AGAIN I DONT OWN ANYTHING
It wasn't until she turned sixteen that she found out what had happened years before. Unknown to her, her mother came from a wealthy family, but after marrying someone like her dad she was disowned and very much forgotten by her family.
But not to all of them.
Samantha Lynn Walkman, a sister of her mother, had been close to her mother, and sometimes sent her letters about what was happening in the family.
She had told her mother about how the neighborhood she lived wasn't good for someone young as Leanne, and was willing to take her in until she turned eighteen, making her associate with the Walkman's so she could inherit money and that way help the Curtis.
At Leanne's ears, her mother, this sounded pathetic, and would never give her daughter to anyone. But it wasn't until Leanne's period came that she feared of anything happening to her young daughter. After all she was only ten, and already could become pregnant if someone took advantage of her in this rough neighborhood.
And so she did what she thought the best for her family and sent her off to Samantha's.
Three brothers had different reaction to the leaving of her sister.
Darry had been upset about it, but said nothing.
Sodapop had been confused and also upset, being the closer of age to Leanne as well as her twin, made sure to show it as much as his ten almost eleven years of age would allow.
And Ponyboy, being young didn't understand what happened but found it strange how Leanne wasn't home anymore.
She left and lived in Oklahoma City, studied school and waited for her ticket to college. She planned only on studying before she got married, seeing how she wanted to become a house wife. But so far no boy had taken interest in her.
The Walkman had a lot of money, so when it came to school, she was listed as Leanne Walkman, but only in that school. In the records the government had she was still a Curtis. And that was thanks to a lot of money her grandmother had paid to the principal to make her pass as her daughter.
She had sent her parents letters the first years, but at the third year, even though she loved them dearly, she found it easier to live her life if she kept her aside from most of her thoughts. But even if she tried, she never could stop thinking about her brothers and parents.
How tall are they? Darry must be around 20, how does he look like? Sodapop? The little Ponyboy! He must be in 8th grade! Is he tall? is he as skinny as she was or normal like Darry? Were they okay? Did they missed her?
Halfway through 1966 something horrible happened and she would never forgive herself for never visiting her caring parents as well as stopping sending them letters.
When she was told that they were dead, and she lost it.
She cried and cried like there was no tomorrow, and for her there wasn't. She had planned to marry someone from Tulsa, after finishing high school or maybe college, who knew. And live close to her family again, to her mother and father, as well as her brothers she missed truly.
So there really was no tomorrow for her.
She had asked to be left with her brothers, to be with them again, but wasn't allowed to even attend her parents funeral. Seeing how she was considered a a Walkman now, not a Curtis.
Samantha had left her with her grandmother, Niamh Walkman, three years earlier, to start her own family. As she would no longer be able to take care of her as she promised, she left her with Mrs. Walkman
That woman was full of resentment towards her oldest daughter, Leanne Walkman, that even though she was deceased now, there was no way she had forgiven her for marrying someone that wasn't as high as them.
She thought how there was only a year and a half left of high school so she pushed away her grief and tried her best so she could go back as soon as she got out of high school.
A few months later, for some reason she was at home and passed through the kitchen. Where the newspaper waited for her.
She never read the newspaper, but she thanks god she did that day because other way she wouldn't have been able to know.
There, in the newspaper, was an article about her little brother.
And there she was now, after fighting the family her mother had fought years before, she had left them. And she had nothing now. Besides twenty bucks in her purse and a little paper with her aunt Samantha's address as phone number.
It was October, and it was only four in the afternoon but it was cold and seemed like a storm was coming.
She stood in front of her old house and felt the tears in her eyes ready to come out. Remembering all the times she played there with her brothers, or spent the day with her baby brother inside helping her mother take care of him.
It took her a few minutes until she walked to the door, she noticed there wasn't a car parked but she tried anyway, not daring to leave before knocking on the door she so many times slammed by accident after a long day, and later dreamed to seeing again.
As she knocked she felt fear in her, what if they were mad at her for not coming to the funeral? what if they didn't let her explain?
