AN: Ah, I am so excited for this story, guys. I am not a big fan of Twilight, but I have read the series, and I couldn't help but see parallels between the Quileutes and our favorite gang, so voila! A story to explore that. Review if you want, but I would love to hear from you and your ideas about the story. I respond to your reviews!

With love,

Dagmaris

WayMayLay

Chapter 1

It had been a hard three months for the Curtis boys since their parents passed. A real hard three months. They had all had to adapt to a gaping hole in their lives that had once been filled with love, but it finally felt as though they might be doing it. They might be able to make it.

Sure, Darry and Ponyboy still fought and Soda had dropped out of school. And there was the occasional leak in the roof that they didn't have the money to fix, or they had the same leftovers every night for a week, but all things considered, they were doing pretty fine.

Darry had a decent job with the roofing, and Sodapop got to contribute some with his job at the DX. Pony's grades hadn't been so hot that first month and a half after it all happened, but midway through the second month he started to apply himself more; nothing was perfect, but they were trying. They were ok.

For the time…

XXXXXXXXX

"Pony! Pony, you gotta wake up, you got school!", an obnoxiously loud Sodapop Curtis yelled to the mass of blankets that contained his slumbering brother. He grinned when all he got was a sleepy groan in response.

"Geez, Soda, its early," Pony grumbled.

"You wish. It's 6:30, so you got half an hour to get ready and get there," Soda said as he shoveled a fork full of chocolate cake into his mouth. Pony made another noncommittal noise in response to that and Soda decided his little brother needed a little more motivation to get out of bed this morning.

He put the cake on the bedside table and snuck to the other side of the room. He leaned down as if to whisper something in Pony's ear and then yelled, "PONYBOY!"

Pony jerked awake only to be attacked by wriggling fingers at his side as he fell into helpless laughter.

"Holler uncle!," Soda declared, fingers never ceasing.

"Never," Pony wheezed as he tried in vain to bat away the torturous fingers digging mercilessly into his ribs.

"So be it," Soda said and continued the relentless tickling. Ponyboy laughed helplessly hard.

From the kitchen, Darry sighed at his brothers' antics. He knew he'd have to break them up soon due to the single lamp in that room being in danger of being broken, but he would like to finish his coffee first.

The front door slammed open and Darry jumped, spilling coffee on his newspaper and one clean shirt.

"Hi howdy Curtises!," Two-Bit's cheerful voice chimed as he made his way to the fridge. Darry fumed.

"Jesus, Two-Bit, don't you know how to open a damn door, or, I don't know, knock?," Darry seethed as he shook his paper off and made his way to find a not-so-dirty shirt. Two-Bit looked confused for a moment until he saw the mess he had inadvertently made and he chuckled.

"Well gosh, Darry, it's not my fault you didn't know the coffee was supposed to go in the cup," Two-Bit said amused as he served himself some chocolate cake and grabbed a beer.

Darry walked back into the kitchen as he pulled on another shirt. He gave another glare before he took the beer away from Two-Bit and put it back in fridge. Two-Bit grumbled a bit, but didn't protest.

Darry headed towards his brothers' room to get them moving faster.

"Pony, Soda, you're both gonna be late," he said sternly. There was once a time when Darry would have gone back there to join in on their rough housing, but those days were done. He had to be responsible; parental. It still hurt when he saw Soda's sad, but understand gaze, and even worse when it was paired with Pony's disappointed one. These days, all Darry seemed to do was disappoint Pony.

Soda jumped up good naturedly, though, as he grabbed his cake, and even Pony rolled out of bed with a grumble.

"Ah, Pone, it ain't so bad. One more week and you're out for a whole three months for summer. Then you can sleep 'til noon everyday if you wanna," Soda said as he ruffled Pony's hair. Darry chuckled.

"We'll see about that, little buddy," he said as he walked back into the kitchen to get his tools, but Pony was still smiling at the thought.

