My brother Darry was always telling me it wasn't smart for me to walk home by myself from school, but I never paid him much attention. Sure, the boys liked to jump each other until they were all equally covered in bruises and scratches and scars, but that kind of thing never happened to me, or any other girl I could think of really.

The only time the guys ever paid much attention to a girl who was walking home from school was to whistle at her and call out dirty things to try to get her to blush. That had never happened to me either, but I'd watched my brothers' friends do it at least a million times to the pretty girls at school. I'd stopped walking home with Pony and Two-Bit, mostly because of the things that would come out of Two-Bit's mouth every time anything with legs walked by.

I'd never been bothered by anyone walking home and it wasn't because I had a reputation for being tough or because people were scared of the gang. I think it was because I just kind of blended into the background. I'd always known I wasn't much to look at. I didn't have Soda's beautiful blond hair, or even Darry's rich brown hair. I hadn't developed hardly any curves yet and I'd been 14 for a few months. I'd only had to start wearing a bra about a month before then. Even my name was plain, which was practically a miracle what with being a Curtis and all. But my father had graciously spared me at birth when he chose to name me after my mother's mother, Lucille. I think it had more to do with the fact that his favorite song at the time had been "Lucy Mae Blues" by Frankie Lee Sims. He used to sing that song to me when it was just the two of us cause Mamma hated it so much.

"Hey sweetie," I suddenly heard a greaser call out from across the street with a sharp whistle. For a second, I thought he was talking to me then blushed furiously when I realized he wasn't. Of course he wasn't.

"Dream on, jerk," came a brazen reply mixed with a few giggles from a few feet behind me, but I didn't dare turn around to see who it was.

I knew it was probably Angela or Margaret or one of those other loud, confident girls that wore their skirts above their knees and smoked cigarettes between classes. They yelled back at the boys they didn't like and flirted shamelessly with the ones they did. Everyone knew them. They'd never acted like that before this year though. It was like they'd all somehow come back from summer vacation with boobs and attitude. I figured that, since they were a year older than me, I'd probably get to act like that by the end of the coming summer.

"Lucy, you were supposed to wait for me!" I heard my friend Susan yelling down the street as she ran towards me.

I'd met Susan in an advanced math class that my mother had practically forced me to take last year. Susan had been the only reason I'd come out of it with a passing grade. She was quiet and shy at school--definitely not like the other greaser girls. She wasn't allowed to wear makeup or dye her hair or even stay out past seven most nights.

She finally caught up to me and we fell into stride. I didn't mind Susan very much, but everything seemed very slow and mild when I was with her, especially compared to being at home with the boys. Sometimes I even felt like I should whisper when I was talking to her.

"My mother said you can sleep over Friday night," she offered when I didn't say anything.

"What are we gonna do?" I asked her, squinting in the afternoon sun. The one other time I'd slept over Susan's house we'd played monopoly with her younger brothers, then her mother had made us go to bed at eight-thirty.

"That new show 'The Time Tunnel' will be on," she said with a smile. "I bet Mother will let us make popcorn and stay up to watch it."

I had to laugh then. While the rest of Tulsa would be bombing around town, Susan was perfectly content to spend the evening at home in front of the television.

"Okay, I'll come," I told her. Anything would be better than spending the night with Darry, who only wanted to watch the news.

We said our goodbyes as Susan turned the corner onto her street and I kept walking straight towards my place.

When I finally got home, I went right inside to change out of my school clothes, if only to keep Darry off my back. He was always carrying on about how expensive school clothes were. At school we had to wear skirts, but once I got home I usually put on some jeans and a button-down shirt. I always wore my banged up old saddle shoes and a pair of bobby socks.

"Hey Luce," Pony called after me as I dumped my school books on the couch and headed down the hall. "How'd that algebra test go?"

The best thing about having a near genius for a twin was the extra help on homework I got. I never claimed to be anywhere near as smart as pony, though everyone expected me to be.

"Not bad, I guess," I told him as I shut the door to my room to change.

"Darry called," Pony called from the living room. "He wanted to know if you'd make dinner. He's working late and Soda's out with Steve again."

It was supposed to be Soda's night to cook, but I'd do it if it meant avoiding one of his crazy concoctions. I wasn't the best cook, but at least you could tell what you were eating most of the time.

"He wanted to know if you'd do some laundry too …" Pony asked with a hopeful grin as I came out from my room and I couldn't say no.

By the time Darry got home Pony and I had gotten most of our homework done and dinner was about ready to come out of the oven.

"What is it?" Darry asked opening the door and peering in.

"Casserole," I answered slightly annoyed. It wasn't even my night to cook and he was complaining.

"It smells good anyway, Luce," he smiled, trying to sound convincing. "Why don't you set the table? I'll go wash up and get Pony."

"Okay," I agreed and he ruffled my hair a little as I started taking dished out of the cabinets.

"…can you believe the body on that Margaret girl?" I heard from the front porch and saw two silhouettes climbing the steps. "I mean, she's a fox."

"Yeah," Soda was laughing as he opened the front door. "Guess she did a little growing up over the summer."

"Who did?" I asked rounding the corner from the kitchen and Soda grinned widely, the tips of his ears going pink.

"What's for dinner?" he said, clearly ignoring my question. "I'm starved."

"Who Soda?" I asked pointedly.

"No one you'd know," Steve growled, then eyed me up and down with a smirk. "Nice shoes."

I instantly felt my face burning up as I looked down at the dinged up shoes with the frayed laces. For the first time I could remember I was embarrassed about how I looked.

Dinner was unusually quiet that night. Darry was too tired to talk much, I think. Soda and Steve were wolfing down their food too fast to get a word in, and Pony never said much when Steve was around. I didn't eat. I couldn't.

All I could think about was what Steve had said. He'd never been particularly nice to me though, so I couldn't understand why it was bothering me so much. But I kept thinking about Angela and Margaret too. What was it about them that made every guy want to be with them? I imagined it to be exciting to have that much attention on you all the time.

"Lucy, eat your dinner," Darry said from across the table. "You know what you get like when you don't eat right."

I tried to force down a few bites, but it all got caught in my throat, then sat in my belly like a giant ball of lead. Darry, assuming I was getting sick, let me scrape my plate into the trash and go to bed.

When I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth I got stuck looking at myself in the mirror.

"Thin, stringy hair," I thought to myself. "Boring eyes; no eyelashes even. Stupid little nose. Goofy smile. Crooked teeth."

I tried sticking my chest out really far to see what I'd look like when my boobs got bigger. I tried to give those sexy eyes that Angela and Margaret were always giving the boys. I didn't look sexy though. I just looked stupid.

"No wonder no one pays attention to you," I thought.

Attn: Readers

Reviews are always appreciated. Let me know how I'm doing. BIG thanks to Lactose for all the help at 4 in the morning. Hannah