A/N: Hey! So I'm deciding to write this story, but I won't update very often due to homework overload :P Anyway, I hope you like my story and tell me if I should continue! Takes place a few months after the book. DALLY AND JOHNNY ARE ALIVE!

Ponyboy's POV

I watched as some people across the street unloaded boxes from a moving van. Someone had just bought the old house across the street. I didn't really think anyone was going to ever buy that old place; it's been for sale for almost a year now, and it's in terrible condition. Compared to that house, our's looks like it's worth a million dollars!

It had been about an hour since the moving van got there and I saw an old rusty truck pull into the driveway. A young guy that looked to be about Darry's age, maybe a year or so older, was driving the car. I saw a black figure in the front passenger seat beside him. The windows had unusually dark tint, so it was somewhat hard to see what it was, especially since the figure wasn't moving. I stared at the figure for a few more minutes trying to figure out what it was. I gave up, it didn't matter anyway, so I turned to watch the driver get out of the car seat. The man looked familiar, but watching the movers carry boxes inside was much more amusing.

The boxes from the van seemed to get bigger and bigger. I tried to read the labels on them, but they were too far away. One of the boxes was almost as tall as the guy carrying it. The label on it was in big, bold letters so I could read it just fine. It read 'books'. Another box the same size, if not bigger, came out. It also had 'books' written on the side. Boy, these people must love to read!

"Come on! You can start putting your room together!" Said an obviously over-cheery voice. I looked over where I heard the voice come from, and it was coming from a woman who looked to be in her late thirties. She was talking to the figure in the car, so it must be a person.

"I don't want to," The voice was very soft and feminine. It sounded a bit annoyed, but it also sounded almost scared.

The woman looked mad, but her voice stayed calm. "You wanted to move, so we did. We moved all the way down to New York. Then you wanted to move again, so we moved to Jefferson City. Then you wanted to move again, so we moved back to Tulsa. Now, we're not moving again! So get out and act grateful,"

"I don't want to," The voice repeated in the same tone.

Annoyed, the woman shook her head and started lifting some boxes and carried them inside. The man who was driving the truck walked over to the girl (I assume it was a girl) and sighed. "Why must you make things so difficult for your mother? You asked to move, so we moved. Can you be more appreciative?"

"I am appreciative," The girl answered. She looked around, then at the person who was speaking to her. "Where's Darrel?"

"Last I checked he went for a walk," He shook his head. "You should stop hangin' 'round that boy so much. One day he's gonna get you both in a lot of trouble,"

Darrel? As in Darry? Were they talking about my brother? They mustn't be, Darry doesn't get in trouble. And anyway, these people just moved here. What are the odds they know Darry?

"Yeah.. Whatever," The girl said as she stepped out of the car.

I knew she wasn't talking about Darry now. This girl looked to be younger than Soda, which is what made me sure she wasn't talking about Darry. She was very pail, though she was wearing a lot of makeup and she had the darkest black hair I'd ever seen! The was a big bump in the back of her hair, the way most girls on our side of town wore their hair, and she was wearing real tight skinny jeans, a black top, beat down sneakers and a leather jacket. Basically she was the opposite of Sandy.

Sandy, Soda's ex, had worn no makeup other than maybe a bit of lip gloss, and she was a bit tanned with blond hair. She was gone now, though. Her parents made her go live with her grandparents down in Florida when they found out she was knocked up. Soda had offered to marry Sandy, and to help raise the kid, even though it wasn't his, but she wouldn't let him. Anyway, her parents did like the idea of her getting married, seeing as she was only sixteen going on seventeen.

"I mean it. He's a bad influence on you. He's a trouble maker, that boy," The man told her sternly.

"I know, but I love him," She half grinned. "I love 'im more than anything or anyone,"

"Well, here he comes," He pointed to a boy that was walking towards the house. He was wearing ripped jeans that looked about two sizes too big, and he was wearing a white wife beater. He had a smoke in his mouth and he looked real bored. He looked like the average greaser, except for one thing. Instead of having long hair that was greased back, his hair was all shaved off. It looked funny since I'm use to seeing guys with greasy hair, but I guess I'd be getting use to seeing his hair, since he lived across the street.

