Authors Note- Hello! So this is my very first attempt at writing and its all just for fun so please be nice. Its been awhile since I've read the book but hopefully I didn't mess any of the facts up.

It starts off slow but it should pick up in a few chapters so be patient.

Disclaimer: I do not own The Outsiders. Everything you recognize belongs to S.E Hinton

I knew it was early as I woke up to a soft drip…drip…drip…coming from…. somewhere. I couldn't exactly pinpoint where the sound was originating from but it sure was annoying. It wasn't unlike the sound of a dripping faucet but I could hardly hear when the shower was running let alone a leaking faucet. This sound was much closer.

I groaned as I opened one eye, the room was filled with a gray light. The sun wasn't even fully in the sky yet which meant it was too early for me. I sat up, glancing around my bedroom trying to find what was causing the noise. I spotted movement in the corner of my room and took a closer look. The drip…. drip…drip was coming from my ceiling or rather the leaking roof. It rained heavily last night, heavier than I'd seen it in a long time and it looked like the old house couldn't hold up. I'd like to say that I was responsible and got out of bed to get my uncle Todd but I'm not a morning person and after discovering the source of the drip, drip, drip I simply snuggled back under my covers and dozed for a few more hours. It could wait for the sun to rise.

Two or maybe three, but probably four hours later I awoke again to an annoying sound. It was a sharp bang, bang, bang against my bedroom door. I knew by the persistence of the knocking that it was my cousin Fran. We're the same age, almost to the day, but as different as the Socs and Greasers at her high school are.

"Wake up sleeping beauty!" Came Fran's sing -song voice. I mentally growled at her.

"It's early" I whined back. I heard her sigh and respond, "Only to you! It's already half past nine. There's bacon downstairs, Winnie…"

Tempting. I did love bacon; lucky for me it didn't show…yet.

I sighed, "Alright! I'm up!"

"Wonderful!" I could just picture the grin on her pretty face.

"Only to you." I copied as I got out of bed. Drip…drip…drip… The roof was still leaking. I cursed as my feet connected with the growing puddle of rainwater on my floor. I suppose that's what I get.

I could smell the bacon as I came down the stairs and I was glad my cousin had thought to wake me. My uncle was sitting at the table reading the paper but he lowered it when I walked in.

"'Morning Winifred, you're up early" He joked, I think. My uncle isn't really good at joking and sometimes he comes off as awkward if his tone isn't right but he was as nice as they came, just like his daughter. Speaking of Fran, she was also sitting at the table drinking her glass of orange juice. She had already showered and was dressed. Her strawberry blonde hair was up in the latest fashion and she had just the right amount of make up on her face to look fresh faced and decent. "Yes, you are up surprisingly early for a Sunday." Her eyes sparkled as she played along with Uncle Todd. I rolled my eyes but hid my smile as I sat down to my plate of bacon, toast, and eggs. Half past nine WAS early for a Sunday, for normal people. I looked to my uncle; he looked a lot like my mom with the same red hair and hazel eyes. His face was lined with age but not too much and tanned from working on his farm. He looked warm and open, another thing him and Fran shared. I was the opposite. If they were all warm then I was cool. I could never do the things Fran does with her hair, mine was a crazy, curly, dark mess. It wasn't very frizzy luckily, and if I really put effort into it I could pull of the easier looks but most days I couldn't bother with it. My eyes are a simple blue and I'm fairly pale. Fran can start up conversations with friends or neighbors like no body's business but I tense up or forget my manners. Most take me for shy when really my quietness is born from my desire not to say something that would horrify me or accidently offend the other person. I didn't wear make up either.

I was brought out of my musing by my uncle.

"It's a good thing its sunny, the fencing on one of the pastures needs replacing" he mentioned.

That reminded me, "Hey Uncle Todd," I said and he looked at me, "I think the roof might need some fixing up. It was leaking earlier." He made a 'hmm' sound and went back to his paper. I looked to Fran silently asking what that meant. She gave a shrug and picked up her plate.

"Well I'm off to go shopping with the girls" she said.

"Have fun sweetheart" Uncle Todd said as she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

"Say hello to everyone for me." I said and she smiled and nodded as she left. I wasn't much of a shopper and although I loved my cousin, sometimes we needed to do our own things.

After breakfast I showered and got dressed. Like my hair, I didn't spend much time on clothing. If what I was wearing matched, was clean, not too outdated and was decent than I was happy.

My uncle had made a phone call about the roof and said that the roofing company was sending out someone to take a look and give an estimate on the price around two. He asked that I stick around the house and wait for them while he was out fixing the fence. I didn't really have any other plans so I grabbed my sketchbook and sat on the front porch to find something to draw.

Our house was in a rural area about half an hour outside of Tulsa. The front porch over looked the main road into the city and sometimes I'd sketch the different cars that drove on it. This day, however, I decided to sketch Louis. Louis was what I had named the squirrel that lived in the tree next to our house. Uncle Todd had wanted to shoot him before he started to be a pest but I had convinced him not to. I didn't like it when things were killed, I didn't even bother killing spiders. More than once Fran had pointed out that it was weird that I loved bacon so much but went out of my way to save a spider or squirrel. I couldn't really explain it.

It was one thirty when the sound of an engine caught my attention. It was a beat up truck with only the driver and some equipment in it. I stood as it parked in front of the house. The man that stepped out was handsome with dark hair and light blue eyes and an 'I mean business' look about him. I felt the familiar tense feeling I got around strangers start to creep up. Should I shake his hand and introduce myself? Or let him start? I probably shouldn't mention Louis, right? Maybe he didn't like squirrels.

"Is this Mr. Todd Murphy's place?" He asked with a calm polite tone. I nodded my head quickly.

"Uh…yeah…" I muttered. He gave a small smile and nodded.