More 'what if's ' would have followed if it wasn't by the door opening and showing a young boy with bleached hair and green eyes looking at her with a worried expression, probably worried at the fact that no one knocked on the door unless it was something serious. And by something serious it meant something really, really bad.
"Ponyboy?"
As he heard his name he looked even more confused. There was a red headed girl, a pretty one and well dressed, calling him by his name. She reminded him of Cherry Valance, the Soc girl he had met a month ago, and showed him how Socs and greasers were alike in some ways.
"Uhm yeah." He said expecting an answer as for why this girl was at the door. As he said that he, in fact, was Ponyboy, the girl smiled bright and big and she reminded him of Sodapop.
"You don't recognize me, do you?" and as she said the word recognized it all clicked in his mind. How could he be so stupid!
"Le-Leanne?" He stammered and prayed to God he was right because if he was not he'd be really embarrassed about stammering in front of a girl and confusing her with a sister he hasn't seen since he was eight.
"Oh Pony" she said and engulfed him in a hug.
So he was right.
He hugged her back but was confused as to how to hug her and all that jazz because he has never hugged a girl like this besides his mother and it was a long time ago and-
And then just like that he started crying because he realized that there in fact stood his sister.
Like his sister.
Leanne.
She held him tight and started to cry -more like sob- as she hugged her little brother as hard as she could, dreaming of this moment since she was ten.
After what seemed hours but felt like seconds they let go of each other and she wiped her tears.
He took a good look at her and almost started to cry because all he saw was his mother. Her mother didn't have the tone of red she had in her hair but her face was the same.
The make up, the way she did her hair, the way she cried, the way she stood, hell, even the way she smelled reminded him of home. The home they lost five months ago due to that horrid car crash that ended the lived of the people he loved the most.
"You're so ... oh god." She said looking around, everything like she remembered, like she dreamed when she was eleven years old and missing home "I'm sorry, I let myself in and didn't ask"
Ponyboy let out a short laugh "Don't be silly Leah, this is your home too, you know?"
She smiled at how he still called her Leah, the name he called her by, because of one day when Ponyboy was still too little -and as Leanne said: lazy,- he started calling her Leah instead of Leanne. She took a good look of her brother, he was different from the little boy she pictured him as, he was handsome and still had this calm look on his face. "Come here." She said and opened her arms for a hug, that he gave to her.
She made sure to hold him tight, and felt his head on her shoulder as she spoke her next words. "Pony, I know what happened to Johnny and Dallas, and baby" he let out a sob as she mentioned their names and slapped himself mentally, but then remembered that she was his sister, his second mom and let the tears come out freely, not giving a damn "Baby, I'm gonna be here for you okay?, I know it's hard, and I'm sorry I left, I missed you so much Pony, you don't understand. You're my little baby you know that right? I'm sorry I wasn't here five months ago, I love you so much Pony, I just love you so much it hurts me to have missed seeing my little baby grow up." and so she said crying and he cried harder, hugging her close and in a way feeling his mother in her, the tone of her voice and the love she felt for him, she was his sister, but she said right, she was like a mommy to him since he remembers.
Her mother had been very close, but for his first eight years of life there wasn't mommy without Leanne.
If he fell and hurt his knee, his mother would come out with Leanne behind her and as she went back for a wet cloth Leanne would try to make him feel okay and try to make him stop crying.
So when his parents died, and not seeing Leanne since he was eight, he thought he had lost everything when it came to maternal love. He had Soda, and it had been enough, but having a woman hug him, and making him feel like a little kid again was just something he missed.
He cried on her shoulder about everything he never had the chance to do on his mother's, he cried about missing his parents, he cried about missing his friends, he cried about the stress he feels in school, he cried because of how he misses how everything was a year ago.
And she held him, because for a long time she wasn't able to.
After they both stopped crying and calmed down, he told her he had to make dinner for his brothers, and she told him she'd help him.
He expected help, what he didn't expect was Leanne doing everything for him. But she had told him to sit down and tell him everything as she cooked dinner with what she could find.
