Chapter One
I'm A Loser
I'm a loser,
and I'm not what I appear to be.

Johnny Cade had not been mad, or even terribly surprised, when he got his sophomore schedule and saw that he had been placed in LD classes. He wouldn't have minded much at all if they'd at least told him, but being that they hadn't said a word, he figured it was some sort of mistake. So instead of going to his period one Special Ed Geometry class, he went to the main office. As soon as he opened the door, he could tell that everyone in the room was thinking the same thing: Not even five minutes into the school year and the Greaser is already in trouble. He tried to ignore it, and he might have been able to had he not seen that look countless times before; that kind of "you're lower than the dirt under my shoe" look isn't one that you really warm up to.

He stood at the desk and waited for almost ten minutes for one of the office aids to help him. He was very seriously considering leaving and simply accepting his LD adorned fate when he finally heard footsteps. He looked up to a girl who looked vaguely familiar coming out of the principal's office, holding a clipboard and a stack of files. For a minute, he was startled by her. She looked like a ghost, all airy and light. With her long white-blond hair and very pale skin, she was almost colorless except for big, watery green eyes. She was not pretty at all.

She stopped and stared at Johnny for a very long minute before saying, "Is there anything I can do for you?" Her voice was soft but very clear. He suddenly realized that she was a Soc, dressed in her cheerleading uniform: a navy blue sweater with a big yellow "T" on it (Go, Tulsa Titans!) and pleated white skirt. Though he wouldn't admit it to anyone, he was intimidated.

"Uh, my schedule… it says I was put in LD classes?"

She stared at him, her light eyebrows disappearing under her bangs.

"But, uh, nobody told me about it or anything, so I figured it was a mistake."

"Maybe your notice got lost or something. What's your name?"

He frowned. He was irritated that she really thought-- no, was really convinced that he was in Special Ed. Probably just because he was a known Greaser, and looked like one, too, but it was still a little irking.

"Johnny Cade," he mumbled, knowing that he was very red. "But I really think there's a mistake." Her disbelief fueled his persistance.

Ignoring him, she pulled out his file (which, by the way, had been in her stack; Why was she carrying my file? he wondered silently.) and flipped through it. She stopped suddenly and her cheeks turned pink. "Oh. I think we sent you Johnny Cadman's schedule." Johnny's face became even redder. Johnny Cadman was one of the dopiest kids at Tulsa High.

"I'm so sorry," she said, frantically flipping through his file again. "Can you wait here for a couple more minutes? I have to fix it. What classes were you supposed to take?"

He listed off his classes, a little ashamed that they didn't make him sound smart. He thought of his best buddy, Ponyboy Curtis, and wished he had Pony's brains. She held up her pointer finger to tell him to wait, and then scurried back into the principal's office. Johnny sat down on one of the stiff wooden chairs, assuming it would be a while. He hadn't gotten much sleep the night before, and he was tired. He started to doze off in the chair.

"Hey, Johnnycake!" Johnny woke with a start. He looked up at the clock; it had only been five minutes.

"Hey. What are you doing here?" he asked Two-Bit, who plopped himself in the seat beside Johnny.

"Got in trouble."

"Already?"

"Yeah, well, that stupid Mrs. Burns is a little- hey, Toucan!"

Johnny turned to see the blonde girl coming from the office. She stopped like a deer in headlights. At first, Johnny couldn't figure out that nickname- Toucan. But then it caught his eye; how had he not seen it before? Her nose was huge. She frowned at Two-Bit and handed Johnny his revised schedule. Two-Bit was laughing at himself, like always, but Johnny had the urge to shove a sock in his friend's mouth. Ducking her head, she disappeared through another door that lead to what one could assume was some sort of lounge. Soon after, another girl came out to deal with Two-bit.

***

"Johnny, eat something," said Soda, walking by the couch where Johnny was sitting.

"We're about to have dinner. I didn't cook, so you don't have to worry." He grinned. Soda knew he wasn't the greatest chef in the world.

"If you're sure you made enough," Johnny said hesitantly, standing up.

"Don't worry about it, Johnnyboy. I got it covered," he said, messing up Johnny's hair before moving on to set the table. Normally, he hated people messing up his hair, but he didn't mind it so much when the Curtises did it. As far as Johnny was concerned, the Curtis family could do no wrong. "Come take a seat."

Johnny sat down across from Pony with Darry and Soda sitting on the ends. All of the boys took huge helpings of everything and dug right in.

"How was your first day, Pony? Johnny?" asked Darry through a mouth full of potatoes.

"Fine," Johnny mumbled. Pony looked at Johnny; he was the only person who knew about Johnny's LD incident. He broke into a grin.

"What?" asked Soda, looking from Johnny to Pony. Pony burst into giggles and Johnny turned red. "Well, Johnny got put in Special Ed."

Everyone's heads snapped to their little dark friend. Thanks, Pony.

"Special Ed?" Darry echoed after a short pause. Johnny turned an even deeper shade of crimson. "Not really. I got sent the wrong schedule."

"Ohh, I see," came a chorus of the Curtises. Johnny prepared to attack Pony after dinner.

"Oh, the Doles are coming over for dinner on Saturday," said Darry, making a smooth transition that Johnny was thankful for. "Jim called last night to tell me he'd be in town this weekend," he said.

Darry and the oldest Dole son, Jimmy, were best friends, but hardly ever got to see each other because Jimmy went to Arizona State.

"Are all of them coming over?" asked Soda, his ears perking up. The Dole family and Curtis family had been good friends for a long time, mostly because of Darry and Jimmy. "Lucy, Sam, and Lydia, too?"

"Yep," Darry said.

"I haven't seen Sam in a while," said Soda excitedly. Though Soda was a little older than Sam, the middle daughter, they had always naturally been close. Lydia, the youngest daughter, and Pony were the same age, as were Darry, Lucy, and Jim, so Sam and Soda always hung out together. They were good friends, but hardly ever saw each other now that Soda had dropped out of school.

While the three brother buzzed excitedly about their friends, Johnny sat feeling confused. As long as he'd been friends with the Curtis brothers, he had never once met the Doles. Their school was relatively big, so he'd never seen any of them (he didn't think, anyway). He supposed he would just have to wait and see.

AN: Here it is, the revamped first chapter. =) Feel freee to comment, critique, give me any ideas or thoughts you have. I appreciate your feedback.
Disclaimer: I own nothing, except for the Tulsa Titans and any characters that don't appear in the book.