"I'm Darrel Curtis from Samson's Roofing. Mr. Murphy called about a leaking roof?"

"Yeah, our roof is leaking." I said and mentally kicked myself.

"Right." The guy said slowly, "So is your father home?"

"Uncle actually. He's out." I said a little louder. The guy nodded again but I got the impression that he was probably a little frustrated with me. I had that affect on some people. I could feel my palms get moist as I fought to speak like a normal person.

"Um I can show you the leak and you can give me the estimate and then I'll give that to my uncle and he can call you and set up a time to get it fixed." Too much. He really didn't need to know all that.

"Might as well." He said. I lead him into the house and to my bedroom to show him the where the water had come from. It felt strange having a stranger in my room and I stayed in the doorway as he looked at it then out the window to get a better idea of where the whole in the roof might be.

"It's not too bad but I'm gonna have to take a look at the roof." He told me.

"O-ok." I managed.

He got his ladder from his truck and set it against the side of the house. I stayed by his truck and watched as he carefully maneuvered his was on the roof.

It was about twenty minutes later when he came down.

"It's not bad, only the part in the corner needs to be fixed. The rest looks good." I smiled as he began to fill out something on a piece of paper.

"This is the estimated price," he said pointing to the paper, "This is materials and this is labor costs. It shouldn't take more than a day to fix and we can have someone out tomorrow or Wednesday." He finished and handed me the paper.

"Thank you Mr. Curtis." I said normally.

"You're welcome-" he started

"Winnie-" I stopped, unsure if he had even wanted to know my name or if I had cut him of.

"Right," He started but the sound of another car coming up the road cut him off. Fran was back from shopping. She parked and got out carrying at least a half dozen shopping bags. She stopped, though, when she saw Mr. Curtis.

"Oh! Hello!" she greeted cheerfully and threw in a bright smile.

"Hi." Curtis said, I looked to him quickly and noticed the slightly stunned expression on his face. Interesting…

"You must be here about the roof? I'm Fran Murphy." Fran said trying to hold out her hand but her many bags made it a little difficult. I raised an eyebrow and hid my smirk as Darrel Curtis quickly wiped his hands on his jeans and shook hers.

"Darrel Curtis, but everyone calls me Darry." He said with a real smile.

"Well it's nice to meet you. Winnie, would you help me with these?" I nodded and grabbed as many of the bags as I could and quickly turned to go inside giving them some privacy. A few minutes later Fran came inside and I heard the truck leave.

"He was friendly!" She sighed and I laughed at her.

"And dreamy…"

She blushed as I asked her if she had given him her number.

"I only just met him! We just talked about the roof and that he'd probably be back to fix it." I didn't imagine the hint of disappointment in her voice.

"He's too old for me anyway." She said quickly.

"Didn't look that old, 23 at the oldest" I told her.

"Too old for a 17 year old girl"

"Almost eighteen." I countered. She shook her head and dropped the conversation. I dropped it too.

"So do you wanna see what I got?" Her eyes glowed and she got a little giddy as she started on the bags. I laughed at her again, nodded and sat down.

The next day Fran dropped me off at my high school like usual. Fran and I went to different schools. I attended school at the local high school but Fran drove the extra miles to go to Will Rogers in the city. I didn't understand why she liked it so much, being in the city. I guess I hadn't spent enough time there and Fran had grown up in the city and hadn't known what it was like living away from it until Todd had decided he'd had enough of the upper class living. He sold their big house on the west side and moved onto the farm and I had joined them a year later. I grew up in a small town in Montana and wasn't very city or street smart. The few times that I had joined her had made me nervous even when we visited her friends who lived in the nice part of town. So I didn't go very often.

After school I started walking home, it took about an hour walking to get back but Fran got out at the same time I did and it took her a while to drive back. I would just meet her as I was walking back and hop in the car. She was really cheerful when I got in the car.

"Good day?" I asked.

"Not really but I'm hoping it'll get a little better." She said, smiling.

"Ah…" I said, "The roof is getting fixed today."

"Yep!" She glowed.

When we reached the house there was a truck in the drive way and I could see a ladder on the side of the house. I turned to my cousin, "Looks like you're in luck!"

She smiled and got out of the car, forgetting her book bag. Darrel was on the roof and I could see Fran call up to him. I decided to go inside and let her work it out on her own. She wouldn't need my help anyway and I had homework to do.

Fran was quiet at dinner and I got the feeling it wasn't a good thing. Uncle Todd didn't notice thought so I decided to wait till after dinner.

"What's up?" I asked later as I played with Fran's hair in her bedroom. She gave a sad little sigh, "I'm too young." She started, "Thing with Darry was going good ya know? He was working on the roof and talking with me and all but then age somehow got brought up-" she stopped and gave a bitter laugh, "Hell, I think I'm the one who brought it up! Anyways, he got all funny when he heard I was seventeen and talking wasn't the same anymore." I stayed quiet, thinking about it.

"You only have a little while longer till you're eighteen. Did you tell him that?"

"No, I should have. It wouldn't have made no difference." I cringed at her grammar, I still wasn't used to the slang here.

"Well, if you want I could go up and pull some of the roof off when we're eighteen?" I joked and was rewarded with her laugh.

"Thanks, you're a real pal."

"I know." I said, completely serious. Fran laughed a little more, "You know what would really cheer me up?"

"Hmmm.?"

She moved from the floor to sit on the bed next to me and grabbed my hands. I got a bad feeling in my stomach.

"I wanna go see this movie Friday at the Nightly Double and I want you to come with me." Her eyes were wide and pleading. I wanted to say no, I really did but sometimes puppy dog eyes work on me.

"Fine! But-" I said as she started to squeal, "you have to go with me to the rodeo Saturday after next."

"Deal!"

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