Disclaimer: I don't own the Outsiders.

I can't fall asleep.

There's too much going on.

Mom and I got into an argument before bed. She's not letting me go with her to the city next week.

Maybe it's the age, but lately we've been fighting a lot. So right now I'm not speaking to her.

Soda's an hour late now. Mom's spitting mad, but Dad sent her to bed before she could get any angrier. He's downstairs now waiting on Soda to get home. Dad's the one you want waiting up for you when you're late. In most households it's the other way around but not here. You know you're in real trouble when Mom's the one waiting up for you.

I've only heard my father raise his voice a couple of times in my life time. He has a lot of patience. A lot more than Mom.

Darry got home five minutes ago. I know because I heard him and Dad talking about where Soda might be.

Darry never worries much about Soda. He knows him well enough to know that where ever he may be, he's smart enough to stay safe and out of harm's way.

Pony's beside me in his bed. That's one thing that bites, being thirteen years old and still sharing a room with your brother. No matter how hard I try, it's impossible to get the boy smell out.

I know he's up too. Neither of us is ready to fall asleep. The only reason we're up here is because Mom and Dad are already hacked and we don't want to make it any worse by being up passed bedtime.

That's another thing that bites, having a bed time at thirteen. None of my other friends have bedtimes, especially not Angela Shepard. She could not come home at all and no one would really care.

I guess I am lucky though to have parents who'll stay up and wait on me when I'm late, ready to kick my head in too.

The screen door slams open. "Hey, Sodapop. Where ya been?" Dad asks.

I know Darry's still down there because I haven't heard him come up yet.

"Sorry, Dad. I lost track of time. There was a wreck down town and it had traffic backed up for miles."

Dad half sighs, half yawns. "You need to call when you know you're going to be late, Soda. You know how much your mom and I worry when you guys don't come home on time."

"I know, Dad. I'm sorry I didn't call," Soda says softly.

There's movement and I know it's probably Dad getting up to go to bed. "Alright. I'm pushing your curfew back an hour since you were an hour late."

Soda usually complies with Dad most of the time. Soda has heard Dad yell probably more than any of us. He went through a wild phase a few months ago and Dad had to set him straight pretty fast.

"Ok. Night, Dad. Tell, Mom I'm real sorry."

"Goodnight, Sodapop. Night, Darry."

Soda and Darry head upstairs, Darry asking Soda where he really was and Soda telling Darry about a party at Buck's. Dad probably knew where Soda really was. That's why he didn't ask for details. We've all heard stories about Dad's childhood, and they match Soda's personality to a T.

The story is that Steve was driving and had gotten drunk and Soda, being the only one well enough to drive, couldn't figure out how to start up Steve's truck.

"You shoulda' called me at the Dingo and I would have picked you up," Darry tells him.

"You were on a date. I didn't want to interrupt in case...you know, you got lucky," Soda jokes and I hear the sound of Darry hitting him over the head. "C'mon, Dar! I was on a date. Calling your big brother to pick you up ain't real boss."

Darry huffs. "Well having an eleven o'clock curfew ain't real boss, now is it?"

They both part ways, one going to the bathroom, the other going to the room they both share.

"Dan?" Pony whispers through the darkness.

I sit up. "Yeah?"

"Do you think we'll grow up to be like Darry and Soda?"

We can only hope we're that lucky.

Mom works every Saturday at the hair salon sweeping up hair and shampooing clients. She says she really hates it but we all know she lives for the day she can relax and gossip with her coworkers.

Dad cooks Saturday breakfast every Saturday. We've been doing it since we were babies and we actually enjoyed watching Saturday morning cartoons. Most of the time Dad would join us, making Mom mad because she was the one who ended up cleaning up the pancake batter mess we left.

Since then, breakfast has gotten later, and cartoons are rarely ever watched.

Soda comes into the bathroom as I'm brushing my teeth. "You still mad at Mom?"

"Yeah," I answer, my mouth foaming with tooth paste. "I don't get why I can't just go with her. She's only making me stay here so I can study for that stupid math test that I'm going to pass anyway."

He shakes his head. "Cut her some slack, Dan. It ain't the end of the world."

