Author's Note: I'm hoping this story goes better than my old one did. I just kinda fell out of the rhythm of that one. This story is a different though, I've been thinking on it for awhile now. I think it's gonna turn out pretty good and I've been putting a lot of thought into AJ, my OC, and her family. Her mother is based slightly on my stepmom, who I adore, and Amy is basically my little sister Grace in written form. My sister has an IQ of 196 at 12 yrs old and is too damn smart for her own good most of the time. Also, while this will follow in canon with the book, when I picture the characters, I picture the movie characters. I can't help it. Matt Dillion was too freakin' sexy as Dallas. Oh, and this starts the Spring before the events in the book.

Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own The Outsiders or any of the song lyrics mentioned here.

She had her eyes on the prize as the girl next door

You grow up quick when you grow up poor

-Nickelback

April 29th, 1966-

AJ Adare sighed and looked over at her best friend, Ponyboy Curtis. They were sitting on the Adare's front porch. He had his nose stuck in a book, as usual, while she played the same three cords on her secondhand guitar. Pony, sensing her gaze, looked up at her.

"What?" He asked. AJ shrugged and looked around.

"I'm bored." She replied. "Let's do something." She strummed the cords again and he made a face.

"But I'm right at the good part!" He protested. AJ cocked her eyebrow, a trick she had picked up from Two-Bit Matthews.

"The book will be here when we get back, Pone." She said. "Come on, lets walk down to the DX or something."

Pony looked at her. "You only wanna walk down there because Steve is there."

AJ felt her face heat up. "So what?"

"So when are you gonna get over this stupid crush you have on him?" Pony asked. "He has a girlfriend and besides, you're too young for him."

"He's seventeen and I'll be sixteen in October!" She argued. "And I know he was a girlfriend, but I can think he's cute if I want to, Ponyboy Curtis." She bit her lip. "Look, I'm just really bored. Can't we please walk down there and get some sodas? We don't gotta stay long."

Ponyboy sighed, but dog-eared his page and sat the book down. "All right." He said. She grinned.

"Just let me put my guitar in the house." She said. He nodded and she headed inside, through the living room and down the small hallway that lead to her room. She sat her guitar in the corner and headed back out. She paused by her younger sister, Amy's, room and stuck her head in the door.

Amy was sitting at her desk, working on her a science project. She looked up when AJ said her name.

"Hey, me and Pony are gonna walk down to the DX for awhile." AJ told her. "You'll be okay here by yourself for a bit?"

Amy gave her a Look. "I'm twelve, not two. I'll be fine."

AJ held up her hands in mock surrender. "Just wanted to make sure."

Even though Amy was twelve and the baby of three girls, she was probably smarter than both of her sisters put together. She was even smarter than Ponyboy, although her specialty was in science. Amy had been skipped two grades in school and would be graduating the eighth grade at the end of the school year.

"Took you long enough." Pony said to her when she got back to the porch. She paused at the door, trying to keep her fat, orange cat, Whiskers Meowington, from running outside.

"Sorry." AJ replied. "I had to tell Amy we were leaving."

"Oh," Pony said, looking past her. "Does she wanna come?"

AJ shook her head. "No, she's working on some science project thingy. A tornado could rip through the house and she wouldn't budge."

Pony laughed and the two of them headed down the street.

AJ and Pony had grown up next door to each other; their mother's had been friends for years. The two families had stuck together through even the hardest of times, like when AJ's father had taken off right after Amy was born, leaving Mrs. Adare to raise three girls on her own. Or, this past winter, when Mr. and Mrs. Curtis had been killed.

"Hey, there's Johnny!" Pony said, pulling AJ from her thoughts. She grinned and waved as the dark haired boy rushed up the sidewalk to them.

"Hey guys." He said. "Where y'all headed?"

"To the DX." AJ told him, slinging her arm across his shoulder. "Wanna come?"

"Yeah." He said, grinning at her.

The three of them walked in silence. "Did you guys do the homework for Franklin yet?" Pony asked after a few minutes of quiet. All three of them were nearing the end of their freshman year at Will Rogers High School.

Johnny shrugged and shook his head. "I don't really understand that math stuff." He said.

