Disclaimer: Anyone ya know, Hinton owns. Anyone ya don't, I do. So there!
^_^
Cutting Trees: Chapter One
Steve looked out the window of the Curtis household. -It's raining in Oklahoma, folks,- he thought. -And when it rains it pours, baby.- A loud voice broke his thoughts with a cackle, "Oh, lookie there boys! I win again."
"Damn it!" Steve yelled. "You'se a goddamn cheater that's how you'se winning!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
Soda and Pony leaned back folding their arms across their chests watching the two go at it. Neither of them were surprised when Steve threw a punch and Two-Bit got himself all worked up over that and the two hauled ass out into the front lawn, that wasn't really a lawn, and kept a hitting away at each other. Until all four noticed doubtfully brown eyes surveying them. Looking up from socking a laughing Two-Bit, who's true cards. rather colors, were beginning to show up in his sleeves, Steve saw a girl with dark brown eyes and jet black hair. Her skin sure as hell wasn't pale but it wasn't dark either and those soulful eyes were just surveying them, with one eyebrow cocked like Two-Bit but slightly more dubious.
"Uh. hello there," Steve stumbled. "I don't live here."
Soda cracked up, while Pony laughed a little quieter. Ponyboy Curtis didn't laugh as much as he had previously. Seeing your best friend die, and then the only older brother figure your best friend had, you just didn't go back to being your normal self again. He'd had six months to brood over the loss of Johnny and Dally, but their faces still hadn't gone away; even if the sound of their voices were beginning to fade. He couldn't remember what Dally's voice sounded like exactly anymore and it was killing him, slowing but surely the past that he couldn't remember was eating away at Pony's soul.
"Hello there, beyoo-tee-ful," Two-Bit licked his lips from the ground. What he wouldn't do to have a little ass sometimes.
She rolled her eyes took a drag from her cigarette in the pouring down rain and responded, "Shove it up your -sweetheart,- I only have an interesting in men."
Sodapop was hooting by now, and Two-Bit had gone from red straight to a deep purple.
Pony approached the small fence, "Just moving in?"
"Whatever gave you that idea?" she inquired sarcastically.
"I dunno -sugar,- maybe it was the boxes," Steve laid in his own fair bit of sarcasm. "And whatever shoved some stick up your tight ass I'd like to know because you sure as hell haven't lived here as long as these boys."
She shrugged, "Well, -sweetheart-, it doesn't surprise me that came out of you considering the only reason I'm looking is you were beating the shit out of some guy I have no clue who he is, but looked like he was your friend."
"That ain't the-" Ponyboy cut Steve off by stepping in front of his line of vision with the girl across the fence. "Hey Pony! Get outta the way!"
"Ponyboy Curtis," he said cordially extending his hand over the fence. "Me and my older brothers live over there. Don't pay attention to Steve, he just tags along with Soda."
"It's the other way around Buster Brown!" Steve yelled and socked Two-Bit again just to spite the new chick on the other side of the fence. That was one mean hell cat the Curtises had just gotten for a new neighbor.
Pony shot him a look, "My parents had some weird fondness for odd names. The one rolling with laughter is Sodapop."
Her confusion at each she took his extended hand, "Don't worry, Ponyboy, by parents named me Cedar-so it ain't much better. Cedar Rain to be exact."
"Cedarrain or Cedar then Rain?" Pony asked suspiciously.
"Cedar then Rain," she smiled.
"Where'd ya move from?"
"Idaho," she smiled. Pony raised his eyebrows. That was a helluva a long way. "In Coeur D'Alene, ya know? On the border? By Spokane?"
"I know where Coeur D'Alene is," he replied. "In Kootenai County ain't it? Way up in the panhandle?" She nodded. "I ain't as dumb as the rest of the idiots 'round here."
Two-Bit got up enough vehemence to yell, "Pony, why dontcha shut up? She's too old for ya!" Soda was still rolling around in the rain, laughing and laughing and laughing. Steve grumbled something about shutting up then gave Soda a like sock in the stomach too. He'd had a bad day and Two-Bit taking his money wasn't helping. Those cards were stacked, he knew and so did the rest of the world. so why did they keep letting Two-Bit deal?
"Acting a lot more mature than the rest of the hooligans down in the mud."
