*Author's Note(s)

Yeah, I know I always have to write one of these but I just have to for some reason, Its like putting a cover on a book.

**Before most chapters, I will usually write a song title. It's not big deal. Just depending on the POV its in, that's how the character feels in this chapter or what's going on. For example, there's a fighting scene in chapter 1. And again, none of the songs will be from the 60's or before. I listen to music 24/7 ESPECIALLY when I'm writing, so It's hard for me not to do this.

***Disclaimer- I almost forgot to do the disclaimer. The Outsiders belong to S.E. Hinton. Believe me, if I owned the Outsiders, I wouldn't be here 3

****This is post-book. The only difference I that I didn't make Johnny and Dallas die. Yeah, I know, im a disappointment, but I couldn't do this without them. Finally, let the story begin!

Chapter 1

"Hit Me With Your Best Shot"- Pat Benatar

Pony POV

"Pony where're you going?"

It was my oldest brother Darry. Darry always had to know where I was going, how, how long and why. But I guess what declared him a suitable guardian for Soda, my other older brother, and I. He's as strict as a parent would be. Just not as adult.

"I'm going out," I replied turning the unlocked doorknob of our back door.

"Where?"

"Around the neighborhood," I said.

"Why?"

"Johnny and I are taking a walk," I told him.

"Now?"

"No, tomorrow" I said sarcastically.

Darry rolled his eyes, "Pony, its late and dark outside."

"Yeah, I know. But I had a blade and I'll be with Johnny anyway," I protested.

Right when I was real sure he was gonna say something about Johnny not being real tough, I cut him off.

"And Johnny has a blade, too," I said.

"Fine," Darry said, "Be careful and be back by eleven."

I checked my watch. 10:23. I only had about forty minutes. But I knew the way Darry is. He was awful reluctant to even let me go, but after the whole incident moths ago, he decided to be more laid-back. That is a pretty tough job if you have ever met my brother Darry.

Now you're probably asking why I need more than forty minutes to take a walk. Because the truth is, I was really going for a walk with Johnny. Johnny is my best friend and as you probably figured I care a lot about him and we hang out a lot. He lives on our block and tonight as I was riding my bike before dinner, I heard a lot of yelling and crashing and slapping coming from his house as I passed it. Must have meant he and his parents were fighting again. I wonder how nobody noticed this. He had neighbors, and people knew about the things Johnny was being put through, yet things stayed in the same desolate fashion as always. Whenever I heard noise like that coming from his house, I always wanted to see him to make sure he was alright and calm him down. Though I would never be calm if I had monsters of parents like his. We sit and talk in the alley for a few hours or go to the park and read Gone With the Wind, his favorite aloud, or even just sit by the pond and look at the stars and skip stones. Johnny likes the stars.

And Darry lets me go because he is aware of what Johnny was going through and figures he does need comforting. As long as I'm not with Dally this late, it's fine. Johnny's a real nice guy.

So I walked out the door slipping on my leather jacket.

"Oh and don't go too far! Watch out for cars!" Darry called after me.

I shook my head once I was out of his sight. Darry. He can't trust me or Soda alone. It's not like we're three. I've been fourteen for a while now and Soda just turned seventeen. He can't keep us fenced in like sheep forever. Soda will be an adult next year. Soda's actually not much younger than Darry himself. Darry is almost twenty-one and has been looking after us since he was nineteen when mom and dad died. He had to mature a lot faster than us, I guess.

I walked across the street and knocked on Johnny's front door. Unlike ours, it's always locked. Johnny answered with a relieved look on his face. I could tell that he had been through a whole lot today. Johnny's parents didn't even seem to notice that I was here.

They were fighting over something stupid again. Most of the time the fights were about money, one way or another. Usually when they got Johnny involved it was about him. The rest of the times it was too stupid to even recognize the point in it.

"Get your feet off the sofa now, Richard!"

"Why should I? I been through a hard day working and I can do whatever I want in MY house!"

"Your house-"

"Yeah, my house! I'm the one who works to afford everything! So this is MY couch too!"

"You're saying I do nothing?"

"Damn right, that's what I'm sayin!"

I stopped listening there because I could tell that it was going to turn ugly (well, uglier) and it wasn't even worth listening to. I feel sorry for Johnny having to listen to this stuff all day. Well, all evening when his dad got back from work.

"Let's go," said Johnny said hastily pulling on his jean jacket.

And like that, he slammed the door as loud as he could. Yet still, they didn't give him any attention, nor will they ever. Just went on yelling at each other. I realized I was lucky to have a good brother like Darry to have a concern where I was going. Johnny's parents wouldn't even notice if he got run over by a bus. In fact, they'll be happy. They wouldn't have this son to deal with.

"Yeah," I said, "You all right?"

