This is a what if story…. It's a spin-off of the New Curtis Family series. If you haven't read it, you still might be able to follow this story. I have pulled together my two favorite S.E. Hinton books, The Outsiders and Tex. That is why it is under the category of cross over. I did some research and I couldn't find when in the book Tex is supposed to take place, in the movie it takes place in the early 80's but not so sure if S.E. Hinton mentions the timeframe. But hey this is fanfiction so I guess anything can happen right? I hope you enjoy and especially for those that have been waiting for a sequel for What Happens Now? The New Curtis Family.

I don't own any rights to any of The Outsider characters or any of the Tex characters! All rights belong strictly to the wonderful and amazing S. ! The only characters that I can claim as my own are Sara and Beth (Elizabeth)

If Paths Crossed

Chapter 1

As the Curtis Family sat down for their dinner that night everyone was kind of lost in their own thoughts. Sodapop looked from one sibling to the next wondering what cat had gotten everyone's tongue. He figured that his little brother and sister were not over their fight from yesterday. Which Soda just shook his head at as he recalled the situation. Sara had gotten mad at Pony because he told her that she had wasted enough water running through the sprinkler. When Sara wouldn't listen to his request, he turned the shut off valve to the faucet outside. This in turn made Sara mad because she didn't know where or how to turn the valve back on. So Sara then went inside and laid her wet body down on Pony's side of the bed, drenching the sheets and pillows. When Soda entered the house that afternoon he was welcomed home to a full blown shouting match. It must have been the fifth one that week and Soda was about at his wits ends with it all. He had tried to warn Darry that leaving Ponyboy home with Sara over the summer months might not be the best of ideas, but would Darry listen to him? Of course not, and now all summer all he and everyone else had dealt with is having Ponyboy and Sara at each other's throat. And if it's not Ponyboy and Sara, it's Darry and Ponyboy, or worse Sara and Darry. And of course Sodapop was always in the middle trying to take sides. Soda was afraid that the family was starting to come unraveled at the seams and he didn't know how much more he could take of it. His gazed moved from the younger two to the oldest. As Soda studied his big brother he realized there was something bugging Darry. He watched his big brother kind of push his potato salad around his plate and picked at the pork chops that were a bit on the well done side. That wasn't like Darry in the least! Darry never left food uneaten on his plate. Was he sick Soda thought? Or could he know something bad that the rest of them didn't know? Was Mrs. Roberts coming by soon? Just as Sodapop was gonna bring up the topic, Darry had caught Soda's stare and beat him to the punch.

"Is there something wrong Sodapop?" Darry asked in his gruff voice. Sodapop contemplated for a second what he was gonna say. Was this the time and place to bring it up or should he keep his trap shut and wait until they were alone. But when Darry raised his right eye brow as if questioning again, Soda knew he needed to come up with something.

"Ummm…. No, not really. It's just that everyone's kind of quiet tonight." Darry looked around the table and noticed the long faces on both Sara and Ponyboy's face.

"Yeah, it kind of is, isn't it?" When neither Ponyboy nor Sara looked up to see Soda or Darry, Darry thought he best ask what's up with them. "What's up with you two? I thought you worked out the fight from yesterday? Did something happen again today?" When he didn't have a response he spoke with his parental voice on. "I mean what I said yesterday about your behaviors lately." It was then that Darry caught Sara flashing Ponyboy one of her evil facial expressions. "Sara!"

Sara slammed down her fork so that it caught everyone's attention. "It's his fault Darry!" Darry had lost track on how many times this summer Sara has started her defense with it's his fault Darry. Darry slowly swiped his napkin at the sweat that was starting to appear on his brow. He wasn't in the mood for this tonight. It has been a long day in the heat that he didn't have the energy to deal with his over dramatic sister tonight.

"What's he done now, Sara?" He looked back and forth between the two youngest Curtis members. Neither one looked really too eager to explain what was bothering them.

"Ponyboy was teasing me this afternoon!" Darry let out a long sigh. The question was when isn't Ponyboy or any of the gang teasing her these days? Something had happened to Sara over the summer that he couldn't explain but she has somehow become an easy target to tease these days. She was able to dish it out to others, but when the tables were turned she couldn't stand it, not even one ounce. It was constant tattling with her lately. He remembers a few months ago wishing she would grow up a bit, but sitting here tonight he actually wished he could bring back the younger sister he had months ago.

