CHAPTER ONE
DYING IN 2013, A NEW LIFE IN 1965
" We've got another one, Joe.. Gimme the flashlight?" the EMT said quietly as he grabbed the flashlight from his trainee, Joe, and aimed it into the interior of the overturned Mustang. He sighed as he leaned in, felt the 17 year old girls neck. No pulse, nothing. "This girls dead on the scene. I'll try and get her ID out, see if maybe we know her folks."
The burst vodka bottle lie in the floorboard and he groaned, muttered a few silent swears to himself as he pried the girl free from the overturned Mustang. Turning to the remaining teenagers, he asked, "You all drank tonight after that big dance at the high school, huh?"
None of them dared look up at him, all of them were sickened, stunned silent by what'd just happened, that they might have just killed their best friend Audrey. Audrey was probably the only one of them who didn't deserve to die, because she hadn't touched a drop of the vodka that Brooke stole from her mother's alcohol cabinet before heading out to the "Rock Around The Clock" 50's themed Homecoming Dance.
Roy, the EMT on the scene, studied the teenagers grimly, as he sighed, shook his head at the black bag lying on the gurney. The girl lying in that bag had been a relatively good kid, despite the house she'd grown up in, just 2 doors down from his own. Her father was the town drunk, her mother didn't care about anything that wouldn't benefit her later.
He took out his cell phone and made a call to the station, asking an officer to drive over, tell her parents what happened and then hanging up, he turned his attention back to the scene, to the rest of the teenagers. Maybe tonight taught them a valuable, maybe not.. But his concern for the moment was getting them all to the hospital, getting them looked over. "C'mon. Nothin left to see here, get in the ambulance." he spoke gruffly, as he herded the reluctant group into the back of the ambulance, then loaded her body carefully.
The group of 3 teenage girls who'd just finished watched the medics zipping their best friend into the black bag, and all of them felt sick, upset, dead inside. What none of them realized however, was that right now, something very odd was starting, and Audrey, well.. She was right in the middle of it.
And that's where this story really begins, I suppose.. A death in 2013 that to most in the outside world was a rather insignificant albeit sad one.. Either way, this one small ripple was the start of something so much bigger, something with a much happier, far better ending than any of them could have ever imagined for their best friend.
"I'll miss her."
"Me too.. And it was all our fault."
"We're all going to be in serious shit." another of the girls said grimly before adding, "But we totally deserve it. I mean if we hadn't all gotten in the car and driven home.. She begged us to call my brother or someone, ride home with somebody back at school.. We should have listened." quietly, the girls still all very much in shock..
x.X.x
Audrey sat up, gasping for breath as the sunlight filtered into the room she found herself in. At first glance, everything seemed normal, nothing seemed suspect, except of course, almost all of her pictures were gone from the robins egg blue walls of her bedroom, leaving them mostly barren and pristine. Stretching she rubbed her hand through her long dark hair and murmured, "Wow, that was one hell of a nightmare."
"It wasn't a nightmare." a voice spoke from behind her. She stopped in her tracks as all of the events that'd happened in her supposed sleep from the night before, from the accident, to her death as an end result came flashing back in painful waves. "W-who are you?"
"You can call me the Time Keeper, Audrey. And what happened last night was very much real.. But it was the only way to right a wrong and prevent something far worse from happening to you further down the line."
"W-why me?"
"Because, Audrey, you're a good person with good intentions. You didn't deserve the life and ultimate death you had dealt to you, you would have deserved the alternate fate that awaited you, had we not acted, and you'd lived, even less... Every now and then, we pick a deserving soul and try similar with them, the results often go better than expected. But perhaps I should explain what's going to happen and let you decide.. We've sent you back in time to a decade we fell confident you would have chosen, could you have made the choice. And there's something else, Audrey.. There is someone in this time.. You'll feel a pull towards him.. Do not fight this pull. He needs you, a great deal more than he'd ever admit to anyone."
"Whoa, wait.. How far back did you send me? And what do you mean? I mean is he like, my soulmate or something?"
