Disclaimer: All Outsiders Characters belong to S. E. Hinton.

Chapter One:

After my shift ended I had hung around the DX for half an hour to talk to Steve about maybe going to a race on Friday night.

Steve said he couldn't as he had plans with Evie and after my boss yelled at me for keeping him from his work I decided to head back home as I didn't have anything else to do. I wasn't really looking forward to spending the next couple of hours by myself; not like I had a choice anyways.

This is one of those days where everybody else in the gang has some place else to be rather than at our house.

Steve had the late shift at the DX so he wouldn't be around until after nine.

Darry normally gets home by six but today he was picking up a couple of hours at the warehouse and wouldn't be back until at least midnight.

Pony was at track practice but when he came over to the DX at lunchtime with Two Bit and Steve he had said he was going to the library to get a history report out of the way, so I wasn't expecting him to show up until after nine either because that's when the library closes.

And Two Bit mentioned something about some blond he had got a number off of over at Bucks last night so I doubt he'll make an appearance before tomorrow morning. When he does show, I'm sure he'll have an interesting story to tell.

It's weird walking into our place and finding it quiet. Ever since Johnny and Dally died last fall things have been off like this.

Before, even if some of the guys were off doing something, Dal or Johnnycakes would be here or show up shortly after. Especially Johnny since he had nowhere else to go.

I sure do miss them; well, we all miss them of course.

Pony really misses Johnny but I was surprised by how much he ended up missing Dally as well. I mean, I know the three of them did stuff together, probably more so than with any other members of the gang but Pony had always seemed a little scared of Dal.

Since nobody else was going to be here there wasn't much point in making something fancy for dinner. So as I walked into the kitchen I settled on making a couple of sandwiches.

One good thing about being alone like this is that I can make things the way I like them without listening to everyone else grumble. Hey! I'll admit that some of my concoctions haven't always been the best but most are real tasty.

I could just hear the complaints about what I'm eating now. I mean, what's wrong with a peanut butter, banana, pickle, and potato chip sandwich? It tastes good, and it goes great with chocolate cake.

By the time I finished my banquet I didn't know what to do until the guys got here.

Usually we'd be playing cards or I would be telling them about some girl I met at the DX. Before Sandy left I would have given her a call and maybe convinced her to come over to the Dingo with me after dinner. Then I would have spent the next few hours sprucing up.

While I have gone on a few dates along with Steve and Evie, usually with one of her friends, I just haven't felt like getting into a relationship. The guys all say I should try, even Pony, though he hasn't been on a date yet himself.

So here it is 4:45 on a Thursday bored out of my mind!

I'm not tired enough to take a nap because work had been really slow today. No cars came in for me to work on and the boss decided to do all the restocking himself, so I just spent the day outside waiting for a car to pull up for some gas.

That wasn't too bad, since it was really nice out and I always enjoy being outside on days like this.

It's just that nobody came to the station today at all and until the guys came by for lunch I didn't have anybody to talk to.

With the month almost over, Darry's been nagging at us to get our room cleaned up for when the state pays their visit, which should be any day now.

Really, I don't know what those people expect! We're teenagers and there are two of us sharing a room for crying out loud. It's not like we're a bunch of socs with a maid or something.

But I was getting desperate to find something to keep from going insane so I figured I'd hang up any clean clothes, dump a load in the washer and sort out the rest for Superman to do later.

"Darry should have joined the marines," I thought. "With all of his muscles and his 'everything neat and span' attitude he would have fit right in."