Author's Notes: Ah, here we are again! If you haven't read Oklahoma Moon, I strongly suggest you do, or this story will make no sense! Anyway, to all my faithful readers, here you go and I hope you enjoy the next chapter in Steve and AJ's realtionship!

Disclaimer: I don't own The Outsiders. If Ms. Hinton asks you about this story, YOU KNOW NOTHING...

Should old acquaintance be forgot

And never brought to mind

Should old acquaintance be forgot

In days of Auld Lang syne

"I'm so glad this year is over with." Steve Randle said to his best buddy, Sodapop Curtis. The two of them were walking home from work in the cold afternoon air. Soda nodded and lit a cigarette.

"Yeah, no kidding." He agreed.

1966 was probably the hardest year either of them had ever endured. Not only had Soda lost both of his parents at the beginning of the year, but nine months later, they had all lost two of their best friends, Dallas Winston and Johnny Cade. Johnny was dead and Dally was in jail for the next two years for armed robbery.

"You, uh, ever hear from Sandy?" Steve asked, trying to tread lightly.

"No, she keeps sending my letters back unopened." Soda answered. "Darry keeps telling me its all for the best, but…I just keep thinking if that's my kid in there…I wanna see it."

Steve frowned. "What do you mean, if that's your kid?"

Soda, having realized his slip a moment too late, sighed. "Before she left, Sandy told me…she said that the baby wasn't mine."

Steve blinked. That was a surprise. He'd never even heard a murmur of Sandy running around on Sodapop. "I think that's a load of bullshit." He said, evenly, flicking his cigarette away. Soda looked at him.

"Why do you think that?" He asked.

"Because greasers are, if anything, a bunch of freakin' gossips." Steve answered. "How do you think Dally always finds out that Sylvia is messin' around on him when he gets out of the clink? If Sandy had been two-timin' you, don't you think somebody would've heard something?"

Sodapop mused this over. "I never thought of that." He said finally. Steve nodded.

"I bet anything that her saying that was just a bunch of bologna that her old man cooked up to scare you off." He told Soda. "You know that he didn't like you."

Soda nodded. "No, he didn't." He couldn't say why, but this conversation was making him feel a little bit better. "Maybe I should…I dunno, go to Florida and see her?"

Steve bit his lip, trying to think of an easy way to go about this. "Soda, man, I don't think that's a good idea. I know you loved Sandy…but I think maybe you should just let it ride for now, you know?"

Soda's shoulders slumped. "Yeah, I know."

They walked the rest of the way home in silence.

When the two of them walked into the Curtis living room, they found Ponyboy, AJ, and Amy playing in the floor with Kimmy. The baby was now seven months old and a complete handful, but still cute enough that it didn't matter. Her gummy smile was enough to even bring Pony out of his funk.

"Look who it is!" AJ lifted the baby into the air. "Uncle Stevie and Uncle Sodapop!"

Soda took Kimmy in his arms and jiggled her a little bit, causing her to laugh. "Hi, sugar." He kissed her on top of the head and handed her back to AJ.

Steve smiled at the baby and offered his finger for her to grab, but didn't try to hold her. Small children made him nervous. "What's she doing here?" He asked AJ.

"Brandon dropped her off earlier; me and Ames are watching her till our Mom gets home." AJ replied. "Mom's keeping her for the party tonight."

Every year, Brandon and Alice threw a huge New Years party at their place, and everyone was invited. Steve had been looking forward to it for weeks.

"I got a new dress for the party tonight." AJ told him. "And new panties…"

Behind her, Pony and Amy started pretending to gag. "God, Abigail, not in front of the baby!" Amy said, while Pony retched.

"You two make me sick!" He said. Honestly, it made him uncomfortable to know that his best friend in the world was doing that, while he was still not even overly interested in the opposite sex…well, not that much, anyway.

Steve gave him a rare grin. "You just wait, kid." He said. "Your time will come; then you'll be as bad as the rest of us."

Pony rolled his eyes. "Doubtful." He said. He scooped up Kimmy and started blowing raspberries on her stomach, causing the baby to scream with mirth.

"Do you know who all is gonna be there?" Soda asked, coming out of the kitchen with two apples. He tossed one to Steve and then flopped down in the armchair.

"Well, all of us." AJ said. "And the entire Shepard outfit, including Curly."

"What?" Steve looked up from his Golden Delicious. "I thought Curly had two more months left in Stillwater!"

AJ shrugged. "They let him go early, according to Tim." She said. "Anyway, Angel and Curly are both supposed to be there and Two-Bit's bringing Kathy. That's pretty much it." She sighed. "Alice is insisting I bring my guitar, cause Jody is bringing his and God forbid he have to play alone."

Soda propped his feet up. "I like it when you play." He said. "I wish you and Ponyboy would play together like you used to."

