My life is a living hell.

Everything has completely fallen apart. In the course of a year, my parents are killed in a car accident, my two best friends die right in front of me, I nearly go to jail for murder, and I'm about to be a sophomore in high school. And, to top it all off, the girl I like doesn't want people to know she's friends with me. Why?

I'm a Greaser; she's a Soc. Simple as that.

But nowadays, things have gotten a bit better. Darry and I get along a lot more now, and Steve has kinda laid off on pestering me. But every Soc in my school absolutely hates me. At least Two-Bit was always there to entertain me during school. Can't ask for a better friend than that. But this year, he finally dropped out after repeating senior year three times. Great. I'm probably the only greaser now in school. That's just swell.

Now I have to face high school by myself. No Two-Bit, no Soda, no one.

High school's gonna be interesting.

"Mr. Curtis?"

I stopped looking out the window of my first period Geometry class with Ms. Sherman. She was probably my most favorite teacher besides Mr. Winter, my English teacher.

"Yes?" I said distractedly.

"Can you answer this question?" I looked up at the board at the question. As I looked at it, I could already feel a headache beginning to grow. Yeah, Math is definitely not my strongest suit. That is definitely true about me. I could feel my palms getting kinda clammy. That usually happened when I got nervous. This was not going to end well.

"Ponyboy?" Ms. Sherman looked at me patiently. She knew Math was my worst subject, but she always tried to help me stay focused in class. "Can you answer this?" I opened my mouth to speak.

Suddenly, the door flew open.

Everyone turned their heads to the door. I could've sworn I felt my heart jump the moment I saw her. Boy, was she beautiful. She had long, curly, dark brown hair down to her waist, cherry red lips, tanned skin, freckles across her nose, and rosy cheeks. I couldn't really tell the color of her eyes since I was on the other side of the classroom.

The girl was wearing a light brown dress that came down to her knees, a blue denim jacket, and a pair of brown cowboy boots.

A country girl.

"I'm so sorry I'm late!" the beautiful girl babbled to Ms. Sherman with the sweetest Southern accent I had ever heard. "I got lost, and I tried asking an upper class-man for help, but he told me to go to another class and it was the wrong one, and—"

"Slow down and take a breath, sweetie," Ms. Sherman advised the new girl calmly. The girl took a deep breath before fully calming down. "Can you tell me your name?"

"Abigail," the girl said. "Abigail Blackburn. But everyone calls me Abby."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Abby. And welcome to Walker Ridge County High. Class, say hi to Abby Blackburn." The rest of the class looked up at her. I saw some of the other guys staring at her like she was Marilyn Monroe. But I can tell you this much: Abby Blackburn was so much prettier than Marilyn Monroe. That was a fact.

I looked back at Abby. She smiled the most beautiful smile I had ever seen. Suddenly, Abby caught me staring at her. I quickly looked down and opened my closed textbook.

"Why don't you go and sit next to Mr. Curtis over there?" Ms. Sherman suggested. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Abby nod and walk over to the desk next to mine. I kept my head down and acted like I wasn't paying attention. As Abby sat down, I could feel my heartbeat begin to quicken. Why was I acting like this? She was just a girl.

A beautiful, new, country girl.

Abby looked over at me and flashed a small smile. I slowly lifted my head and looked at her. Once I saw her eyes, I was mesmerized. They were the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen. Even though they were green, they had some type of mysteriousness to them. It actually kind of fascinated me.

"Hi," I heard her sweet voice say, entering my head. I blinked for a second and focused on her talking to me. She still had a small smile on her beautiful, flawless face. I grinned back.

"Hi," I answered back. I held out my hand. Here goes nothing.

"I'm Ponyboy." I was waiting for we to start making fun of me, but, instead, Abby grinned even wider. She gently took my hand and shook it.

"I like that name," Abby told me. "It's different. And I like different." I think I blushed a little bit at what she said. Some people have told me it's different or original. But never that they like it. The only person who has told me they liked my name was Cherry Valance. And that was about six months ago.

"Thank you" was all I could say.

"You're welcome," Abby said back. She let go of my hand and went back to looking at her new Geometry textbook. I could feel a rush of cold wash over me, making me shiver a little. I shrugged it off and went to paying attention to Ms. Sherman and to her class. But out of the corner of my eye, I saw Abby pull something small out of her bag. As she got it out, I could feel a stupid grin spread across my face.

It was a book.

Abby opened the book and began reading on top of the textbook. I decided to make conversation with Abby. If she read books a lot, we'd definitely get along just fine.

"What you reading?" I asked Abby quietly. Her purple-outlined brown eyes looked up at me. She lifted the book and showed me the cover. It was a hardback book with what seemed to be a bird engraved on the front.

"To Kill a Mockingbird," she whispered to me. I tilted my head a little. I had always heard that book was very good, but I never got to read it.

"What's it about?" I asked her in a low voice.

"Well, it's about this black man who gets accused of rape by a white woman, and—"

She sure had a sweet voice. I had never heard a girl with that sweet and innocent of a voice. I just rested my head on my left hand, listening to her talk.

Apparently, Abby's mom was a librarian, so she grew up reading books as a kid. As we continued talking, I noticed some of the Soc guys giving me glares. I rolled my eyes and kept talking to Abby, ignoring everything and everyone else around me. Abby was my focus at the moment.

After twenty minutes, the bell rang, signaling it was the end of class. I got my math textbook and Creative Writing composition notebook and began walking out of the classroom. I looked back at Abby, who was struggling to get all of her books. I decided to be nice to her and walked over to her. Just when I got over there, her book had fallen from her stack of books, binders, and notebooks. I caught it just in time before it hit the ground. Abby smiled that beautiful smile again.

"Thanks, Ponyboy," she told me. She was about to grab the book, but I grabbed about half of her books just before they all fell from her hands. The books weren't that heavy, so, I carried them out the door. Abby was right behind me. I grabbed the classroom door and held it open for her.

"Thank you," she mumbled. I smiled.

"No problem."

I walked down the hall next to her. She was fast for such a tiny person. I didn't realize how small she really was until she and I stood up at the same time. I was about five-feet-six now, and she was probably a few inches shorter than me. She might've been about five-feet-one or two. But that's just a guess.

"So," I said, trying to talk to her, "what's your next class?" Abby looked up at me with a certain sparkle in her eyes.

"I have Creative Writing next," she replied. I could feel myself getting happier and happier with everything she said.

"I do too!" I exclaimed. Her jaw dropped.

"Really?"

"Yep!"

"Well, then you can show me where to go because I have no clue as to where I'm going!" I laughed.

"Then allow me to show you where to go."

"Sounds swell to me."

A/N: So… I hope y'all liked it! It took me awhile to write this, considering I have four other stories I'm writing (one is already published on FanFiction; the others are on Justin Bieber FanFiction). That, and I have school. :P

THIS IS A REDO OF CHAPTER ONE!

The first chapter had so many mistakes, it was unbelievable. I need to thank JCX for pointing out my mistakes on the story. I bet the chapter sounded stupid. Thanks for the criticism. I really needed it! Thank you!(:

Please review! It would mean a lot!(:

Much love!

Jenna(: