Tulsa, Oklahoma- August 3rd

DX station

I had been in this car for more than 6 hours, he wouldn't stop anywhere, and when he did you know what he said, "Stay in the car, I'll be right back." He's been doing this since our parents died, three years ago. What does he thinks gonna happen? That I'm gonna run away? Even if I did he'd have his new "goons" on me faster than a jack rabbit with its tail un-fire. Now these "goons" of his aren't just any goons, there Tulsa's finest. Yes, that's right; my 22 year old brother is the newest Chief to Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Now let's start by telling you why we are even sitting at this DX station in Tulsa. Well, it all started when my momma got stabbed outside our home 3 years ago to this day. It was horrible, and all my fault. I was walking home after a long day of school, and these guys about my brother's age stopped me and tried talking to me.

(Flashback)

"Come one, darling. I know you wanna come to my place and have us up some real nice fun," said Duncan. Now, I knew these boys about my entire life, but their just entirely different when they start drinking.

"You know Duncan. I think I'd rather have fun with a Soc than you when you're drunk," I replied. I knew by the look on his face, that he wasn't joking around anymore.

He grabbed my arm really hard and started to pull me along, "You're coming with me, Sydney. And there just ain't nothing you're gonna do about it."

"What do you boys think it is your doing with my daughter?" My mom, I thought. Thank God!

"Nothing, Mrs. Dunn. We were just seeing if little Sydney here, wanted to go hangout with us." Replied Duncan, with a wink towards me. I think I going to be sick, this boy has no idea how disgusting he when he's drunk.

I pleaded to my mom with my eyes. Some how I think she got my message and said," I think ya'll better rethink that. Cus, Sydney here's grounded, ain't nothing to it. Ya'll can't hangout."

"Aww come on Mrs. Dunn. It's just us you know she won't have that much fun," said Archer, Duncan's right hand man.

"Sorry boys, no come on darling you get your little ass in this house." I had never been more thankful to my mom than in that moment. Duncan released me and I started to go when he said something that will forever haunt my dreams, "Well Mrs. Dunn I'm sorry to have to do this. But we really wanna have some fun with your daughter." And with that he took his switchblade and drove it into my mothers stomach. I stood there, I was frozen. My brain told my body that I needed to leave before they try and make me go with them but I just couldn't. I need the only thing I could; I dropped to my knees in front of my mom and just cradled her dead body in my hands. Eventually, I realized someone was screaming, but realized it was me.

"Now get your ass up, Sydney. And let's go have us some fun," said Duncan.

I looked up at him from my moms body and said," You do realize you just killed my mom. You sick bastard. I told you before I would never go anywhere with you when you were drunk, and you never listen. Now look what you did, you killed my mom, my best friend. How could you?!"

Enlightenment on his actions dawned on his face. He looked real scared when he heard the sirens coming closer. I didn't care, all I would ever want is to get my mother back. When the cops pulled up they looked at the scene of me just sitting there a bloody mess holding my dead mother.

"Darling, what happened? Who did this?" asked an officer.

"Duncan." And I pointed at Duncan, who was looking awfully pale.

The cop turned to him and saw the bloody switchblade, and walked towards Duncan and said, "Sorry son. But you're under arrest for the murder of Mrs. Catherine Dunn."

With that he was arrested and put into the back seat of the officer's cruiser.

People ask me all the time what happened after that? Well to be honest, I don't know. The last thing I remember is one single solitary tear forming in my eye and falling.

Two weeks later.

I never cried at my mom's funeral, in fact the only tear I did shed was just the one. Now here I am picking up my drunken father from the floor, where he undoubtedly passed out. He never stops drinking anymore. But who could blame him, he lost his best friend and soul mate one that tragic day.

Six months later.

I can't believe I'm doing this again, I am standing at the grave site of not only my mother but now my father. How could this happen? He never really seemed that depressed did he?

All I wanted to do was cry, but nothing would come out. And I hated myself for that, I couldn't cry for my parents, because all they ever told me was that I needed to be strong. Well look what happens with being strong, your parents die, you blame yourself for it all, and you can't even cry about it, even though you want to really badly.

(Back to present)

And three years later you have me and my brother driving to Tulsa to get away from all the people who keep reminding us of what happened. But no matter where we move nothing will ever change the fact that I think I am the reason for my parent's deaths. How could I not be? Don't get me wrong I pity myself a whole lot, but you, you don't get to pity me, no one does. Mostly because they'll never understand. Not even the school shrink did. She just thought I was going through post traumatic stress, well no I wasn't they died and it was all my fault.

"Sydney, will you stop zoning out long enough to go pay for our gas," asked my brother, Ryan. It has been just the two of us. My grandparents tried to get me to come live with them when Ryan started at the station, but I couldn't leave him, and more importantly he wouldn't let me. He kept saying no, she's my responsibility now I can take care of her. Yeah, right it was more like me taking care of him.

"Sure, how much was it?" I asked.

