Tulsa Oklahoma, April 1969.

Tulsa Oklahoma was no stranger to storms, and certainly not in April. Having lived there his whole life, Ponyboy knew this well.

Working on homework alone in his room, the youngest Curtis brother listened to the rain tap on the window harshly, pouring down from the dark sky. He didn't mind the rain so much, but the lightning and thunder made him shaky, mostly because he was home alone, both his brothers working late.

Staring blankly at his trig worksheet Ponyboy let out a frustrated sigh.

'What on earth is the point of this?' he wondered, just as another streak of lightning illuminated the sky. Deciding that he would deal with it later, he shoved it into a desk drawer and decided to go grab a snack. Just then, another roar of thunder seemed to shake the whole house. Ponyboy winced, but not from the thunder.

'Johnny would have hated this storm,' he thought.

Another sigh came from the boys lips as he felt the familiar stab of pain in his heart. His best friend had been gone for nearly 4 months now and Ponyboy still missed him nearly every minute of every day. The Same went for Dally. Though the gang, what was left of it, had tried to move on as best as they could, the pain they all went through in dealing with the loss of their 2 friends was terribly obvious. It hung over them like a shadow, and Ponyboy knew it always would.

Ponyboy Curtis had been through a lot in his short life and there were a lot of things he wished he could change. And still, the one thing he wished more than anything he could get a second chance at, would be to save his friends. He only wished...

He was jerked out of his trance with the loudest boom of thunder yet, followed by darkness. 'Great,' he thought 'the lights are out.' Never one to enjoy the darkness, Ponyboy immediately felt himself get nervous and forced himself to take deep breaths. 'I'll just find a flashlight and read some. That'll keep me cool.'

Reaching out with his hands to feel his way over to his bookshelf, he shuffled forward but jammed his shin on his footboard, falling forward with a curse word. He caught himself on his desk with his hands, which unfortunately knocked some books off the shelf, one being very large and very thick, which knocked him just right on the head.

Another clap of thunder.

Dazed and dizzy, Ponyboy stumbled backward and fell onto his bed with a groan. "The one time I use my head…" he thought dryly, before he slipped into unconsciousness.

Ponyboys first thought when he came to was that his head hurt. With a groan, he opened his eyes and was forced to squint. Sunlight was beaming down on him and he wished it would stop.

He froze. Sunlight. There shouldn't be sunlight if he was still at home…

He looked around, suddenly very much awake and alert. Indeed, he was NOT at his house anymore. He looked to be in some kind of alley. Ponyboy stood up, and winced as he rubbed at the place where the book had fallen on his head. He searched his pockets assuming that…well he didn't really know what he was assuming. Maybe he was jumped or something, who knows?

But he found his pocket knife just in place as it was before he got knocked out. Checking himself over, it appeared that, aside from his head, everything else was in perfect condition. Clearly, he hadn't been jumped.

He looked down at his watch and saw that it was near 7:00.

'Oh Crap.' He thought. 'Darry's gonna kill me. How am I ever gonna explain this I'm not even wearing a jacket.'

Ponyboy walked towards the end of the alley, thinking maybe, somehow, he was just over in Shepard Territory. It would be a good 20-minute walk home and he'd have some explaining to do once he got there. Not to mention he'd have to assure his rather…protective…brothers that he was fine about 20 times and even then they wouldn't be convinced.

Indeed, Sodapop and Darry had grown a great deal more... protective… since, well, the incidents of earlier that year.

But as soon as Ponyboy reached the sidewalk, he stopped dead in his tracks.

This was not Tulsa, not by a longshot.

Cars of types Ponyboy had never seen before whizzed passed him on the street as people did the same on the sidewalk…looking down at some sort of device in their hands. Looking up he saw buildings taller than Tulsa had ever known. Lining the street were what seemed to be logos of companies… also that he had never seen before.

Not good.

This. was. bad. Ponyboy knew that, and stumbled forward, biting his nails, deciding he needed to figure out where the heck he was. Now.

He looked around and saw a girl looking about Cherry's age wearing…well, to be honest he wasn't quite sure exactly what she was wearing. A top that showed her stomach and boots that looked like she wore 2 cats on her feet. And her pants… he had seen girls wear pants before but never this…tight.

