Okay, another story woo! xD This time it has Soda and Steve, when they first met. There will only be 2 chapters here, this one and the next one. Special thanks to Cirruz The Night Elf :3 And uh, I think that's it. :o
Disclaimer: I do not own The Outsiders, or Steve, or Soda! They all belong to S.E. Hinton!
It was the usual school day, recess was always the same. Seven-year-old Sodapop would always play tag with his friends, until the whistle blew, signalling for everyone that recess was over. Soda grinned, giggling as he ran away from the others. His wheat-gold colored hair flew in every direction as he dashed towards the slides, his big chocolate brown eyes twinkling with excitement.
He glanced back at the others, but they were way back at the fence, chasing after this small kid. Soda skidded to a stop in the sand, completely oblivious to where he was standing.
"Hey!" A voice shouted from the ground, Soda glanced down at the kid, confused. The kid's dark blue eyes were filled with anger, making Soda even more confused. "What?" He inquired, tilting his head to the left.
"You messed up my drawing!" The young boy snapped, and Soda looked down at the ground. Sure enough there was a drawing in the sand, which was partially destroyed thanks to Soda's big feet. "Oh..." He took a step back, and shot the boy an apologetic smile. "Sorry."
The young boy's grip on the stick he was drawing with tightened, and he glared down at his drawing, trying to fix the part where Soda ruined. Soda knelt down on the ground, across from the brown-haired boy, "I'm Sodapop Curtis," He held out his hand, trying to be formal like his mother had taught him. "but you can call me Soda." The boy looked up again, annoyed. "Steve," He paused, "Steve Randle." He eyed Soda's hand suspiciously, before shaking it.
Soda quickly looked behind him to make sure that there weren't any of his friends in sight, he hated being the one who was 'it'. "Y'know, I'm sorry about steppin' on your drawin'. It looks nice..." He commented, eyeing the sand curiously, "What's it supposed to be?" He asked, innocently.
"It's obviously a car," Steve looked up at Soda as if he was stupid. Soda didn't realize it, but just smiled widely, "Well that's a tuff car!" He complimented, standing up onto his feet. He looked at Steve, intently, as if he recognized him from somewhere. But where? Then the thought hit him, Aha! "Hey! Aren't we in the same grade? I've seen you before! You stole Mary's lunch the other day!" He laughed, completely proud of himself for recognizing the boy.
Steve nodded, focusing on his car drawing. "Yeah, so? It's not like she was gonna eat it, anyway." He shrugged, "I was hungry." He added, then looked up at Soda. "And you... you're that kid, that weird and always happy kid."
Soda instantly pouted, They think I'm weird? "I'm not weird!" He shook his head quickly, taking offense. His reaction made Steve chuckle, and smile a bit, "Just kiddin'. Golly kid, you sure are real easy to fool."
Sodapop crossed his arms across his chest, and huffed, opening his mouth to say some witty comeback. All of a sudden, footsteps appeared behind him, and he was knocked down onto the ground, pushing Steve on the way down. "You're it!" A kid hollered, laughing hysterically.
Soda frowned as he landed on his wrist wrong and twisted it, his bottom lip jutted out, and his eyes widened in pain. He slowly sat up, staring at his wrist, which burned and ached at the same time. His friend, Dale, kneeled down, "Soda? Are you okay?" He helped Soda up to his feet, and Soda cradled his wrist. "Sorry, Soda, I didn't mean to hurt your wrist."
After sitting up, Steve glanced down at the sand where Soda was once laying, now his drawing was completely ruined. He sighed, annoyed, this was the second time within two minutes. Steve glanced up at Soda, who was on the verge of tears, curiously raising an eyebrow, he stood up too. "What happened?" He asked, putting a hand on the smaller boy's shoulder. He looked up, pouting, "I think I broke my wrist!" He cried, showing Steve his wrist. It was slightly bruised, but not swollen, he noted. Steve cracked a small smile, he knew the difference between broken and sprained, thanks to his abusive father, and his wrist sure wasn't broken. "Nah, you just sprained your wrist," He patted him on the back, reassuringly.
Soda's eyes seemed to lighten up, and he smiled, "Oh, okay!" Soda didn't really understand the meaning of 'sprained' but he thought that it meant that it was all better. Shrugging, he swung his arm around Dale's neck, flexing his wrist as he did so. Pain shot up his arm, and he pulled his arm away, shaking his head. "No! I think it's broken! It hurts!" He complained, looking over at Steve.