"You sound like a soc sister!" Two-Bit called. Steve got him again, unfortunately in the exact spot he'd been hitting him for the last five times. "Hey man! That one hurt I'll give your fucking money back already! So what? Its was just a lil' cheating fun."
"Uh huh. You try working and see what it does to you," Steve snorted, ripping his money back out of Two-Bit's pockets with water dripping down his face. "I'm soaked."
"That's what happens in the rain dumbass," Two-Bit retorted.
"Look who's talking."
"You're in a bad mood," Two-Bit commented. "You'll usually at least let me get 20 bucks before you start socking me."
"So this is a daily occurrence?" Cedar Rain inquired of Ponyboy at the fence. When he nodded, she sighed. "And I thought I'd escaped the Stone Age."
Ponyboy grinned and Soda wasn't sorry she moved in. No one could seem to muster a true smile out of the kid these days, "The cheater's Two-Bit and the one sockin' 'im's Steve."
"Some interesting friends you got Ponyboy," she winked. "An' between you and me you're a very. nice looking guy." She clicked her tongue winked and gave Steve another look of disgust before heading off into the house.
Somewhere Soda found a baseball and they were tossing it around the street when Steve suddenly turned to the new neighbor's house and made an estranged face. "That don't sound like English to me."
"You probably just can't hear it good," Soda commented nonchalantly.
"Naw, man, it seriously don't sound like English."
Soda groaned, as did Ponyboy, but Two-Bit seemed kinda puzzling. "You two ain't the experience we've had with her tongue."
"Or you wish you had with her tongue," Soda commented nudging Steve who cracked a crooked grin. Steve's grins were always crooked as if he were hiding something that no one else knew, but he couldn't completely smile because he had other stuff on his mind. Namely bills to pay.
"Yeah, I could use me a little sugar," Two-Bit replied as more unhappy noises from the home increased. "You know its real pitiful the world we live in."
"It is," Pony agreed bitterly. All three of them looked right at him.
Ponyboy Curtis was a boy grown up to a man in the night when Johnny died and Dallas Winston were both shot by the fuzz. And slowly, Two-Bit could see a little bit of the old Dally creeping into his kid brother that really wasn't his brother, only in essence. Frankly, it scared the be-Jeezus out of him. Pony was a nice kid, he got good grades then Two-Bit started figuring. Dally had been smart, real smart; he knew how to break a guy he knew how to get around the law. Dally just didn't use it in school he used it on the street.
*
"Hey guess what big bro?" Soda teased Darry. "We got ourselves a new neighbor in the old Jones place."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! She's a real piece of hotcakes too," Soda whistled. "Mmmhmm. don't see the likes of them features around here often. She was dark and yet she wasn't, ya know? All we got's a buncha bleach blondes running around with too much eye make-up!"
"Oh yeah? And just how did you run into this chick?"
Pony looked up from his book, "Well, we didn't actually run into her. Steve chases Two-Bit out 'cuz Two-Bit was cheating again, and Steve was in a bad mood. again. and she made a couple of remarks to the when Steve said some weird stuff. I ain't ever heard him be so uncomfortable. Probably went home and smoked a whole goddamn pack. Anyway, so I went over 'n talked to her. No harm in bein' friendly. Plus chicks cook better 'n Soda."
"Hey there buddy!" Soda jumped up and began tickling his younger brother. Some kids didn't like being in the middle, sure it had its horrible moments, but nothing beat being able to not have all the responsibilities and still being able to patronize someone. even if he didn't do a whole lot of patronizing.
"She's a bitch," Steve informed Darry.
"Well everyone's a bitch or an asshole with -you- today," Two-Bit smirked. "But I agree." The three of the still talking boys heard a loud yell and a crash in the next house over and the same girl that had them in a tizzy slam out her door, holding her cheek. She wrapped her arms around herself, and just when they thought she'd cry her lip curled into a snicker and then she disappeared from sight.
Steve looked at his best friend wrestling with Pony, dully stating, "Well if one thing's for sure, she keeps doing that-she's liable to get jumped."
.-*-.
