The Outsider War: Kat and Mack's Return

Chapter 9

Mack's POV.

So the sleepover came up that night and I was kind of nervous. One wrong move, and Cherry could sell me AND my sister out. I grabbed all my stuff that I needed for the sleepover that night and waited for Cherry to pick me up. I would have driven myself if Kat wouldn't have taken the car. Cherry pulled up in her Stingray that was almost identical to ours except hers was red. All the rest of the girls were in the car too which made me even more nervous. "Hey Mackenzie!" Cherry called. I waved back and smiled. I quickly hopped in the car and Cherry drove away fast, as if she couldn't stand being in one place for too long. On our way to Cherry's house, everyone was asking me questions. "So Mackenzie," Marcia said. "Do you and your sister live in the same apartment?" "Uh yeah," I answered skeptical of why she was asking. "And you only have one car?!" she yelled, disgusted. "No," I said. "Mine is just back at home, in Texas." "Oh," Marcia scoffed. Finally after several weird questions that came up in the car, we arrived at Cherry's house.

IT WAS AMAZING. I couldn't believe how rich she was! Her house was like a mansion with nice steps that led to a pair of HUGE wooden doors. The inside was even better than the out. As we stepped inside, I couldn't help but say, "Wow." We continued up the stairs to her all red bedroom. "Can you tell my favorite color is red?" she joked. I nodded in amazement. "Okay girls!" Cherry giggled. "It's time for the secret circle to begin!" "Secret circle?" I questioned. "Oh yeah!" Marcia laughed. "Secret circle is when we all sit in this big circle and answer questions that people ask us. We share all of our secrets, but we can't tell them outside of the circle." I gulped. This wasn't going to be good.

We all sat down in a circle, just as Cherry instructed and asked each other questions. When it finally came around to me, Cherry was supposed to ask me a question. "So who do you like Mackenzie?" I blushed. I knew exactly who I wanted to be my boyfriend, Ponyboy Curits. But, I couldn't tell anyone that. I had to think of some cute Soc boys. "Well," I thought. "There's this cute boy in one of my classes. He's really tall with blonde hair and blue eyes. I think his name is Tom?" That part was true. There really was a cute boy in my class named Tom, and I HAD caught myself staring at him a few times. Once I said it, everyone gasped. "Oh," Cherry laughed while scowling at me. "My ex-boyfriend." Uh-oh. This was bad.

The whole night after that, Cherry was dangling the greaser thing over my head. One time, she had gone too far. "Mackenzie, so if you lived here two years ago, how come I didn't hear about you? Is there something you're not telling us?! I mean it's not like you used to be a greaser or anything!" I had enough after that. That's when I realized I knew one of her dirty little secrets. She was sneaking around with Ponyboy and that was totally bad for her rep. "No Cherry!" I said then giggled evily. "But, isn't there something you would like to tell us? You know, I haven't heard anything about your boyfriend? I mean surely you're not single, are you?" I giggled real mean like. "Mackenzie, don't you dar-" I cut her off and kept going. This was awesome. "Oh, that's right?! Didn't I see you kissing some boy the other day? He goes by the name of Pon-" "Get out of my house!" she yelled. "Okay," I agreed. I smiled at her, grabbed my things, and pulled out some red lipstick. I tossed it to her and scoffed, "You might want to use that. It will cover up those greasy lips of yours." And with that I walked down stairs. Sure, I had been kicked out. Sure, I had to walk home. But, I had won. That would teach her not to mess with Mack McHolden.