So I was MIA for awhile. But I'm back. I'm just going to lay down some quick info about this story: it was written for a challenge to write a sister fic. But don't run away screaming yet. I'm hoping to be in the group of stories that showed a sister fic has the potential to be a good story, and I want people to enjoy it and find it realistic. I'm not sure how many chapters it will have.

Disclaimer: Consider this the disclaimer for the entire story. I don't own anything related to The Outsiders and I'm obviously not making profit out of posting this story. I own anyone that you are not familiar with, unless I say otherwise.

The Mechanic

One

It was too hot to move. Too hot to be bothered by the Socs' words. It wasn't too hot to be annoyed by the fact that they were in nice, cold, cars, but it was too hot to throw anything at the cars despite that.

The DX, at least, was a little cooler if you bothered to go inside, but some people just preferred being outside no matter what the weather was. Or how dangerous some people insisted it to be.

Steve and Sodapop were happy as clams to be standing around outside in the sweltering heat and joking around. For once, there weren't too many girls standing around the gas station asking questions about their cars to distract them.

There was one girl, but she didn't seem interested in flirting or scoring a date.

"Steve, you're the only one with a car, and it's too hot to walk. It won't take that much time to give me a ride."

Steve sighed and looked at her, apparently agitated that she was still there. Soda watched quietly, his head tilted as he leaned against the building of the DX.

"I thought I told you I'm workin'," he said evenly, looking towards the street as she rolled her eyes.

"You ain't workin', you're standing. You don't start work yet," she said irritably.

There was a long moment of silence, before Steve looked at her again. "I'm not driving you, Carol."

"Why not?"

"'Cause you don't need to go to this place anyway, you've got other stuff to do, don't you?"

"It's too hot to do anything else, Steve. Besides, all of my friends are going to be there!"

"Then get new friends. I know the people throwin' this party of yours and I don't like 'em. So you're not goin'."

"C'mon, Carol, you can have fun right here with us," Soda said, smiling. Steve glared at him, but Carol didn't seem to be impressed with the idea.

"I don't find a gas station very exciting, Sodapop," she stated, crossing her arms. "I want to spend time with my friends," she added a bit louder, looking at Steve.

"And what the hell are you goin' to wear to this party anyway? Jeans and tee shirts aren't really the newest clothes to wear out."

"That's not fair Steve, you know I don't have anything else! And Kay said I could borrow some of her nice clothes for the party," Carol said defensively.

Steve did know perfectly well that she had outgrown her skirts and other nicer clothes when she had gone through her rather frightening growth spurt when she was about eleven years old.

Now, at fifteen, she was tall and lean like her brother, but not tall enough to beat him like everyone thought she would have. Still, Steve did feel bad that Carol didn't have anything nice to wear, and was embarrassed that her friends let her borrow their clothes to wear to school.

Soda had pointed out that it just meant that she had chosen good friends. Steve had insisted that it was pity, because their family didn't have enough money at the time to buy her new clothes.

Instead, she wore Steve's clothes that he had out grown, if she couldn't manage to get a hold of anything nicer.

"Well that's nice of Kay," Steve grumbled. "But it doesn't matter, you're still not going."

"Dad said I could!"

"I don't care what that bastard said! He doesn't know what he's talking about!"

"Steve …" Soda frowned, putting a hand on his shoulder before he could lose himself in his temper. Carol didn't seem to be too bothered by the outburst, but she did look disappointed.

There was silence again as Steve glared at nothing in particular, before taking a deep breath and deciding to speak again.

"My kid sister ain't goin' to any parties thrown by any of Shepard's gang, and that's final. Tell Kay you can't go, maybe you could go to her house instead."

The siblings glared at each other, having some sort of bizarre stare down that Soda watched warily. Carol frowned, Steve narrowed his eyes, and a car pulled up to the station.

When neither employee moved, the owner startled them all by honking the horn at them. Carol sighed as Sodapop hurried off to do his job.

"Fine," Carol murmured. "I won't go! Are you happy, you annoying jerk?"

"Thrilled. Now go home."

After one final exchange of glares, Steve watched his sister stomp off until he was sure she was heading home. He rolled his eyes, shaking his head in exasperation.

He wasn't surprised by the little argument they had just had; ever since Carol had turned thirteen, something had gotten to her head and she insisted on challenging him every chance she could get.

Steve wasn't sure if it was because of the friends she had made around that time, or just because she had let the 'teen' boost her ego a little too much, but she was wearing on him more often than usual.

If he could be grateful of anything, it was the fact that she didn't spend much time around him; he was sure that had saved him from getting into even more arguments with her.

"Carol ran off, huh?"

Steve grunted slightly, looking away from the street with a frown. "Guess I'll find out later if she actually listened to me."

"You think she'll still go to that party?" Soda looked at him curiously, idly wiping sweat away from his eyes and mouth. "I dunno, Steve. Carol's always been pretty good about listening to you."

"No she hasn't. She hasn't actually done anything I've told her to since she and her friends decided they'd wander around in the middle of the night."

"That was when they went to that place that's open late, right? The place with all of those magazines?"

Steve nodded, irritably wiping sweat away as well. "The place by the school, yeah."

"Guess it's a good thing you don't have too many enemies on this side of the town, eh?" Soda smiled slightly. Steve gave him a skeptical look, and Soda decided now was the time to sigh.

"It sure is hot," he muttered, looking up at the sky and squinting to block out the bright sun as best he could. "Think it'll last?"

"I don't know, weather ain't exactly an interest of mine. 'Sides, it's summer, it always gets hot like this."

"It's almost fall, it should be cooling down, not getting warmer. Hey, if this weather keeps up maybe we could cool off at the movie house or somethin'. Sandy wanted to see that new movie," Soda said casually, looking at Steve with a smile. "I bet Evie'd like it."

"Maybe she would," Steve said absently. "But I'm not really in the mood to think about movies."

"'Cause of Carol or 'cause of your old man?"

Steve shook his head, frowning. "Carol's annoying, but he's the one that keeps telling her she can do all that stuff. I don't know what he's getting at."

"Just tryin' to give her what she wants, I guess," Soda said absently.

"He doesn't know what she wants," Steve said stubbornly. "And neither does she," he added solemnly as he pushed away from the wall and headed inside the garage.

Soda said nothing to stop him. Steve had ended the conversation the moment he had headed for the door.