Thanks To: Charmedgurl1891 for looking over this chapter and giving me the idea for Amber and the door. That girl's bedroom door does the same thing Amber's does and I just LOVE it.
Summary: So, it's been done before. The Outsiders took place in 2004, so it's about a year after the events in the book. It's September in the story. I've changed the location to Port Jefferson Station, Long Island, New York. It is told in Amber Johnson's POV.
Disclaimer: I do not in anyway own The Outsiders, although I have a paperback copy. I also do not own any bands you recognize in this story.
I leaned up against my closed my bedroom door. My brother, Tyler, had his friends over. Steve Randle and Sodapop Curtis, I guess they were okay. They were loud, that's all. But, I was loud, so I shouldn't complain. I looked around my room. Light blue walls and a worn in pink carpet with posters of my favorite bands covering the walls. Good Charlotte hung over my bed, Green Day was in the corner with my guitar and the single Evanescence poster was near my closet. It was hard to tell my rug was pink, my closet threw up. Clothes were all over the floor with some shoes and papers and books. I shuffled my feet as I made my way to my desk. I sat on the chair and span it around. I get such enjoyment from that. I was turning on my computer when my door swung open.
"Get her!" somebody yelled and flung my door open. It made a weird noise. Tyler and I get along, but sometimes he is weird. Somebody grabbed my wrists and somebody grabbed my ankles. I tried to wiggle out of the grip, but I couldn't. I stopped wiggling on the stairs, I wasn't going to fall and kill myself. They threw me on the couch and Tyler jumped onto my stomach. I gasped, he's kind of heavy. I kicked my legs a bit.
"Ty, I need my stomach, so I can breathe, so I can run," I begged. I was on the track team at the high school. I was going to be soon at least. It was the end of summer vacation; school was starting in two days. Last year, I had been on it with Ponyboy Curtis, Sodapop's younger brother, once. I don't know why, but I don't like him a lot. He was always so fast and beating me. That's not why I don't like him; I'm not a sore loser.
As soon as Tyler got off of me, I jumped over the coffee table as easily as if it were a hurdle and ran into my room. I shut the door, slightly lifted it and then locked it. I needed to lift it because a hinge was broken, which was why it makes weird noises when it opens and closes. I sat at my computer and typed in the password. It was my computer, in my room, but I still liked the privacy. I signed on the instant messenger and started a chat with my friends Erica, Megan, Kim and Jane. I put on the microphone so they could hear the beginning of a new song I was working on. We were our own band. We didn't let other people know, not until we were really good. I did the lead guitar and back up vocals, Erica did the main vocals, Megan did the bass, Kim did the drums, and Jane played back up guitar. They liked it, they always like my songs. I wrote half of the songs we practiced; the other ones already existed from other bands.
I was called down for dinner, thankfully Sodapop and Steve left. It was a quiet dinner with my family, my mom, Lydia, my dad, Jacob, Tyler and I. I ate my veggie burger while they all ate their beef burgers. I'm a vegetarian and you can thank Erica for that.
"I'm goin' to the mall with Erica and them tonight," I said in between bites. My dad looked at me; he hated it when I went to the mall by myself.
"Tyler, could you go with her?" Tyler groaned. We got along just fine, but he hated to look after me.
"Dad, the girl is 14, I'm pretty sure she can go to the mall herself. Besides she'll be with her friends." My dad sighed. Tyler did have a point; I was going with Erica, Megan, Kim, and Jane. I was 15 (Tyler didn't know that); he let me go to the movies by myself. And one time, the theatre wasn't even like PJ Cinemas or anything; it was Island 16, the biggest movie complex around. You could live there; it had all sorts of food ranging from pizza to popcorn to candy. You could get drinks like sodas, coffees, and slushies. And it was like from 9- 12 that movie. Dark Water, it was cool. It wasn't even like it was the Roosevelt Field Mall; it was just the Smith haven Mall.
"Be careful, and take your cell phone with you." I nodded. I didn't leave home with out my black Nextel phone. I put it on the belt clip and waited for Kim's mom to come. I called bye to my parents and entered Kim's mom's Hummer. I didn't like Hummers much, they were too big. I preferred my mom's Chrysler Pacifica. The Pacifica was sort of small, it was perfect.