"Darrel!" She yelled and ran over to give him a hug. He stumbled back and laughed.

"Hey," He had a huge smile plastered on his face as he hugged her back. "You wanna go walk around?"

She looked around cautiously and gave him a concerned look. "Should we?"

He laughed and shook his head. "You're so paranoid. I can assure you no one followed us here! So calm down and live a little. Anyway, we're jus' goin' for a walk. We're not going anywhere,"

"Fine," She glared a little. "I'm not paranoid!"

"Yes, you are!" He laughed and they walked off.

I went back to watching the movers pick unload boxes, but a few seconds later a shoe was thrown at my head. I snapped my head at the door and glared at Steve, who had a smug smirk on his face. Soda was standing beside him laughing. "Hey!"

"They're gonna think you're some creepy stalker, Pony!" Soda told me, still laughing a bit.

I rolled my eyes and walked away from the window. I sat down on the couch and started watching whatever cartoon Two-Bit left on the TV. It was a little kid show, and a boring one at that, so I started flipping through the channels. Steve walked over and took the remote from me, and sat on the other side of the couch. Soda came and sat in between me and Steve and looked at the TV for a few seconds then turned to look at me. "So do ya' think the girl across the street is cute?" He teased.

I could feel my ears turn red and I shook my head. "No,"

Soda grinned. "I like her," Soda told me.

"You don't even know her," I told him, crossing my arms. This is exactly what happened with Sandy. He liked Sandy from the moment he met her, then she broke his heart. He was heart broken for at least two months. He was acting all sad, he zoned out a lot, he even started drinking a lot! Luckily he had gotten over her recently, and was back to his normal self.

"I know but-" He started, but I cut him off.

"This is exactly what happened with Sandy. Look what happened with her,"

Soda chuckled. "You know what I like most of about that girl? She reminds me nothing of Sandy," Soda shrugged. "But ya' gotta' chill, Pone! 'Sides, look's like she's got a boyfriend anyway. That bald guy,"

"Good point..."

Soda paused and looked at me very seriously. "But can ya' do me a favor?"

"Soda..." I trailed off, not liking where this was going.

"She's probably starting school soon, so can you just find out as much as you can about her? Please?" Soda pleaded.

I sighed, giving in and nodded. "Fine. But ya' gotta' promise me something,"

"What is it?"

I sighed again. "Just don't fall in love with her like ya' did Sandy,"

"Kid, I don't ever wanna fall in love again. It sucks. And if I ever do fall in love again, I'm gonna be more careful about it," I nodded. I just hope he means it...

Kathleen's POV

Darrel and I walked around our side of town. Since we lived here until I was four and Darrel was five, we couldn't really remember what it was like on the other side of town, but we had enough common sense not to go find out.

As we were walking around some greasers stopped to stare at us. Well, they stopped to stare at Darrel. All the boys around here had long-ish hair that was greased back, so Darrel really stood out. Darrel looks better with his head shaved, though. And it suited his personality more.

Darrel definitely wasn't a good kid. He was the exact opposite. He was very stereotypical and judgmental, and he discriminates against anyone of a different race or religion. You'd use the term "skinhead" to describe him, hence her hair style. Skinheads aren't too big, I doubt many people have heard of them, but Darrel thinks they're gonna be big one day. Who knows when, though.

All of the sudden I felt a rock hit me head. I looked over at Darrel, and according to his facial expression he felt it too. He had an annoyed scowl on his face, but as soon as he saw who threw the rock his expression lightened. A lot. He had a huge smile on his face. This made me curious. Who threw the rock? Darrel's never this happy. Maybe it was someone he remembered from here. But then again, we were too young to remember anyone. I turned around to look at who it was and I understood right away why he was so happy.

The person that threw the rock at us was our old friend we met back in New York. He was Darrel's best friend and like a big brother to me. He stood up for me and beat anyone and everyone who hurt me in any way, shape, or form.

"Hey Winston," I couldn't help the huge grin from forming on my face.

"Hey Kathleen," He smirked.

"How'd you recognize us? We haven't seen you in," Darrel stopped to think. "About six or seven years,"

"Yeah well, not many people shave their head," Dallas shook his head. "Has it really been that long?"

