Chapter One
A/N: I do not own the Outsiders or Romeo and Juliet. The Outsiders belongs to S. E. Hinton while Romeo and Juliet belongs to Shakespeare.
So, why this plot, you may ask? Well, back when I was first starting fanfiction, I wrote a story a little like this. Okay, it was exactly like this but it was set during the events of the book. Let's just say it wasn't my best writing. I've decided to give it another shot but with actual research about the 1960s performed. Also, setting it a year after the book makes it a little easier to make the story my own since there aren't events that I have to include.
Please let me know what you think in the reviews!
"Dawn, are you even listening to me?"
I looked up from my English book to see my best friend looking at me with a bemused expression. Penny Mathews was a force to be reckoned with sometimes, but nothing got her riled up more than the thought of getting into a good college. I just didn't understand it myself. Then again, she was six months older than I was, already fifteen while I was still fourteen.
"Honestly Penny, what's the point?" I asked, pushing the math problems away from me as if they could harm me. "Even if we do graduate, we won't ever have to use this!"
"How do you know?" Penny asked me as she propped up her geometry book. "You might decide you want to be a big shot scientist for a job. You have to go to college for that, you know, and colleges only take people with good grades."
"Oh please," I rolled my eyes. College wasn't so important—especially since I already knew what I wanted to do. Ever since I was a little girl, it was my dream to be an actress—especially an actress in New York. Dallas Winston used to tell me stories about New York, well cleaned up versions anyway. Somehow, he managed to make me fall in love with a city I'd never been to.
"We're freshmen Dawn," Penny told me. "You might change your mind."
"If I do go to college, it won't be for book learning," I told her. "I'll be looking for a husband to get me out of this town."
Penny brushed her brown hair out of her face and smiled at me. "At least we're both aiming high. I'll tell you what, I'll go insane if I end up staying here."
"Ain't that the truth," I nodded and tugged down at my skirt. Penny, bless her heart, had managed to get a job the summer before the start of our freshman year and took me shopping the week before school started. She said that we should look more mature now that we were in high school. I think she just wanted to start one school year not wearing hand-me-downs and clothes that were falling apart.
Oh don't get me wrong, I totally didn't mind the fact that my saddle oxfords and bobby socks were devoid of holes or that my clothes actually looked like they were made for someone my size instead of wearing my mom's old clothes again. It just feels weird wearing a skirt in a house filled with boys.
"You want to get changed?" Penny said, looking at the clock. I realize that she must have been reading my mind as it was getting close to the time my brother would get home from track practice with a couple members of the gang. They're already overly protective—the last thing I need is for them to make a big deal over the fact that I was wearing a skirt. A new one at that.
Running over to my middle brother's old room, I close the door and slip off my skirt with a sigh of relief. Slipping into an old pair of my brother's jeans, I take a second to study myself in the mirror of the old dresser. I wasn't much to look at, not like Penny with her tall figure and blazing blue eyes that seemed to sparkle in a certain light.
I mean, I wasn't ugly per say. I had a nice round face, but it was nothing to write home about. My blonde hair fell around my face almost like a golden curtain, keeping the outside world out. The only feature I really liked were my eyes. They were blue, like Penny's but a softer blue. A blue that looked like they belonged on a mom's face instead of a fourteen-year-old girl.
"You almost done?" Penny called out and I realized that I'd been standing there for a good while. Grabbing a headband, I pushed my hair out of my face. Looking presentable was one of the best ways to get out of this town—even if you had to thrown a little rebellion in the mix sometimes by wearing pants.
"Thanks for the heads up," I told her as I sat back down. The math problems, to my dismay, were still there. "Do we have to stay with math? Can't we focus on English instead?"
"You're just happy because we're starting Romeo and Juliet," Penny shook her head in amusement. "How do you not have the play memorized by now? You read it all the time!"
"It's good!" I defended my favorite play.
"It's boring!" Penny shot back. "Besides, it's so hard to understand. Romeo, Romeo. Wherefore art thou, Romeo? What is she trying to say? Why is she asking where Romeo is?"
"Ah, ninth grade English at its finest," a new voice broke in and I saw the smiling face of my older brother looking in our direction, accompanied by one of his friends.
