I am so sorry it took me so long to update! I started some new medicine, and it made me feel absolutely awful for a couple days, and I couldn't write anything! Sorry again! I own nothing except Jennifer, Becca, and Anthony!

I groaned; nobody had bothered to do the laundry lately. I had been picking up a few extra shifts wherever I could, leaving me almost no time to pick the house up, let alone do laundry. That left me with almost nothing to wear to the Nightly Double tonight, with Jennifer.

"Soda?" I called.

There was a pause in the noise from the living room, then, "Yeah?"

"You gotta shirt I could borrow?" I hated asking, especially while Steve was over. It would only lead to more mocking, but I didn't have too much of a choice.

"Sure." He replied, his voice got louder as he walked towards his room.

"I got this blue one or a red one. Take your pick." He told me as he dumped them on my bed; I assume he wanted to get back to his poker game.

"Thanks." I said as I tried to decide which one to wear. As I stood there, I realized how stupid I was being. It was only the first date, if you could even call this a date. I closed my eyes and pointed my finger around a few times before opening my eyes. It landed by the blue shirt. I shrugged; guess that's what I'm wearing. I looked at my watch and finished getting ready; it was almost time to meet Jennifer.

"Alright, I won't be out too late. Pony, I want you to go to bed at a reasonable hour. Soda, don't stay up too late, you have work in the morning. Steve…" I paused. "I don't really care what you do." I smiled at that. He rolled his eyes at me and went back to the poker game.

Pony barely looked up from the book he was reading, giving me a vague "Uh humpf," Which I took as an agreement.

"Bye, guys." I yelled as I shut the door behind me.

"Bye." I heard from behind the door. I smiled and walked to the store.

I sighed as I shut the door behind me. Becca had been extremely persistent in trying to make me look "presentable" for my date. I barely made it out of the house with enough time to walk over to the store.

I hoped it wasn't too awkward. I had been on a number of first dates that ended badly because we couldn't find anything to talk about, or some other stupid reasons.

I walked to the store and saw Darry right away. He was talking with a guy who looked around my age. I strolled over to them and waited for Darry to see me.

"Hey, Jennifer." He said when he spotted me. "This is a buddy of mine, Two-Bit."

Two-Bit, how could I have forgotten Two-Bit?

"Hi, Jenny." I made a face at the nickname, but didn't say anything. I much preferred Jen to Jenny.

"Hello. How come you weren't in science yesterday?" That was the only class we had together, and it was defiantly the funniest.

"Didn't feel like going." He said casually. I nodded, that made perfect sense.

"Well, we're gonna go." Darry said, looking at me.

"Have fun, you two love-birds." Two-Bit called after us as we walked away.

I felt myself turn red and I snuck a look at Darry. He grimaced, but didn't say anything back to him.

We got to the movie and sat down. About fifteen minutes into the movie, Darry turned to me and asked, "You wanna go get some popcorn or something?" I don't think he liked the movie very much, because he all but jumped out of his seat when I agreed. We walked over to buy some popcorn. I had brought some money because I liked being prepared, but there was no need for it. Darry paid.

We mostly talked during the rest of the movie, getting half-heartedly shushed now and then. The movie wasn't very interesting, just a bunch of girls in skimpy outfits surrounding a guy. Not exactly my type of movie, but I had a nice time.

It was around eleven when Darry looked at his watch and said, "I should probably get home. I promised Soda I wouldn't be out too late."

I nodded and stood up. When we got to the store, I said, "I had a really nice time. Thank you."

"I had a nice time too. But I can walk you home." He said.

"Oh, it's fine." I protested.

"Jennifer, I'm not going to let you walk home by yourself at night." He told me, with no room for argument in his tone.

"Okay." I said.

I lead him down the streets till we got to my house. He stared up at it, I couldn't tell if he was impressed or what.

"Thanks for tonight. I'll see you around?" I asked.

"Yep. I'll see you later." He said as he made sure I got in the house.

I closed the door after waving goodbye and jumped as Becca ran to meet me.

"How was it?" She asked me, breathless from running to here from her bedroom.

"It was good. I didn't really feel like a date. It mostly felt like I was hanging out with a friend, it was that comfortable." I said, reflecting on the night.

"That's good, right?" Becca asked.

"I think so." I said, grinning in spite of myself.

I made sure Jennifer got in her house before walking away. Her house was extremely big. I knew she was a Soc, but I had forgotten how well-off Socs are. I thought the night went well. The movie was dumb, but the talking had been nice. It was a good change from Soda or Two-Bit.

I listened as I opened the door. I could hear Soda cursing at Steve, probably still playing poker. I couldn't tell if Pony was still up, so I walked in.

"I'm back." I called.

"Hi Dar." Soda said, concentrating on his game. Pony was still on the couch, reading.

"Pone, why don't you go to bed?" I suggested.

"Sure, one minute." He responded, not looking up.

I rolled my eyes. "How was your date?" Steve snickered as he asked.

"It was nice." I answered him.

"I'm going to bed. Pony, I want you in your bed in ten minutes, got it? And Soda, go to sleep soon, you got work early. Steve, you can sleep here if you need." I addressed everyone, one-by-one.

I received a yes from Ponyboy and Soda, and Steve said he was going home today.

"Ok, see you guys tomorrow." I said as I left the room. I normally would have waited for Pony to go to bed, but I was tired and I had work tomorrow. I slept pretty well and went to work reluctantly. It's a wonder I didn't fall off a roof, I was pretty distracted my whole shift. But I made it, and left as soon as I was done.

I arrived home to an empty house, which was unusual. Even is Soda and Pony weren't home, Two-Bit or Steve might be over. I decided to enjoy it and sat on the couch watching T.V for a while. I must have dozed off, because all of a sudden there was the bang of the front door and I jerked awake.

"Hi, Darry." Ponyboy said as he walked in.

"Hey, Pony. How was track?" I asked, yawning.

"Good, school was boring, and I'm going to do my homework right now." He finished, answering my next two questions as well.

"Okay, have fun. Yell if you need any help."

I glanced at my watch and figured I should start some dinner. Keeping it simple, I chose to make spaghetti and meatballs. Right when I finished Soda came into the kitchen and said hi, putting his work shirt on the chair and kicking off his shoes.

"Hang that up; I'm not washing it till it's actually dirty." I said without looking up.

He sighed, but left and came back a little later with Ponyboy. We ate and I had them clean up the dishes.

"How was work, Soda?" I asked absentmindedly.

"It was okay, pretty slow today." He replied, flipping through the channels on the T.V.

The rest of the night was pretty low-key. Pony finished his homework and Soda and I watched T.V. It was a nice night.

Thanks for reading, and please review! Reviews mean the world to me!

Love,

Allie