𝐢 𝐝𝐨 ; s.c.

𝚞𝚗𝚘

"i know they're good kids, judy. It's just... things are getting worse. there's a lot of tension between the socs and the greasers these days."

"think about it this way, mary," mrs. curtis said, placing her hand over her dear friend's, "elizabeth is a going to face difficulties no matter what just because of the fact that she lives on a certain side of town. but with the boys, she has someone to protect her. you and i both know that she has a hard time speaking up..."

elizabeth let this thought marinate for a while. was she too quiet? too meek? too soft spoken? in her mind, the solution was simple. she was surrounded by a group of loud boys who were never the topic of their mother's worries when it comes to things like this, so if elizabeth behaved like them, her beloved mother wouldn't have to be so troubled. so, she went to do what she does best. observe. she went outside and sat on the front porch, watching some of the older boys play football with mr. curtis.

she surveyed the way soda tackled darry for the ball—or, rather, attempted to; and saw how steve spit into the grass. she noticed how steve got tackled by darry and proceeded to call the game "stupid." after about 15 minutes of this, elizabeth went back inside to view her other friends. she took note of the way ponyboy yawned, arms stretched out (which almost got poor johnny's head clocked in the process), and his mouth exposed. she saw keith take a swig of his pepsi and let out a loud belch.

elizabeth grabbed a pepsi from the fridge and went back outside, sitting on the porch once again. shaded from the scorching sun, she tried to use what she learned. elizabeth struggled to open the pop bottle, calling it stupid, which caught sodapop's attention.

soda went loping over to elizabeth. "let me get that for ya, lizzie," he offered, his movie-star smile emerging. she handed the bottle over to him, with which he opened with ease, using the railing of the porch as a makeshift bottle opener. "here ya go, honey," he said as he gave it back to her, running back over to his game.

"thanks," elizabeth quietly said, although soda was now too far away from her to hear her mumbled thanks. elizabeth took a large gulp of her coke, which resulted in her quickly letting out an obnoxious burp. all four heads turned to her. darry, steve, and soda all found it to be quite amusing, and while mr. curtis did as well, he looked at her with his eyebrows raised. he walked over to her, scooped her up, and carried inside to the kitchen.

"mary, your daughter here's been actin'... different." he looked at ms. mathews with entertainment dancing in his eyes.

ms. mathews face fell, concern taking over. "different how? did she get herself into trouble, darrel?" elizabeth started reaching for her mom. she was getting a little old to be carried, but ms. mathews didn't mind holding her in her lap.

mr. curtis chuckled heartily. "no, no, nothin' of the sort, it's just that she's uh, been pickin' up some of the boys' habits. burping out loud and saying 'stupid' and whatnot."

mrs. curtis took a sip of her tea, peering at ms. mathews over her cup with raised eyebrows.

"now, elizabeth," ms. mathews began, looking at her daughter with scornful eyes that contained a pool of emotions that even an insightful girl like elizabeth couldn't decipher, "you know that isn't ladylike."

darry, keith, soda, and steve were now also in the kitchen, watching this interaction. "yeah, you can't say 'stupid' like i can, betty," steve chimed in, who was met with a playful punch to the arm by sodapop. the two began to wrestle, keith cheered them on while darry simply scoffed.

"boys," mrs. curtis said to them in a warning tone. elizabeth watched them scuffle and the way they cheered and hooted.

"don't call me that, stevie," she said, before turning back to her mother. "i was just tryna stop bein' so quiet all the time, mama," a hint of sadness was laced in elizabeth's voice, for she was conflicted about who her mother wanted her to be. "the boys are loud and they ain't shy like me."