I noticed that he had a fresh bruise across his left cheek. I almost winced, but didn't because I didn't want to make him uncomfortable. His father must have been beating him again. I was afraid to ask. I never wanted to ask, never wanted to make him uncomfortable. Johnny's been through enough hell in his sixteen years and when it went up in flames, he didn't show a sign of it other than the battle marks on his body.

"I'm fine now," he said, "Let's go."

I noticed how tense he was, clenching his fists in his jacket pocket.

"Calm down," I said, knowing that it wasn't easy to calm down after a day of this, "Do you want to stay at our house tonight?"

Anybody from our gang was welcome at our house and that's why the door was always unlocked.

"Thanks," he said a bit muffled since he was turned away from me.

"Where do you wanna go?" I asked him, "Darry said I can't stray off too far."

"We could just walk around, I guess, or maybe just go sit in the alley," Johnny suggested.

"Okay," I said.

The alley was a common place for us greasers to hang around. It wasn't a dangerous place (well, depends on if you have a blade), but rather a soothing place. We began to walk to the alley.

"You want a smoke?" I asked him, offering a pack of cigarettes at him.

Johnny smoked, like me, but he didn't do it often, because usually, he had no money for cigarettes. His parent's don't even keep them lying round the house, since they're always out. So, with lack of cigarettes, you cant really smoke. Usually he refused when I offered him because he felt that he was mooching off of me. But today, he took it. I lit it for him and lit mine up too.

"What have you been up to, Pony?" Johnny asked me after a long drag.

"Nothing really," I said, "School ended last week, so I've been home. Ended up acing my English finals."

"Good for you," Johnny said, "Now that school ended, I'm stuck all day in the house unless I find an excuse to go and do somethin' else."

"Why don't you come over our house?" I suggested.

"Nah, I don't wanna intrude on you guys all the time," Johnny said.

"Intrude on us? Johnny, you know that you're always welcome," I reminded him, "Come whenever you want to."

"But you and Darry and Soda are probably-"

"It's only me," I told him, "Darry and Soda are at work all day. And they're cool with it anyway. I could use some company."

"Thanks," Johnny flashed one of his rare smiles at me.

This summer was my first summer when both Darry and Soda were out working all day. With Darry at the construction site and Soda at the gas station, I'm left home alone on most days. Darry was not too thrilled about that. He taped a list of emergency phone numbers on the refrigerator, prepared my lunch ahead of time so that I don't try to cook and burn the house down, and even locked the door. He finished work at five and Soda finished at six. Soda worked Monday through Thursday, but Darry worked five days a week.

I hate the fact that there is no summer vacation when you work. At least during the school year, I'm in school and I don't notice it as much. I don't get to see my brothers as often as I used to. But I don't really want to talk about it now because it reminds me of how they're older than me and sooner or later we'll grow more apart and not even see each other every day.

From the alley, you had a good view of the stars. A million little stars that light up the sky and when you look up, you think they're about to cascade down and land in your hair like little sparkles. Johnny loved the stars.

"Look, Pony, I could see Orion's Belt tonight."

I looked up in the direction he was looking and saw nothing but a tangled mess of stars scrambled together like the letters in a word search. Johnny just had an eye for these types of things. I was the one who first showed him the constellations, merely cause I could see them. It was ironic, cause most of the times, I'm not even paying attention to the constellations. I looked only to appreciate the beauty of the natural sight. In fact, I was the one who first showed Johnny how to appreciate it, I didn't dig to find any meaning, like I usually did, I just… looked. In my opinion, not everything had to have a meaning.

I heard a noise like a car door slamming. I tilted my head to see what was going on. I jumped to my feet seeing that it was a bright blue Mercedes. The kind that only Socs drive.

Johnny bolted up to follow me.

"Come on," I whispered to him, trying not to sound panicky, "Socs."

At the word 'Socs', his eyes lit up in flames. The same mind of Socs that had attacked him when he was younger. The same Socs that scarred a thin line on the side of his jaw. The same kind of Socs he killed. Just not the same exact individuals. But they were all the same to him. Filthy, evil, merciless. He didn't know how it was, but I couldn't really convince him so soon, Someday I would talk about it with him. Today's just not that day.

He stuck his hand in his pocket to grip his blade.

"If we make a run for it, you won't need that Johnny," I whispered.

There was no sight of Socs at the opening of the alley where we had entered. So we dashed over to the side of the brick wall. But it was too late. It was to late to discover that there were Socs hiding on the other side of the wall. I heard a deep, raw, voice right next to my ear.

There was a Soc behind me.

"What's up, Greasers?" he said, a giant, evil grin spread across his handsome face.

My pulse increased by triple and I could tell by the way Johnny was breathing that he'd nearly had a heart attack. No matter how many encounters we had, nothing could ever repair our relationship with the Socs.

