Pity The Backseat

Often, I'll read something that will amaze me. It could be a paragraph, a chapter or even just a sentence. Well, amaze might be a little off from what I'm trying to describe. More like it jumps out at me and i might think its clever or i might like the way its worded. In this case its a about a paragraph but the one sentence is what i love particularly, from my favourite book, The Outsiders. This is straight from the book.
"Listen, greasers, we got four more of us in the back seat...".
"Then pity the back seat" Two-Bit said to the sky.
"If you're looking for a fight..."
Two-Bit cocked an eyebrow, but it only made him look more cool. "You mean if I'm looking for a good jumping, you outnumber us, so you'll give it to us? Well..." He snatched up an empty bottle, busted off the end, and gave it to me, then reached in his back pocket and flipped out his
switchblade. "Try it, pal."
The line "pity the back seat" is what really jumped out at me. I'm not entirely sure why. I think its a bold line and shows that he's ready to fight.
All credit goes to S.E.Hinton for the writing.

Guy Friends Are Great

I'm a girl. And I dont really hang with alot of girls. Well, not anymore. From grade 1-4 I didnt have very many friends and then I went to a new school in grade 5 and made alot of friends. Two of them were girls and 3 of them were guys. After that year i guess we just got tired of each other because in 6th grade we separated. I went with my other girl friends and the guys went off with themselves. In 6th grade I had more friends but only 4 really close ones-girl friends. Then in 7th grade my friendship circle narrowed and I wasnt very social. I only really had  4 girl friends and we were all really close. But the thing with that (it was last year) was we were always bitching about each other. Talking behind each other's backs and ALWAYS getting into hissy fights over the smallest things! Granted it was usually one girl who started it all the time but still...it got really annoying. But when this year started, i had to face the whole "being in a class with no friends" factor, i had to become more social and make new friends. Which I did. I have to say,I have alot of friends. I talk to mostly everyone. But the main thing different this year from last year is my close friends. My best friend is a girl, Haley, which i think is only right. I mean, shes SO nice and we get each other and we're really close. We've been best friends for 3 years. Then I have this other girl friend I'm not exactly close to but she was one of my close friends from last year. But the remainder of my friends are guys! And at breaks and stuff I hang with Haley, Adam, Martin and JR. And what I've noticed is...I dont have friendship fights or hissy fits anymore because i hang with guys and honestly, guys dont really give a shit so it works out great anyhow! I mean, they dont take insults seriously, they are way more passive and they're just really nice. And its not like a dude is gonna bitch about you behind your back. Maybe if you really bother him but these guys are my friends. I also have other guy friends like Josh, Kyle and Connor. And mind you, I do have other girl friends i just dont hang out with them too much. Factor being = too much drama! I had enough of that last year. All in all, I'm glad guys dont gossip about you or get jealous cuz you have bigger boobs than them :)

The Outsiders

About a month ago, my friend gave me this book called The Outsiders. Plot? It's the 1960's. There are greasers and socs. In a small town in Tulsa, Ponyboy Curtis's gang is the greasers- his brothers Darry Curtis and Sodapop Curtis, his best friend Johnny Cade, Steve Randle is Soda's best friend, Dally Winston is the tough guy and Two-Bit Matthews the wise crack. The gang is like a family and sticks together no matter what until one night when Ponyboy and Johnny meet these Soc girls at the movies, their boyfriends get mad and later that night confront them at the park. The one soc, Bob, tries to drown Pony in the fountain but Johnny stabs him and accidentally kills him. They turn to Dally for help and he tells them to hide up in an old church. After Pony and Johnny spend about 4 days there, Dally comes and takes them to Dairy Queen to eat something. They return to the church to get their stuff when Johnny decides to turn himself in but right before they leave, the old church catches on fire -one of their ciggs werent put out right- and there were a group of kids who had ran in there while they were gone. So Pony and Johnny run in there and try to save the kids, in the process, Johnny gets very badly burned and just as Ponyboy gets out, the church collapses on Johnny. They take him in to the hospital and he has sever burns. When Pony returns home that night, the socs and greasers had planned a rumble for the next day (a rumble is a fight). After alot of fighting the next night, and Steve's broken ribs, the greasers win the rumble. But soon later, Johnny's burns are so bad and his lungs have so much debris in them that he dies in the hospital. Everyone is devastated. Not long after that, Dally cant stand the pain of Johnny being gone and lets himself get shot and killed. Ponyboy's life is never the same after that. His school grades go down,he and his brothers fight alot and its like he lives in a small bubble, confined from the world around him. Until his language teacher makes him write about something significant and he writes down this story. The end. Its a very moving book. I almost cry everytime i read the part that Johnny is about to die and tells Ponyboy "stay golden, Ponyboy...stay golden". There's also a movie to it that i want to watch really badly. It was made in 1983 (the book was written in 1967). C.Thomas Howell plays Ponyboy Curtis,  Ralph Maccio plays Johnny Cade, Matt Dillon plays Dally Winston, Rob Lowe plays Sodapop Curtis, Patrick Swayze plays Darry Curtis, Emilio Estevez plays Two-Bit Matthews, and Tom Cruise plays Steve Randle. I love the outsiders. Pictures? I think so!

(left to right) top row: Darry, Dally, Sodapop

bottom row: Two-bit, Johnny, Ponyboy and Steve