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

Good morning, Tulsa. I didn't miss you. - chapter 11

I woke up. My arm was wrapped around Dally. He was asleep. Johnny was gone.

I took Dallas's hand off me. He woke up, instantly, sitting up.

"Dallas," I said, "where's Johnny?"

"Went to make breakfast a half hour ago. Told me to sleep in." Dally laid down and closed his eyes, again. "Go back to bed."

"In a minute," I said, "let me go check on Johnny, first."

I wondered why Dallas hadn't gotten up when Johnny left. And why, although Dallas had waken up, his arm was around me when he did. I ignored it and went to the kitchen.

Sure enough, Johnny was standing there, making sandwiches for breakfast. He seemed to know exactly what everyone wanted. He made 3 egg sandwiches for Darry, 2 jelly and cream cheese sandwiches for Soda, 3 P B & J's for Ponyboy, and 23 other unique sandwiches for everyone else. Bet ya he knew 'em all real well.(the gang, not the sandwiches) He treated um like brothers. He's a great kid.

He looked at me, he smiled as I walked in. "Hey, Ash." He looked at me with the big brown eyes, "How'd ya sleep?"

"Good, good." I said. "What ya doing?"

"Nothing." he said with a grin. "Just makin' breakfast. Wanna help?"

"Sure," I said, "What do you need help with?"

He looked puzzled, "Hmmm..." he thought, stroking his chin. He snapped, finding an idea. "How 'bout you tell me what I can make ya for breakfast. Then, if you don't mind, could you wake up the guys? They're a bit sluggish. I tried to wake up Dal before. He had his arm around ya. When I finally woke him up, he kept telling me to leave him alone and told me that he was too tired. Ya know, the normal stuff. I said I'd give him half an hour to sleep, then I'd wake him up. He said, 'Sure, whatever, kid.', put his arm back around ya and went back to sleep. He wouldn't let up!"

I rolled my eyes at Dally's lousy behavior, but couldn't help but think of the fact that he wouldn't take his arm off me.

"K, Johnny. I'll wake him up. And for breakfast, make me whatever's easiest."

"Yeah, but I don't know what you like." he said.

"Okay," I said, "make me whatever Pony's having." Johnny nodded and I went to wake up Dally.

I walked up to Dally and he woke up immediately. He looked up at me and said, "Hey, Ash. How Johnny doing with breakfast?"

"He's good." I said, "It's almost ready. Go to the kitchen and start eating." I pointed toward the stairs. "I'm gonna wake up my brothers."

He stood up. "Nah." he said. "You go to the kitchen, I'll wake up the guys."

"No, it's fine. I got it." I said, walking toward the stairs, "I'll get um. They're my brothers."

Dally grabbed me by the shoulder and said, "No, I'll get 'em."

I couldn't help but grin. I grabbed his hand and headed toward the stairs, "We'll both get um."

Dally went to wake up Ponyboy and Sodapop, I went to wake up Darry. As much as I wanted to wake up Pony, it would be pretty awkward if Dally went to wake up Darry.

Once I got to Darry's door, I went to open it, but changed my mind. I knocked first. Sure, we left our door unlocked, but we still liked our privacy. When I knocked, no one answered, so I walked in. Darrel was sound asleep. He hasn't looked that peaceful since... Well, he hasn't looked that peaceful. I stood at the right side of the bed, the side he wasn't facing, and whispered in his ear, "Yo, Darry." In my best Dally voice.

Darry moaned, "What is it Dallas?"

"It's you brother, um... Ponyboy! Yeah. He's with some Soc girl in his room... Ya think he's takin' after me? It sure seems like it."

Darry jumped out of bed screaming, "PONYBOY CURTIS WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN THERE?!!!!!!!!!"

I cracked up laughing and Darry turned around, dumbfounded. "Never mind." he screamed again.

"What was that for?!" he said, turning toward me.

"Fun." I replied laughing. He grinned and we walked toward Ponyboy and Sodapop's room.

As we approached the door, I heard Ponyboy call, "Ash, help! There's a monster under the bed!" I rolled my eyes and walked in.

I saw Ponyboy and Sodapop inside, worried about something. "Hey, guys," I said, "Where'd Dallas go?"

Soda looked at me, fear in his eyes, "I-It got him..." he said.

"What got him?" I said, rolling my eyes.

"The... The monster..." Pony announced, quivering. "Under the bed..."

"Ponyboy, I thought we've been through this." I said, walking toward the bed. "There's no monster under the bed."

As I got closer, Soda screamed, "Back up, Ashley! It'll get ya! Back up!"

"Come on, Soda. You're too old for this. There's nothing under the-" I was cut off by a hand grabbing my leg from under the bed. It pulled on my leg and I shrieked, falling over. I kicked the monster under the bed until it released its grasp on my leg. I didn't bother standing up, I kicked the side of the bed, pushing me away from the bed. I was breathing heavily. I could barely breathe at all. My hand was on my heart and I let a few words make their way out of my mouth that I probably shouldn't have. I looked up to see Pony and Soda, laughing hysterically. I was grinding my teeth.

"What was that for?!!!!!!" I yelled at the top of my lungs.

Through a giggle, Ponyboy managed the word, "Fun!"

Dallas Winston crawled out from under the bed and sat down next to me, laughing and smirking.

"Wow!" I said,  maniacally grinning at Dallas. "You weren't kidding! The monster's hideous!!!"

Dally rolled his eyes, "What? The little girls scared of the cute guy under the bed?"

I went up to the bed, looking under again. "Where?" I said, "I don't see a cute guy."

After everyone was finished laughing, we went down stairs. In the kitchen, we saw, not only Johnny, but Johnny, Two-bit and Steve. They were already diving into the food. We joined in, basically devouring the food. It was a good morning. Then, everybody was going off to work and school.