"Why, 1965, of course.. Isn't that the year you were last thinking you'd rather live in? As for your other question, Audrey, he just might be.. You'll figure things out as they happen.."
She racked her brain, trying to remember when she'd last thought that, and then she remembered.. When the group of them were discussing, in history class, one of several local 'historical' hauntings.. Since it was October, and Halloween had been fast approaching. The teacher had been showing them local haunted spots, explaining the history behind them.. And during one of those incidents, they'd went to an old and run down liquor store/gas station on the wrong side of town.. He'd explained how the novel "The Outsiders" was based on a true story, how in the very spot he'd stood, Dallas Winston was gunned down after committing a robbery shortly after the loss of his best friend, Johnny Cade, rumored to be so that the cops would kill him.
She remembered bits of their little 'local haunted spots' tour, and remembered that she'd felt this strong and unexplainable pull towards several places they'd stopped at.
"This thing you've done, Time Keeper.. It can't be reversed, can it?"
"I'm afraid not, Audrey.. But if you saw what lie ahead of you in a few years, had you lived last night, I highly doubt you'd want it to reverse."
"What do I do, sir? I mean I'm kind of going to stick out.. Aren't I?"
The Time Keeper shook his head and faded from view, leaving her alone in her bedroom, where moments later, she sat up in bed and when she tried, she could only remember the talk wtih the odd old man as a dream, the history lesson and tour, but beyond that, she remembered almost nothing about the year 2013. She did however remember brothers.. 3 of them.. And that her name was Audrey Curtis and she was 16. Beyond that, nothing, she was a blank slate with knowledge that might just save lives..
Odd, but hey, she wasn't questioning it, because this trumped 2013 in that she didn't have to watch her parents argue violently, or feel the pain when her father smacked her or her mother around.
Down the stairs, in the small living room, Elvis Presley played at a medium level volume and she heard the sounds of movement in the kitchen. Curious, she stretched, then walked to her closet, opening it, finding several outfits from the time period she found herself in, and a look at her pale white wooden vanity table showed a picture of herself, in a cheerleading uniform..
"What the hell?" she muttered to herself as she walked down the stairs, found the house full of well, males.. that she instantly managed to remember were her brothers and their three best friends Two Bit, Steve and Johnny. She blinked as she found herself wondering how she even remembered all of this, how any of this was even remotely possible.
What the hell had the Time Keeper done?
"Audrey? You finally wake up? Soda was starting to wonder if he was gonna have to come up and blast you outta bed." Pony Curtis spoke to the youngest, his baby sister, Audrey who was 16.
"That I did, sis.. You alright? Sounded like you were having one hell of a nightmare last night, girl." Soda asked as the quiet and shy baby sister he doted on slid into a chair and shrugged then speared a piece of bacon with her fork as she finally answered, "I was. I hope I never have a nightmare like that again, Sodapop."
As she spoke the words, she blinked in disbelief.. Then it hit her.. She couldn't remember anything suddenly, from 2013.. But she clearly remembered the guys in the room surrounding her, and what she'd done in this time,the night before.. They'd had a dance at the school, apparently she'd went with some friends, and apparently, after, she'd went to the Dingo, where she sat staring like an ass at a much older, much more dangerous Dallas Winston. A boy that apparently, her older brother Darry frequently warned her away from.
Her stomach tightened as she realized that thanks to the few things she DID remember about 2013 (the history lesson, for some reason that was the only thing that stuck with her, everything else she tried to recall was like a literal blank canvas, sadly) indicated that if she didn't do something, she'd be losing two very dear friends and she'd nearly lose a brother.
Today was Friday.
The realization had her choking on bacon as Darry rushed to give her the Heimlich.. Didn't help matters much that of course, Dallas chose this moment to burst in, then snicker at her a little, while also sort of staring at her covertly, the cigarette behind his ear, the pack of them rolled up in the sleeve of his customary black fitted t shirt.
"You alright, kid?" Dallas asked, raising a brow, studying the very off limits, but very alluring to him baby sister of his best friends.
"She's fine, Dallas.. ya know how she gets about bacon." Soda said as Darry gave his friend a slightly warning glare and then said "Are you sure you're feelin okay, sis?"