A.N. Review, critique, praise, flame. what's your pleasure? LOL! Anyway, I can't get the damn italics to work anymore and I don't know why, they've always worked before. . grr! So sorry about the annoying symbols. R & R! ^_^
Cutting Trees: Chapter One
Steve looked out the window of the Curtis household. -It's raining in Oklahoma, folks,- he thought. -And when it rains it pours, baby.- A loud voice broke his thoughts with a cackle, "Oh, lookie there boys! I win again."
"Damn it!" Steve yelled. "You'se a goddamn cheater that's how you'se winning!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
"Am not!"
"Are too!"
Soda and Pony leaned back folding their arms across their chests watching the two go at it. Neither of them were surprised when Steve threw a punch and Two-Bit got himself all worked up over that and the two hauled ass out into the front lawn, that wasn't really a lawn, and kept a hitting away at each other. Until all four noticed doubtfully brown eyes surveying them. Looking up from socking a laughing Two-Bit, who's true cards. rather colors, were beginning to show up in his sleeves, Steve saw a girl with dark brown eyes and jet black hair. Her skin sure as hell wasn't pale but it wasn't dark either and those soulful eyes were just surveying them, with one eyebrow cocked like Two-Bit but slightly more dubious.
"Uh. hello there," Steve stumbled. "I don't live here."
Soda cracked up, while Pony laughed a little quieter. Ponyboy Curtis didn't laugh as much as he had previously. Seeing your best friend die, and then the only older brother figure your best friend had, you just didn't go back to being your normal self again. He'd had six months to brood over the loss of Johnny and Dally, but their faces still hadn't gone away; even if the sound of their voices were beginning to fade. He couldn't remember what Dally's voice sounded like exactly anymore and it was killing him, slowing but surely the past that he couldn't remember was eating away at Pony's soul.
"Hello there, beyoo-tee-ful," Two-Bit licked his lips from the ground. What he wouldn't do to have a little ass sometimes.
She rolled her eyes took a drag from her cigarette in the pouring down rain and responded, "Shove it up your -sweetheart,- I only have an interesting in men."
Sodapop was hooting by now, and Two-Bit had gone from red straight to a deep purple.
Pony approached the small fence, "Just moving in?"
"Whatever gave you that idea?" she inquired sarcastically.
"I dunno -sugar,- maybe it was the boxes," Steve laid in his own fair bit of sarcasm. "And whatever shoved some stick up your tight ass I'd like to know because you sure as hell haven't lived here as long as these boys."
She shrugged, "Well, -sweetheart-, it doesn't surprise me that came out of you considering the only reason I'm looking is you were beating the shit out of some guy I have no clue who he is, but looked like he was your friend."
"That ain't the-" Ponyboy cut Steve off by stepping in front of his line of vision with the girl across the fence. "Hey Pony! Get outta the way!"
"Ponyboy Curtis," he said cordially extending his hand over the fence. "Me and my older brothers live over there. Don't pay attention to Steve, he just tags along with Soda."
"It's the other way around Buster Brown!" Steve yelled and socked Two-Bit again just to spite the new chick on the other side of the fence. That was one mean hell cat the Curtises had just gotten for a new neighbor.
Pony shot him a look, "My parents had some weird fondness for odd names. The one rolling with laughter is Sodapop."
Her confusion at each she took his extended hand, "Don't worry, Ponyboy, by parents named me Cedar-so it ain't much better. Cedar Rain to be exact."
"Cedarrain or Cedar then Rain?" Pony asked suspiciously.
"Cedar then Rain," she smiled.
"Where'd ya move from?"
"Idaho," she smiled. Pony raised his eyebrows. That was a helluva a long way. "In Coeur D'Alene, ya know? On the border? By Spokane?"
"I know where Coeur D'Alene is," he replied. "In Kootenai County ain't it? Way up in the panhandle?" She nodded. "I ain't as dumb as the rest of the idiots 'round here."
Two-Bit got up enough vehemence to yell, "Pony, why dontcha shut up? She's too old for ya!" Soda was still rolling around in the rain, laughing and laughing and laughing. Steve grumbled something about shutting up then gave Soda a like sock in the stomach too. He'd had a bad day and Two-Bit taking his money wasn't helping. Those cards were stacked, he knew and so did the rest of the world. so why did they keep letting Two-Bit deal?
"Acting a lot more mature than the rest of the hooligans down in the mud."
