Disclaimer: I don´t own The Outsiders or any of the characters in it´s story.

Alright, let´s begin,

CHAPTER ONE

A Place To Call Home

Rosalie Curtis was scared out of her mind. When her mother had left she had tried staying in the apartment they had shared for as long as possible, until someone found out she was there. Being a minor, Rosalie was brought to an adoption center, and, while she wished they would just leave her alone, she did what they said without complaining. She expected she would be thrust into a girls' home until she was eighteen, and then she could leave.

Yet, here she was, on a train on her way to meet her cousins in Tulsa Oklahoma. Mr. Banner, from the Ney York adoption Center told her that when they went to talk to her cousins they had agreed to take her in right away. There were three of them, all boys, but that was the extent of information she received on them. So, sitting on the train, on her way to Tulsa, with only a backpack of clothes, Rosalie waited anxiously for what was to come.

When the rain started to slow and the conductor announced the stop for Tulsa, Rosalie stood up, a bit shaky, and smoothed out her clothes. She had no idea how her cousins dressed, and hoped her casual jean skirt and sweater would be an okay first impression. She stepped off the train on to the platform and looked around. It was the first time she realised she had no clue who or what she was looking for. Just as she was going to go sit in a nearby bench to wait a voice behind her made her jump.

"Excuse me, you Rosalie Curtis?"

Rosalie turned slowly towards the voice and gave a start at its owner. A tall man, looking to be in his early twenties was staring down at her. He had dark drown hair and icy blue eyes, but that wasn't what made Rosalie take a step back. The man was huge, with intimidating muscles showing through his dirty white t-shirt. Rosalie had never been very comfortable around boys, with all the sleazy men around her apartment in New York. This was part of the reason she was so nervous to be in Tulsa living with her three male cousins.

"Yes" she answered shakily.

The man nodded, his eyes relaxed some.

"I'm Darry, your oldest cousin, I'm 21. It's nice to finally meet you."

Rosalie gave a small responding smile.

"Where are your bags?"

Rosalie hesitated before holding up her backpack,

"This is it, I don't own much."

Darry nodded again, before taking the bag and motioning for Rosalie to follow him.

He led her to an old beaten and rusty red pick-up. After Rosalie got in the truck and buckled up, Darry pulled away from the train station and Rosalie sighed.

After about ten minutes of awkward silence, Darry cleared his throat,

"Our house, our being me and my two younger brothers, is pretty small, but it's nice enough. You'll have your own room, but I expect that you will help around the house, chores and stuff. There are also a bunch of other boys, out friends that hang around so much they practically live there too, but they're nice enough."

Rosalie just listened to Darry talk while staring out the trucks window. She watched as the larger nice looking houses that frightened her at first slowly grow smaller and shabbier until Darry pulled up to a small yellow house with a swinging bench on the front porch.

Rosalie stepped out of the truck and followed Darry up the front steps and through the front door. The first things she noticed as she walked into the house was the noise and the smell. It was outrageously loud, with music blasting, a TV blaring, and she could here multiple curses that made her blush slightly. She could smell strongly the sour stench of stale beer, cigarette smoke, and burnt food.

She stood in the doorway, her timidness taking over as she took in the six new male faces in the cramped room. She almost forgot why she was there until she heard Darry holler for everyone to be quiet.

"What's up, Dar?" A boy with beautiful wheat colored hair and warm brown eyes asked. He was alarmingly handsome, and even though Rosalie thought he resembled Darry slightly, he didn't scare her at all.

"Who's the broad?" she heard a smooth cold voice ask. She spun her eyes to a tough blonde boy that looked about seventeen. He had a very Elvin looking face, and while it looked impassive his blue eyes were full of a raging fire that made Rosalie quickly look down, but not before she saw a corner of the boy's lip turn up in a slight smirk.

"She's real cute, where you find a doll like her?" A boy, which looked almost like a man with his long rusty sideburns and stocky build asked. Rosalie would have been more frightened if it weren't for his comical grin and Mickey Mouse shirt.

"The train station," Darry snapped back, "guys, this is Rosalie Curtis, mine, Soda's, and Pony's cousin from New York. Rosalie, this is the gang. My brothers, Sodapop and Pony boy," Sodapop turned out to the be movie star looking boy Rosalie thought looked like Darry and Ponyboy was a younger dreamy looking kid with hair a few shades darker than her own and gray-green eyes.

"That's Keith Matthews, better known as Two-bit," Darry continued pointing to the boy in the Mickey Mouse shirt who grinned wider when Darry said his name.

"That there is Johnny Cade," Johnny was a boy that looked about Ponyboy's age with greased black hair and big, lost looking black eyes. He looked to be just as shy as Rosalie, and that made her feel a little bit more at ease.

Next was the scary looking blonde, with blazing eyes,

"Dallas, or Dally Winston,"

Then Darry pointed to the last boy playing poker with Soda who looked to be about seventeen. He immediately caught Rosalie's attention. His hair was in complicated black swirls and he has a very standoffish look in his dark green eyes, but it wasn't the way he looked that made Rosalie look at him curiously, it was what Darry called him.

"And that is Steve Randle."

Randle, Rosalie thought, and then mentally shaking her head, she smiled shyly at the boys, giving a small wave.

"Hello, it's nice to meet you all."

There was a short pause as the boys stared at her.

"You're the Curtis cousin," Two-bit broke the silence, as he slung an arm around her shoulders making Rosalie flinch slightly.

"Man, Soda, how'd you manage to get such a good looking relative? She's a doll."

"Shut it, Two-bit," Darry warned as Rosalie flushed.

"Come, sit," Sodapop suggested, pointing at a spot beside Ponyboy on the couch, noticing her discomfort, "Tell us about yourself."

Slowly Rosalie weaved her way through he tangle of furniture and limbs before settling herself beside Ponyboy, giving him a smile.

"Well, you already know my name, Rosalie, but you can call me Rose if you'd like. I'll be sixteen in two weeks, and until today I lived in New York, that's about it."

"How exactly are you related to us?" Ponyboy asked from beside her.

Surprised, Rosalie stared at Ponyboy before answering,

"My mother, Carol Curtis was your father's younger sister. She- got pregnant with me at seventeen," she explained leaving out exactly how her mother got pregnant.

"Her parents, our grandparents kicked her out of the house, so she moved to New York, and had me."

The was a short pause before Pony asked,

"What happened to her?"

"Pony," Soda began.

"No it's fine," Rosalie insisted, "about two weeks ago I got home from school to find my mother and all her stuff gone. Two days later some guy from the state took me to a girls' home, and now here I am."

Silence followed Rosalie's explanation and she nervously looked down at her clenched hands in her lap.

"Well," Soda reassured, "don't' worry about it, we're your family now, and we ain't never going to leave you."

"Thank you," Rosalie smiled.

"Don't mention it," Darry insisted, "Come on, I'll show you to your room."

Rosalie stood back up, more confident and followed Darry down the hall.

well, there's chapter one, finally, i hope you liked it. I'm still looking for a beta, and i promise to update soon.