Chapter one: Introducing…
Ari's POV:
My name is Ariyonna. But everyone calls me Ari, or they would if anyone knew me. See I'm new here in Tulsa. I just moved here from New Hampshire and it's sorda a shock. People are way different here than back home. But anyways back to the story…I walked down the porch steps of my house and was getting some boxes out of the car when three boys walked out of the house next door to mine.
They walked towards me but I was a little busy balancing two heavy boxes to notice them, "need some help?" I gasped and dropped the boxes and looked at the guys behind me "didn't mean to startle ya", boy did that guy have some mighty long sideburns "it's ok" I said before picking up one of the boxes and walking towards my house.
"Well do you need help or not?" I looked at the boys again, thought for a minute then nodded and watched as they all grabbed a box and followed me inside. An hour and ten boxes later we were done.
"Thanks for helping me out guys, oh! And I'm Ariyonna" I held my hand out and the boy with the long sideburns, who shook my hand very enthusiastically.
"I'm Two-Bit and these are my friends Johnny and Ponyboy" he pointed at the guys next to him and I shook their hands.
"Well I'm sure you have places to be and well I have to take a shower so I'll see ya later" I turned and started walking inside but stopped when Two-Bit called my name, "Yeah?" "Come next door at around eight ok?" I nodded and walked inside to take a long relaxing shower.
Eight came faster than it's ever come before and before I knew it I was walking next door in my favorite pair of baggy jeans, a black t-shirt that said 'I know I'm hot but stop staring' in white, black and white high top Converse and I had my hair pulled up into a high ponytail. I thought I looked pretty cool but that doesn't matter, it's not like I'm trying to impress anyone.
Well actually I am. Don't tell anyone but I think that, that Johnny kid is pretty cute. Don't tell anyone ok? Well anyways I walked up the porch steps and knocked on the door and a few seconds later it was opened and a really hot guy was standing there staring at me, "you must be Ali…ummm…Aliyah?" I laughed and shook my head.
"Ariyonna" I corrected and he grinned and let me in, once inside I saw Two-Bit, Ponyboy, and Johnny and some guys I didn't know yet.
"Ari! You're here!" Two-Bit jumped up and hugged me tightly.
"Ari?"
"Yeah your names to confusing so I changed it to Ari" I frowned slightly but decided that I really didn't care because my name is confusing.
I was introduced to everyone and they were all really cool guys, Darry was the coolest though. And he was hot. He was really muscular and tall and handsome. Then there was Steve, he had really complicated swirly hair and was pretty cute. Next was Soda, the extremely hot one who opened the door. He had really nice reddish brown hair and nice brown eyes. I know I'm forgetting someone though…oh yeah! Dally. He came stalking in the house at like nine and he was pretty scary looking. He was tall with white blonde hair and an elfish face and really cold eyes.
He stared at me for a second and then sat down in the armchair. He was still staring at me and it was freaking me out so I scooted closer to Two-Bit "don't be afraid of him. He won't hurt ya" he whispered in my ear, I nodded and went back to watching Mickey Mouse. Man I love that mouse! He's so cool!
Well Darry invited me to dinner and I gladly accepted, they asked if my parents would mind and I told them no. My parents couldn't care less about what I do. We sat down and ate; it was a pretty interesting meal consisting of red mashed potatoes and green chicken, it was real good. After we ate we all sat in the living room joking around and playing poker. I'm pretty good at poker for a girl and I beat Soda and Steve every time.
"Man you must be cheating! I never lose!" Steve threw down his cards and scowled at the wall "sorry Steve it's not my fault that I'm better at poker than you."
Two-Bit laughed and pulled me from the couch onto the ground next to him. "Ya see, Steve don't like losing. He thinks that if ya don't win then your gay. But we've known for the longest time that he was gay, we just didn't tell him" Steve jumped up and tackled Two-Bit who yelled at Darry to make him stop. He's such a child.
"Hey Ari, me and Johnny are going for a walk you wanna come?" Pony was standing by the door with Johnny and they were looking at me expectantly, "yeah sure!" I got up and said bye to everyone and followed them outside and to the park.
"So how come you moved here?" Johnny asked it seemed like he was nervous almost as if he never talked to girls or something.
"My parents got tired of living in New Hampshire," I said in a matter-of-fact voice and they both smiled at my fake seriousness. We sat on the swings at the park and talked about school and junk until Pony asked me what grade I was going to be in, "I'm gonna be a sophomore" they stared at me with bewildered expressions on their faces "what?"
"We didn't know you like...sixteen. We all thought you were thirteen!" Pony squeaked out and stood up "nope. I'm sixteen and I love it! Not" I also stood up and walked over to a tree and climbed onto the first branch "so how old are ya'll?"
"I'm fourteen and Johnny is sixteen"
"No joke? Man I thought you were both seventeen" they grinned and watched me jump from the tree and walk over to them.
We stayed out for another hour before Pony said he had to get home or Darry would skin him alive. Poor kid. He ran off and left Johnny and me to ourselves. Oh joy I'm leaping with happiness. Actually, I practically was.
