The boys were sitting down, way too far into May to still be attending the Rodgers' High school, in their opinion, sitting down in Mr. Syme's English classroom in the summer of 1965.

Mr. Syme was sleeping.

Steve was going on about some girl who was supposedly the biggest smokeshow ever and hotter than Brigitte Bardot, and yet she went to a different school.

Sodapop shoved him in the shoulder. "I call bull."

The other boys made noises of agreement.

Steve groaned. "Look, man, I'm not makin' shit up. But even if I was, you gotta admit, this school is in a huge hot girl drought."

Ponyboy interjected; "Ever since Perry Kleinman got pregnant and dropped out, all we've got are those prissy cheerleaders who won't even look our way."

Sodapop made a noise of agreement to his brother's claim. "Right." He opened his mouth to say something more, and then the door to the classroom creaked open.

And a girl stepped into the room.

A new girl.

Sodapop saw her first, and he almost had to pick his jaw up off of the floor. All he could do was stare. When nobody else noticed, he elbowed Steve in the side sharply. "Man."

Steve scowled. "What..." He trailed off when he caught sight of where Sodapop was looking. "Holy shit..."

Damn if she wasn't a doll.

She wore a baby-blue dress with small ruffles at the sleeves and a cut down the middle, shaped like a heart. The band was just below her chest, and then came the attached pleated skirt, short and showing just enough of her legs, clad in white knee socks with bows on them.

Her hair was all dolled up too, wrapped up in a pretty hairstyle with a ribbon on top.

Steve caught the attention of the whole group, and they stared at her with wide eyes, some of the guys' gaze lingering lower or higher than others.