It sure did feel like it at the time. I hang my head, feeling guilty for overreacting. I make a mental note to apologize to her when she gets back tonight.

"You got work today, Dar?" Dad asks once we sit down at breakfast.

Darry shakes his head, stuffing his mouth full of blueberry pancakes. "No. I think I'm gonna go down to the park though and work on my game some."

Ever since Darry blew his knee out his senior year, he's been trying everything he can to get a scholarship somewhere to play ball like he had planned. What he didn't plan was for Billy Hanes to run him over like a tow truck.

"What about you, Dan?"

I shrug, getting another pancake. "I might go to Angela's."

My Mom was the one who had a heart for Angela. It was odd how she kind of took her under her wing and my dad was the one who didn't support the friendship. That might have something to do with the night Angela took me to the lot and got drunk and left with some boy. I was alone and had only my dad to call to pick me up.

He never told Mom about that night. I always wondered why.

Dad doesn't say anything, just growls a little under his breath. "You'd stay there the whole time?"

"We might go to the park." I only say that because Darry will be there with his friends and he can vouch for me being there. Angela will probably want to go check out all the guys there anyway.

"Don't try to hang out with us. You girls are too young for anyone there."

I roll my eyes. I still don't understand why Darry has such a problem with me talking to his friends or, heaven forbid, hanging out with them. It wasn't like any of them were that cute anyway. Soda lets me and Pony hang out with his friends.

Darry soon leaves and it's just the four of us left.

Ponyboy's already out somewhere with Johnny and Steve's already here. His eyes are red and he keeps rubbing his temples. I wonder if Dad notices that. I'm sure he does. He just chooses not to point it out.

"I can always count on you folks for having a hardy meal in the morning."

Dad's favorite out of our friends. No one has figured out why. Dad is the one who busted Dally when he first moved here for breaking a shop window and trying to steal cigarettes and candy bars.

Since then though, they've had a weird relationship with each other that no one understands.

"What are you doing up so early, son?"

If any other man called Dally son, he'd kill them dead.

Dally picks up a handful of pancakes, not bothering with a plate. "Ain't gone to bed yet."

"You got a bed?"

Dally shrugs, using the excuse that his mouth is too full to answer. Dally would never admit that he had nowhere to stay. Dally never admits to anything really.

"Anyone home?"

I know by the smell who it is. She always wears too much perfume. "In here Ang!"

Her heels click against the floor as she struts inside. "Hi, Mr. Curtis."

Dad gives her a small wave, not bothering to look up from his paper. It does bother me that he doesn't like my best friend. My father rarely dislikes anyone. I mean, he likes Dallas Winston!

"Dallas," she hisses, leaning against the counter beside him.

He gives her a sneer. "Look what the devil dragged in."

"The phrase is 'look what the cat dragged in'."

"Not in your case, sweets."

I swear my dad is actually laughing. He does a good enough job to hide it from Angela though. "Play nice, Dally."

"I'm always nice." He finishes off his mooched breakfast. "Hey, Mr. C, guess who I saw at Buck's last weekend."

"Who?"

"Peaches and Cream over there," he says, motioning to me. "And this funky smelling broad."

Angela snarls, "I do not smell."

Dad raises his eyebrows, focusing on me. I'm too speechless to defend myself. "Oh, is that so?"

"No!" I shout almost too quickly. I start to panic. I know if my parents ever caught me there, they'd have my head. Soda isn't even really allowed there and he's sixteen. "No."

Steve chuckles beside me, along with Soda. "Yeah, Mr. C, he ain't lyin'. I saw 'em there myself."

I look to Angela to help defend me, but she's too busy making kissy faces into her compact mirror and getting in a syrup fight with Dally that she's losing.

It looks like I'm on my own. "I've never been to Bucks! I swear!"

"Don't swear."

Soda snickers, getting up from the table wit his plate. "Awe, come on, Dad," he says, defending me. "Like I'd ever let my sister be caught dead there."

"I don't know, Sodapop," Dad says, glaring at me over top of his paper. "It looks like she's lying. Her face is awful red."

