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Virginia garnered a strange reputation in school. She was one of those north side greasers but she was a delicate artist. Oftentimes, she felt that she was falling between a line of what she was born as and who she wanted to transform into.
People knew where she came from and that she hung around some of the boys in the north side of town, earning her a relentless label, but she acted differently than them. She wasn't carrying switchblades or threatening to have it out with any of the Socs. Her clothing gave new students their answer on which side she stood on. The cuffed jeans, Docs, denim jacket, Hepburn makeup, and some whimsical touches of jewelry became a statement for her.
In short, they thought she was weird.
Some of the Soc girls would greet Virginia politely like Cherry Valance but others would tease her or remark of her walk and talk which rivaled that of a boy's. Her favorite class was art purely because of her passion and her vivacious teacher who she'd sometimes spend time after class to chat with. Virginia seemed to have a VIP hall pass for her next subject so Darry never had to scold her for what would've been a recurring attendance problem.
Her English class was near Ponyboy's math room so they met up during their shared lunch and have to hunt down Two-Bit if he wasn't already hanging out with another one of his blondes.
While Two-Bit and Steve (albeit against his will) made it their priority to keep their eyes on the two young greasers during school, Virginia made it her personal responsibility to protect Ponyboy. The two didn't care for cheap and unnecessary violence, save the occasional wrestle with the boys, but Virginia was willing to fight and die for her younger brother. It's almost happened once or twice but she made her argument defending herself. However, Darry didn't care for her defense.
But now, Cherry Valance sat next to her in her noon math class. Cherry saw a lot of Ponyboy's good attributes in his older sister and understood some of the troubles greasers endured through her. But Cherry was first and foremost a Soc and she was pertinent on maintaining her social standing which Virginia understood. Sometimes. She felt uneasy about Cherry ignoring Ponyboy in public spaces.
Virginia kept her chin on her desk and bounced her leg as she twirled her pencil in her fingers. She felt her eyelids droop a little with every sentence that came out of her math teacher, Mr. Hughes's chapped lips. Like Pony, math wasn't her strong suit and that resulted in several nights of tearful frustration with Darry when he'd sit the two down and check over every single one of the answers to their homework, find the incorrect ones, and make them do it again.
She rubbed her eyes, trying to stay awake and glanced over at Cherry who was dutifully paying attention to the lesson. Biting the inside of her cheek, Virginia ripped off a blank piece of her algebra notes and scribbled a message onto it.
"Cherry," Virginia whispered. She leaned over quietly, watching the teacher to make sure she didn't get caught and tossed the folded up note on top of Cherry's math textbook. Cherry looked at her with a little concern about getting caught and discreetly opened the note.
Headed to the Nightly Double after school. Wanna come with?
Cherry took a moment to write her answer and slowly handed it back to Virginia, keeping her eyes trained on the teacher who faced the chalkboard. She opened the note.
Sorry, I've got cheer practice. Getting ready for a big competition.
Virginia looked at Cherry and nodded, giving her a tight-lipped smile and gazed back at the note. She envied the redhead's pretty handwriting. Her Ps and Gs were fattened up in lovely curls but there was a feminine flair with each letter. Sometimes, Virginia envied Cherry as a person. She was beautiful with her fiery red hair and gentle green eyes, dressed sharply every day, and definitely knew how to carry herself. She bet Cherry didn't need her parents waking her up every morning.
She sighed quietly, tucked the note into the pocket of Soda's old denim jacket, and flipped over to a blank page in her composition book. She chewed the eraser of her pencil with her front teeth and smirked, glancing at Mr. Hughes who wrote a math problem for the class to work on. The gray-haired man ambled back to his seat, sitting down and getting comfortable.
And just like that, inspiration struck. Virginia prided herself on being artistically and musically talented out of everyone on the north side. In fact, after her mother passed, she was the only one who could make the piano in the Curtis home sound any good and with some supplies that she received for her birthday coupled with some Two-Bit or Steve swiped for her, she was able to finally do something with her time. After dinner on the weekends, she'd find herself playing chords and simple songs on the piano, filling the house with sweet sounds that lulled Darry to sleep after especially hard shifts he worked. Ponyboy would focus on his homework better with the gentle background music and Soda plain enjoyed watching his little sister skillfully master something he could never imagine learning.
With ideas buzzing around her mind, Virginia's pencil instantly went to work on the paper but not on the problem: her new muse. The quick and audible strokes of the pencil garnered the attention of classmates sitting around her and they abandoned their work to peer at her caricature.
"Woah, check it out," they whispered, reeling in cackles and jeering laughter. "Damn, that's sick." Even Cherry took a quick break from her work to glance over at the drawing covering her smile with her hand.
"Virginia, that's really good."
She, for some reason, looked at whoever gave her the sincere compliment and was almost scared to see cerulean eyes shifting from the drawing to her own eyes. She recognized him in some of the conflicts between the greasers and Socs but he always stood by the car or away except for one rumble. The description Soda gave fit him perfectly: Samuel Gardner. Two-Bit got into an argument with him once with Virginia behind them but other than that, the two never talked more than a few words.
Virginia enjoyed her impromptu sketch, making her teacher's facial expressions far more exaggerated than how he normally looks. Unfortunately, she was the only one who didn't hear the creaking of the teacher's chair. The other students fell silent and slowly returned to their seats.
"Ms. Curtis."
The words came out sharp and direct, laced in annoyance. Virginia looked up, her eyes wide and she felt her heart drop so fast to her stomach, she was worried that it would come back up her throat. She slowly turned around to see her teacher behind her with fists on his hips and a grim scowl on his face.
Then, she remembered the last time she got into trouble at school and Darry's legendary reaction. What a fond reality.
