Important Stuff: I don't own The Outsiders or the characters found in that book. I do own this plot, Maureen's family and friends, and my interpretation of this once nameless character. This story will only be posted under this pen name, either here or that other fanfiction site that I forgot the name of that's not quite as popular. If you see this anywhere else, under any other name, it has been plagiarized and I would appreciate you either reporting it or informing me.


Ambivalence

One

"I don't care! I want that place shut down, and who ever did this right on death row!"

"Mom, c'mon, not here-"

"And you! How could you let your sister even step foot near that place?"

"Brenda, honey, please calm down. This isn't his fault. We should let her rest and discuss this all at home."

"My baby's shot and you just want to discuss everything? I'm not leaving her alone here!"

"She'll be fine, don't worry. But you're disturbing everyone else here."

"I don't care-"

Silence. Maureen would have loved hearing her mother screaming again.

"Hey, Maureen. . . I don't know if you can hear me or not-"

She wanted to tell him that there was no reason she couldn't hear him, but she couldn't even get her mouth to move.

"But I'm real sorry. I let you down, lettin' you go off to the Dingo like that. . . I should have. . . . Anyway, you probably think I'm a pretty lousy brother huh?"

His hand was cold against hers.

"I'd imagine you're gonna be more popular than ever. You'll be drowning in flowers in no time.

xxxx

Kenneth watched his friend sit on the sidelines of the field as the rest of the team continued practicing.

"Hey man, watch it!"

Kenneth turned in time to barely catch the football hurtling towards him.

"C'mon, what's wrong with you? You almost got nailed by that thing."

"It's just James-"

"Oh yeah. . . he got nailed by the football twice today," Allen said off-handedly as he took the football from his hands.

"Not that!" Kenneth said as he shoved Allen, who stumbled. "You can't stand there an' say you didn't about what happened yesterday."

"Uh. . . alright, then I won't say anythin'."

"Oh you've gotta be kiddin' me, man," Kenneth groaned, shaking his head. Allen shoved him in return.

"Well tell me what happened then! You know I was grounded this weekend."

"You know his younger sister, right?"

"Maureen? Yeah, cute kid."

"Well, she went to the Dingo last night-"

"The Dingo? What the hell was she doin' there?" Allen asked with a frown.

"She's a middle, she can go where ever she wants. Anyway, some crap happened and next thing they know, someone's wavin' around a gun and Maureen gets shot."

Allen looked shocked for a moment, before he gave James a pitying look. "Man, that's a drag. . . how much do you bet it was some lousy greaser, huh?"

"You don't need to bet man, everyone already knows."

xxxx

James sat on the school bus, something that didn't happen often, and stared out the window as his fellow students chattered and laughed around him. The bus was cleanly divided; Socials and Middles in the front, Greasers in the back. He knew that somewhere back there, there were probably a few Middles, but they probably weren't there by choice.

The loudest area of the bus was the back because not only were the boys loud, but their girls were just as bad. However, because the "back" of the bus started about six seats down, the Socials and Middles were obviously outnumbered. It was probably one of the reasons that there was nothing worse than name calling going on.

It seemed to James however, that in between the taunting and laughing, his sister's accident was the one thing on everybody's lips. He glanced back at the Greasers. As a Middle, he usually had nothing against them. He knew a few that were pretty cool guys (or as Maureen might say, "groovy". James still wasn't sure where she had picked that up, he never used it).

So why, all of the sudden, did he feel a surge of anger when he looked at them? He had always been proud to know that he was a good person in the sense that he didn't judge people by their groups (and he could thank his parents for that).

But that seemed to be changing, whether James liked it or not.