The One (Dallas Winston/The Outsiders)

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Happy Birthday Sidnee!" yelled Kelly when she saw me walk through the doors at school.

I smiled at her and thanked her before giving her a hug. Thank heavens there weren't many people at school yet so there weren't loads of people looking at us.

I'm not one of those people who would announce something to the world just for attention, and people doing it for me doesn't help much either. I would much rather stay hidden and hope that I didn't make a noise loud enough to attract attention.

We were soon joined by Cammy, Mary-Anne and Kelly, who seemed to be more excited about the fact that I was finally turning 16.

The day seemed to go extra slow. I was wished a happy birthday by countless people. The word seemed to have gotten around that it was my birthday, even the Principal smiled when he walked past me this afternoon and he's never noticed me at all before.

My mum had told me that I had no chores after school and I was free to go to a friend's house for a few hours. Stella and Cammy immediately declared that I would be coming to their house, which left Mary-Anne and Kelly annoyed that they wouldn't get to see me until a few hours later.

When school was over I waited for Stella and Cammy at the front gate while I said goodbye to Mary-Anne and Kelly. We had decided that we were going to try and have a sleepover at my house tonight. That is if my mom agrees to it.

"Hey girlies." Smiled Stella, Cammy was walking alongside her.

"Hey twinnies." Kelly replied with a smile. Stella poked her tongue out at her in reply.

"You ready to go?" Cammy asked me, I nodded and looked around at everyone else.

"Let's get going then; we will see you guys later." Stella said waving. Cammy and I followed her as she walked away, the other 2 girls headed off in the opposite direction.

We walked along the streets quietly. It was a comfortable silence, and a nice break from all of the unwanted socialization I did today.

When we reached the house we heard yelling from the inside. Cammy and Stella sighed. I knew their parents fought all of the time, but they never cared about the girls, they just let them do their own thing and took no notice of them.

"Let's go to the park and wait for them to cool off." Said Cammy grabbing onto Stella's arm and pulling her down the road with me walking along next to them.

When we reached the park we dropped our bags at the bottom of the jungle jim and climbed up to the top.

"So Sid, how's your day been so far?" asked Stella with a bright smile. I smiled and looked over at her.

"Really good actually, there could've been less socializing with strangers though." I said laughing.

We carried on laughing and talking for nearly an hour. I don't think there was a moment when we weren't talking; it was nice to finally have someone else, other than my mom, to talk too.

"We should go back now, and call your mom about the thing tonight." Said Cammy as she started to climb towards the ground. Stella and I followed her down and we all started walking back to their house.

"Hey Sidnee, Happy Birthday!" someone yelled as we were walking back. I looked over to see Sodapop standing on the front porch of his house.

I turned and smiled at him.

"Thanks Soda." I said walking towards him. Stella and Cammy were behind me.

"No problem, wanna come inside for a minute?" he asked. I turned to look at my friends who nodded and smiled.