When we moved to New York when I was three or four, me and Darrel didn't get along with many people. That is, until we met Dallas. We got along with Dallas real well, but it turns out so did every other kid on the wild side of New York. Together, Darrel and Dally made a gang. The gang consisted of a bunch of hoods, since that was the only kind of kids that would talk to us. However, Darrel didn't trust any of these hoods, so neither did I. But there was one we trusted. His name was James. He was real nice and funny. Darrel said not to trust him too much because after all, he was a hood, but I ignored him. He asked me to be his girl, and me, being the stupid little kid I was, thought he liked me. When I think back I laugh at myself. I was eight. No relationship any eight year old has means anything! I was heartbroken though when I found out he was also "dating" every other girl our age on our side of town. Darrel started beating him up and Dally, not being one to turn down an opportunity to get in a fight, joined him. James' little brother called the cops on them. When the cops came Dally took all the blame and said Darrel had nothing to do with it. When my mother found out we moved down to Liberty, Missouri and started saying we only moved because I wanted to.

Dally tossed another rock at me which made me snap out of my thoughts. "What?"

"How old are you now?" Dally asked me.

"I'm fifteen," I told him, rubbing the spot where the rock hit me.

"Then it's been six years. Your birthday was just a few days after I got thrown in the cooler, so you'd be turning nine,"

I facepalmed and sighed. "It's been seven years, Dal. I'm turning sixteen this November,"

"How long were you in for?" Darrel asked Dally. After Dally went to jail, Darrel hated himself for a while. He blamed himself for Dally going to jail. "It shoulda' been me," he'd always say. Over and over. It didn't matter what I said or did, he wouldn't change his mind. He still does blame himself.

"Since it was a first offence I only got two months. Actually, one. Good behavior, got out early," Dally shrugged a bit.

"Look man, I'm real sorry-" Darrel started.

"Shoot, it ain't your fault," Dally told him.

"Don't bother, he won't listen to ya'," I muttered to Dally.

"It is my fault. I beat that kid up too. I coulda' at least some of the blame,"

Dally shook his head. "No you couldn't have. As soon as you opened your mouth I cut you off and said you didn't do shit. Now drop it!"

Darrel looked at Dally for a few minutes before smiling. "God I missed you,"

We walked around for a while. Darrel and Dally talked about anything and everything that happened in the past seven years, and believe me, that's a lot. Dally was telling us about his friends here in Tulsa when he paused for a moment and looked at us. "You guys should come meet them,"

I froze. I hated meeting people! Especially boys. I didn't like how any of these boys sounded anyway. I could tell I wouldn't be able to get along with any of them by the way he spoke about them. Except maybe Steve. The way Dally described Steve made him sound like one of the guys Darrel and I hung around with in Jefferson City. But besides that, I don't think I'd get along with any of them. Johnny and Pony are too quiet, Darry is too serious, Two-Bit isn't serious enough and Soda was just...

Just... I don't know. Soda sounded like... Perfection. He's got movie star looks, he's happy-go-lucky and kind, he likes peace, he knows a lot about cars... He sounded perfect. And that's what I didn't like about Soda. That's what I hated about Soda. The only thing imperfect about him was the fact that he dropped out.

"That doesn't sound like a good idea," I said slowly and quietly.

Okay, maybe saying "hated" wasn't the right word. I did hate meeting people, but I'm scared to meet boys. The boys down in Jefferson City weren't too nice, to say the least. The very least.

"Shoot, what happened to you in the past seven years? Last time we spoke you were fearless," Dally half-teased, but you could tell he was being somewhat serious.

"I still am fearless!" I snapped.

"Let's just say, the boys in Jefferson City weren't too nice, and she falls in love to easily," Darrel told Dally.

Dally looked at me for a second then turned to look at Darrel. I just kept quiet. "You didn't learn that from New York?"

"That was one guy!" I yelled defensively. "And he was nice!"

"That was one hood, Kath, and no hood is nice! If a hood is being nice, that's just evidence to steer clear of them," Dally said with a slight scowl.

"Whatever," I sighed and leaned against a tree.

"Now, do you guys wanna come meet them or not?"