I was surprised; I thought the party my cousin had dragged me to was going to be dull. The theme was to dress as something she called greasers, we didn't have those back in Pennsylvania but it seemed that being one meant boys dressed like Elvis and the girls were often in trashy clothing or ripped jeans. It wasn't the best party I had been to in my 16 years, but it wasn't bad until introductions started. After being introduced to a few people by my cousin Sherri, as well as her boyfriend Bob, I headed for the upstairs bathroom only to be cornered by Bob. Even with my continuous refusal, Bob didn't seem to get it into his head that I didn't want him just because my cousin did. Luckily for me she walked up right as he was force kissing me, but unluckily for me I got caught in the middle of the lovers quarrel and got yelled at as if it had been my fault he put his dirty paws all over me. As nice as she could be, Cherry was frightening if her anger was directed at you and due to lack of proper judgment that alcohol brought her anger was aimed at me in the form of shouting for me to go for a walk so her and Bob could talk. Not sure why I couldn't just go back downstairs and avoid them, but as I said: she was scary so I wasn't going to add fuel to her drunken fire by arguing with her logic. Because of all this I was left sitting at a park fountain, completely lost since I had just moved in with her family a few days ago. I tried to remember how to get back to either the party or her house, but it wasn't working out too well for me. My buzz was wearing off and for a summer night the air was getting ridiculously chilly, but I was tired so I listened to my legs and decided to stay seated there.

"Hey greaser!" I heard an angry voice yell from behind me, causing me to fall into the fountain from surprise (the remaining alcohol in my system didn't help my balance much either). I could hear the voice laughing when I came up from under the water, my dress up greaser outfit clinging to me, the water making the fabric even less protective against the night chill. I moved my hair from my face so I could open my eyes without water dripping in. After I pulled my hands away from I saw they were covered in the heavy makeup Cherry had me wear to look trashy. I heard more laughter and looked up while wiping my hands on my mid-thigh skirt, a teen boy who looked as if he would fit in at the party with a tight sleeveless shirt on, greased hair and a pair of ripped jeans was there laughing, pointing a finger of the hand not holding onto an almost empty beer bottle at me.

"What's so funny now?" I asked getting annoyed with him laughing at my fall into the water. He stopped laughing, but never stopped smiling, "your running make-up looks like a clowns, all you need is some lipstick!" he burst out into more laughter, but this time I laughed along with him. I thought I looked like a clown before my make-up was running, which made me wonder how much worse it looked now. After getting my breath back I rubbed my face with water trying to make it better before he helped me out of the fountain.

"Sorry bout the scare, didn't know you were that jumpy" he said chuckling at the memory of my failure in balance. I smiled at him but when I went to reply my voice quivered with the wind blowing against me; when you're not angry or laughing, being soaked gets pretty cold.

"How far away ya live?"

I managed to reply through my chattering teeth, "I..I have no idea. I'm n-new to the area" He gave me a long stare before seeming to decide on something,

"Man you're gonna catch your death if you spend the night wandering around out here in those clothes, come on."

"I'm not a man" He started walking away, I stood confused before following,

"Wait, where to?"

"Does it matter? We're gonna get ya some warm clothes"

That was convincing enough for me, dry clothes and being inside sounded better than sitting at that fountain, but knowing my luck it would down pour right after being handed the new clothing and sent on my way. That or I'd get kidnapped, robbed or raped. Before I could respond to my morbid thought by making an excuse to turn around and leave we arrived at a small house with lots of noise coming from inside, most of it sounding like there was a fight going on.

"You must have a lot of brothers" I said as we walked up the stairs.

"Shoot, this ain't my house, this is the Curtis's house, if it were my house you'd get lost in a sea of trash" he laughed at his own comment and opened the door as I stood, tempted to correct his use of ain't since it's a pet peeve of mine. He walked inside and into another room, leaving me standing awkwardly and shivering in the doorway. While looking around I saw that it was two younger boys wrestling on the floor that was causing all the noise with another cheering them on, before I got a good look at the boys a deep voice shouted, grabbing my attention. "Two-bit, what in hell did you do to this poor little lady!?" a very muscular man said as he looked up from the fight.

"I'm not that little" I mumbled, but of course no one could actually hear me over the match that had not stopped on my account. The greaser who had caused me to fall into the fountain came back out with two beers in his hands, which interrupted my scanning of the room before I took one of the bottles I probably didn't need out of Two-bits hand. Before I even managed to get out a thank you, or ask for the clothing I came for, another young man walked into the house and took the beer out of my hands before sitting down on the couch while glaring ahead the whole time. I gave him an annoyed stare that he didn't notice and followed Two-bit into another room, deciding it was best not to mess with the man when he was clearly upset.

Once he led me into a bedroom he spoke, "Sorry bout Dally there, he gets like that sometimes."

I shrugged, "I guess everyone has moments, just please stop me if I start acting like him"

"Oh an how exactly does ol'dal act when he's in a mood?"

