Disclaimer: The Outsiders do not belong to me, I know it's very sad, but what can I do lol. Kara and her friends/cousins do belong to me so if you don't mind keep off lol.
Moving house
Kara's point of view
I really didn't want to be doing this, but mom and dad couldn't, so it left me and Darryl, my cousins and friends would be coming later (Typical, leave the hard work for us) to move my parents stuff and the rest of the stuff the last generations of Curtis had used while occupying the small house I had once called home, it was shame, they were knocking down all the houses this side of the train track, what had the council said 'It is time to sort this city out, clean our streets and sort our rising problem with street gangs' that was a joke in it's self, the governing body are all Soc, and it was just their way of getting back the poor working class or to them 'Greasers' we had always been Greasers and them Soc's, even when my mom and papa were my age. Nothing has really changed in the last 25 years of my life, the Soc's stayed on there side pretty much and the Greasers to there's, yer there was a few rumbles nothing too big, nothing like the ones my Aunt Tia would tell us when she and my Uncle Pony looked after Darryl and me when mom and papa wanted to go out, in most cases we were all left with our neighbours and by 'we were all' I mean all my mom and dads friends kids and my cousins. There is 11 of us in all, I have four cousins, one annoying elder brother, and then not forgetting the other 6 who I class as family, there as near as anyway.
So today, my mom and dad were moving into their new home, it's a bigger house than the original Curtis house and I know that it upsets my papa and uncles that its being knocked down, they lived here with their parents and it was the only long standing reminder of them other than there graves. I really wish I could have met them, from what Uncle Pony and Uncle Soda say there were the best parents ever, Uncle Pony says that papa acts like my Grandma, looking after everyone, but he looks just like Grandpa. He also said that Uncle Soda is like Grandpa in the way he acts, but he and Uncle Soda look a lot like grandma with their honey coloured hair. Uncle Soda says that Uncle Pony acts like both my grandparents, a good thing my Papa says.
'Kara, stop daydreaming and come and help me with this' My brother Darryl's voice came from the other side of the room, I lifted my head up to see him trying to lift the dinning table through the small front door.
I laughed at the sight, he face was red with the effort he was excurting while trying to lift and turn the large table at the same time.
'Don't just laugh give me a hand, dumb-ass!' I frowned and was about to reply when his hands slipped and the table fell down and hit his foot, ouch!
Releasing a string of cussing that would have made Aunt Tia and Uncle Dally blush.
'You okay?' I asked stupidly.
'Yer am fine, I like having tables dropped on my feet, it gives me a real thrill' my brother gritted back to me.
'Come on that's get the damn thing out side, we still gotta do the attic-room' I reminded him, he groaned but complied, we carried the table outside and happily let out a sigh of relief was it was put down on the grass in the bright sun light, who knew a table could be so heavy and so awkward to manoeuvre.
We walked back inside and decided to tackle the attic bedroom next, the room had been originally a normal attic, but was later turned into a bed room for my Papa when Uncle Pony was born, so papa had his own room, Uncle Soda had his and Uncle Pony had papa's old room and grandma and grandpa had theirs, until they died anyway, Papa then moved into their room, and Soda and Pony shared a room cos Uncle Pony had really bad nightmares.
'You really are like how papa says you know that?' Darryl's voice announced through my thoughts.
'Huh, what?' I mumbled
'You, y'all like Uncle Pony you always got your head in the clouds' he laughed.
'That's not a bad thing, look at Uncle Pony he's a very good writer' I replied.
'You wannabe a writer?' Darryl frowned.
'I don't know, I always wondered what it is like to write, but what would I write about?' I answered climbing up the attic stairs.
The room was small, but cosy, a single bed was against the wall and a small table next to it, the room had been empty since Aunt Tia moved out into Uncle Pony room and that didn't last long cos they moved out later on that year.
'Right well we should empty the closet first' I said as Darryl came up the stairs.
'What would be in there, Aunt Tia moved all her stuff'
'Would you rather try carrying the bed down them stairs' I said motioning backwards.
'Good idea' Darryl smiled looked at his foot.
I walked up to the closet and opened the door; it was nearly empty with a few boxes and some jackets that looked like Uncle Soda's. I pulled them off the hangers and past them back to Darryl who was stood behind me. Looking down I saw that the wall had a hole in it, just viewable was a small brown box, frowning I knelt down and pulled it out.
'What's that?' Darryl said
'Dunno, was in a hole in the wall' I said pointing, 'must be a hiding place, look the box covers the hole, maybe one of Aunt Tia's hiding place, one of many remember, she didn't tell us bout this one though'
'HELLO!' came a voice from below us.
