Red and White Roses by S.M. Scott A/N: I do not own the Outsiders. I own only Tania, her family, Snake Wesley, Samson Clarke, and any other characters I made up.
Chapter One
Mother
(Tania's P.O.V)
I was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and my name is Tania Lightstone. For as long as I can remember, it has been just me and my mom. Of course, I had my friends growing up, and I had always loved my mother, but I still often wondered about my dad. He and mom had gotten divorced before I was born, as my mom told me. It looked for a while as though my mother was unable to have any children at all. By the time I came along, Dad was long gone back to the United States.
Mom and I had meanwhile stayed in Canada.
We were never what you would call dirt-poor, but we were not rich like Dad was, either. But we managed to be perfectly fine middle-class. Mom was also able to afford my braces. I will never forget that day the dentist informed us that I was headed for braces. I freaked out because not only did I worry that it would hurt to have them, but I was so certain I'd be even uglier with them on. Kids at school would be calling me "Metal Mouth, Train Tracks." Or, they'd simply call me what they already did. Ugly Tania. I still wish I didn't freak out, though. That was embarassing.
But what was even worse was that sometimes, I got the feeling that my own mother just didn't understand me. She didn't understand that I was obviously no longer that little girl she used to walk to the school bus stop in kindergarten. She didn't understand why I would want to stay out with my friends any later than 10:00 on weekend nights. To my Mom, it was a pretty reasonable and lenient curfew for a twelve-year-old-going-on-thirteen. She gave me chores, which I always did, but usually, she'd find something to nag at me about, so I had to keep working at it when I could have been hanging out with my friends.
Mom didn't allow me to wear any makeup, either, not even nail polish. I didn't really ever want to bother wearing much makeup on my face, anyway. But I thought the ban on nail polish was stretching it just a little too far. I should always have been getting A's or at least B's as grades. This wasn't so bad either, because I was good at a lot of subjects. I enjoyed English, history, and art. Art was pretty damn difficult to fail in anyway unless you sat and did nothing. Gym was cool, so was music, and I didn't mind geography, either. The subjects I always fell short in though, in Mom's opinion were sewing, which I think is boring, science, and worse still, math.
But anyway, I was mad at my mother this time, really mad. It was all because a few nights ago, I ended up getting home later from my friend's house later than I really meant to. It was almost 11:30 at night when I had finally came home. I didn't mean to be late, it just got late before I even knew it. Kayla and Sarah were also at Melanie's and we listened to Leslie Gore, made root beer floats and pigged out on the candy Melanie always had at her house. I had also decided, showing a little nerve that I was going to get my ears pierced with an ice cube and a sterilized pin. Mom said I wasn't allowed to get my ears pierced until I was at least fourteen, but I did it anyway.
I stayed so long at Melanie's, that as soon as I came home and walked through the door, my mom was waiting for me in her nightgown with a frown on her face. "Had fun, didn't you?" I looked just once over at the clock and knew it. I was so totally busted. "You are unbelievable. I didn't even know where you were. Did you care? No, you didn't. I thought you might have been kidnapped or murdered in a ditch. I was going to call the police. You didn't even bother calling home. Did you care? No, you did not! I am very, very dissappointed in you, Tania."
"I'm sorry, Mom, I didn't mean to be late. I was just at Melanie's having a girls' party. I didn't know it was getting so late, either." But Mom wasn't hearing it. "Sorry isn't going to cut it with me, young lady. What does a parent have to do? Sometimes, I think you deliberately don't bother listening. No responsibility, no common sense, and always making excuses!" My mother stopped her lecture. I was wearing the hood of my red jacket on top of my head.
"Why are you wearing a hood indoors?" Mom had to ask. Before I could even protest with, "Mom, it just gets a little cold here in the spring..." Mom pulled my hood down. She saw the earrings. "You sneaky little devil. You defied me by getting your ears pierced!" I didn't see what the big deal was, since the earrings I was given to begin with were so small and hardly flashy. Not flashy at all. "I'm almost thirteen Mom. I am not a two-year-old! I could get my ears pierced if I wanted to!"
"You are grounded for a week, Tania. No going anywhere except for school, no friends over, nothing. You'll sit at the table each evening of this week and do your homework under my supervision. Now remove those earrings this very instant."
"No Mom, I won't. I WON'T!" and I ran to my room and slammed the door, wishing it were only me just once. The thing is sometimes, you don't learn to appreciate certain things until it's too late, and you realise it was a mistake to take such a thing for granted.