I smiled back at his amused smirk and answered hoping he knew I was playing around, "likes he's got a sharp stick up his butt."

Two-bit started laughing and took another swig of his beer before yelling out into the other room. "Hey Darry, ya mind if I give this chicka some of your clothes to wear?"

I heard a voice yell back; recognizable as the buff guy that said something when I first came in, "as long as it's not my work clothes."

Two-bit started to make small talk as he continued to roam through Darry's closet. "So chicka, what's your name?"

"Catalina"

"Ooooh Cat, little kitty cat" he said as he patted my head mockingly, used to this reaction I just rolled my eyes,

"Yeah haven't heard that before. Kitty's fine though" I wondered if he ever stopped being happy, or if it was just the beer,

"Alrighty, kitty it is! I'm Two-bit Matthews."

"What's your real name?" Strange names happen but I doubted any parent would choose that.

Shrugging he avoided the answer, "No one uses it. You got a tail hidden under that outfit?" I slapped his hands away before he could lift up my skirt, funny or not I wasn't allowing that.

"Get out of the room Two-Bit Matthews, so I can change."

"Aww do I have to?" he said like a child as he walked towards the door.

"Yes, now Shoo, leave, be gone."

"Geeze, bossy for this not even being your house an all" grinning he walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

I changed out of the damp clothes and into Darry's, giggling quietly as I looked down. The pants fell down to the floor right when I let go of them and the old shirt could have passed as a mini dress. Taking a safety pin off of my previous outfit, I stuck it through the pants hoping it would be enough to tighten the waistline of the jeans. Luckily for me my wet shirt was black, which allowed me to wipe any remaining makeup off onto it without staining the cloth before I crumpled it up with my other wet articles and walked back to the living room. By now the boys who were wrestling were all doing something else, too distracted to notice that I was standing there watching everyone. Two-bit was sitting on the floor laughing with a boy with nicely slicked back hair and one with big puppy dog eyes, the two who were wrestling before, both who looked a bit younger than the rest of the group. Dally was nowhere in sight, but in his place on the couch was a boy laying down in only a towel watching the news on TV just as two other men were doing. One being Darry, still sitting in the same armchair as before as a boy with his shirt unbuttoned who had cheered on the fight stood behind him. "Damn Socs, 'Troubled teens turn good' bull shit" The boy standing behind Darry continued to mumble dirty things about the 'Socs' when finally Darry cooled him down. "Come on now Steve, save it for later, we have a lady in the house, don't need her traumatized from your ruff talking" This made the boys realize I was there.

I stood there for a minute, everything going silent except for the television. An awkward tension filled the air until Two-bit spoke up, "You look reeeaaalll lady-like in those clothes!" Two- bit laughed, obviously passing buzzed and reaching drunk. Awkwardly I waved to the others before responding to Two-bit, feelings of being timid disappearing as I joked back, striking a model-esq pose, "I know, don't I just look so sexy!" The guys laughed along with me and Two-bit, or at me, either way I was happy.

A voice came from behind be, "When'd Two-bit pick up this little broad?" I turned my head to see Dally coming out of the bathroom before he walked past me and sat back on the couch, making the nearly naked boy sit up.

"Well she just fell for me!" Two-bit exclaimed breaking out into laughter with me. Apparently he hadn't explained why I was there since no one else laughed along. The guy in the towel walked over, holding out his hand, being nice enough not to point out how I had stared at him with every step,

"Hi I'm Sodapop."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Kitty." I shook his hand, using a nickname to introduce myself since everyone else seemed to go by their nicknames around here. As our hands shook his towel fell off, leaving both Sodapop and I to blush different shades of red as he scrambled to pick up his towel while I struggled to make sure I kept my eyes the other direction. I tried to regain composure quickly but ended up giggling and pausing between words as I spoke, "Uhh…wow…you, uh…sure now how to greet a lady to make a lasting impression don't you?" he chuckled with one hand firmly around the towel and the other behind his neck, still embarrassed. It didn't help that the guy in the DX shirt, Steve I think Darry said, came over and started saying a few borderline raunchy jokes about him being arrested for being a flasher and asking if that was one of the tricks he used to get girls in bed which made the pink return to his cheeks.

Trying to help him and myself out of the situation, I attempted to continue as if nothing had happened even though I still felt a burning heat in my face and a racing in my chest,

"I really like your nick name Sodapop, where did it come from?." he hesitated to say anything at first,

"It's my real name, believe it or not" I blushed, feeling bad for calling it a nick name (although, who could blame me for thinking so),

"That's original, better than a boring common name and better than Catalina, it's like my parent decided to mix a cat with a ballerina." he eased up and replied happily,

"Shoot if you like my name you're going to love my brothers' name, it's Ponyboy" just then the younger boy with nicely slicked hair spoke up, "even says so on my birth certificate." I smiled, happy the awkwardness was over.