Shaking off the shock he approached her, "Excuse me, ma'am." No response. "Miss?" She must've heard him this time as she pulled some sort of…thing…out of either ear.

"Yeah?"

Ponyboy swallowed, "I realize this is a very weird question, but, where exactly am I?"

The girl just looked at him strangely and smirked. "Little too much to drink there, huh buddy?" and before Ponyboy could reply, she was walking off, putting those little…things…back in her ears.

Ponyboy stared after her. This was not good.

He kept walking down the crowded sidewalk, people rushing on either side of him wearing articles of clothing he'd never seen before and all entranced by these little…boxes and screens in their hands.

All the while, his panic growing, he went from person to person trying to gain knowledge of where he was and what the crap was going on. No one gave him an answer other than to either laugh or tell him to go home and sober up. Although, once, he was told to "chill out." What that meant, he had no clue.

Exasperated and shaky, the boy finally decided to try a different tactic. He sat down on a nearby bench, next to an older gentleman. His voice, when he spoke, sounded pleading and desperate. He was 100% ready to resort to some shameless begging at this point if that's what it took.

"Sir," he spoke, well actually, more like sighed, "I know this is going to sound crazy, but could you please tell me where we are?"

The old man just smiled. "New in town?" Ponyboy groaned, "Something like that." The old man chuckled and clasped the boy on the shoulder. "You're on Epernay street son."

Ponyboy sighed, burying his face in his hands. He was so confused but figured an answer like that was better than no answer. At least it was something. Problem was, he had no idea where in Tulsa Epernay street was. It would take him forever to get home…

"So how you liking Tulsa so far?"

Ponyboy dug the heels of his hands into his eyes. "Uh... it's uh... It's fine"

The man nodded and took a long drag off of his cigarette. "I like it just fine myself. Course back a few years ago the roads weren't half as confusin' but then that new museum downtown..."

Ponyboy didn't here another word the man said, because all of a sudden, he looked at the little screen in the man's hand, and his breathing stopped.

The man noticed. "Woah woah, You OK kid?"

Ponyboy barely heard him. It was as if he had been sucker punched…underwater. He thought he was shaking but really he wasn't sure. What. The. Heck. Was happening to him?

How on earth did he wind up... what... wait, what? He had never even left Tulsa before and now…well, that's just it. He had never left Tulsa, never left his room and yet, here he was... What was he supposed to do?

He opened his mouth but no words came out at first. "S-sir," he took a deep breath, his vision blurry, "What t-time is i-it?" he stuttered. He watched the man glance down at the little screen (seriously what WAS that thing) and saw it light up with a picture.

"7:15" the man said slowly. "Kid, are you sure you're ok? You need a ride home?" he asked, putting a hand to Ponyboy's forehead.

Ponyboy was thinking of how to respond as best he could, while his eyes glanced over the digital time on the man's… screen like object. He opened his mouth to speak… but he couldn't. He was too focused on the words under 7:15- A small line of text that rocked his world. He was so shocked that all he could do was point to them. The man furrowed his eyebrows confusedly. "Date" was all Ponyboy managed to say, his voice cracking heavily, feeling like all of the air had been sucked out of him.

The man looked at him very strangely, "Um…yeah buddy that's, that's the date…"

Ponyboy braced himself. 'please no, please not now…please don't let this be happening to me"

"…February 5, 2017."

And then Ponyboy was running. Faster than he'd run when he was trying out for the track team. Faster than he'd run at his first meet. Faster than he'd run in a game of football with the gang. Faster than he'd run out of the house on the night Darry had hit him and even faster than he'd run to his brother's arms on the night of the church fire."

He didn't even hear the man call out for him to stop. He could only hear his feet pounding against the ground. He ran fast and long in no direction and with no sense of time. He ran until he found a dark alley like the one he had woken up in.

What was going to happen to him? He was on the other side of the country a whole 50 years from where he had been just a half an hour ago. He was so scared. He didn't know what to do. He wanted Sodapop. Bad. He wanted to go home.

The date rang in his mind again, "February 5, 2017."

And then, facing a sunset, he threw up all over the ground.