Estrella,

First off, I'd like to thank you so much for taking the time to review this story. It never got a really big following and there was a time when I'd sort of given up on it myself. So thank you!

Second, I'd be glad to read your stories… except it was sort of hard to find you. Is your pen name Estrella? Because I searched that and nothing came up. If you could review logged in this time (or just send me a PM) I'd be sure it's you and then I'd R&R.

For anyone else who's reading, I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter Five

To be honest, Danny really didn't need this right now. She was fairly exhausted. Danny hadn't been lying. Cherry wasn't the only person she had to visit. There were plenty (often enough they were too plentiful) of other worlds and times that called for her attention. She rarely returned home before midnight. She barely had time to sleep let alone do her homework! Which was why she was getting more and more irritated every time her history teacher sent her piercing gaze her way.

Most of her teachers thought she was just another lazy student. She sighed. You guys have no idea…

Granted, given her current situation, she really should've been paying attention while she was in class, but she'd gotten a whopping three hours of sleep the night before. You could forgive her mind for wandering a bit.

She was doodling in the margins of her notebook, contemplating her name. She'd been considering changing the spelling of her name to D-A-N-I. A friend had suggested it to her, actually. Sure, it looked cool, but 'Dani' was a distinctly feminine way of spelling it. She didn't need to give her brothers any extra ammunition.

Danny crossed out the alternate spelling before feeling a familiar tingling sensation in the pit of her stomach. It was a thrill that sent little sparks of adrenaline racing through her limbs. For the sake of secrecy, she needed to get out of here, fast. Unfortunately, there was just one obstacle standing in her way.

With the state her grades were in, there was no way in hell Mrs. Harvey was ever going to let her out of the room. Nonetheless, Danny quietly made her way up the aisle. There was a pause in her lecture in which Danny asked (more politely than usual, she might add) if she may use the restroom.

She swore she could see a malicious smirk take over her teacher's face before the woman quickly composed herself and informed her that "students who didn't do their homework aren't rewarded with favors." Seriously, why did certain teachers get off on being so cruel?

Danny sighed and rolled her eyes. She wasn't about to disappear right here in front of her entire class. (She didn't even want to imagine the kind of heat she'd get for that.) However, she was afraid she wouldn't be able to help making a bit of a spectacle. The feeling in her gut was getting more insistent. Without another look at her teacher or the students, Danny strode out of the room.

She hurried down the hall and had just turned a corner when she heard a voice calling after her, "Miss Lowenthal, you get back here this instant!"

Danny was actually a little incredulous. That woman actually had the gall to follow her!

By the time she'd made it into one of the hideous pink stalls in the girls' room, she felt like there were sparks shooting through every one of her veins. Her vision started fading and she succumbed to the feeling, briefly reveling in the knowledge that by the time her teacher got there, she'd be nowhere to be found…

…

She didn't have the most graceful landing. She arrived in Cherry's backyard on one knee, a hand bracing herself against the ground. Luckily, no one had noticed but Cherry. Danny saw the curtains flutter and the next second Cherry ran out to greet her.

Danny stood upon the arrival of her red-haired friend. The fact that she was still able to call Cherry her friend came as a bit of a surprise even to her. Danny wasn't good at making friends. She didn't attach well to people. Thirteen now, she was surprised that she'd been able to stay in Cherry's good graces (well, for the most part) for so long.

Cherry seemed genuinely happy to see her, though. "Good morning, Danny. Gosh, you look different every time I see you."

Danny shrugged, but for the most part this was true. A recent fight with her mother had caused her to abandon her multi-colored skinny jeans and numerous t-shirts featuring heavy-metal bands. Lately, she'd settled into sweatshirts and baggy jeans. Boring outfits. She only applied makeup on her most adventurous days.

In the earlier days she would've asked why Cherry wasn't in school herself, but she'd learned that the times didn't always match up. This period was a few hours earlier than her own. Don't ask her how that made sense. She'd accepted over the years that some things just… happen.

"You look preoccupied," Cherry noted.

Danny shrugged again. "Just thinking about my mother," she replied truthfully.

Cherry made a sympathetic noise. "Did you two get into a fight again?" Over the years, Cherry had learned more and more about Danny's family. She didn't know everything, but Danny had opened up a lot more than she'd expected.

The younger girl snorted. "When aren't we fighting?"

"What was it about today?"

"The usual. I swear, she's so old-fashioned. "She should live back now."

Danny had three older brothers. Every one of them a jock. It was when sports collided with her only daughter that things got tense between Ms. Lowenthal and Danny.

"I swear, she is such a fucking hypocrite sometimes!" Danny continued. Cherry flinched at her harsh language, but Danny had worked herself up into a rage. "She supported all of my brothers during their football careers and encouraged that they make it a part of their college lives. But when I want to play soccer, she gets this snooty look on her face and says something like, 'my daughter isn't going to spend her whole life running around in the mud!'" Danny was practically steaming. Perhaps what angered her most was that she was good. Sure her grades were only good enough to keep her from getting kicked off the team, but the coach would hardly let her go without a fight. But it didn't matter what she wanted. Sports weren't feminine enough for her mother.

Cherry looked almost as if she were afraid she'd be struck if she spoke, but she added in her two cents anyway. "Maybe you should tell her this. Maybe you two could find some middle ground."

Danny gave her a withering look. Like, 'you think we haven't tried that?' They'd spent nearly thirteen years trying to find "middle ground." She and her mother just didn't seem to have anything in common. I guess we have all the cliché mother-daughter problems, Danny thought bitterly. She doesn't understand me, nothing I do is ever good enough, blah, blah, blah…

"Whatever, never mind," she said, turning away to look out over the yard, literally turning her back on the problem. "God, this place looks boring. What do you do for fun anyway?"

Cherry smiled wryly. "We've been over this before. Nothing that you'd consider to be fun."

Danny turned back to her and smirked mischievously. "How do you feel about ditching school?"

Cherry gave her a look.

"Okay. So… how do you feel about ditching school to go jump off a bridge?"

"You're insane."

"C'mon, it's fun. Me and my brothers do it all the time."

Cherry smiled. Perhaps she was insane too, because she smiled and followed her friend. Oh, well… Maybe it paid to be insane.

Review please!

Ugh… I really need to update my Digimon fic, but I keep getting inspiration for all my other stories!

I don't own the Outsiders.

Officially updated 8/4/14. (Okay, so I've now officially revised all the chapters I had up, and I know where the rest of this story goes... but I don't know when this will be updated again. For once, it's not a matter of deciding what happens next so much as finding the time to write the chapters, especially when I've got so much else, and so many other stories, going on right now.)