"I'll help you." Pony told him. "What about you, AJ? You do it?"

She nodded. "Yeah, but I probably got most of it wrong."

Johnny grinned at her again and the three of them cut across the lot.

Being as it was a Saturday afternoon, AJ was surprised to find the DX was empty. The place was normally knee deep in girls when Sodapop, Pony's older brother, was working.

"Hey y'all!" Soda said when he spotted them coming through the door. "What're you guys up to?"

Pony shrugged. "AJ was bored, so we came to get something to drink."

Steve Randle, Soda's best friend and AJ's dream crush, popped up from the aisle he was sweeping. "AJ, you have the attention span of a gnat."

Johnny and Pony laughed at how true it was and AJ stuck her tongue out at him. "You're just jealous 'cause I'm prettier than you, Randle." She said, trying to act tough, but with her insides jumping for joy that he had acknowledged her.

"I'll give you that one." Steve said and AJ felt her face burn. Pony and Johnny were both snickering at her now. As her best friends, they were the only ones who knew how she felt about Steve.

"How's Alice?" Soda asked. Alice was AJ's older sister and Soda had always had a bit of a thing for her, despite the fact that she was now married and expecting a baby.

"She's good." AJ told him. "About ready to pop, but good."

"When's the baby due again?" Steve asked, leaning against his broom.

"May 24th." AJ replied. "Just about a month left."

"You want a Pepsi?" Pony asked as he made his way over to the sodas.

"I do." Johnny said, but AJ shook her head.

"I think I want an orange soda." She said. "And grab me a Root Beer to take back to Amy."

"Yeah, where is the squirt?" Soda asked. "I thought she'd be with y'all."

AJ shook her head. "She's working on a science project. You know what a big deal those are to her."

"What is it this time?" Soda asked. Amy was smart in ways he couldn't even understand and all her projects fascinated him, even if he didn't get them half the time.

"I don't know…something to do with making her own ammonium nitrate." AJ shrugged. "Whatever the hell that is."

Soda shook his head. "She's gonna blow up our street yet, you just watch."

AJ grinned. "I don't doubt it." She glanced at the clock on the wall. "My Mom will be off of her shift pretty soon; I guess I better get on home and get supper started."

"What're y'all having?" Soda asked interestedly.

"Meatloaf, corn, and mashed potatoes." AJ answered. "And since Darry works tonight, Mama already told me to have you and Pony over to eat with us."

Soda grinned. "Yum. I'll be there for sure."

Steve rolled his eyes. "Imagine that."

AJ grinned and the three of them paid for their soda's and left the gas station, heading back towards Quebec Avenue.

"So…" Ponyboy dragged the word out. "Steve said you were pretty."

AJ felt her face burn again. "He did not." She protested. "He said I was prettier than him. There's a difference."

Pony shrugged. "Not really."

He studied his friend in the late afternoon sun. She wore her honey blonde hair long because she claimed it was easier to pull it back in a ponytail or braid than to cut and style it. Her eyes were a tawny golden brown, the brows over them nearly straight. When she smiled, three dimples popped out on her face: one in each cheek and one above her mouth. AJ was, in a word, cute- that catch all description that said that while she wasn't a drop dead stunner, there was nothing driving her into the realms of ugliness.

"Pony, what time do you think you and Soda will be over?" She asked.

"Huh? Oh, about 5:30, I guess." He answered.

"Johnny, you wanna come too?" AJ asked their other friend, kicking a pebble along the road. Johnny shrugged, and then nodded.

"Yeah, I guess." He answered. "If you're sure Ms. Nora won't mind."

"Johnny Cade, you know by now that my Mama adores you!" AJ told him. "She says so all the time."

It was true, Ms. Nora, as they all called her, was sort of the mother hen of their gang, always fussing over the boys.

"All right." AJ said when they reached her house. "I'll see you all in a bit."

"Okay." Both boys said to her and she headed inside.

"Got you a root beer." She told Amy, sitting it on her desk.

"Thanks." Her sister answered, barely looking up.

In the kitchen, AJ flipped the radio on and pulled a package of thawed hamburger from the refrigerator. She hummed along to the music as she mixed the meat with eggs and cracker crumbs, like her mother had taught her.