"A dollar fifty," he responded and handed me the change.

I walked in the shop and went up to the clerk," excuse me, I need to pay for our gas." I said.

The old lady behind the counter turned and smiled, "You must be new around here."

"I am my names Sydney Dunn, my older brother and I just moved here."

"How sweet. Dunn? Isn't that the name of the new Police Chief?" she asked.

"Yes, ma'am. It is."

"oh. Well then the gas is on the house," she said.

I smiled and said," Thank you, but my brother himself really would insist on me paying. And its only a dollar fifty."

"Okay darling, but at least let me give you two some free pops for the road."

"Why thank you," I said, and took the two Cokes.

"So are you attending the high School?"

"Yes, first thing Monday morning," I replied.

"How nice. What grade are you sophomore? You look about 16."

"I am 16. But I'm not a sophomore; actually I'll be a junior. I am ahead in my studies and got moved up a grade." I smiled when she looked surprised. What? What else was I supposed to do with no friends, and no best friend, mom, to keep me busy?

"Well isn't that shocking," she replied.

"Yes, well thank you very much for the pops, Ma'am."

"Oh, dear just call me Ellen. I think I will be seeing a lot of you," she said and winked.

I didn't know what she meant by that but I just smiled in return and walked outside to the heat of Tulsa.

"Where'd you get the soda pops from?" asked my brother.

"Lady at the counter, said something about wanting to take care of our new chief of police," I said, with a wicked smile.

"Oh, did she," said Ryan, "Well maybe I should thank her." He said with a wink and began walking towards the door. I laughed very hard when he walked in the door.

"Well look what we've got here Soda, a very pretty girl just waiting for her boyfriend," said some mechanic from the garage.

I turned to look at him and the other boy standing next to him, who might I say was gorgeous and I think went by the name of Soda. Weird.

"Actually, he's my brother." I said with a smile. They both in turn smiled at me.

The one that was almost god like walked up and held out his hand and said, "Hi, my names Sodapop Curtis. And that one over there is Steve Randle. Your new here?"

"Yeah I am. My names Sydney," I said. What kind of name is Sodapop???

"Wow, Soda, the girls hasn't even laughed at your name yet," said Steve, with a wicked smile on his face.

"Well it's not the weird of a name if you ask me, my aunt's name is Crystal Chanda and when she got married her husband's last name was Leir. So her full name was Crystal Chanda Leir," I replied, with my own smile. But not a wicked one, my aunt got so many jokes after that that she went by her maiden name then her marriage name.

"Really?" asked Soda, while trying to contain laughter.

"Yeah, she got so sick of all the jokes she finally decided to by her maiden name instead," I replied.

"Well hell I think I would too. And I'm finally glad there's a girl in this town that won't bug me about my name," he smiled and winked at me.

I blushed, I don't know what it is about these two boys but they don't seem like normal greasers. I believe that even today that is the reason why I blushed.

"So what street ya'll moving onto?" asked Steve.

"St. Louis Street," I replied real sweetly. Hell, I figure they being all kind might as well pull out that Southern charm my mom said that affected all the boys I talked to.

Soda whistled, "That's a mighty tough street to be living on. You gotta look after yourself."

"Yeah, don't wanna get jump, especially from the likes of this one hear." Steve said as he pointed at Sodapop.

"Huh?" I asked, confused.

"Soda and his brothers here live on St. Louis Street," replied Steve.

"Yeah we do and ya need any help later we can all stop by and give ya a hand with moving in your furniture, the boys wouldn't mind. But they might bug ya to go out with us tomorrow night," said Soda.

"Well the help would really be appreciated, thank you boys," replied my brother from behind them.

"It really would," I also added at the last second, "And I'll even cook everybody dinner as a thanks for helping. Ya'll can't turn down a home cooked meal."

They both grinned and nodded, "Sure, I'll round up the boys and we'll stop by and help out."

I smiled my best and truest smile. These boys were gonna be interesting. Only if I would have known they hung out with the likes of Dallas Winston, I might have rejected the help.

CHAPTER 2

As we drove away from the DX station I saw the last person I thought I would ever see again. Tim Shephard. I knew the one thing I had to do.

"Hey Timmy, lookin' good," I said as we pulled up to a stop light.

He turned with a cold glare, but lost it and his eyes light up when they saw the wicked grin I had on my face.

"What the hell Sunny? What are you and Ry doing here?" he asked. And nodded a greeting to Ryan who in turn nodded.

"What we aren't aloud to move into our new house?" I asked in mock hurt.

"Well sure, but I meant what are you doing in Tulsa?" he asked.

"Decided we needed a new scene, at least for awhile," replied my brother. But I knew all to well that wasn't the entire reason. And so did Tim by the look he gave me. I just replied with a wink.

The light turned green all to soon and Ryan took off without a warning and I yelled out the window to Tim as we pulled away, "Come over later, St. Louis Street. We need to catch up!"