"You sound like a soc sister!" Two-Bit called. Steve got him again, unfortunately in the exact spot he'd been hitting him for the last five times. "Hey man! That one hurt I'll give your fucking money back already! So what? Its was just a lil' cheating fun."
"Uh huh. You try working and see what it does to you," Steve snorted, ripping his money back out of Two-Bit's pockets with water dripping down his face. "I'm soaked."
"That's what happens in the rain dumbass," Two-Bit retorted.
"Look who's talking."
"You're in a bad mood," Two-Bit commented. "You'll usually at least let me get 20 bucks before you start socking me."
"So this is a daily occurrence?" Cedar Rain inquired of Ponyboy at the fence. When he nodded, she sighed. "And I thought I'd escaped the Stone Age."
Ponyboy grinned and Soda wasn't sorry she moved in. No one could seem to muster a true smile out of the kid these days, "The cheater's Two-Bit and the one sockin' 'im's Steve."
"Some interesting friends you got Ponyboy," she winked. "An' between you and me you're a very. nice looking guy." She clicked her tongue winked and gave Steve another look of disgust before heading off into the house.
Somewhere Soda found a baseball and they were tossing it around the street when Steve suddenly turned to the new neighbor's house and made an estranged face. "That don't sound like English to me."
"You probably just can't hear it good," Soda commented nonchalantly.
"Naw, man, it seriously don't sound like English."
Soda groaned, as did Ponyboy, but Two-Bit seemed kinda puzzling. "You two ain't the experience we've had with her tongue."
"Or you wish you had with her tongue," Soda commented nudging Steve who cracked a crooked grin. Steve's grins were always crooked as if he were hiding something that no one else knew, but he couldn't completely smile because he had other stuff on his mind. Namely bills to pay.
"Yeah, I could use me a little sugar," Two-Bit replied as more unhappy noises from the home increased. "You know its real pitiful the world we live in."
"It is," Pony agreed bitterly. All three of them looked right at him.
Ponyboy Curtis was a boy grown up to a man in the night when Johnny died and Dallas Winston were both shot by the fuzz. And slowly, Two-Bit could see a little bit of the old Dally creeping into his kid brother that really wasn't his brother, only in essence. Frankly, it scared the be-Jeezus out of him. Pony was a nice kid, he got good grades then Two-Bit started figuring. Dally had been smart, real smart; he knew how to break a guy he knew how to get around the law. Dally just didn't use it in school he used it on the street.
*
"Hey guess what big bro?" Soda teased Darry. "We got ourselves a new neighbor in the old Jones place."
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah! She's a real piece of hotcakes too," Soda whistled. "Mmmhmm. don't see the likes of them features around here often. She was dark and yet she wasn't, ya know? All we got's a buncha bleach blondes running around with too much eye make-up!"
"Oh yeah? And just how did you run into this chick?"
Pony looked up from his book, "Well, we didn't actually run into her. Steve chases Two-Bit out 'cuz Two-Bit was cheating again, and Steve was in a bad mood. again. and she made a couple of remarks to the when Steve said some weird stuff. I ain't ever heard him be so uncomfortable. Probably went home and smoked a whole goddamn pack. Anyway, so I went over 'n talked to her. No harm in bein' friendly. Plus chicks cook better 'n Soda."
"Hey there buddy!" Soda jumped up and began tickling his younger brother. Some kids didn't like being in the middle, sure it had its horrible moments, but nothing beat being able to not have all the responsibilities and still being able to patronize someone. even if he didn't do a whole lot of patronizing.
"She's a bitch," Steve informed Darry.
"Well everyone's a bitch or an asshole with -you- today," Two-Bit smirked. "But I agree." The three of the still talking boys heard a loud yell and a crash in the next house over and the same girl that had them in a tizzy slam out her door, holding her cheek. She wrapped her arms around herself, and just when they thought she'd cry her lip curled into a snicker and then she disappeared from sight.
Steve looked at his best friend wrestling with Pony, dully stating, "Well if one thing's for sure, she keeps doing that-she's liable to get jumped."
.-*-.
A.N. Review, critique, praise, flame. what's your pleasure? LOL! Anyway, I can't get the damn italics to work anymore and I don't know why, they've always worked before. . grr! So sorry about the annoying symbols. R & R! ^_^