me a seat as Darry handed me a plate of food.

"Nah, thanks." I said, "I'm good. You guys sit down. I'm good standing. Plus, my leg's still asleep from the trip. If I sit down, it'll probably be numb for a week."

The guys sat back down saying things like, "Fine, suit yourself." and, "Okay, but it you want to sit, just ask."

While everyone devoured their food, Dally whispered in my ear, "You know, if you wanted to stand next to me, you just had to say so. You didn't have to make up that lie. 'Oh, I'm good. My legs are asleep from the long loooong trip and I just want to stand.'" he mocked me.

"Can it!" I nearly yelled, "If you don't quite it, I'll tell Darry and Sodapop and they'll pound your head in for bothering me. So lay off!"

"Ooh, feisty." he said leaning closer, "That's how I like 'em." he pretended to try and kiss me. I pulled back and he nearly fell forward.

"Soda! Darry!" I yelled, catching everyone's attention. I glared at Dally. "Can I go back to college." I pointed toward Dally, "This ones creeping me out."

Soda looked at Dallas and mumbled something in a deep voice. Then, he said, "Dally, I told you to do one thing when my sister got here. I told you not to hit on her. What did you just do?"

Dally put up his hands, defensively. "What?" he said, "You didn't tell me that she was such a babe." He winked at me and I hid behind Darry, who was already cracking his knuckles, getting ready to beat Dallas Winston senseless.

"Dally?" Darry nearly moaned, "This is your last warning. If you go near our sister one more time, you'll end up in the gutter,"

"Okay, okay." Dally said, "I'll stop." And we continued the dinner. Pony and Johnny offered to eat the rest of they're dinner with me in the living room so I could avoid Dally. Praise the lord for those two. Ponyboy was always my most sensitive, trustworthy relative, though Sodapop was a close second. Darry was trustworthy, too, but I could never really tell him the complete truth. Once, I had a crush on a boy in our neighborhood. His name was Curly, Curly Shepherd. He was Tim Shepherd's kid brother. He was a friend of Ponyboy. The first person I told was Ponyboy. He kept the secret pretty well. One day, Sodapop asked me why I was acting strange. Pony and I realized that the gig was up. We told Soda. Soda burst out laughing. (It didn't exactly help my self esteem.) After he finally stopped laughing, I made him promise not to tell anyone. He held up his right hand and said, "I promise that I will never ever ever tell anyone anything about your crush on Curly Shepherd, lovergirl." Unfortunately, while he promised, Darry walked into the room. He heard the whole thing. He ran up to me and yelled, "What?!!!!! You have a what on who-now?!!!!!!!!!" He locked me in my room and wouldn't let me out until I repeated the words "I do not have a crush on Curly Shepherd. I am too young to have a crush on anyone." 500 times. Those were the good ol' days.

"Hey, Johnny?" Ponyboy asked turning toward Johnny. "Don't be shy." He lifted Johnny's bangs. "Why don't you talk to Ash while I get the three of us some Pepsi." Ponyboy always did love Pepsi. He stood up and strode toward the kitchen.

Johnny still hadn't looked up from his shoes. He didn't want to look me in the eye. So, I lifted his bangs the same way Ponyboy had and said, "Come on, kid. I won't bite. Talk to me. Um... Tell me about yourself."

Johnny mumbled something that I couldn't quite make out. "Kid, speak up. I can barely hear ya."

He finally looked at me. "Hi, Ashley. Nice to meet you. P-Ponyboy has told me a lot about you."

"Nice to meet you, too." I said, "So, can you tell me a thing or two about you?"

"Um... Sure. I'm sixteen years old. My name is Johnny Cade and I'm a good friend of Ponyboy's. Also, if you ever need help with Dallas, you can ask me. He doesn't like to hit me. He's hit the rest of us, plenty,... But he never hit me. Weird, isn't it."

"Not really. I'm the only one in my family who Darry hasn't nagged at for going to jail, yet."

"No, I assume that that's because you've just never been their. Dally just never had a reason."

"Well, for your information," I said, lowering my voice so Darry wouldn't hear. "I've actually been their a few times, but don't tell Darry that."

"Don't worry. I won't tell him. Your secret is safe with me."

"Good." I said, "So, how did you meet Ponyboy?"

"We went to school together." he said, "He got move up a grade and I got held back one. We ended up in the same grade."

"Why did you get held back?" I asked.

"I don't know." he said, "I guess I just didn't understand what they were teaching me."

"Couldn't you ask your parents for help, or something?" I asked, stupidly, not realizing the expression on his face when I said parents.

"Um... Well..." he said as Pony walked in with three Pepsi's. "Oh, hey, Pony." Johnny continued, changing the subject.

Pony passed out the Pepsi's as the whole gang trampled each other getting out of the kitchen and trying to get a good seat on the couch.

For the rest of the night Johnny just sat there and I didn't know why.