Growing up, AJ and Pony had spent many nights doing their own duets, AJ on the guitar and Ponyboy on the piano. Depending on their mood, sometimes they would even sing along. Well, AJ would. Anytime Pony started to join in, Two-Bit would stand outside on the porch and howl like a dog.

Pony glared at him over the top of Kimmy's head. "I told you that I wasn't playing the piano anymore. Not after Mom…" He trailed off and everyone knew why. Ms. Linda had been the one to teach Pony to play.

"Hey, AJ's Dad taught her to play the guitar; she didn't stop after he took off." Sodapop argued.

"Well, that's because he's not dead!" Pony argued back. "He wanted to leave-!" He broke off when he realized what he had said, glancing sheepishly at the Adare sisters. "Sorry, guys." He told them. AJ shrugged.

"What? It's been six years and besides, it's not nothing we ain't heard before." She said.

"Or thought ourselves." Amy added. "The whole damn neighborhood knows that he ran out on us to be a country and western singer."

"Yeah, well, ain't none of us ever heard Tom Adare's voice on the radio." Steve said gruffly. "Guess he didn't make much of himself in Nashville."

AJ didn't answer, just looked at the clock. "Shit, it's already 4:30? Amy we better get home, I gotta get ready for the party!"

Amy sighed and rolled her eyes. "Right." She said. She took Kimmy from Ponyboy and began to bundle the baby up in her coat. Pony tried to help, but after a few minutes of Amy redoing everything he'd just done, he quit.

"We're leaving here at 5:45." Steve told them as they prepared to head next door. "Be here or…"

"We'll wait for you." Soda finished, causing Steve to throw his apple core at him.

Amy and AJ hurried across their yard, trying to get the baby in out of the cold. AJ could see that their Mom was already home and was glad. That meant she and Amy could get ready in peace.

Nora took Kimmy to feed her some supper, an unappealing looking jar of pureed carrots, and AJ went in to take a shower.

All the talk of her Dad at the Curtis' got her thinking about him again, something she tried to avoid. She was only nine when he had left, but she still remembered him clearly; a tall man with light brown hair and the same tawny colored eyes that AJ herself had. He'd had a big booming voice and loved to sing and play the guitar. He used to call them his girls, she remembered. Then…one day she, Alice, and Amy had come home from school to find her mother, Sherilyn Matthews, and Ms. Linda sitting at the kitchen table. It was obvious that their Mama had been crying.

Daddy was gone. She'd told them. He'd taken off to Nashville to become famous.

It was something that he'd always talked about, wanting to sing country music. He'd started to pursue it when he was young, but then he was sent to France during the WW2 and when he came home; he and Nora had gotten married and had Alice.

So when she found out that he had gone, a very small part of AJ had been proud of her Dad for finally going after his dream and she'd waited for months afterward, listening to the radio, hoping to hear him singing. She never did, though, and soon that pride had turned to a bitter indifference.

Getting out of the shower, AJ tried to clear her head of these depressing thoughts. It was New Years Eve; she was off to a fantastic party with her handsome boyfriend.

What more could a sixteen-year-old girl want?

As promised, Steve and Soda were in Steve's Plymouth at 5:45 on the dot, honking the horn. Ponyboy and Darry were in Darry's truck behind them.

AJ scooped on her coat and she and Amy hurried across the yard, climbing into Steve's car, AJ lugging her guitar case behind her.

"It's starting to spit snow." Amy said as she and Soda made themselves comfortable in the backseat.

"Luckily, I plan to get sloshed." Soda said, laughing. No one else did; he'd been drinking way too much since Sandy left, in AJ's opinion.

It only took a few minutes to get to Alice and Brandon's place.

"You brought it!" Alice proclaimed when she saw Steve carrying AJ's guitar in. "Great, because you and Jody are gonna play us some songs in a bit!"

"Can't wait." AJ muttered sarcastically and Amy elbowed her.

True to her word, they had even been there on hour, when Alice had her and Jody Piccard, a member of Tim's gang, playing music.

They started off with some Johnny Cash, Folsom Prison Blues and Ring of Fire, and then moved on to Jackson.

Steve sat near AJ's feet as she played. He was proud of his girlfriend, he thought, sipping a beer, proud that she had such talent. When she moved swiftly into a Patsy Cline song, Jody stopped singing and let AJ's soaring voice take on its own.

"It wasn't God who made honky tonk angels

As you said in the words of your song

Too many times married men think they're single

That has caused a good girl to go wrong"

When she finished the song, AJ claimed her throat was a little sore and she didn't feel like singing anymore, so Brandon turned the record player back on and Steve held her close while they danced to Elvis's Love Me Tender.

"You did really good singing." Steve told her. AJ smiled up at him.

"Thanks." She said. "I'm glad you liked it."

He nodded. "I did."

AJ grinned again and buried her face against his chest. Steve rested his chin on the top of her head, breathing in the smell of her shampoo as they swayed to the music. He sighed and closed his eyes.

It was the perfect way to ring in the New Year.