"Hey Pony," I waved, not wanting to hug him on account as he was covered in sweat from his track practice. "How was practice?"
"Brutal," Pony said and plopped down in a nearby chair. "Dawson tried to trip me again and coach reamed him out for it. I swear, that is the only time a Soc actually got punished for going after us greasers."
I pursed my lips at the mention of the Socs. After the events of last year where Pony and Johnny Cade ran away after stabbing a Soc, the gang fighting in a rumble, and Johnny and Dally dying, we thought the Socs would stay away from us for good.
We were wrong.
"You okay Pony?" Penny asked, and I bit back a chuckle. Penny has a crush on my older brother. It didn't help that it was her dream to become a nurse and she was just itching to practice patching up Pony.
"Yeah I'm good. He never got me," Pony chuckled. "Hey Two-Bit, can you toss me my water bottle?"
Said water bottle almost took my head off had I not ducked in time. Shooting a glare at Two-Bit, I turned back to my homework. I wanted to have it done before Soda and Darry came home. The Nightly Double was showing West Side Story this weekend and I wanted to go and see it. For school, of course.
Yeah, I was totally lying to myself but it was a modern retelling of my favorite play set in my favorite city. How could I not go and see it?
So you could see how it was necessary to keep Soda and Darry happy, right? Ever since the events of last year, they've been extra protective of Pony and me. It's enough to drive me insane sometimes.
"Math problems?" Pony asked, looking over my shoulder and making a face at the work. "Why don't you wait for Darry to come home and he'll help you?"
"Cause I want to get this done before that happens," I told him. "Sides, Darry won't get home till six and it's almost five. Would you really want homework lingering over your head for an hour?"
Pony glanced at the clock and sighed. "Thanks for reminding me. I'd better get started on mine. It was nice seeing you Penny."
Penny nodded and did a small wave as Pony left to go to the room that he and Soda shared. I was a little jealous that Darry would be a little more lenient on Pony than he would be on me homework wise. Sure, Pony had a built in excuse with track but that shouldn't change the fact that I was here before him! Two-Bit plopped on the couch and began humming incessantly.
"Two-Bit, would you mind cutting that out?" I growled. Math was the last thing I had to do and if Two-Bit would stop humming for two seconds, I might be able to figure out these dumb angles!
"Ignore him," Penny said, rolling her eyes. For two siblings, they are nothing alike. Two-Bit is outgoing and always good with a wisecrack. Penny though is more quiet and thoughtful. More importantly, Penny will actually graduate High School before her brother does—and he's older!
"Good advice," a new voice tells us and I looked up to see my middle brother smiling at the two of us, with his friend Steve in tow. The two of them were covered in grease but grinning from ear to ear. "Pony home yet?"
"In his room," I told Soda, looking back at the math problem and wondering how I had understood it not five minutes ago but now was completely confused. I swear, math at some points made me want to cry.
"Done!" Penny said, slamming her pen down triumphantly and I stared at her in amazement. How was she done with her math so quickly? More importantly, why wouldn't she let me copy her answers?! I just wanted to be done with this homework and get on with English, the last little bit for the day.
"Dawn, it's not that hard," Penny said with a smile but in a tone of voice that always irked me. Penny was the math genius between the two of us and never understood why it took me longer than her to get mathematic concepts. "Come on. They wouldn't have let you in ninth grade if they didn't think you could do it."
If they wanted to be cruel, they would have! I thought bitterly. If only I was sixteen, then I could drop out like Soda and run away to New York! I could become an actress and never have to think about angles and shapes ever again!
"Come on Penny," Two-Bit said with a chuckle. "I think Dawn's going to scream soon."
"You mean she hasn't yet?" Steve chuckled. Steve Randle was Soda's best friend and one of the original members of the gang. He also helped me out with math sometimes. Being a senior, he knew all the high school math there was, and told me horror stories about classes like Calculus and Chemistry. It was bad enough math was its own class, but then it has to invade science?
"Has she screamed yet?" Pony poked his head out of his bedroom to watch the show. It was like a daily ritual for them! Even Darry sometimes got disappointed if he missed me screaming over my math homework. I will never understand boys. Pushing my homework away from me, I shot a glare at all of them—even Pony, who at least had the decency to look ashamed. But it was no use. It was either give them what they wanted or have the problem linger until Darry got home.