"Pony?" Darry had no energy for this tonight, so he was hoping that Ponyboy would just confess to what he was teasing her about and get it over with. When nothing but a cricket grin spread across his face Darry knew it wasn't gonna be as easy as he hoped. "Pony?" He asked more sternly.

"What?" Pony said trying to hold back a laugh.

"See Darry? See? He's still laughing at me." Sara shouted as she jumped out of her seat and pointed towards her brother. Sodapop reached across the table and gently laid his hand on her shoulder to get her to take her seat again.

"Ponyboy, I'm tired and I don't want to be dealing with this right now. So just spit it out."

"She's overacting Darry. I only stated the truth." Ponyboy started to get up from the table when Darry slammed his fist down hard on the table. "Damn it, Ponyboy! Sit your ass back down. I'll be the judge if she's overacting or not!" Pony was caught off guard, but he had been doing these little things lately. Everyone had noticed how much Pony had been testing Darry and even Soda this summer. Trying to see how much he can get away with. Well, trying to leave the table when Darry was talking with him wasn't going to fly, and Soda could clearly tell what his little brother was trying to do. But by the thud of Darry's fist hitting the table, they all knew that Darry wasn't going to except this from him. Pony pushed it a little further though and didn't sit his ass down when Darry said so. Instead he stood, straight and tall, ready to take on Darry. It was now the battle of the wills right here at their kitchen table. When Pony didn't back down, Darry firmly spoke his name. "Pony!"

"I had to tell her like ten times today to put her clothes away and she started bragging about summer vacation being over soon, and that I wouldn't be able to boss her around anymore." Pony stopped short as if that was it. Darry knew better though, there was always more than just that with these two. So he waited thirty seconds or so to see if Pony was going to elaborate on it more, and when he didn't Darry asked for more.

"And?"

"And she just kept saying, you can't boss me around anymore, so I told her that she might want to stop with the bragging, because after she starts school with Mrs. Thompson, she is gonna wished that we were still on summer vacation and that I was still bossing her around." Darry automatically started to shake his head in disbelief at his younger brother. Because he knew that this was going to get a reaction out of his little sister, and it did.

"Sodapop you lied to me! You said she was a nice old lady, and Pony said she is a wicked teacher! That she'll make me stand in the corner for hours at time if she catches me talking to my friends during class! He also said that she'll take the ruler to my hand if I don't do my homework! I'm not going to school and you can't make me!" Sara flew out of her seat and the next thing that was heard, which was becoming common noise in their house these past few months, was the loud slam of her bedroom door.

"Really? C'mon Ponyboy?" Sodapop was now jumping in with his two cents worth. "That happened once. Once!" He repeated and scowled at his brother, "Like ten years ago and you know that Timmy Wilkinson deserved it. We all know he deserved it. Jeez Pony." Sodapop gave his little brother a disappointed look and started gathering up the dishes from the table. The good thing about Pony is even though he is getting a little big for his britches, Sodapop still can give him that look, and just that look alone usually makes Ponyboy remorseful of his actions.

"Pony, I get it. I do. God knows she has drove me crazy this summer, but you've gotta use that head of yours. You're a smart kid, but sometimes you need to think before speaking to her. She's still recovering from a few months ago. Yes, she gets annoying at times, but you're older and you need to be wiser about what you say. We don't need her being scared of going to school. Remember the clinginess, and the nightmares, and her not eating because she got lost at your meet?" Pony gave a slight nod and remembering those days and knew then that he was wrong and what he had said to her. "We don't need that with school. After you wash the dishes I want you to go apologize and tell her that you just said those things because you were annoyed with her. Tell her the truth, Pony." Pony was now irritated for he had dish duty all last week because he came home late with Dally and Johnny last week. He was about ready to debate the dishes further with Darry…

"I did the dishes all last week Dar." He whined.

"And you'll do them all this week too little buddy."

"C'mon Dar?! I said I'd apologize. Why does she get off Scott free?"

Darry kindly handed his dishes to Pony and gave him a tender pat on the shoulder. As he started to walk away towards his chair he leaned into Pony's ear and spoke again. "And Ponyboy, the next time Sara's bugging you, remember who's older, huh?"

"Yeah, yeah." He grumbled, but took the plate from his brother and moved towards the sink where Sodapop was filling it with suds. As Ponyboy scrapped the plates in the trash Sodapop decided he would offer his brother some comfort.

