I do not own "The Outsiders"! All rights and characters belong to the wonderful S.E Hinton! I only own Lily, her family and some of her friends! Please don't leave hate as this is my first Fanfiction. Get ready for a nice long story! I love y'all and stay gold!

AthenaRavenclaw13

Chapter 1

It was the first day of school and needless to say, I was not happy about it. At all.

I knew it was going to be awkward, with me skipping a grade and all. The school thought was I was smart enough that I could skip the eighth grade, so I jumped from seventh to ninth. None of my friends were skipping a grade so I was going to be all alone. I'm only 13, but turning 14 this fall.

In my hometown of Tulsa, there were mainly two social classes. First there were the Socs. They were the rich ones who lived on the West side of town. The ones who had fancy cars and clothes and who had lives that seemed, well, perfect.

Then there are the Greasers. They lived on the East side and where known for robbing stores, dropping out of school, and generally just being juvenile delinquents and criminals.

I was a Greaser, although I didn't act like the stereotypical Greaser girl. I don't smoke or drink, I wear my skirts a decent length and I would never dream of committing crimes. I get good grades (hence me skipping a grade) and don't like fighting even though I knew perfectly well how to. I have parents that love me which I unfortunately can't say for a lot of kids in my neighborhood.

I woke up at 5:30 in the morning and after eating breakfast and drinking coffee to keep my going, I chose to wear a light blue dress that flounced when I walked and went down to my knees and my new pair of grey Converse. What can I say, I like to make good first impressions.

I have caramel brown-blond hair that goes down to my hips and since it was still hot outside (and because my hair REFUSES to stay curled), I French-braided a little section at the front, tied it off with a little elastic, and braided the rest over my right shoulder. I don't really like makeup so I just put some mascara on my eyelashes. I liked my eyes, but hated the color. They were boring brown, but you take what you've got.

I said goodbye to my parents, brother and sister (they are 10 year old twins), and rushed out the door so I could walk to school in time.

When I got into the building almost had an anxiety attack. I already had my schedule, so after finding my homeroom I speed-walked to my locker as best as you can in a crowded high school hallway, shoved my books in and went off to my first class.

First period was English class and I couldn't have been happier. I absolutely love reading and writing so I was in my element. There were almost no empty seats left, so when I finally found one I immediately sat down.

My table-mate was a boy. I could see that clearly. It looked like he was from my side of town with his greased back longer hair, jeans and Converse. When I sat down, tucking my dress under me, he looked up. He had green-grey eyes, his hair was darker than mine even with the grease and had a reddish tint to it. He didn't look jumpy per say. But he looked just as anxious as me.

The boy grinned lightly at me and sat up a little straighter. "Hi", he said, "I'm new here".

"Did you just move here?", I questioned. His accent was local, so I was confused.

"No", he laughed shakily, "I skipped eighth grade." I was shocked. I thought I was the only one who had skipped eighth grade here.

"So did I!", I exclaimed.

"Well, great minds think alike I suppose and apparently we both have great minds."

I laughed at his comment and introduced myself, "I'm Lily Smith".

"Mine's Ponyboy Curtis", he answered back and become I could ask if that was his real name, the teacher walked in.

He introduced himself as Mr. Syme and he seemed nice. After taking attendance, he passed out a paper on things like similes, metaphors, and idioms. Who knew we'd get actual work on the first day of school.

While we were working on the paper, I turned to Ponyboy and quietly whispered, "Is Ponyboy your real name?"

He looked at me with a bemused smirk on his face that instantly told me that he'd been asked this question a million times. "Yep. I've got a brother named Sodapop too. It says so on his birth certificate. Our dad was real original."

It seemed as though he was waiting for me to judge him even though in my opinion there wasn't anything to judge.

"I like it", I stated while smiling, "It's very unique. I've never heard a name like it."

Ponyboy smiled back at me and we both went back to our papers.

We soon figured out that we had the same academic schedules (I guess they thought that the two "skipees" could help each other out). For the rest of the day we continued talking and I found out that Ponyboy's parents both died in a terrible car accident 8 months prior, so his oldest brother Darry who was only 20 was raising him and his brother Sodapop. Ponyboy had just turned 14 in July and Sodapop was almost 17. Sodapop dropped out of school to support the family and worked at the DX and Darry had given up his dreams of going to college to raise them.

Pony (he said most people call him that instead of his full name) did track, but they didn't have practice today because it was only the first day of school, so we decided to walk home together since we were both going to basically the same place. In our part of town, or any part of town really, it wasn't very safe to walk alone on the side of town that you weren't from. There was a very high possibility of getting jumped and for mostly the girls there was also the possibility of other things happening that I just don't like talking about (hence why I know how to fight).

While we were walking, we talked more, but mostly about our interests. We both like Elvis (my favorite songs by him are "Can't Help Falling In love" and "Jailhouse Rock", Pony's favorite is "Love Me Tender"), books (my favorite is Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and his was Gone With The Wind by Margaret Mitchell), movies, and sitting and looking at things like sunsets and stars.

Pony dropped me off at my house and while we were standing on the porch said, "Maybe we could see a movie sometime, seeing as we both like so much." He saw me looking skeptically at him and he quickly added, "As friends of course". He had a wild blush across his cheeks and his ears turned red.

"That sounds fun. Will we be walking together again tomorrow?"

Ponyboy nodded and attempted to cock an eyebrow, "We wouldn't want either of us gettin' jumped, now would we?"

"No", I laughed at his attempt and successfully did it myself, "7:15 sharp, ya hear?"

"Yes ma'am", he responded saluting.

"See you tomorrow, Pony", I said smiling wide at my new friend.

"See ya tomorrow, Lily", Pony told me smiling then turing around and quickly running so he wouldn't get in trouble with Darry for being late.

I walked into the house to see the smirking face of my mom.

"Is that your new boyfriend?", she joked as my face became hot.

Her comment prompted the twins, Henry and Anna to start chanting in singsong voices, "Lily's got a boyfriend! Lily's got a boyfriend!"

"He is just a friend who happens to be a male!", I called to them while walking upstairs to my room so I could do my homework (Who gives homework on the first day of school? These teachers. That's who).

Today wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be, I thought to myself. And it was true I now had a friend who I actually had classes with and was nice. I couldn't wait for the next day.

No criticism please! Just tell me if I've made any spelling errors and I'll fix them right away! Stay gold! - AthenaRavenclaw13