"So you're in highschool now?" She asked as she poured stirred a soup she had prepared with the few vegetables they had left.
Ponyboy nodded. "yup, I skipped a grade."
Leanne smiled to herself, seeing how her attention was to the soup she had prepared. Chicken soup with vegetables. "I always knew you were smart."
Ponyboy stayed in silence but noticed how Sodapop and Leanne were alike, even if when they were younger they would deny such thing.
"How's everything though? I remember my first year of high school being really hard. Too much pressure not to fail." She told him nodding to herself as she turned off the stove and started to set the table.
Ponyboy tried to stand up and help her but she didn't let him, so he had to stay where he was. "I guess it's hard but nothing I can't handle." He said with a chuckle.
Leanne rolled her eyes. "What about sports? you like football as much as Darry? Or pretty much into anything like Sodapop?" she asked him. He noticed how she was interested in him and asked as many questions as Darry but it was different. With Darry is like... it's just different.
"Actually, I'm in the track team." he told her as she sat down right across him, smiling at him with a pearly white smile and perfect lipstick.
"Really?" Ponyboy nodded "And do you like it?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean... you're in the team because you got in the team or because you like it?" asked him Leanne and he thought about it.
"I guess I do, yeah, I like it."
"Then I'm happy, what about Sodapop?" asked Leanne again, interested about her other brothers. "Is he in any team? and Darry? Does he play football in college?"
Ponyboy cringed at that, and felt like he was about to disappoint her sister, and in a way her mother, considering how much they were alike "uhh, well, they kind of dropped out."
Leanne widened her eyes at that. "What do you mean kind of? Who, Darry or Soda?"
Ponyboy just let out a sigh, if he was upset about it he couldn't imagine how upset she'd become after she heard about it. "Both of them."
Silence followed as they both looked down at their lap.
"It is that bad huh?"
Ponyboy just nodded, knowing what his sister meant by that.
"But you always have food right? You never lack of anything, right?" asked him Leanne with concern in her voice. And was guilt what he sensed in her voice?
"We have all we need, not as much as you know.." he looked up to her to see her nod. "Before all that but we're doing okay, I guess."
"What about Darry and Sodapop? Why did they drop out?"
"Well Soda works at the DX and Darry with the roofing that .. "
"Dad worked at, yes." She suddenly realized how young his little brother was, sure, she was just about to turn seventeen herself, but her brother was always a baby in her eyes and to see him struggle when he spoke about their parents broke her heart. "Pone, mind if I give you something?"
Ponyboy looked at her "What?"
"Look." She started to look in her purse for the twenty bucks she had and took ten, saving the other ten because she had to buy some stuff. She handed the ten bucks to her brother and saw him widen his eyes "Take them."
"Leanne I d-"
"Take them Pony, and save them for when you need them okay? Just, Just take them." She told him and he took the money from her. To be honest she felt really guilty for living where she lived and her brothers living day by day and struggling to make ends meet.
"What about you?" Ponyboy asked and broke the silence that followed after he had pocketed the ten dollars.
Leanne looked startled "What about me?"
"Yeah, about you know, your life when you where, like, when you weren't here." He answered her and looked at her expecting an answer.
"Oh." she simply started saying. "Well, there really isn't much. All I did was go to school an-"
"Ponyboy, I'm home!" said someone at the door and Leanne didn't recognize the boy but apparently Ponyboy did because a smile appeared on his face. At this Leanne seemed to realize who was this and Ponyboy saw tears in her sister eyes. "Pony we shouldn't wait for D- Oh you have a friend over."
Ponyboy smiled at his brother, but Leanne was just in awe seeing her brother so tall and different from the boy she last saw.
"And your friend is a lady, an-Leanne?!" said Sodapop surprised but recognized his twin sister right away, no matter how many years had passed he still saw the little sister he saw leave and cried for at night for days and days until he realized his cries weren't going to bring back his sister.
I'm sorry if it seems boring right now! I'm just explaining stuff... and sorry if they seem a bit OOC!
anyways, hope this helps you understand a bit and yeah... have a nice day!
Read & Review! :)
