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The first time Virginia Curtis met Sylvia Day, it was at Buck's at a time when the night was new but lasted forever. She was lurking behind the building with Angela Shepherd, cutting through a pack of Kool's while the Curtis girl was inside with her family, celebrating her father's new job. Coincidentally, it was the first night she met Dallas Winston too.
"God, you were always weird, you know that Curtis?"
Virginia hoped she wouldn't have to talk to Sylvia longer than she had to. At least, she hoped Darry or Steve would catch her within five feet of the wild girl. And now there they were, behind the brick wall of the local Tastee-Freez. Virginia had her mind on malt shakes but it seemed like Sylvia had an eye for malt liquor. That was the best way she could describe their relationship.
Sylvia shook her head, smoking on her fourth cigarette while Virginia was only on her second. Her hands were shaking— she was nervous. The Curtis girl wondered what about her made her so intimidating.
"Ang 'n I thought you'd get eaten up by something if you stared at the clouds as much as you did. Even when you were little, you always liked talking to flowers and we ain't never seen you without a pencil and paper," Sylvia continued, shaking her head. "I thought you were nuts."
If she didn't wear a strained smile, Virginia may have taken offense at her mockery in her own presence.
"Dallas— he's always," her voice cracked, "there was a nice time when we were good. He was never so distant. And I know that sounds wrong, but he was different with me." She suddenly hardened, raising her cigarette to her shiny lips. "I thought he was."
"Syl, you know better than me how he gets. He's volatile, destructive to himself and everything around him," the younger girl chuckled. "Gosh, you're alike, the two of you."
Virginia suddenly remembered a sliver of something she hardly bothered to learn in her science class. The Law of Attraction. Opposite electric charges will be attracted to each other but like charges will be repelled. Sylvia and Dally fought off each other but defied the laws of attraction numerous times. But what if opposites attracted and a negative charge had a positive charge to unite with?
A perfect thing of nature, Virginia mused silently.
Sylvia hadn't taken her eyes off her and Virginia could understand what drew so many men to her. It wasn't the scent of her cheap perfume that wafted off when she passed by or the flip of her dark curls over her shoulder. It was the depths of her lined and brightly shaded eyes. They were piercing, sultry, conniving, and utterly observant.
"You're perfect, aren't you?" Sylvia mused, her smile unstable. "Perfect little Bluebell."
Virginia felt compelled to stay silent but she wouldn't. "I'm not perfect, Syl. I—"
"You do know why folks call you 'the jewel of the Northside', huh?" she interrupted. "It's 'cause you're the best one. All of us—me, Angela, Evie, Kathy, hell, Sandy didn't got nothin' on you before she was shipped off— we are stuck here. We're stuck in this life, with the same hoods and the same trouble. But not you. You've got a whole life ahead of you."
