Hello there.

I'd Like to tell you where this story came from, but truth be told I'm not sure myself, I wanted to write about family and it evolved in to the outsiders. Never fear, I do have a vague idea of where this is going but I will take any suggestions in to account.

Family.

One word. One all important word.

So what is it?

Oxford dictionary defines it as; a group consisting of two parents and their children living together as a unit

As well as;

All the descendants of a common ancestor.

And me?

I define family as the people I would lay down my life for, the people who will always be there no matter what.

My family is always shifting, it gets bigger and smaller, moves closer or further away, but one thing remains the same, my desire to protect them.

I would kill for my family and die for my family, take and give a beating for my family, lie for my family and cry over my family. They're everything to me.

And recently it's grown dramatically, by 7 people.

Dally, Darry, Soda, Johnny, Ponyboy, two-bit and Steve have all become like brothers to me, and it's all because of Ryan and Soda and my need to help people.

Me and Ryan were walking home one day and he decided he wanted to take a short cut through an ally so I went along with him, and we came across a greaser with the most beautiful golden hair lying bleeding on the ground. I did my very best to stop the bleeding, but it was pretty bad so Ryan ran in to the closest corner store to call our friend Stephen.

He brought his dads truck even though he wasn't old enough to drive, and we pulled the kid into the back where I sat holding my shirt against the gash in his stomach, the cold air giving me goose bumps.

We took him back to my house to get him fixed up; I cleaned up his cuts and put butterfly closures over the cut in his stomach, hoping it wouldn't require stitches.

We put him on the couch and covered him in a blanket where he stayed for two hours before finally waking up.

When he did he told us his name was Sodapop Curtis and thank you very much for looking after him.

He said he'd been on his way home when a bunch of socs jumped him.

I offered to feed him supper before taking him home but he said that his brothers would be worried sick and he ought to be there as soon as possible so we brought him home. Turns out he lived fairly close just a few streets over. He invited us in to meet the gang and well, we never really left after that.

I took an immediate liking to them all, Darry was obviously a father figure to them all, two-bit and soda couldn't help but laugh at everything and I even liked Dally, there was something about him that told me he was fiercely protective of his gang, and I could relate to that.

Stephen and Ryan were my boys, my gang so to speak, and I loved them dearly.

Ryan had lived with me and my mom for years, his own parents weren't fit to raise him.

Stephen still lived at home although I wished he wouldn't, at least once a week he'd come over with new bruises and I'd ask him to move out but the answer was always the same "I can't run from my problems".

People called us inseparable attached at the hip. I always thought it went a bit deeper, I'd say we were attached at the heart. It was hard not to be when you'd gone through the highs and lows of your life with each other, and I don't think I'd want it any other way.

So, you may have noticed that my main character doesn't have a gender or a name yet...

that's where you come in!

yes, you sitting here reading this (and thank you for that by the way).

I have not been able to pick a gender, so i figured why not ask someone else what they think. Let me know!