Once the meatloaf was mixed and in the oven, she started peeling potatoes. Fixing dinner was something she did pretty much every night. Her mother worked the day shift as a nurse at the hospital and, as smart as Amy was, she couldn't boil water without burning it, so the brunt of the cooking fell to AJ. She didn't mind though; in fact, she enjoyed it.

While the potatoes were boiling and the meatloaf baking in the oven, she decided to whip together a small dessert. It wasn't much, just a box cheesecake, but she threw some chocolate chips in with it. She made up a pitcher of iced tea.

It was nearing 5:30 when she heard her mother's car pull into the driveway. Everything was almost done and the boys would be over soon.

"Amy, come set the table!" She called, turning the radio off as her mother came through the door.

Nora Adare was an older version of her daughter. Her blonde hair was graying slightly and her brown eyes had a few wrinkles around them, but AJ thought her mom looked good for thirty-nine. She had worked hard, raising three children and putting herself through nursing school.

"Hi, Mama." AJ said, kissing her cheek.

"Smells good, baby." Her mom told her. "Just let me go change and I'll come in here and finish up."

"No, just go relax." AJ told her. "It's nearly done and Amy's gonna set the table. Soda and Ponyboy won't be here for a few more minutes. Oh, and Johnny's coming too."

"Good, good." Nora said distractedly, heading back to her own bedroom.

It was 5:30 on the nose when Pony and Soda arrived, with Johnny, Steve, and surprisingly, Dallas Winston, trailing behind them.

"Dally!" AJ said in surprise when she saw him. "When did you get out of jail?"

He smiled his crooked smile. "This afternoon." He answered.

"Hail hail, the gangs all here." Nora said, coming back into the kitchen. "Dallas, what were they feeding you in that place? You're skin and bones!"

"Oh, you know," Dally said nonchalantly. "The usual: bread and water."

Nora snorted. "I wouldn't be surprised. Amy, get some extra plates for Dal and Steve. You boys just sit on down here. You want some iced tea?"

Steve grinned. Ms. Nora reminded him a lot of his own mother before she had passed away. He nodded at Amy when she sat a plate down in front of him and helped himself to the bowl of corn. AJ poured him a glass of tea and he winked at her. Her face heated up and she looked away. He knew that the kid had a crush on him, it was dead obvious. She was a cute little thing, he thought, but to young for him. Besides, he had Evie and she was all the woman he could handle.

"I made a cheesecake for afters." AJ said and Dallas looked up. He loved cheesecake.

"Guess I picked a good day to be let out of the clink." He said, eating some mashed potatoes.

"Do you have a place to stay?" Nora asked him. "Because we've got room on the couch if you don't."

He shrugged. "I'll hitch a ride out to Buck's after while; see if he's got any rooms open."

Nora shook her head, but didn't say anything. She knew that the surest way to scare Dally off was to smother him with affection. "All right." Was all she said. "Johnny, take some more of these potatoes."

Johnny started, but held out his plate and allowed Nora to scoop a huge helping onto it. Whiskers was sniffing around the table and Soda fed him a piece of his meatloaf.

"Sodapop Curtis, I know you're not feeding that animal from my table." Nora said without looking up. Soda's face turned a little red.

"No ma'am." He answered, winking at Amy, who grinned.

"You're on KP duty tonight, Ames." AJ told her. "Since I made the meal."

Amy sighed. "Fine." She said.

Soda snickered. "You said duty." Steve flicked a piece of corn at him.

"Grow up, Soda. God, you're like Two-Bit more everyday." He said. He drained the last of his tea and stood up. "Well, I hate to eat and run, but I told Evie I'd pick her up at 6:30, so I better get out of here." He pulled AJ's ponytail. "It was good, kid."

"Thanks." She said, looking down. She hated Evie Young, Steve's steady girlfriend.

One by one, the boys drifted out. Nora quickly put together a plate for Pony and Soda to take home for Darry to eat when he got off work. Pony scratched Whiskers on the head.

"Don't look so glum." He told AJ. "You know Steve can't stick with one girl for very long. He and Evie will break up in no time."

She sighed. It didn't matter, she thought. She was a kid in Steve's eyes and that's all she would ever be.