Disclaimer: I do not own The Outsiders, S.E Hinton does.

-x-

"Sandy!"

Sandy turned and searched the crowd of students in the cafeteria in search of the person who called her name. Her first classes of the day had been doable, and she felt a hope that her grades would turn for the better with all the time she would have studying at home. Might as well make the best of it, she thought.

Sandy quickly spotted the girl from the bus, Betty Anne, and a couple of her friends, waving at her. She smiled shyly and walked over to the table they sat at.

"Hey," Sandy said quietly. and smiled. A few boys sat at the table, who quickly looked at her, then went back to talking to eachother. Betty stared at one of the boys with a dreamy look, then looked back at Sandy.

"How were your classes? Donna said that you're in her English class," Betty smiled sweetly, and looked over at the same boy. "Hey David, have you met Sandy yet? She's new."

The boy, David, looked up at Sandy and grinned. His hair was a dark chocolate brown, and his eyes matched. He sure fit the description of tall, dark, and handsome, she thought.

"Hey, Sandy," he said with a nod. She quickly said hi, and turned to Betty again.

"My classes were alright. Yeah, I saw Donna. I didn't get a chance to say hi to her, though," Sandy quickly said, thinking of how she spent majority of her classes daydreaming about Soda anyway. Making friends with her classmates seemed to be the least of her worries.

"You should totally sit beside her nexttime. The teachers here only like teaching panty waists, and us girls oughtta stick together." Betty said, nudging Sandy. Betty ate half of her lunch, and tossed the rest of it into a trash can. "Gotta watch my figure," Betty whispered to Sandy with a wink. Sandy's eyes widened, and Betty broke into laughter. "Relax, girl!"

Sandy forced a smile, but felt her stomach twist. Watching her figure wasn't an option.

Throughout the lunch break, it became evident that David was the cool cat of the group- the other guys agreed with everything he said, and Betty couldn't keep her eyes off of him. It also became evident that David couldn't keep his eyes off of Sandy. Every time that Sandy looked around at the group, she would catch him staring at her. She quickly turned away whenever this happened, and became distracted with thoughts of back home.

She could be in Tulsa, skipping a class to see Soda at work. He'd tell her about the work he'd done in the day, and she would smile as he rambled on and on about things she didn't understand at all, but things that which she knew he was passionate about. His eyes would light up with excitement, and her heart rate would slow down comfortably, his presence always relaxing for her.

And then there was the dark eyes that kept breaking her thoughts...

David was still drawing designs on her, which was starting to make her uncomfortable. She looked away, not wanting to meet his gaze. She couldn't stand the thought of another man looking at her that way; the way Soda used to undress her with his eyes before they would meet eachothers passionate embrace. The thought of David doing the same made her feel dizzy, and she stood up from the table abruptly.

"Sandy?" Betty asked, looking at her surprisedly. Sandy put her hand to her head, then realized that she didn't need to worry about her diziness. She started walking, and then broke into a run before clutching her stomache and heaving into the trash can. Her mouth tasted bitter, especially from the absence of breakfast, and tears spilled down her cheeks. She heard her name called, and several people shouting out in disgust, but didn't turn back to look when she ran out of the room.

-x-

Sandy sat in the nurses office, looking down at her hands in her lap. The nurse had left the room to get her file, and she dreaded her return. Her stomach had settled down considerably, but she still felt a knot from the thought of all of the people who saw her throw up. So much for new friends, she thought.

The nurse entered the room, and shut the door quickly. "So," she started. "you are pregnant. Have you considered how this will affect your school life? I can't imagine the kind of people you must assosciate with."

Sandy's cheeks burned red, and she swalled hard. "I'm fully aware, ma'am. My life before the baby is to be strictly focused on school, and I'm doing my best."

The nurse scowled, and shook her head. She mumbled something about youth these days, and wrote a note for her to give to the teacher of her next class. "So you won't get in trouble for being late," the nurse said as she handed it to her. Too late for that, Sandy thought bitterly.

For the remainder of the day, Sandy's motions and responses seemed purely automatic, and she felt no need to put extra thought into her work. She took notes, did what was asked, and didn't distract herself with conversation with students. As the bell rang, she stood up with her already packed up materials, and headed out the door as fast as she could.

She hurried out the steps of the school, and avoided eye contact with the students collectively filing out of the school. She grabbed a seat on the bus quickly, and prayed that nobody would sit down next to her.

Surely enough, Betty Anne slid into the seat beside her, chattering away to another girl who sat in the seat opposite from theirs. Sandy recognized the girl that was in her English class, and quickly remembered that her name was Donna.

"Honey, are you okay?" Betty exclaimed. "We were all so worried about you! It must've been the cafeteria food. The smell is so revolting sometimes, I can hardly keep food down myself!"

"Yeah... it really was awful," Sandy said, hoping for her to drop the subject. Betty gave her a sympathetic squeeze on the hand, and then turned back to continue her conversation with Donna.

"Hey, Sandy, you feeling any better?"

Sandy looked up to find David turned around in the seat in front of her. She felt her stomach lurch again, and she groaned.

"Whoa! Take it easy, kid, you don't look so hot," he said. Sandy gave him a weak smile, and then averted her eyes from him.

"Just a bit embarassed, that's all. Not exactly a great way to get to know everyone, you dig?" She said with a shrug. He nodded, smiling.

"Yeah, I dig." He replied. She looked up at him. "Hey, you think you might want to hang at the A with us sometime? It'd be a blast with you there."

Sandy bit her lip, and nodded. "Sure," she said. Donna in the other seat leaned over and waved to her, and she smiled.

She leaned her head against the window the rest of the way home, wondering how David was so smooth with his words, and how on earth he managed to get her to agree to going out with the group outside of school. She sighed, and couldn't couldn't help wondering if she would get the chance to go out with friends when she'd have a prominent baby bump. She smirked, thinking of how foolish her thoughts were. Why worry about making friends when you're going to be a mother in a matter of months?