I tried to use slang Cherry had taught me for the party "you both have real tuff names to match both of your tuff hairs" Ponyboy smiled, either relived that I didn't say anything bad or happy I gave them a complement, or for all I knew he was smiling because I used the term tuff wrong and sounded stupid. Not knowing what else to say I smiled back then turned my attention to Darry as Sodapop disappeared past me,

"Thanks for the clothes Darrel."

"No sweat kid".

"So, How'd you end up with ol' two bit anyways?" Steve asked while plopping down onto the couch next to Dally as the boy who had not yet been introduced moved from the floor to the last spot on the couch.

"He scared me half to death, which caused me to accidentally fall in the park fountain," The boys started laughing, except for Darry, who was giving Two-bit a stern look before standing up. For a second I thought he was walking forward to smack Two-bit but instead he went towards Ponyboy,

"I'm headed to bed, got work in the morning, you better be in bed in an hour little man" Darry spoke with authority as he stared down Ponyboy before hugging him goodnight. As he walked into a bedroom to say goodnight to Sodapop, Ponyboy mumbled under his breath, most likely something having to do with not being a kid and not needing to go to bed. Two-bit brought the conversation back to me,

"Kittycat, if you didn't know where you were why did you go wanderin' around at night anyways?" Shrugging I replied simply, not wanting to go into detail about the nights events,

"My cousin told me to leave the house for a bit, and I ended up getting lost." The last boy who I have yet to have a name for finally spoke up,

"Why'd they do that?" I tried not to sound bitter answering him,

"She wanted time with her boyfriend" time to fight with him and hear his side before mine. Before they could ask for more details I looked at the young man,

"What's your name?" He seemed surprised, as if he didn't realize he hadn't told me or as if he was surprised I that I wanted to know. It was strange to think this boy was just wrestling with Ponyboy, the expression in his face suggested he was going to bolt for the door any second if I moved too quickly or spoke too loudly. I wondered if the fresh looking cuts on his cheek were there because he was a tough fighter at heart or if someone had hurt him and he was really as delicate as his eyes suggested.

"It's Johnny." His smile was soft, nothing like the rest of the boys with their livid personalities and Dallas with his cold one.

Ponyboy scoffed, "Some cousin, kicking you out for a boy." Steve propped his feet on the coffee table and replied in a tone that was only half joking, showing he didn't really like Ponyboy hanging around much,

"If you were my bother I would kick you out for a girl. Hell, I would just randomly do it."

"Gee thanks. Good thing you ain't my brother." I wanted to correct his use of ain't just like before. Are not. How hard is "are not" and "is not", not "ain't". I was apparently mentally becoming the vocal grammar police. Soda laughed from next to me at the bickering between his brother and friend, now dressed in sleep pants and tshirt instead of a towel. He eased Ponyboy's stress as he walked in and took the seat Darry had been in,

"Don't worry Pony, I won't do that to ya." Ponyboys smile didn't last long as Steve spoke up and their bickering started again,

"Kids are annoying, they don't get it."

"I ain't a kid" Stop the use of that word, I mentally command you.

"Isn't it your bed time, kid?"

"I'm not tired" Thank the lord he didn't say it again. I'm going to either explode, or have to get over my pet peeve to be around these boys again.

"Aww, what a big boy you are!" Two-bit exclaimed at Ponys expense, getting a laugh from Steve and a grumbled "shut up" from Ponyboy. Johnny came to his defense, making it a fair two on two,

"If he's a kid I must be a baby because I'm yawning like crazy." Dally offered to walk him home, which surprised me since he had barely spoken all night and didn't exactly seem like the overly caring type of guy with the cold vibes he had been giving off. Instead Steve offered to drive them both, mentioning how he wanted to swing by and see his girl before the night was out anyways. Putting on his jacket Dally stared at me for a second with a look that was somehow intense yet blank at the same time,

"You need a ride too, Red?" I basically gawked at him, with my eyebrows curved in question and my mouth parted in surprise that he asked, the blank stare turned to slight annoyance when I didn't reply quick enough,

"Uh, that'd be nice but I don't know where her house is or if she's awake or anything…but uh, thanks." Soda told me to just call in the morning, and to take the couch in the meantime as the three boys walked out the door. With the departing of most of the group Two bit got restless, "Can't believe they all split already! It's not even late yet."

"I hear Buck is throwing a party tomorrow" Soda told him

"Sounds fun" Pony chimed in only to get a response he didn't want to hear from Two-bit,

"Not for kids! Hey Kittycat, whatcha doin tomorrow?" I smiled, extremely happy I was being invited to hang out with the boys again, it was nice to make friends so soon,

"Nothing better than that."

Soda got pony to bed, not wanting to go against his elder brother, and came back out. Two-bit stayed for 30 or so more minutes, spending most of it ranting about how he hoped certain people would be there tomorrow for him to annoy, fight with, laugh with, and flirt with before heading off to his house, leaving Soda and I to head off to sleep.