"Don't worry Pon, I'll help you out. Hand me those plates." Pony gave Sodapop a slight smile of gratitude and finished gathering up plates from the table. He moved in beside Soda giving him a little nudge to move over. Soda playfully splashed some suds at his little brother. The two went on like that for a few minutes until both boys were covered in water and suds. The only thing that made them stop was Darry's hollering.

"Sodapop." Soda gave one more splash at Pony before answering his big brother.

"What?"

"Come in here for a minute." Darry commanded.

"I can hear you from here." Sodapop replied being his typical smart ass.

"I'm not hollering to you, so come here." Soda picked up the dish towel and wiped his hands then right before he set it down he whipped Pony with it in the butt.

"Hey, what was that for?" Pony screamed.

"For teasing my baby sister!" Soda laughed and tossed the towel on the opposite counter so that Pony didn't have time for retaliation. Soda couldn't resist the smirk that he was wearing as he exited the room. He knew that he had won this round with his little brother, but he also knew that it wasn't truly over. Pony would get him back, when he least expected it too.

"What's so funny?" Darry asked as Soda leaned against the wall waiting for whatever Darry needed from him.

"Oh, let's just say that I just dished out a little of Pony's own medicine. What do you need?" Darry motioned for Soda to take a seat on the couch. This dishearten Soda's mood a little, for Darry had that serious look on his face again that he was wearing during dinner. Soda couldn't help to wonder what was nagging at him. Soda had the whole couch to himself, but he took his usually spot on the arm of the couch. Once he was comfortable he placed his hands on his legs and ran them up and down a few times drying off any water that might be left from the dishes. "What's going on Dar? And don't even say nothing because I don't believe you. You were wearing this look through dinner, barely touching your meal, and now you're wearing that look again, so just lay it on me."

Darry rubbed his forehead and closed his eyes in hopes that his head would clear but he felt better just knowing that he could confide in his brother. "So, you know that storm that swept through here last week?"

"How could anyone forget?" Soda said half-jokingly.

"Well, it tore half of the roof off of the Bixby's high school."

"And?" Soda kind of thought he knew what was coming, but needed to hear it from his brother first.

"And, Mr. Day's wife is originally from Bixby so she has strong ties to the area." Darry pulled his eyes off of his feet and up to Sodapop's, when Soda didn't say anything Darry continued. "And so Mr. Day wants to send a crew down there to volunteer our time to fix the roof for them."

"Volunteer? You mean not get paid?" Soda confirmed.

"Well, here's the thing, he'll pay for our room and board, and partial pay for me and Jerry."

"Partial pay? We can't afford that." Soda shouted a little louder than Darry wanted.

"SHH! Keep your voice down Soda! I don't want the kids to hear."

"No way, Dar." Soda inched up a bit on the arm on the couch to get closer to Darry. "This is a bad idea. I mean to keep Ponyboy home with Sara. They're gonna kill each other. And if you're only getting partial pay we can't afford for me to miss work too. Plus how long would you be gone for?"

Darry nodded in agreement, but then defended his case. "You're right about Pony and Sara. I'm actually looking forward to school starting next week just so maybe we can get some normalcy back. It'll be good for them to have a break from each other for most of the day."

"How long Darry?" Soda asked again.

"Mr. Day thinks we could get it done in about a week."

"A week? A whole week? Are you crazy? With school starting next week?" Soda was now standing practically in front of Darry now. He appreciated Darry discussing this with him first, but c'mon the week of school, what bad timing.

"They need us to start as soon as we can so that the kids in Bixby can start school too." Darry ran his hand through his hair and noticed that Ponyboy was coming in from dish duty. As he approached he could tell that Darry and Soda were discussing something important.

"What's going on?" He asked moving towards the couch.

"Nothing." The two older Curtis brothers said in unison.

"Yeah, and I'm the Easter Bunny." Pony said with sarcasm.

"When did you start getting so mouthy?" Darry shot back at his younger brother.

"When you stopped telling me the truth about things." Now this situation had the opportunity to get out of control but Soda stepped in as usually.

"Jesus, Ponyboy, knock it off. Darry and I were just discussing something for next week. But I don't think it's gonna happen, is it Darry?" Sodapop was hoping that this would discourage Darry's decision. When Darry didn't respond, Soda just shook his head in disbelief. He couldn't believe that Darry was gonna take the job. He also couldn't believe that he would be in charge on the first week of school. How the hell was he gonna survive?