Disclaimer: I do not own anyone from the outsiders. I do own Charlotte.

Charlotte Martins was heading home to Tulsa from being in Austin. She was supposed to be going to college, but after she went for a few months she realized that it wasn't for her so she quit. She took her college money and saved it up along with the money she got from her job at the local wedding store in Austin. She was excited to be going home, but wasn't sure if she'd be able to face her past.

Before she left Austin she called the local real-state agent and found a cheap house for sale. She talked to her parents about checking the house out for her. After they did they called her back up and told her the house was in great shape. She bought it and had the money taken from her bank account. Right before she left she took all her money out of the account since she'd need it on the way to her home town and to help settle herself in when she got there.

She finally got to Tulsa and was slowly looking for the street her house was on. Once she found the street she turned down it and drove a little slower since all the houses looked the same to her. They all had the same dark grey, peeling paint on them, and the shingles were all the same old black ones. She had to look closely at the worn out white numbers to find her address.

She got to her house and slowly pulled into the driveway. She turned the ignition off, pulled her keys and let out a sigh of relief. She slowly opened her door, climbed out and slammed the door shut. Sometimes the door liked to pop loose if she didn't slam it. She sighed when she heard loud music coming from the house across the street as she went to the back of her truck to start taking in the bags of stuff she had with her.

About two hours later the truck was empty. She sighed as she sat in her rocking chair her Aunt gave her. "Finally, the truck is unloaded," she told herself out loud. She went to stand up but found she was tired, but since she was hungry she figured she better eat so she got up, went to the kitchen and thought that she better go do a little shopping.

She grabbed her keys from her jacket pocket and went out to her truck. On the way to the store she got thinking of all the good times she had before she left: the parties, the hanging out with friends, and falling deeper in love with her one true love Darrel. She loved the way he laughed, smiled and just everything about him. She sighed softly as she got to the store and a small smile formed when she realized it was the same store she and Darry first met in. She had been walking along and ran into someone, they both apologized, bent down and started picking things up since some of the stuff that had been dropped. They got talking, then started hanging out more, then eventually started dating.

After she pulled into a parking space, she shut the engine off, pulled her keys, she opened the door and slowly climbed out. Once again she slammed the door since it wouldn't shut for her. The door just loved to open back up since the latch or something was broken. Once the door was shut she turned and slipped on a rock. She quickly grabbed the truck to keep herself from falling. She kicked the rock out of her way and headed to the store.

Once she was inside she grabbed a shopping cart and headed to the aisles to do some shopping. She started going up and down all the aisles to figure out what she wanted. She got down the baking aisle and grabbed two chocolate cake mixes, two vanilla cake mixes, vanilla frosting, and chocolate frosting.

She headed down the aisle more to get some cookie ingredients she'd needed. As she was looking around she heard a voice that she never knew she'd hear again, having not known if he moved or not.

"Okay Pony, I know we need more chocolate cake mix," the voice of Darrel came from the next aisle. She stopped and started looking at the cookie mixes and wasn't sure what all to get, if any. She felt her heart flutter when she heard his voice again. Darry came down the aisle and he went to the cake mixes. Charlotte hoped he didn't hear her heart beating as fast and loud as it was. She glanced his way and saw him debating if he should get a cake or not. Pony came around the corner with the cart and glanced her way. They nodded and she quickly looked back at the cookie ingredients that were in front of her.

"Pony, do we really-," he stopped to glance at the girl and shrugged, "-need more cake?"

"You okay Dar?" Pony kindly asked his older brother.

"Yeah, I think that's Charlotte, or I could be seeing things because I miss her," Darry replied. Charlotte felt her heart skip a beat when he said that. Pony just nodded, grabbed two boxes of chocolate cake mix and two cans of frosting and put them in the cart. "Two?" Pony just nodded and Darry chuckled.

"Lets get some chocolate chips to go in one of the cakes and on top," Pony suggested and Darry nodded. Charlotte moved over so he could get to them and they looked at each other at the same time.

"Charlotte?" Darry asked practically in a whisper.

She nodded and smiled. "Yeah?" she replied

"How?" he started, "When did you get back?"

"Just about three hours ago," she replied with a smile.

"Where do you live, with your parents or no?" he asked.

"No, I live here," she told him as she got a pen out and wrote her address down on a piece of paper for him.

"I think you live across the street from me," he told her and they smiled.

"I might," she responded as she grabbed two bags of chocolate chips and stuck them in her cart, "Well, I got just about everything I need."

"Okay, you could follow us home and we could help you unload your truck if needed and what's the last thing you need?" He asked.

"Just pizza ingredients," she told him and saw a smile grow on his face.

"Well, we're done shopping so we'll help you, won't we Ponyboy?" Darry asked Pony.

"Yeah, we can," Pony said with a yawn.

The three of them walked around, looking for the rest of the stuff Charlotte needed.

"Did you have fun in college?" Darry questioned as they got to the meats section.

"I only went for a month," she admitted.

"Really?" He asked, and she nodded. "Why?"

"College didn't seem to be for me, so I saved the college money my parents saved for me, I added to it then came home," she responded with a grin.

"Nice," was all he replied, "one or two packs of sausage?"

"Two, please," she responded and he grabbed them for her. They went and got the rest of the stuff she needed or wanted to pick up. They went to the cashier, and he paid for his stuff then Charlotte paid for all hers. They went to their trucks and realized they were parked next to each other. Pony and Darry helped her load her truck up then she helped them.

"Well, I'll follow you to your house, since I am pretty sure you do live across from me," Darry called and she smiled.

"Sounds good Dar," she called as she got into her truck and lead the way.