Disclaimer: The Outsiders belong to S. E. Hinton and I am just borrowing her characters and adding some of mine.

A/N at the end.

Always Yours

April Winston went to Tulsa to pick up Dally's belongings after his death. What she didn't expect was to fall in love with Sodapop Curtis. She vows to return to Tulsa, but when she gets back things couldn't be more different. Not your average cheesy love story!

First Love

I was still in shock. Dallas Winston was dead? My cousin Dally? I walked slowly towards the address that was written on the crumpled piece of paper. Maybe I should introduce myself a bit better… My name is April Winston and I am 16 years of age. I was Dallas' cousin, and I lived with his/my grandmother; his father's mother. I lived in the suburban New York; the cold streets of Brooklyn, but we both moved to a quite house in the Lower East Side.

I knocked softly on the wooden door.

"Who is it?" A quiet, but curious voice arose from behind the walls. The boy opened up the already unlocked door and faced me.

"Hello, I would like to properly introduce myself. My name is April Winston. I am Dally's cousin, his father is my uncle." I replied.

"Woah," The blonde boy was shocked and taken aback. "Uh, come on in. Darry! Soda! We got ourselves a visitor!"

I made my way through their messy but cosy lounge until I reached the three brothers. They looked at me as though I was a foreigner, an alien. I suppose I was; I looked nothing like them. They were greasers; they wore dirty jeans, leather jackets and had greased up hair.

"This is April. April's Dally's cousin from New York." He said.

"Hi… and you are?"

"Ponyboy Curtis, m'am." The blonde one said shyly.

A voice chimed up behind him. "I'm Sodapop Curtis an' I'm the good lookin' brother out of us three." He said cheekily. I blushed with embarrassment. I was use to being charmed by attractive men, but I'd never met a boy who'd spoke with such confidence.

"Hi. I'm Darrel. I take care of these kids." A tough, but sincere man said proudly.

"We're not kids; we're men!" Ponyboy said jokingly.

"No, listen to Darry. We are goats." Soda said. I couldn't help but giggle just a little.

"Well hello there, Ponyboy, Sodapop and Darrel. I am here to attend Dally's funeral and to collect his belongings because grandma couldn't make it to Tulsa."

"Gee, your dress sure looks expensive," Sodapop said, completely off subject.

"Why, thank you. It cost me $700." I replied.

"Where'd you get all that dough? … If you don't mind me asking." Ponyboy said.

"I worked for it all. I have two jobs. I work after school at a diner and then I spend my weekends working full-time at a department store in the city. I'm also saving up for college, but I think I'm just going to stay home and take care of my grandmother and live a happy life. I can only just fit in French and piano."

The boys looked at me in awe. Surely they'd have to work for their belongings?

"Are-are you sure you're related to Dallas Winston?" Darrel asked.

"Last time I checked."

"And you're not a soc?" Sodapop interrupted.

"No sir-ry. I heard that the socials are your enemies or somethin'."

"Yeah, they live in the Southside and drive Mustangs and have fancy clothes." Ponyboy said, with a twinge of envy.

"Oh. Anyway, I suppose I gotta get goin'. Do you know where the nearest hotel is?"

"I think you should stay with us. Because Dally was like family to us and you're related to Dall… so…" Soda said. I saw Ponyboy and Darry exchange funny glances. Soda led me to his bedroom. "You oughta sleep here. Darry'll sleep on the couch and Pony an' I will sleep in his room."

"Aw, shucks. You don't have to do that. I can just find somewhere else to sleep."

Soda urged me to stay there, so eventually, I gave in. Luckily I had plenty of money with me so I decided to go to the grocery store to buy food for the brothers. I walked in silently and saw three boys. They were around 17 or 18 and they wore beige pants and wore pastel collared shirts. They looked at me like a piece of meat and I shot them back with a death stare.

"Mmm, smells nice." An unfamiliar voice said from inside the lounge; I was in the kitchen. "Darry, have you been watching them cooking shows on tv?"

"Uh…" Was all I managed to say. A figure rose up from the sofa and walked into the kitchen.

"Why, hello there, young lady. Are you lost? You know… you shouldn't be hanging around these sorta places." A boy wearing a Mickey Mouse shirt said to me.

"I'm stayin' here, thank you very much. And I'll pull a blade on you if you don't get your hands off me."

"And who do you think you are?" He said flirtatiously. How nauseating.

"April Winston."

The boy looked at me with an expression exactly like Ponyboy's. He struggled to speak. "I-I'm Two-Bit. Two-Bit Matthews. You must be here for Dally's… funeral."

"Yeah, I am. Do you usually enter someone's house without asking?" We could never leave our door unlocked in New York; no matter how 'safe' the neighbourhood seemed to be.

"Just this one. We're all like family, me, Steve, Soda, Pony and Darry. After Johnny and Dally's death, we've been closer than ever."

"That's nice. And who's Steve?"

"That'd be me. And who are you, sweet young thing?" Another boy said from the lounge. His sudden remark gave me a shock. Was he there the whole time? Two-Bit explained that Steve was Sodapop's best friend. Two-Bit also told Steve about who I was and what I was doing here. The boys only came back at around 7, which was good because the lobster was done at 6:50, as it said on my Rolex watch.

"You didn't have to do this," Darry said, between mouthfuls of lobster and vegetables.

"You're a great cook." Ponyboy said.

"And you work two jobs?" Sodapop gushed. "I'm goin' to the movies later on, y'all wanna come?"

"Nah, I need to study, plus, I went with Two-Bit jus' last night." Ponyboy said, glancing multiple times at Darry.

"I have some paperwork and taxations to do." Darrel said, with a smirk. He was also looking at Pony.

"Looks like it's just gonna be me and you." Soda said, with fake sadness. I managed to hide a smile.

"Is this what you do for fun around here; movies and walkin', walkin' and movies?"

"Nah, we also fight and have rumbles here and there." Soda said.

I looked at the pinkish golden sky. We could never see the sunset properly in New York. There was always too much smoke and the buildings covered most of it. I looked at him, with his hands inside his pockets. Gee, you could never find a gentleman like Sodapop Curtis in New York; you'd have to go to the South and find yourself a rich Southern man. Sodapop was handsome; even with all that grease and the dirty clothes. I walked slowly beside him until we reached the drive-in movie theatre.

They were showing one of those comedy movies, but I couldn't focus enough on the movie with Soda was sitting so closely by my side. He offered to get some popcorn, and when he came back he only had one bag of it. I reached for one, but I found myself accidently brushing onto his warm hand. Neither of us noticed anything and I let my hand rest softly onto his. It was only until after the movie when we both realised that we didn't eat any popcorn. Sodapop and I were walking peacefully out while he was making small talk and then a soc approached me.

"Hey, baby. What are you doing hanging around a grease like him? You know, you look like you need some proper direction," He said, eyeing up and down my dress. "Let me show you. Hop into my car."

"I'm a greaser; not a soc. So lay off or else I'm going to get my knife out, you hood."

"Who are you calling a hood? Aside from your hair and fancy clothing, you're as much of a hood as Dallas Winston!" He taunted.

I walked away briskly with Soda. I turned my head towards the drunk soc and said bitterly, "My name is April Winston. I can do whatever I want."


A/N: I have to say this is one of my weakest chapters, after all, I needed to introduce them. I would love some feedback and some constructive criticism but not too threatening so as to make me want to kill myself.

Bye for now. x.