Steve chuckled at Soda's expression, "It's not broken, you just... twisted it the wrong way." He shrugged, dropping his stick next to the remnants of his car drawing. "It'll get better soon, don't worry."
Soda nodded, "Oh okay, cool!" He turned to his older friend who was glaring at Steve. Soda glanced back at Steve, who was now glaring at Dale. "Stupid Soc," Steve spat, narrowing his eyes. Steve was a lot more mature than the other 7-year-olds, mostly because he had to take care of himself since his mother was dead and his father was an abusive drunk. He knew the social groups of Tulsa, and he knew what one looked like just by what they wore. Dale was wearing madras, meaning that he was a Soc.
Steve despised Socs with a burning passion, others wouldn't think that a 7-year-old could actually hate someone, but Steve surely did. He hated Socs as much as he hated his father. He was surely glad he wasn't a Soc, he wouldn't want to be babied by everyone like the Socs are. He was proud to be a greaser, and that was final.
"Stupid greaser." Dale spat right back, glaring daggers at Steve. Soda watched the two, obviously confused on what was going on. "You better get outta my sight before I dent your face in!" Steve snapped, coldly. Dale raised his eyebrows, thinking that he didn't have the guts to do it. Dale leaned in closer to Steve, "Do it, I dare you."
Steve held back a laugh, as he grinned wildly. "You don't have to tell me twice." He swung his arm back, before assailing his fist into Dale's face. Soda's eyes widened in shock as he heard a 'pop' then Dale let out a wail, stumbling backwards. Steve puffed out his chest proudly, as if he just won an arm wrestling game. "You jerk!" Dale cried, before running away to the teachers.
Soda faced Steve, "What was that for?" He asked, bewildered. Steve shrugged, "He had it comin'. Plus," He paused, chuckling, "he actually asked for it! Can you believe that?" Soda shook his head, sighing. Steve shrugged, and walked towards the swings, with Soda following beside him, still cradling his wrist.
"You gotta admit that was pretty cool." Steve broke the short silence, grinning like an idiot. Soda thought for a moment, debating whether or not he should agree or not. "Yeah, I guess it was." He agreed, starting to grin too. Soda plopped down on one of the swings, with Steve on the swing next to him.
Soda pumped his legs back and forth to swing higher. The wind messing up his shaggy hair again, he stared at the sky, mostly at the birds that flew all around. He tried counting them too, One birdie, two birdie, three birdie... He looked away, as he lost count since the birds got all mixed up. He sighed, and looked over at Steve, who was swinging at the same pace as he was. "Hey Steve," Sodapop spoke up, curiously.
Steve looked over at him, quirking an eyebrow, "What?" Soda thought for a moment, the only thing that he could hear was other children screaming and laughing. "Are we gonna be best friends? Cause y'know, if we do, we can go anywhere with each other! Like, we can go to Texas!" Soda squealed, excited, "Don't you want to go to Texas? I mean, there's gotta be a lot of rodeos there!" He grinned at the thought, he just loved horses, and rodeos too.
Steve gave Soda a shrug, "Yeah, I guess." He never really cared much about Texas, nor did he think about Texas a lot, he had better things to think about. Soda kept on blabbing on and on, most of the things Soda would say, Steve would just nod and occasionally say, "Yeah," or "Sure,".
"And we could bring my brothers along too! I mean, Pony he'd just love it there!" He paused for a moment, "But Darry probably wouldn't care, I mean he's got better things to do then go to Texas, but it'd still be cool if he came with us!" Steve didn't know who this 'Pony' or 'Darry' Soda was talking about, but then again, he did say that they were his brothers.
"And, and, we can have all the pancakes we want there! 'Cause Mom and Dad won't be there to tell us to stop eatin' 'em!" He grinned widely, and nodded at the thought of eating all the pancakes there was. He then looked over at Steve, his expression serious, as he slowed down the swing. "We're still gonna be best friends 'till the end, right?" He questioned, liking the idea of the two of them being best friends forever.
Steve looked over at him, curiously, before nodding. "Yeah, sure." He paused, flashing Soda a smile. "Best friends 'till the end." The whistle blew, and the two hopped off of the swings, and ran towards the pavement where they would line up. Best friends 'till the end. Steve smiled, he liked the thought of that. He waved goodbye to his new best friend, as he stood in line, waiting for the day to end.
The next day, Sodapop broke his everyday recess schedule, instead of playing tag with Dale and the others, Soda started playing with Steve on the swings, or even drawing in the sand.
Alright.. How did you all like it so far? c: R&R!