"Sure, Sunny," he replied. I always hated that God-forsaken nickname he came up with when we were kids.

One day when I asked him why he called me that he said because whenever he would come visit me when I was a baby, which he was only 3 years older than me, he said I would smile and giggle the whole time he would try and say something to my brother.

Of course, once I was old enough to out grow the nickname he just said it to bother me. That's where Timmy came in. That boy hated it when people called him that. He even got put in the cooler once because he jumped a kid who called him Timmy. But he would never touch me when I called him that, mostly because of my good natured teasing about it and I can "hold my own" in a good fight. That's one of the reason not many girls would talk to me back home. When you're raised around boys you tend to act like them a bit. All the girls would want to talk about hair and make up on a Friday night, me well I wanted to find a good fight.

I was pulled out of my thoughts all to soon when my brother said, "Well home sweet home." With a small smile playing at his lips.

"Yeah. Hey don't think of it like an ending but as a new beginning. 'Sides nobody will know about our parents unless we want them to. And I'll make sure they won't pity us for it, otherwise they'll get a good bruising," I said with a wicked grin.

"No you won't, I'm the new chief of police, so me and my family have got to set new standards. Startin' with you not fighting."

"Aww come on. I just won't get caught and nobody will ever know," I replied.

"No Sydney, first time you start one, I'll throw you in the cooler over night myself. But I can't say anything to you about fighting back, so make sure they throw the first punch," he said with a wink and small smile.

"Will do big brother." I said with my own genuine smile. I love my brother because he doesn't try to completely control me, he gives me ultimatums. If that's what you even want to call them. But he knows that I can't stay out of my fights, trouble just has a way of finding me.

'Well here goes to a new life,' I thought.

I grabbed my boxes from the small trailer attached to our car and carried them into the house. 'Well its not so bad,' I thought,' it's got three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, and a kitchen. Yeah not bad at all.'

"Well go ahead and pick one of the two other rooms, but make sure its not the master bedroom, cause we both know that's mine," he said with a smile.

"That's not fair," I said in mock hurt.

He started grinning wicked and I knew what was about to ensue. Wrestling match.

As we both rolled around on the ground trying to pin the other, we heard a couple of low whistles. But I payed them no mind, 'prolly just the neighbors,' I thought.

"Who knew our new Chief would try to beat up his little sister," said Darry Curtis, that boy just keeps getting finer by the year. Now might be the time to tell ya'll that Darry Curtis used to be my brother's best friend. Yeah we used to live hear in Tulsa at one time, but that was before I was born all I know is just from when he would come to visit.

"Well I don't know Darry I think it might be me trying to do away with him" I said with a smile as I lept off my brother and ran to give my old crush a hug.

My brother slowly stood up and came to give his old friend a hug once I released him.

After I did, I noticed he wasn't the only one there. There was Sodapop, his friend Steve, and about four other boys, who I had no idea who they were. Except one who was vaguely familiar but I couldn't place his name.

"Well Sunny, I think I better introduce you and Ryan here to the gang," said Darry.

"Well before ya do that hows about you come on in," I said, trying my best to work that "Southern charm" my mother said I could use on just about anybody.

Darry looked a little fazed by my smile and just nodded to his boys and they all walked in.

"Nice to see ya again, Soda, Steve," I said while keeping my best smile in place.

"Sydney knock it off, I know what your doing," said Ryan.

I looked at him and said, "What do you mean?"

He came up next to me and whispered, "Southern charmer, now cut it out. I don't want you doing that, you know dad hated when you did that."

My face instantly fell at the thought of my dad.

"Can't a girl have a little fun Ryan," I whispered back. And stuck out my tongue.

He just rolled his eyes and began talking to all the boys standing in our empty living room.

Darry started introducing boys, "This hears me and Soda's little brother, Ponyboy, and his friend Johnny, that's Two-bit Matthews over there, and right here's ole' Dallas Winston." The guy to his left smirked when he caught my brother eying him. Guess ole' Dallas has got himself a reputation, especially for my brother to be eyeing him warily.

"Well its nice to meet ya'll. Names Sydney, but when you really get to know me like Darry here, I'll let ya call me Sunny. But till then call me Sydney."

They all nodded a greeting except for the one named Two-bit who came right up to me and grabbed me in a hug and said," Well Sunny its nice to me ya." As he said this all the boys, even my brother, started laughing.

'Well we can't have this,' I thought. And punched him real good in the ribs. Not enough to seriously hurt him but enough for him to drop me.

I looked up at him as he tried to catch his breath. But that damn boy was still laughing. In fact they all were, and even harder now.

Two-bit finally caught his breath and out a hand out to help me up and said," Sorry I just couldn't help it, Sydney," also added, "But I think we'll be friends real soon, so I figured might as well start with the nicknames, you already know mine." He had a crazy grin on his face, that I couldn't help but start to laugh about.

'Yeah these boys would be a hoot,' I thought.