We roamed around the mall for hours. We went into stores that ranged from Hot Topic to Aeropastel. The punks and Goths and skaters went into Hot Topic and the preps went into Aeropastel. If Tyler knew I shopped there, he'd have killed me. He had this thing about preps, he didn't like them. He was a skater type of kid and he just didn't like them. The preps and the other groups didn't like each other. I had friends from both groups, but Tyler never met the prep ones. We stopped at Häagen-Dazs and got ice cream, it wasn't as good as a Starbucks' Frappuccino, but as of now there wasn't a Starbucks in the mall. It was rumored one would be put up with the Barnes and Noble.
I got home and climbed into bed. I noticed a faint glow from my desk. I forgot to shut off my computer. I looked and noticed a message from a screen name I had never seen before. I like you. Who could like me? I was popular, but I wasn't pretty. You'd be better off liking Megan. She was pretty and popular.
Who r u?
Y shud I tell u?
U just sed u liked me
Maybe I don't want u 2 no
I'll figure it out
U won't
I bet I will
I no u wont I wont let u
g2g bye
Bye Amber
Now I wanted to know who this person was. They knew my name. I quietly tip-toed down the hall and into Tyler's room, his computer was off and he was dead asleep. It wasn't him pulling a joke. Maybe it was one of his friends or maybe one of my friends. I printed it out to take to track with me tomorrow. For some reason our school sports start a week before school, yesterday practice was canceled. Erica and Kim ran track with me. Jane was too slow and Megan was too klutzy.
I woke up in the morning and put on a lose Green Day concert tee-shirt and shorts. I put on my socks and new running shoes. Erica's mom was picking me up, my parents worked. My mom was a nurse and my dad was a teacher, he had to go set up his classroom today. He worked in the Sachem school district. Erica's mom pulled up in their nice little convertible PT Cruiser. I hopped into the back and she drove us to the school.
"Five minutes and thirty-seven seconds," my coach called to me. Damn, that was barely beating my old time. I looked ahead to see who was done already. I would be the second finished, that dumb Ponyboy Curtis was ahead of me, like usual. I grabbed my water bottle and took a little drink and waited for Erica. She finished about fifth, Kim was sixth. Those two were about the same speed and they talked while they ran.
We were coming out of the locker room and I pulled the printed conversation out and showed it to them.
"Oh, Amber's got a secret admirer." I grinned and rolled my eyes.
"It was probably a prank from one of my brother's friends. Who's picking us up?"
"Me and Erica are walking to my house," Kim said. Kim lived close enough to the school to walk. I sighed and hoped that Ponyboy wasn't picked up yet. I figured maybe his brother would pick him up and he could give me a ride home. Tyler hated it when I had to get him to pick me up. My house was too far away to walk, I'd have to cross to busy streets and I didn't feel like doing that.
"Pony, is your brother picking you up?" I called to him as I ran towards him. He shrugged.
"You don't know?"
"No."
"I guess I'll call Tyler, do you need a ride?"
"Sure." I called Tyler and as aggravated as he was, he came and picked me up. We drove Ponyboy back to his house and then went to our house. I went to my computer to check for new messages. This secret admirer thing was going to eat at me.
Descriptions of my characters:
You already know the ones from the books. They didn't change.
Tyler Johnson
Hair: Short, spiked honey blonde
Eye: Emerald green
Height: Tall
Weight: Slightly on the heavy side
Age: 16/17
Birthday: September 22, 1988
Bands: Green Day, Fall Out Boy, Simple Plan, Blink 182 (others on those lines)
Likes: Chocolate, meat, his friends, his family
Dislikes: Preps, rap, reality TV
Personality: Lazy, loud, fun
Best Friends: Sodapop Curtis, Steve Randle
Amber Johnson
Hair: Chin length honey blonde
Eye: Dark brown
Height: Short
Weight: Thin
Age: 15
Birthday May 19, 1990
Bands: Green Day, Good Charlotte, Evanescence, Fall Out Boy
Likes: Her friends, her family, her brother's friends, chocolate, ice cream
Dislikes: Rap, politics
Personality: Loud, Energetic/Athletic, fun, popular
Best Friends: Erica, Kim, Jane, Megan