I can tell he's joking now. It still doesn't stop me from being pissed that Dally even brought that up.

"Dad..."

"I'm kidding, honey. I know you well enough to know you wouldn't be caught dead there." He gathers up the dirty plates off the table. "And I know these two hoods well enough to know that they lie through their teeth."

I give Dally a dirty glare. Not that I could ever give him a mean enough look like he could give me.

"Hey, listen," Dad says, calling our attention, "I'm taking your mom out of town tonight for dinner. I want you all home by nine. I've already told Darry and he's going to watch ya'll tonight."

Soda and I share an eye roll. "We don't need a babysitter, Dad."

"I'll babysit," Dally suggest. "I'll tuck you in nice and tight, kids."

"No," Dad says quickly. "I'm not going to argue with you two. Home by nine. Tell Ponyboy."

After breakfast Angela sweeps me away to the park. She's got a cigarette in-between her fingers that she's not smoking. I swear she only has cigarettes so everyone will think she's cool. She's trying to impress the older boys Darry plays ball with. Most of them are middle class or Socs, none of which will have her, but she still presses on.

Unlike Angela, I actually like watching the boys play ball. She only sees their naked chests but I've always been a fan of football. I think that has something to do with growing up with three brothers and being so close to my dad.

Darry always jokes that I got the sports brain in the twin gene pool.

"What are they so excited about?" Angela asks, making a twisted face.

"They just scored. They won. It's kind of a big deal."

Not to Angela Shepard. She can't even hear me now. Shirtless guys are coming toward her and she's on the hunt.

"Your big brother know you're smoking them?" Darry, probably purposefully, blocks her view. He stands with his hands on his hips, a smug smirk on his face.

Angela's face twists again. "Who do you think I steal them from?"

Darry's gaze turns to me. "You better not be smoking them. Mom and Dad will skin you alive."

"Trust me," I reassure him, waving away the smoke from my face. "The smoke from hers is enough to make me stay away forever."

Darry never took up smoking really. He tried it but it never took. Soda didn't even bother though Soda doesn't bother with a lot of things. He got so sick once from drinking. He was throwing up a storm when Darry came in and had to help him back to bed. Soda has said he doesn't need a drink to have a good time, but Soda also keeps his promises to his family.

Darry leans against the picnic table Angela and I are perched on. He takes a big drink of his water while some of his friends try to talk him into playing another game.

"Darry?" I elbow him lightly. "Can you drive me and Ang to the Dingo?"

He scowls. "No. I don't have time."

"Why?"

"I just don't."

"Where are you going?"

He really hates it when I ask questions. Darry's a kind of one answer, conversation over, type of guy. "I already told you, I have stuff to do. You can walk. It's really not that far."

Angela Shepard doesn't like to walk.

She leans forward, looking past Darry. "Hey, Scot!"

The blonde guy standing under the tree looks over at us. He played with Darry in school. He lives in the same neighborhood as us and has always had eyes for pretty girls. "Yeah?"

"Can you drive us to the Dingo? We'll even buy you a milkshake."

Darry yanks us both down before he can answer. "Danni, you need new friends."

The inside of the Dingo is all vinyl booths and checkerboard linoleum. It smells like ten years' worth of grease, cigarettes, burnt coffee, and fresh French fries. You can always count on fresh French fries at the Dingo.

We take the booth near the window so Angela can see all the boys that walk in. This is her favorite hunting ground.

As soon as I put our order in Angela's head hangs. "I'm dying over here, Danni."

I don't want to ask, but I do. "Why?"

"I haven't been on a date in months. I can't live in my house. All anyone ever does is yell. I need out."

Angela's mother is on her third marriage right now and by the sound of things, she's never home.

I want to tell her that she's being a drama queen, but that will just make her angry. Angela doesn't have the best home life, but it's better than most people's. Hell, look at Johnny. I want to tell her she has a lot of never to complain but our food comes instead.

I can hear the sizzle of the French fries as Angela gets tears in her eyes and has a look on her face that says the world is ending.

She calms down once she starts drinking her milkshake and I try to lighten the mood by telling her we'll go look for boys this weekend though I probably won't be looking that much. I only do it for her and because she's my best friend.