"Yes, Darry, damn it. I'm fine, really."
"You feel a little warm, princess." Dally said as he reached out, held his hand to her forehead and wrinkled his brow, blatantly ignoring the warning looks that both Darry AND Soda currently gave him. He felt that she was a baby sister to him too.. These other feelings that'd been creeping in for her lately, well..
He'd have to do his damndest to ignore them.
Because he'd seen how worked up Darry got over Two Bit's flirting habits where baby sister were concerned.
Johnny eyed Audrey quietly, watching her.. Something seemed off about her today, he couldn't quite put his finger on it, but whatever it was had him nudging Pony and whispering, "Maybe we should walk 'er to school, ya know? I mean she's a girl.."
"Those damn Socs tried to corner her up a few nights back. You got a point, Johnny.. Maybe we should walk her to school." Pony muttered as he and Johnny stood and said casaully, "We're off."
"Straight home after.. All three of ya. I mean it, Pony, none of those damn detours you like takin.. You can watch the sunset AFTER you've done your homework, kid." Darry said as he looked at his other brother, Soda, then at Two Bit, Steve and Dally, then asked, "It just me, or did you notice somethin off about Audrey just now?"
"Yeah, I did.. She's a girl, Darry, maybe she's just upset over a boy." Soda said as Darry grumbled and Dally muttered to himself, "And I'll find 'im and kick his head in." before standing and saying, "Gonna go man. We're on for pool later though.. Right?"
"Yeah."
He turned and walked out of the Curtis house, then despite everything in him, he got into his car, drove until he spotted them walking towards the high school.
"Get in you three." he said as Pony and Johnny jumped in, Audrey bit her lower lip, staring at him a moment, remembering various warnings that she'd apparently gotten about Dallas..
But she finally smiled, hopped gracefully over the side of his car and down into the back seat with her brother and Johnny.
All during the ride to school, the Time Keeper's words from that crazy "dream" she'd had kept ringing in her ears.. She knew what was going to happen tonight, and what would ultimately happen as a result.. But could she stop it ? Or even change the outcome just a little?
Somehow, she got the distinct feeling that the Time Keeper had been referring to Dallas as her "person of interest" and somehow she knew, she was damn sure going to TRY to stop things from happening, or at the very least, slightly skewering the outcome in their favor.
Above anything else, she knew that she had to find some way to keep at least some of what happened from happening. The question was.. Just how was she going to do this, exactly?
{Authors Note: Okay, so for anyone who's ever read the Outsiders, or at least seen the 1980s movie version, and thought there had to be some way to change the tragically sad ending that tainted perhaps a very profound and awesome book, here ya go.
This has a bit of sci fi to it, because yeah, I just felt like being complicated and it makes things more interesting. Sorry for the shitty beginning, I chose that direction because I thought it'd make for a much simpler and smoother transition from 2013 to 1965, to be honest. If you don't like time travel or sci fi plots, sorry.. Apologies in advance for any slight OOC moments, and grammar, all that. Don't leave me lists of improvements to be made, please? I'm pretty sure I can figure things out.
REVIEWS ARE LOVED! BUT NO FLAMES, CRITIQUES OR SUGGESTIONS. JUST POSTING THIS BECAUSE THE MUSE HIT ME AND I WANTED TO SHARE. NOT TRYING TO BETTER MYSELF AS A WRITER.
It's going to be romantic, sort of angsty, definitely funny and it might have a slight hint of sexiness in some areas in the future chapters, events from the book will be written differently, to an extent, I have a better ending in mind if you all will bear with me.
The story is through the eyes of my original character, the youngest of the Curtis family, (at least she is in 1965) named Audrey and the lengths she goes to to at least ATTEMPT tragedy from happening. Her romantic pairing will ultimately be Dallas Winston, because damn it, Matt Dillon, that's why. And no, I will NOT be changing that, either so sorry to all you Cherry x Dally shippers. I much rather see her with either Soda or Johnny, tbh.
Again, review if you want me to at least see where my crazy muse takes me with it, please?