'Nick' I laughed
Nick Matthews just like his dad, without the sideburns, has the same go-lucky attitude, always cracking jokes and messing around, his sister, Jenny though is just like their mom, she's serious and has hardly has time for joking while she's working, she's at college on a law degree, but she can party hard and drink till her alcohol veins have a small amount of blood, both of them can, that's Uncle Two-bits influence.
'We're up here!' Darryl shouted
'What you doing up here?' Nick's voice came from halfway up the stairs, his blond head popped up with a bright grin on it.
'The thing you said you'd help us with and did you by any chance sees the others on your way over?' I prayed he'd say yes.
'Yer he did, he all but dragged us over here' came Michael's voice.
Michael Cade, the quietest person I know since his father Uncle Johnny, he has dark hair and dark eyes that are just like Uncle Johnny's his hair is long and shadows his eyes, it's hard to tell what sort of mood he's in cause you can't see his eyes, Uncle Dally says that you can tell what a person is thinking from their eyes.
'Just you?' Darryl questioned
'The others are raiding the cupboards down stairs, have no idea why, snot like there's gunna be anything in there' Michael said after shaking his head.
The sounds of footsteps made the four of us look to the hole in the floor where the stairs were. Up came the rest of our gang, all 7 of them, I could feel the floor groan with the weight or what I thought was, no it was Nicks stomach, who patted it tenderly, I frowned.
'What's the face for?' Thomas said, Thomas Winston, the tallest out of all of us took after his papa for that, and his temper to was one to be careful of, kind of unpredictable, just like ol' Uncle Dally.
I shrugged, and looked them all over, all 11 of us in the same room we used to hang in before we went away to college, we all swore we'd be friends for ever, ha-ha! What a childish notion, a true one but a childish one. Darryl, me, Damian and Carrie (Uncle Sodapop and Aunt Lucinda's kids), Daniel and Morena (Uncle Pony and Aunt Tiadora's kids), Nick and Jenny (Uncle Two-Bit and Aunt Kathy's kids), Michael (Uncle Johnny and Aunt Samantha's son), Thomas (Uncle Dally and Aunt Katie's discipline case of a son, lol) and lastly Riley (Uncle Steve and Aunt Evie's Son).
Were all still friends and we all hang around with each other and party when we can just like before we all left, well some of us did, some of us went miles away to the other end of America to college (Me, Daniel and Jenny), some to the surrounding states (Carrie, Michael and Darryl) and others stayed here and went to the state college and have jobs here (Damian, Morena, Nick and Riley) or have been evading the prospect of a job and didn't got to college, but learnt all they needed to know on the streets (Thomas).
'Hey! Hello?' Thomas waved in my face; I swatted his hand away with my own and pulled a disgusted face.
'What?' I said blushing slightly. (Alright I'll admit I like him).
'She's been doing it all day' Darryl assumed.
'Well sorry I got a brain that hasn't been squished by many years of football, what you want me to do, get a frontal lobotomy and jump on huge sweaty boys all in the name of sport' I snarled.
'Whoa, easy Kara' Daniel breathed out.
The others looked wide eyed and Darryl looked pissed.
Opps 'Sorry Dar, didn't mean it' I apologised.
He shrugged 'No I mean it, you know I don't think like that' I hugged him.
'I gotta insult you more if that's what I could get as an apology' Nick suggested grinning.
'Fuck off man' Thomas said before I could say anything.
'Come on, before this turns into a brawl, lets get this place emptied' Michael squeaked trying as always to defuse the situation.
'Good call Mike' Jenny said heading for the stairs
'Wait, lets take a break, Kara and me, we's been here all morning shifting stuff waiting for you slackers to get over your hangovers and Kara found something of Aunt Tia's so it's bound to be good' Darryl laughed.
'You found something that belonged to mom?' Morena piped in.
I nodded showing her the box; I had placed on the bed when Nick had made his entrance.
'Has she ever said anything about it before?' Riley asked
'No, we don't actually know its Aunt Tia's, but it was found in a hole in the wall in the closet, very Aunt Tia like wunt ya'll say?' Darryl answered
'Yer, so what's in it? Carrie said walking forward to it.
'Maybe we should take it to Aunt Tia before we open it, what if it's something private?' Damien worried.
'When has that ever stopped us, and if it wasn't private then she would have remember to take it with her.' Thomas sarcastically said.
'When has it ever stopped you hood' Morena said under her breath.
'ALRIGHT! Stop before it gets outta hand again, god why'd we all drink so much last night if we knew we was gunna have to do this in the morning?' Daniel said putting his hand to his head.
'Cos it's the first time we seen each other in forever and Buck's nephew was having a party, so what else was we meant to do, sit in all night and drink tea' Thomas snorted
'Don't forget taking up knitting' Nick added.
'Knitting?' Morena laughed
'Why Knitting?' Jenny frowned at her brother
Nick laughed and shrugged, 'Seemed like something people that are inside do'
'Like Tom when he's in the cooler, say Tom how do you spend your time in the cooler, are you a knitting man or a painting man?' Riley sniggered.
Thomas lunged after him but was caught by Darryl 'Hey no fighting in side, you wanna fight take it out side Winston'
Shrugging out of Darryl's hold he glared at Riley and his mouth curled into a cruel grin that reminded the gang of a well known picture that hung in Tia and Pony's living room, One of the whole gang, and some other people they didn't know and right in the middle was Dally Winston with his arm around Johnny and Tia's shoulders with the same cruel grin. It proved that Thomas was defiantly Dally's son, defiant, rude and to Kara, down right hot.
'Come on princess lets go downstairs and we can open that box and see what's inside it' Nick said putting his arm round my neck and winked at the others.
'Sure thang sugar' I said sweetly as I could.
Picking up the box I walked to the stairs and let Nick walk down in front of me, the gang watched from behind. On the last step he stood on, I grinned, stepped forward I pushed him down the rest with my foot, down he went. Landing on the floor with a dull thud.
'Offh, what the yell?' he said sitting up.
'Princess?' Came Daniels voice.
'Dangerous of you, don't you think?' Riley's voice laughed
'Was only a joke Kar, dinny have to chuck me down the stairs did you' Nick protested his innocence.
'I know you dint mean it sugar' I replied icily. I hate being called princess.
We clambered down the stairs and then now the second flight of stairs which led to the ground floor, trust Aunt Tia to have the room at the top, we all knew why she had it, it's the easiest room in the house to get out of, all you gotta go is open the window climb out on to the drainpipe and shimmy down and then you've dun it, and getting back up is easy the drainpipe has things to hold onto at the back so you just climb back up.
Sitting down in a circle in the now empty living room, Nick was the first to remark.
'So we gunna play 'pass the parcel'? He sniggered.
Giving him a playful shove I laughed.
'He's gotta point lets get it open and see what Aunt Tia has been trying to hide' Riley growled impersonating the main man on a flick he has told me about. I still had no idea what he was on about.
I set the box down in front of me and lifted the lid, well I tried to. 'It's locked' I said in disappointment.
'What?' Damien said.
'Must be a key somewhere, I said looking around. Lifting the box up and looking at the ground beneath it, I then heard as muffled cough, looking up I saw Morena pointing at the bottom of the box. The key had been taped to the bottom of it.
'Why didn't I think of that?' Daniel said mockingly.
'Stop insulting ya mother, she kept you didn't she, if I had a kid as ugly as you I'd have thrown it in a river' Carrie joked
'Your mom always liked odd balls, she dint break the tradition with you did she' he retorted smirking his mothers smile.
'Well she looked after your mom dint she' Damien joined.
'He was talking about your dad not Aunt Tia' Nick said matter of factly.
'Nick, I think they know that' Jenny said shaking her head at her brother and tapped him round the head. He looked bewildered but then smiled, causing the on looking gang to burst out laughing save for Thomas who rolled his eyes and took another long drag of his newly lit cigarette. Looking him over, I sighed quietly, god he's perfect.
We got he box open it's full of photos of a girl I think is Aunt Tia and Aunt Luce's sister, we know she died long before we was born, but nothing else it's like the whole family won't say anything and then there's more photos of the gang, some of New York by the looks, I didn't know Aunt Tia had been to New York, strangely there were hospital bands as well, 4 of them, ones got Uncle Dally's name, another Uncle Johnny's and then the others belong to Delia and another name Maria, I don't know who she is, neither did the rest of the gang. We found poems written by Uncle Pony and Tia, and some of Aunt Luce's song lyrics, I think she and Aunt Tia wrote them but some are in Aunt Tia's hand writing only and lastly the piece de resistance …
…Aunt Tia's diary!
After a long debate we decided to read it.
Well, I hope you like that, I am nervous about posting my stories, I don't think am any good at it, the angle of this story it going to in a kind of diary format, there is no dates but it's all from Tia's point of view, so if you would like to review go ahead it would be nice to know what people think, just don't be too critical, I might cry.