"Jesus Christ."

I turn around to see what she's looking at. Terry, a boy two years older than us, walks into the Dingo. Angela has had eyes for him all year long. He's the only boy she hasn't worked up the nerve to talk to.

I groan. I can see it coming. "He's Curly's best friend. It's a bad idea, Ang."

She doesn't listen. She's already up. "Hey, Terry. Come sit with us!" And he does. "This is Danni."

He gives me a half nod, more interested in what Angela's doing that me. "What are you doing tonight?"

"Nothing," she says, moving her body towards his, seductively.

I want to shout at her and shake her and tell her she's only thirteen and she's acting like she's twenty. This is the way she's been since she went to camp this summer and lost her virginity. She thinks she's one of those girls now and I hate it.

I prop my head up against the window as I watch it turn to night. Angela's still talking to Terry and I'm stuck talking to his twelve year old brother.

"You're Ponyboy's sister," he says.

"Yeah."

"He's nice."

"Yeah, he is."

I shoot annoying glares over at Angela but she can't even see me. Terry has her full attention and I've just been officially ditched. If I knew that I wouldn't get a lecture, I'd call Darry to come get me, but I'm in no mood to listen to him.

Luckily, I don't have to wait much longer as Tim Shepard walks into the diner.

I've seen Angela fight with Tim. It gets pretty intense and I remember her telling me that he has hit her before. She's hit him too but she acted like this was child abuse. Once, he literally locked her in her room for three days.

He scares me. That's for sure. Angela never admits to fear though. She never admits defeat either.

"Get in the truck!"

I'm already in the truck. Angela is still in the diner, making a scene with her older brother. I'm embarrassed for the both of them.

I start to think of what it would be like if Darry were like Tim. Darry probably would have knocked me out by now and thrown me into the truck. Either that or call Mom to come and pull me out by my hair.

I'm so glad Darry is who he is.

Eventually, Tim gets her out of the diner and I listen to the bickering the whole way home.

"You're so dead when we get home."

"Fuck you."

"Don't make me kick your ass in front of your little friend."

"I dare you to do it."

It goes on like this until Tim pulls up to my house. "Thanks for the ride, Tim," I say, working up the nerve to get out of the truck.

He gives me a small nod, and then his eyes spit venom at his little sister. Angela can say all she wants about not being afraid of Tim, but fear is all I see in her dark brown eyes.

"Tell your dad thanks for helping me out the other day."

I bite my bottom lip. "Okay."

He speeds off, his breaks hissing against the pavement and I wonder what my dad would be doing with Tim Shepard.

"It's about time you got home." It's Darry who's yelling. I can feel my ear drums shake. Darry has a heavy voice on him.

Soda's not home either. I know that because his laundry basket is still on the sofa.

Darry isn't much for lecturing. He's more up for just telling Mom and Dad and letting them deal with it later. Sometimes I wish he was as cool as Soda was and just realize he was my age once too. I don't recall many times that Darry did let me or Ponyboy off the hook for something. He did for Soda a lot.

There was one time. It was last year. I had just turned twelve and for my birthday Angela decided to get me a pack of cigarettes and teach me how to smoke.

Just after the first puff I was coughing so loudly that Darry ran outside to see what the matter was.

I was crying so hard before he had a chance to speak. I guess he realized how upset I was about it all. Darry was a softy for tears...most of the time.

I never noticed how my stories of getting into trouble always involve Angela in some way.

Ponyboy is lying on the sofa reading. He doesn't move as I lay down on the other end, putting my legs on his legs.

Its three hours before I wake up again. "Where are Mom and Dad?"

The knock on the door is when we all knew the answer to that question.

A/N: So after much thought, I've decided to do a rewind story! As you can see, it's taking place right after the Curtis parent's death and will continue on as so.

I'm taking suggestions on what you guys would like to see in this story. So please leave a review with some things you want to see.

I'm also doing a dark Angela story soon so be on the lookout for that. If you have any suggestions for that please throw them my way.

Also, I will probably continue DMT at some point soon. So don't give up on that.

Thank you for reading and don't forget to review!