We walked towards our neighborhood in a comfortable silence until he asked "do you like it here so far?" I looked at him a second and then nodded "I like it a lot, there are some real nice people here" he smiled and stopped at my house "so I'll see ya later?" I nodded and walked up the porch steps, turned and waved at the door and walked inside closing the door softly behind me.
A couple weeks later…
Johnny's POV:
Pony and I were sitting on his porch getting ready to walk to the DX to hang out with Soda and Steve for a while when Ari walked out of her house in a pair of really short blue track shorts that barely covered her butt and a white tank top. Her hair was up in a high ponytail and she was wearing a pair of white tennis shoes.
Over the past few weeks she had become real good friends with the gang and was my best friend next to Ponyboy. She practically lived over at the Curtis's and Darry was often yelling at her because she always cleaned and did the dishes and cooked dinner and stuff. He didn't like that she did that since she didn't have to but she always said that she liked cooking and it was the least she could do.
Doesn't she know she can't walk around wearing something like that in this neighborhood! She's going to get jumped and raped and it'll be all because she had to go and wear that outfit! But she does look really good in it. Were her legs that long last night? I can't remember.
She looked over and saw Ponyboy and me looking at her and jogged over.
"Hey guys what's up?" she pulled her left leg up behind her back and stretched it out before doing the same with her right.
"Not much. Are you going for a run or something?" Pony stood up and walked to the bottom of the porch steps and stood in front of her. Ari smiled and nodded before pushing him out of the way so she could stretch some more.
Pony acted like she had managed to severely injure him and pushed her, and since she was currently bent over stretching she lost her balance and fell. She looked up from the ground at Pony and muttered something about chainsaws and body bags before getting up and dusting herself off.
"Hey you guys wanna come with me?" she was stretching her arms and grinning at us at the same time. How cool. She can multi-task. Sorry I'm being so sarcastic, Ari is sarcastic all the time and I just picked up on it.
"Nah, me and Johnny were going to walk to the DX but you can run ahead and meet us there if ya want" Pony would have said yes if I wasn't there. I'm not much of a runner but he's on the track team at school.
"Ok whatever. See ya there." She turned and took off running for the DX, and me being a boy I couldn't help but watch her…um…well you know. And she has a really nice one just so you know.
After she had run about ten feet in front of us Pony and I started walking slowly towards the DX.
When we reached the DX Ari wasn't there, and when we asked Soda and Steve if they had seen her they said she hadn't been there all day. I looked at my best friend whose eyes had suddenly gotten real wide and full of fear. We were probably thinking the same thing. Ari had been jumped, kidnapped, raped, or something along those lines.
We told Soda and Steve that she had left ten minutes earlier to come and meet us here and they told their boss that they were taking a break so they could help us look for her.
Steve got in his car and started driving around, Soda went back towards our neighborhood to see if she went back home, and Pony and I split up and started looking by the park and wherever else she might be.
A few minutes later I could hear Ponyboy yelling my name and I ran to the park where he was kneeling on the ground by the fountain, Ari was passed out cold in his arms.
"What happened?" I asked skidding to a stop and kneeling down next to him, he looked awful scared.
"I don't know. I just found her like this. Here eyes are open but she's not moving or anything." He sounded close to tears. When I looked at her again I could see that her eyes were indeed still open and slightly glazed over. But then they moved and started looking around.
"She's awake!" Pony looked back at her and smiled.
"Ari? Can you hear me?" he shook her slightly but she didn't look at him. Her eyes just darted from place to place like she was lost or something. Man I hope she's ok.
Ari's POV:
I had decided to take a shortcut through the park to get to the DX but when I reached the fountain I couldn't breathe. No matter what I did I just couldn't catch my breath. I knew then that I was having another attack.
You see when I was very young like two years old the doctor said that I had a disease. The disease caused me to have attacks where I would shake uncontrollably or go into a dazed state for hours on end. Sorda like seizures. I don't know what it's called or anything but I know that it's pretty serious sometimes. I found out just how serious it was when I was four.
Flashback...
It was at my friend's birthday party and we were running around playing and all of a sudden my breath went away and I was gasping and shaking. I fell off the swing I was on and then passed out. At least that's what my parents told me the next day in the hospital. Apparently I had had an attack and gone into a slight coma and they told me that I was lucky to be awake right now.
I was real scared off the attacks after that. But I didn't have them all the time. Only when I exercised excessively or worked myself too hard. But I never did that much so I never had problems with it. Until today that is.
I could hear voices around me and could see shapes but I couldn't make them out. I knew it was better not to panic so I lay there in someone's lap until I was picked up. After that I just sorda left. I was no longer in my body. That happens sometimes during an attack. I don't like the detached feeling but there's nothing I can do about. Only the doctors know how to treat me when I'm like this. I just hope I can get to a doctor before something happens.
Well that's a long first chapter. I'm surprised it turned out that long. It's still too short thouh. Sorry. A lot happened and I'm quite happy with what's going on so far. I didn't realize what I was typing until I started typing this right here. It's weird. But anyways please review! And I hope you like the story and stuff. If you have any ideas or suggestions then feel free to tell me. Flames are allowed also. Danke!