"Now Pony, I want you home for dinner, and Soda, you make sure I know if you're going out, you hear?," Darry called out as he tucked in his shirt and buckled his belt. He grabbed his tools and made his way toward the door, having to step around an engrossed Two-Bit who was watching Mickey from the floor.

"Yeah, ok Dare," Soda called back as he searched for his other shoe. Pony didn't answer from his place in the bathroom. He was seeing red.

'Who does Darry think he is, telling me to be home for dinner on a Friday night, huh? Johnny and I were going to see a movie until he went and ruined it. He lets Soda go out, just fine, but I can't? He's probably going to make me do homework or something stupid like that. Well he can forget it. I have plans tonight and I'm not cancelling them this close to summer and if Darry don't like it, then he can go straight to hel-'

"Pony?," Soda called softly from the doorway. Pony jumped, his thoughts ceasing and his heart racing. He met Soda's wide eyes in the bathroom mirror.

"Yeah?," Pony answered, only the slightest bit shaky. Soda swallowed.

"You, ok, buddy?," he asked, still soft. Pony was confused for a moment before he met his own gaze in the mirror.

His gray (green) eyes were glazed over and his face was flushed. He had a death grip on his tooth brush and his other hand gripped the door facing. He gulped before he loosened his grip on everything and turned around.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Darry just makes me mad sometimes, is all," Pony responded, and it was the truth…partially.

"Shoot Pone, I've seen ya angry before, but that…that was something else," Soda said unnerved, his eyes fixated on the door frame. Pony looked, too, to see what he was staring at. Barely noticeable, but still there, indentations were pressed into the frame in the exact place Pony's hand had been moments ago. Glory, he hadn't been that angry had he?

Soda looked like he wanted to say more, but the front door opened before he could.

"Stevie and Johnnycakes, just the hoods I've been waiting for!," Two-Bit called out joyfully. Soda rolled his eyes and went into the living room, probably to greet Steve and Johnny. Pony breathed out in relief.

He splashed some water on his face, hoping it would cool him off. He needed to cool off. He couldn't keep this up for much longer.

About a month ago, Pony had started to feel real strange. It didn't start out as much. A few headaches and a slight fever, but nothing major. Then, it started to get worse. Sometimes, his skin felt so hot he thought he could crack an egg on himself and fry it. Other times, he felt tremors start at the base of his spine and shake his very core, making him feel as though he would burst right out of his skin if they didn't stop.

The worst part, though, was the anger.

Ponyboy didn't have a temper, not like Dallas Winston or Tim Shepard did, but they were real hoods. Sure, Pony got annoyed, frustrated even, but it was real hard to make him angry. Johnny's parents were real good at it, and sometimes Darry, but over the past month he had felt rage like he had never felt before. It was over small stuff, too, like one of the guys drinking the last drop of milk or dropping one of his books mid sentence; stuff that shouldn't matter, but all of a sudden made Pony seethe. It scared him pretty bad.

Today was the first time someone from the gang had seen it, and Pony wanted to make sure it was the last. He needed to pull himself together. The last thing he wanted to do was worry his brothers over something stupid, like teenage hormones.

"Ponyboy, you coming or what?," Two-Bit called from the living room. Pony took one last look in the mirror and deemed himself normal enough to show himself.

"Yeah, I'm coming," he said as he grabbed his books off of the kitchen table. He greeted Johnny and grunted at Steve. Soda was there, so he had to show some recognition to the guy he sometimes couldn't stand.

"Then what are we waiting on? Let's go, kid," Steve snapped as clapped Soda on the shoulder and he made his way out the door. Pony was regretting even acknowledging his presence.

Johnny and Two-Bit walked out, leaving Pony to go last.

"Pony?," Soda called after him. Pony cursed in his head and turned.

"Yeah?"

Soda looked troubled for a moment before he shook it off and smiled.

"We'll try and talk Darry into letting you go out tonight, alright?"

Pony felt relief wash through him and he grinned at his older brother.

"Alright." He turned and walked out the door in a much better mood than he thought he would.

He missed Sodapop's worried frown when the door shut, just as he missed the eyes that had been watching him from the back gates of his home.