Chapter One: Introduction

Notes: The first of the story starts out with nothing to do with the Outsiders, but soon enough they'll come in so stick with me. I'm a character writer so expect a lot of chapters that don't seem to have anything to do with the plot.

"Hey! Throw me a beer will ya?" someone screeched from the living room.

"No, I won't. They're disgusting," A girl's voice answered as she entered the room.

"Yeah, you should talk kid, you drink more than I do," the first voice replied. It was the voice of a boy, who was sitting on the couch. He couldn't have been more than 18 or 19 but he looked like he'd lived life to the fullest.

"Shut up. That's a lie," the girl answered. She wasn't so old herself, younger than the boy, 17 at the oldest. She was on the short side at around 5'4". While she wasn't gorgeous she was sort of pretty with bright, laughing blue eyes and dark brown hair with reddish highlights that cascaded over her shoulders in waves. Her eyes were rather haunting, giving her the look of someone who has been through too much in a tiny ammount of time. The boy however, was a real looker and looked happy and well taken care of. He wasn't tall either, around 5'8" but he had a very handsome face with a defined jaw line and cheekbones and deep, sparkling brown eyes. His hair was wavy too and jet black.

Their arguing was playful, anyone would be able to see they never really argued. Before their conversation could go any furthur the phone rang. The girl removed herself from the couch where she had just perched less than a minute before, and entered the kitchen where the phone hung on the wall near the fridge.

"Hello? Aubrey here," she said into the black telephone.

"Miss Holloway?" the man on the other end asked.

"Yep, may I ask who is calling?" she said, putting on her best show of manners, as she didn't recognize the voice.

"This is Sheriff Brewer…there is no easy way to say this..." he answered in a husky voice, "but your parents have been in a car accident."

"Are they OK?" Aubrey asked with a short catch in her voice. She kept herself under control though, after all she hadn't cried since she was 7 years old.

"They are in critical condition. If you want to see them before they die you should probably head on to the hospital now" he answered her. Aubrey's throat closed up, she couldn't talk and she dropped the phone and slid down the wall, sobs were wracking her body but no tears were coming out of her eyes. The boy's previously merry eyes were wide in worry as he rushed to the phone.

"Hello?" he asked. "What did you do to her?"

"Who is this?" Sheriff Brewer asked.

"Tom Delaney" the boy answered.

"It's Sheriff Brewer…Aubrey's parents are in critical condition at the hospital. Bring her down here" and with that he hung up. Tom stared at Aubrey in shocked horror for a moment before he lifted her up and helped her walk out to the car.

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Less than a month later Aubrey found herself on a train on the way to Tulsa, Oklahoma to live with her cousins. Her cousins were orphans as well, their parents had died less than five months before, ironically, in a car accident. She was happy to be going to see them, but not so much under the circumstances. The last time she'd seen them it had been for a funeral, their parents. The time before for her mother's divorce of her second step father (the one who'd just died was the third). She'd lived there when she was a child, however.

Aubrey's eyes were one of the telltale signs that her life hadn't been happy. Other signs were her scars. She had scars all over her body, but mostly on her arms and legs from where she'd been beaten badly. Those scars were from her first stepfather who used her as a punching bag. They'd lived in Tulsa then too. Right next door to the cousins she was moving in with now.

Her second stepfather had forced her mother, her sister, and her to move to New York when she was 7. In New York Aubrey hadn't been happy, but she'd had a friend who lived next door whom she loved greatly. The two of them had protected each other. When her stepfather allowed Aubrey's little sister to be killed to save his own skin Aubrey and her mother moved away abruptly, without Aubrey having a chance to even tell her beloved friend goodbye.

She had been fourteen when she moved back to Tulsa with her mother. They'd lived there barely 3 months when her mother got married for the fourth time. Her mother had never been able to get through life without a man, she was far too dependent. When she wasn't married she made Aubrey feel like she was the mother instead of the daughter. This stepfather was a loving man, who was extremely nice to both Aubrey and her mother. Unfortunately his job forced them to move off to Texas and leave Aubrey's cousins behind.

There the family had lived happily for almost 3 years before the accident. Now she was back to where she'd started, but without her mother.

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Sodapop Curtis sat at the train station with his eyes glued to the tracks in front of him. Soon his cousin Aubrey would be there. Soda and Aubrey had always been very close, they even shared a birthday and they'd lived next door to each other the first 7 years of their lives. Soda, Aubrey, and Soda's best friend, Steve Randle, had been like the 3 musketeers in their earlier years. They were inseparable and they'd never been apart up until the year she left for New York. That was the year she forgot how to cry and the year they began to grow apart.

When she'd gotten back from New York she'd been hardened. She was still the same Aubrey he knew and loved, but she was too wise for her years, and she seemed less playful, and much less childish. Just when she was beginning to resemble her old self again she was ripped away from him and off to Texas.

Since then he'd seen her once, and that was on a terrible occasion. She'd come for his parents funeral. He hadn't said a word to her throughout that whole event, he felt bad for it now but then he'd been so upset and a bit angry that she hadn't been there for him when they died, even though he knew it wasn't her fault, that he could barely think straight through the whole ordeal.

Sodapop wasn't alone at the train station of course, his brothers Ponyboy, and Darry were there too. Ponyboy didn't have as many affectionate memories with Aubrey as Soda and Darry since she'd only been there a short time since he was old enough to remember. Darry and Aubrey had been close, yet not as close as she and Soda had been. Darry had been her protector, and was like her older brother.

Aubrey's mother and Soda's mom had been sisters. They were nothing alike in any way. Soda's mom had been wise and beautiful in a girl-next-door sort of way.

Aubrey's mother had been wild and exotically beautiful. She had never been able to sit still and hold to family life, and she'd never been that amazingly close with her kids, but Soda had liked her because she was easy to talk to and friendly like Aubrey.

Soda almost didn't notice when the train pulled up because he was so lost in thought. He barely noticed when a pretty little petite girl walked out of the train door. When she walked out Darry stood up and she ran to him and wrapped her arms around him. He hugged her back and smiled sadly at her.

She hugged Ponyboy almost as zealously and gave him a mischievous grin and a pinch on the cheek. "Look how much you've grown" she joked. She would seem happy to anyone who didn't know her that well, but Soda knew her inside and out whether he'd seen her recently or not, and he could tell that if she could cry she would be bawling at that moment. The pain from her parents deaths was just too fresh.

Finally she turned her attention to Soda. She looked at him in a shy way for a second, remembering perhaps how angrily he'd handled her at the funeral. But when he gave her one of his smiles she couldn't hold herself back and she flung herself at him, hugging him and squeezing him tightly. She kissed his cheek and ruffled his hair. He hugged and squeezed her just as tightly.

"Good to see ya Soda" she whispered.