Bad Reputation||Brooklyn Winston

Chapter 5

The next morning I woke up at five-thirty. I grabbed my dress off the towel rack in the bathroom, making sure that it had dried since I washed it the night before. I needed to find a few different ways to wear my dress, since it would take some time to make my new clothes look the way I wanted.

Dallas came downstairs with me while I ate breakfast. He stared at my outfit as he said, "Those kids are going to eat you alive if you dress like that."

I shrugged. "I did inherit some of your attitude, you know. We're not completely different."

"You must have my attitude if Angela Shepherd wants to walk to school with you."

"So she isn't being nice to me just because I'm your sister?"

"Angela? No way. She's not nice to anyone."

"That's good to know. At least I know she really likes me."

"Yeah, she doesn't really like anyone. Tim says she doesn't have a lot of friends." Dally reach into his pocket and said, "Here. I want you to carry this with you at all times."

I looked at what he had handed me. It was a switchblade. "Why do I need this?"

"Because there's socs everywhere."

"What's a soc?"

"Seriously?"

I nodded.

"You know, rich kids? Preps?"

"So there's rich kids. So what?"

"So they're dicks. They go around jumping greasers all the time. You need something to protect yourself."

"What's a greaser?"

"'What's a greaser?' You're killing me, Brooklyn. Didn't you have greasers and socs in New York?"

"I don't think so. There weren't really a lot of rich kids around. We lived in a bad neighborhood. All the rich kids went to different schools."

"Well here everyone goes to one school. Socs are the rich kids. We're greasers, and we're at the bottom of the food chain. We're the worst of society. Socs hate us and we hate socs. We all jump each other, so it's best to carry a blade. Socs don't normally jump girls, but once they find out that you're my sister, things might be different."

"I probably won't be using this."

"Just keep it anyway."

As I slipped the switchblade into my binder I asked, "So you really have a reputation around here, huh?"

Dally smiled. "You could say that."

I sighed. "Great."

As Angela and I walked to school, I asked her about the whole socs vs. greasers thing. She explained things to me better than Dally did, and said that it would probably help if they knew that Dally was my brother.

"Why?" I asked.

"People are terrified of him." She told me. "If socs knew that you were his little sister, they'd stay way the hell away from you."

"I'm not really sure if I want people to know that we're related."

"Don't worry, I'll take care of it."

"What does that mean?"

Angela smiled. "Just trust me."

When we got to school Angela went to the office with me to get my schedule, then showed me where everything was.

"I'll meet you by the cafeteria doors at lunch, ok?" She said.

I nodded. "See you then."

In first period, which was English, I discovered that Ponyboy was in my class.

I smiled as I sat down next to him. "Hi."

He smiled back. "Hey. So how do you like Tulsa so far?"

Wow, he looked so good when he smiled. It was at that moment that I decided that I liked him.

"It's so different from New York. I don't know how Dallas adjusted. And then he was telling me about this whole soc and greaser thing, which I had never heard of, so I had to get Angela to explain it to me."

"Yeah, I imagine things are pretty different. Do you have a blade? You're gonna need one to protect yourself from the socs."

I nodded. "Dallas gave me one this morning."

"Why do you do that?"

I paused. Was I doing something weird? "Do what?"

"You call your brother Dally when he's around, but when he isn't, you call him Dallas."

"Oh, that. I've always called him Dallas. Everyone in New York did. Dally must have been something that you guys started calling him. And so when he picked me up in New York, he told me to call him Dally. He's probably trying to forget New York or something like that."

"It makes sense. He seems annoyed whenever one of us calls him Dallas. Johnny is really the only one he lets call him that."

I wanted to say more, but the teacher walked into the room, cutting off our conversation. It's ok though, because Ponyboy and I ended up having second and fourth period together too, so we ended up having more time to talk.

By lunch after fourth period, everyone knew that I was Dally's sister, thanks to Angela.

I found Angela in the cafeteria and pulled her aside. "Why did you tell everyone that Dallas is my brother?"

She laughed. "Relax. No one's going to bother you now." She pointed to a group of girls, who I had learned to recognize as socs, rushing past me. "See? People are going to leave you alone."

"Yeah, and that's the problem. Back in New York, people were scared of me because of my brother's reputation. I didn't have friends up until this year. I wanted a fresh start here."

Angela turned serious. "I'm sorry. I didn't know. I know what it's like though. People won't talk to me because they're afraid of my brothers."

I smiled. "I guess we're stuck with each other, then."

Angela grinned. "I guess we are."

We sat down after getting our food.

Angela looked around the cafeteria before saying, "I saw you come in here with Ponyboy Curtis."

I nodded. "Him and my brother are friends."

"He's real cute, don't you think?"

I shrugged. I may have thought that he was cute, but I wasn't about to go spilling my guts to a person I barely knew. Telling her about New York had been enough for one day.

"Do you know if he's dating anyone?"

I shook my head. "I have no idea."

"Do you think you could find out?"

I looked up. "Do you like him?"

Angela nodded. "Yeah. I have for awhile."

That was one of the things I liked about Angela. She was who she was, and she was unapologetic about it.

"I guess I could ask him." I told her. I didn't mention that I liked him too.

"That'd be great. Thanks, Brooklyn... And you know, I really am sorry about telling everyone that you're Dally's sister. But people would have figured it out eventually. I mean, you're both named after cities, you have the same last name, and you're both from New York."

I shrugged. "I was just hoping that everyone would think that it was a coincidence."

Angela laughed. "Believe me, if I could figure it out, than everyone else would have been able to too."

"You mean he didn't tell you why he was going to New York?"

Angela shook her head. "I didn't even know that he had a sister. It was just a lucky guess. He doesn't tell anyone anything."

I nodded. "Yeah. I know."