AYEE Ponyboy would be proud of me! There was a beautiful sunset where I live and I captured about 1,000 pictures of it!^^^^

//

AS SOON AS I rushed out of the cafeteria, I immediately regretted my decision. Randy caught me by the collar and slammed my back against the locker. "Just because Bob isn't here to torture you at school, doesn't mean that I can't do it for him." He whispered in my ear.

[me at Randy]

I kicked him where the sun doesn't shine and he immediately let go of me and bent down, groaning.

I smiled. "Go ahead and take Bob's place! I'd be happy to beat the hell out of you everyday!"

Just then, Pony and Johnny ran out of the cafeteria, examining the scene.

[LMAO I MAKE THEM SOUND LIKE THEY'RE IN THE FBI]

Pony rushed over to me. "Are you okay?" He asked worriedly as crease lines fell across his forehead. 

I glared at him. "Yeah, I'm just fine. I don't need your help."

He sighed. "Kieran, we're doing this to protect you."

I laughed. "Protect me?? From what, exactly? I don't understand why you can't just talk to me!"

"Because Bob said if we were caught talking to you, he'd hurt you. I don't want you to get hurt. None of us do." Pony remarked as Johnny nodded his head in agreement.

A small grin escaped my face and I pulled them into a hug. "You guys know I can protect myself, right? And plus, I know you and the gang will have my back. I have nothing to worry about."

They nodded their heads, relieved and right after school we walked to Pony's house. They were both looking left and right for any signs of Bob and his minions. "Guys, stop being so paranoid." I chuckled as we walked up the front steps to Pony's house.

When I stepped inside, all of their eyes went huge. "Kieran, what in the world are you doing here? Are you trying to get yourself killed?" Darry questioned and I smiled at his over-protectiveness. He reminded me so much of my dad.

"Thank you guys for trying to protect me, but I can protect myself. Plus, I know you guys have my back." I announced and they all came in for a group hug, except Dally. He shook his head, "I don't do hugs."

We all started laughing and it might as well have looked like a light bulb went off in Dally's brain. "I have an idea! Let's all go to the Nightly Double!"

"That place is basically a death wish for Kieran right now since that's where Bob and his gang hang out." Soda spoke while giving Dally an 'are you stupid?' look.

Dally waved his hand like it was no biggie. "She'll be fine with us. We will protect her no matter what."

It made me feel real good inside to know that all of the guys cared about me. Not a lot of people outside of my family have cared about me. Only Eagan. Now, I have the guys that care about me too, and that not only makes me feel safe, but it makes me extremely happy.

We all sprinted towards the Nightly Double - making sure to make every loud possible noise our whole journey - and once we arrived, we slipped under the fence as usual. I turned to Dally. "What kind of movies are they playin' tonight?"

"Some stupid chick flick. The only reason I got y'all to come over here was so we could torture Bob and his friends." He replied and I shook my head while chuckling. Of course, Dally.

I turned to the guys and told them the news. They were actually pretty excited about messing with Bob, but I wasn't. I don't want to keep getting on his case because I know just one day, he's going to catch me by surprise. 

I looked at all of them uneasily. "I'm just going to sit over there." I pointed towards an empty chair and they nodded, understanding why.

"You want me to come with you?" Pony questioned and I shrugged my shoulders. "You can if you want."

We both walked over to the empty seats and sat down. As soon as Pony looked in front of us, his eyes went huge and he immediately looked away. "What is it, Pony?" I asked and looked ahead of us while rolling my eyes.

Cherry Valance.

You can obviously tell why they call her Cherry. Her hair is as red as one. She's the Soc girlfriend of Bob, and I'm pretty sure she wasn't too happy to see me after me running into her purposely earlier today.

She snapped her head around and when she saw me, she gave me a snarl, which I gladly returned.

Once she saw Ponyboy though, she..... smiled?

I furrowed my eyebrows and glanced at a blushing Pony. I rolled my eyes and scoffed. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Oh hush it, Smith. You're just jealous because he has a crush on me and not you. Too bad nobody loves you except your grandpa and your crazy old friend." She gave me a fake pouty face and I wanted to smack it right off her face.

"Excuse me? You don't talk about Eagan like that. If anyone is crazy here, it's me! And you're about to see it!" I shouted which caused all of the heads to turn towards us in amusement. It was all young people here tonight and they love a good fight between a greaser and a Soc.

I'll gladly give them that.

I turned to Pony raising my arms out. "What the hell, Pony? What happened to sticking up for me?"

Before he could say anything, Cherry stood up with me and got right in my face. "Trust me honey, nobody wants to stick up for you. He only did it because he felt bad for poor old Kieran."

"Don't call me honey, sweetie!" I yelled and threw a punch right at her face which caused everyone to go nuts. All of the guys pulled me off of her except Two-Bit and Dally. They were cheering me on.

Pony just stood there with a shocked look on his face and I flipped him off. I got away from the guy's grips on me and walked away, extremely pissed. I swear you could've seen the steam erupting from my red ears.

The guys started running after me and Dally and Two-Bit were the first ones. "I think you did the right thing, Ki." Two patted me on the back.

Dally nodded his head while he lit a cancer stick. "Pretty tuff, Kieran. What did she say to you back there that made you so pissed?"

"She was rambling on and on about how nobody loves me and when I saw Pony not sticking up for me, I asked him why, and that little red head decided to butt in and say Pony only stuck up for me because he felt bad for me. Plus, I could tell her and Pony liked each other." When I finished my rant, they both had their eyes wide and stopped in their tracks.

I stopped with them and turned around to face them. "What is it now? I just want to go home."

Two and Dally exchanged looks and then turned towards me. "If Darry or Soda found out he liked Cherry, whoooo his behind would be kicked." Two-Bit whistled and I rolled my eyes.

"Good. I don't care." I crossed my arms and Dally started smirking at me. "You fancy Pony don't ya?"

I scoffed. "No. Why would I like him when..." I trailed off and they both patted me on the back and took me home. I guess they decided to drop the subject since I was a little touchy on it at the moment.

Tomorrow, I'm only talking to Johnny, not Ponyboy.

I entered the house and my grandpa gave me a smile, which I returned, but it was a fake one. He of course knew right away.

"What's wrong, baby doll?" He questioned while turning off the television.

"Soc's." I grumbled and he sighed and gave me a frown. "What did you do this time?"

"Me? I didn't do anything. Well, I punched her, but for a good reason! She told me no one loved me and that Pony only stood up for me and was being friends with me just because he felt bad." When I finished explaining, he gave me a hug and made me go to bed.

As soon as my head hit the pillow, I immediately passed out.

//

FLASHBACK IN HER DREAM

Her dad, Jace.

Her mom, Lia. 

"Jace honey, you and Kieran should go play volleyball outside." My mom spoke in a sweet voice, like it was laced in honey.

She was fixing supper, so it gave Dad and me just enough time to play a full round. I grabbed my volleyball and we both ran outside, pumped.

"Alright, you're getting pretty good now, so I'm not gonna go easy on ya." He teased because he knew it made me mad.

"NEVER take it easy on me." I spoke through gritted teeth which caused him to laugh and my mom to chuckle through the open window.

"You're just like your mother. Always wanting me to go hard on you." He looked at my mom and winked. I yelled, "Eww! No! No! Let's play volleyball because I'm too young for rated R things, okay?"

They both started laughing and I gagged. "I would say get a room, but the damage has already been done to my innocent little mind." I frowned and my dad ruffled my hair.

"Let's play some volleyball!" We both yelled.