The boy who had spoken led his posse of Socs past us. Three others. All muscular, dressed in madras shirts, with weapons, I could tell. We were way outnumbered.

"What're you two doing out here so late?" mocked another one, "Little ones like you shouldn't be roaming out night."

"Who're you callin' a little one?" Johnny asked, "I'm taller than you."

The Soc gritted his teeth.

"You two on a date?" the guy who had spoken first asked, though he obviously knew it wasn't true. "Do we have ourselves a set of queers here?"

Johnny looked as if he were about to punch the guy's jaw out of his head, but continued to latch onto the blade in his pocket. Johnny hated starting fights. When we gave no response, another Soc ran his mouth.

"I think we do, Dave," he said, "We might have to teach them a lesson 'bout being in our alley."

"Your alley?" I said, "This alley ain't even in your side of town. So scram!"

"I don't think we will, will we, Ricky?" asked the leader, Dave, said.

"No, I think we want to teach them a lesson 'bout hanging 'round us when we want them to scram," Ricky answered.

"Why don't y'all go ahead and teach yourselves a lesson? Maybe a good beating could fix your mouth," Johnny shot suddenly.

"Why you little-" the Soc muttered before he punched Johnny in the gut.

Johnny winced a bit and then punched him in return right in the nose, which must have broken, since blood flowed all over his hand. The guy, the short one who was named Ricky, doubled over and grabbed his bloody nose. For a second, I forgot that there were two other Socs against us and Johnny shouted, "Watch out Pony!"

Watch out for what? I felt an arm tighten around my throat and a voice growled, "What kind of a fruit bowl name is Pony?"

I tried to break his grip, but it only got tighter, suffocating me. I saw a glimmer of silver and realized he had a blade near my throat. And a long one at that.

Johnny was jetting towards him to try and help me, but the Soc said, "Stop right there, pipsqueak. You try anything and the knife goes straight through his throat."

Johnny's dark eyes widened. And he wasn't a pipsqueak. He wasn't small like he used to be and one of the bravest guys I've ever known in my life. He saved my life once and he would do it again. I soon learned that he wasn't afraid of Dave, but it was something he saw that made his eyes widen.

"Greaser, you ready for the beating of a lifetime?" Dave said, about to graze the tip of the blade across my throat.

"Hit me with your best shot," I growled, even though it was risky considering he was cutting off my air supply. That was not a pun.

He turned around, realizing that Johnny was staring at something behind him.

"What're you looking-"

Just then, it felt like he got a blow to the face. Dave fell forward on me unconscious, but I managed to release his grip before he hit the ground. The knife did cut me a little bit from the force of the fall, but nothing bad. I caught it and looked to where we were standing.

Darry was now standing there with his hand in a fist.

"Nobody does that to my little brother! You hear?" he shouted at the remaining Socs.

Apparently they felt the same way about him punching Dave because one immediately went to go fight him. It was on. The guy was very big and around Darry's own size. Not heavy, but very tall and burly, like Superman. Not to mention that the other remaining Soc teamed up to gang up on Darry.

Johnny and I just stood there and watched for a little while, until we realized that there was still trouble. We were going in to help as somebody grabbed my ankle. I tried to pull away. I kicked and yelled and stomped on his arm, but he wouldn't restrain. It was Ricky, the Soc with the bloody nose. We had forgotten all about him.

Johnny hit and even flashed his blade at the guy, but it did no good. His grip was like super glue. Dave was now conscious again. He got up and walked towards me a bit wobbly. I pulled harder, but the grip on my leg just got tighter. I prayed that Dave was here to tell Ricky to let me go because he had lost his memory when Darry knocked the lights out of him. But I knew it didn't work that way, and as I expected, Dave's memory was fine.

He got me in a chokehold again and glared at Johnny with a you-better-not-come-any-closer look.

"You try to play super hero, and I kill you both. Nobody knocks out Dave Cartwright," he warned.

Killing? Was this how low it had gotten? Johnny froze and Darry was terrified when he saw me. However, he already had two Socs to deal with and could not come help me again. I was breathing heavily now, panicking. I tried to pull away, since I had run out of oxygen, stifling for air, but he wrapped his arm tighter, like a poisonous snake coiling.

It was so dark that you could barely see the Socs and Darry and Johnny. Johnny's eyes were fixed on something behind us.

"What do you think you're looking at again, greaser? I'm not falling for that one again! You think you're so funny don't you? Ha ha ha! I'll look just to prove it to you that there's nothing there! Your brother cant save you now!" Dave yelled.

Suddenly, Dave let out a high-pitched, but low squeal like a little mouse. I felt something wet on the part of me that was touched his upper arm. Then I heard a gross squishing sound as he cried in pain. He turned around right before he could get his lights knocked out for a second time. I turned around and someone I had never seen in my life was standing there.