Disclaimer: S.E Hinton owns The Outsiders.
A/N: This is my first actual story I've posted on FanFiction so I hope everyone enjoys it. I love encouragement and constructive criticism.
I sat up with a start when I felt a hard object hit the back of my head. Looking around, I saw my teacher walking away from my desk with a heavy looking book in her old and wrinkled hand. I shuddered and looked over to one of my best mates, Jack, who was laughing his head off at me. I looked to the front of the classroom, making sure the teacher wasn't looking, and then threw a rolled up piece of paper at Jack. He being on the school baseball team, caught it and threw it towards Mrs. Peterson. It hit her smack bang on the head. The class erupted with laughter while Jack leaned over and gave me a high five. Laughing, I leant back into my chair. Mrs. Peterson turned around and gave us all the death stare, the classroom was silent.
"Whoever threw that is going to be sitting in detention," She said looking directly at Jack, who had his arms folded across his chest and was looking at Mrs. Peterson straight in the eye, "It's only the second week of school and I honestly don't want to spend an hour more than I have to with anyone in this classroom, now who thre-?"
The bell rang and there was a sound of chairs being moved around and feet running out the door. I picked up my books and followed Jack outside the classroom. Jack was only about one inch taller than me, but he always seemed taller than that. He had sandy blonde hair, green eyes and tanned skin. Jack's the type of guy that makes girls turn their heads when they see him. As I mentioned before, he's on the school baseball team and because of his popularity with the girls, the games are always crowded. We've been best mates since we were about seven when our parents sent us to summer camp. By the time the camp was over, Jack and I had become best friends.
We walked down the hall of my school and went over to our lockers, which had dints and other various marks on them from previous owners. Jack stuffed his books inside and grabbed his jacket. He shut the locker and then leaned up against it, checking out all the girls passing by. I shook my head, grinning and put my books on the shelf. I shut the locker door and leaned on the lockers beside Jack.
"C'mon man, do you really want to stay here longer than we have to?" I said smiling at a pretty brunette as she walked passed.
"Yep, Dan this place is full of hot chicks," Jack said smiling coolly at the same brunette.
He grabbed me by the arm and pulled me down the hall. We turned a corned and walked down the crowded staircase, full of students running up and down them.
"Jack we can go to the drive in if we want to pick up some girls," I said to him.
Jack didn't seem to be listening though; he was just walking along winking at every good looking girl that passed. I pushed the door open and we walked outside. The sunlight hit me and I had to squint before I could see properly.
"Yeah but you can't see if a chick's hot or not in the dark, can you?" Jack said lighting a cigarette, "And there are more girls here, smoke?"
I took one and lit it. I stared at nothing in particular for around five minutes before I realised that Jack was gone. He always seemed to go somewhere without warning me, and then I'd tag along after him.
I found him in the parking lot, sitting on the hood of my Mustang, still smoking his cigarette. Lot's of guys smoke where we live, Jack started at twelve and he only talked me into doing it at the start of summer last year before we started high school. Jack had said that it looks cool and you will be respected if you smoke.
"Hey, I thought you might be here," I said leaning against the car, "Man, thank God it's Friday,"
Jack nodded, smiling at the same time. His eyes were focused on a tree. Jack always looked like that when he was thinking about something. He came from a poorer family than I did. Jack wasn't even middle class, but money didn't really matter to me, only personality. Jack's Dad had gambled away all his family's money through drinking and gambling, and Jack hated him for it. After they has found out, his Dad was kicked out and it was just Jack and his Mom.
"Hey Dan, Jack!" Someone called out to us from what it sounded like, a few metres away.
I looked up to see my sister walking towards us and waving to a group of girls at the same time.
"Aww shit, here she comes," I said grumpily to Jack while taking my cigarette out of my mouth and grinding it into the ground, "Hey Taylor!"
"Man, she couldn't give a crap if you smoked or not," Jack said to me getting of the hood of my car, "She's your sister and probably already knows if you smoke,"
I shrugged and opened the door to my car. It wasn't really my car since I didn't have a license yet. I'm only sixteen and it's my brother's car. He's the one who taught me, so he trusts me enough to drive his car when he doesn't need it. I got in and started it up. Jack threw his cigarette into the dirt somewhere and got in the other side. I sat there, with my elbow resting on the door. Jack was humming along to "Can't Help Falling in Love" by Elvis. After a few minutes of waiting I beeped the horn and looked around for Taylor. She was walking away from a group of trashy looking chicks. They were wearing really short skirts, revealing tops and lots of make up. Taylor opened the back door and climbed into the middle. She leaned over and shut the door.
"You ready kid?" Jack said to Taylor grinning.
"I'm only a year younger than you," she answered him raising one eyebrow, "So I'm not a kid,"
Jack laughed and turned up the radio. I pulled out of the lot and we drove along the road. Taylor didn't seem like herself, she just sat in the back seat, arms crossed. I probably got along with her the best; she was as she said, only a year younger than us. Taylor had light, straight, golden blonde hair and big brown eyes. She was about five foot two, which made her short among the rest of the kids in her grade, and was thin. Taylor is a pretty girl even if she doesn't think it, we all see guys checking her out in public. She was very tomboyish, which made it hard for her because any respectable girl these days wore appropriate length skirts and blouses. I know that she'd be happy in just jeans and a t-shirt with an old pair of sneakers. Taylor always played baseball, football and any other sports with me. Mom hated it so much, she had always wanted Taylor to be a real girly girl, but Taylor never did.
"So what were you talking to those girls about?" I asked casually, with one hand on the steering wheel.
"Oh the usual, them trying to put me down," Taylor said simply, "Little do they know, people like me more than them," She tapped her nose knowingly. I laughed and kept on driving.