"Steve!"
"There it is!" Two-Bit smiled and clapped his hands. "Honestly, I don't blame you Dawn. Math is no fun."
Steve rolled his eyes but sat down and explained what I was doing wrong. How was he able to explain it in a way that made sense but I knew I could never replicate? Somehow I finished my math homework just as Darry walked through the door.
"Hey Darry!" I smiled and gave my eldest brother a hug hello, which he returned with a surprised look on his face. I wasn't a hugger but I was done with my homework. That was enough of a reason to give him a hug.
"She scream?" Darry asked Soda who nodded.
"Wasn't too bad though. I think there were some curse words she would have said if we weren't all watching her," Soda told him and Darry nodded.
"Har har," I rolled my eyes and went back to pack up my stuff. There was no way I was going to spend this much time on homework and then forget it in the morning.
"How was school?" Darry asked, giving Penny a smile as he sat down in his chair. When it came to my brothers, I always appreciated how I shared bits with all of them. I obviously shared my love of reading with Pony while Soda and I were the only ones with blonde hair. I couldn't find anything I shared with Darry—unless I was due for a growth spurt any time soon.
"It was okay," I told him, putting my books into my knapsack. "We're starting Romeo and Juliet in English class."
Steve stared at me in horror. "You mean you haven't grown sick and tired of that play? I swear, it's like the only thing you read!"
"Cut it out, Steve!" I griped. I wasn't that bad—I had some used copies of Richard the Third, Hamlet, and A Midsummer's Night Dream stashed under my bed. "I'm not that bad!"
Steve shot a smirk at me and even Two-Bit chuckled at our antics. Rolling my eyes, I grabbed my book and decided to sit out on the porch—Penny following me all the way.
"They're just teasing," she told me but it still irked me. Why didn't they ever give Pony as hard a time as they did me?
"I swear, sometimes I think it's a good thing none of them know about my dream to go to New York," I sighed as I flipped the page. I never told them, cause let's face it. I knew the score. Without some decent training, I would never actually be able to make it big like Carol Burnett or Barbra Streisand. I mean, I was a fairly good actress on my own merit.
"Are you going to go out for the school play?" Penny asked me. She's always been supportive of my goal, and I hers. I shook my head.
"Even if I did, I'd just end up being shoved to the back or be assigned as a stage hand," I sighed. "You know only Socs get the good roles."
Penny nodded and we went back to our books until Penny growled in frustration. "I just don't get this! What is she saying and why is she just talking to herself?"
"You're at the balcony scene?" I asked, flipping back to the page. I had gotten to the death of Tybalt by Romeo's hand but I was always game to flip back to my favorite part. Besides, we technically were only supposed to read up to the balcony scene. "It's pretty clear to me. What's not to get?"
"You mean you understand it?" Penny stared at me in amazement. "Can you read it out loud? Maybe I'll get it if I hear someone say it."
"Of course," I chuckled, and looked down at the page and began reciting the words I had read aloud at least a thousand times before in the privacy of my room.
"O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love and I'll not longer be a Capulet."
"Keep going," Penny urged as I halted, realizing where I was. "Come on Dawn! That was really good!"
"I was just reading the words," I shrugged. "I'm sure you could do better."
Penny shot me a disbelieving look. "Yeah right. If we read in class tomorrow, be prepared for me to volunteer you as Juliet."
"You know Thomas would never pick a greaser to read Juliet," I told her and we both chuckled at the thought of our stiff old English teacher picking someone other than a Soc to read for one of the most well known characters in literature.
"If you're both done rehearsing out there, Darry says dinner's ready," Soda hollered from the screen door. I shook my head in amusement but got up and went inside to sit with my brothers and the girl who was practically my sister. As I ate, I couldn't help but wonder about what Penny had said. Could I go out for the school play? I mean, it couldn't hurt right? Plus, if I got a part, I could convince Darry I was doing it for college. Colleges love when you do after school stuff right?
It would all depend on what the play was—and what tomorrow would bring.