Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- Starting To Feel Like Home

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers-

Hideeho135- Glad you like it

XAmberX- I made somebody laugh!

Thegirloutsider- Yay! Thank you so much…

Note- Has anybody here tried jelly on their eggs? I'm just curious; I always thought that was tuff. I would've tried it, but we didn't have any eggs and when we have eggs it always seems that we don't have jelly. We mainly have granola bars… (They're okay, but after a while it's just blah)

School sucks, it's taking away my reviewers... :'(

Dad laughed and handed me a plate of eggs. I pulled out the jelly. I had actually taken a liking to the stuff. It was good. The rest of the month was boring. All of our stuff was packed away into boxes. Mom was feeling a little better. She still was puking and sleeping a lot. She hardy did anything. Occasionally she went to work. Her boss let her work whatever days she wanted too. She just had to work at least 15 hours a week, other wise she wouldn't get paid.

I didn't like the house. It wasn't my home. It didn't have the memories the old one did. The door frame didn't have the markings from our height over the years and other memories. It was empty and boring. It didn't seem to have life at all. The room Nate and I were sharing was definitely a little bit bigger than our old room, but I didn't care. It was boring. It didn't have the crayon marks on the walls from when Nate and I were younger. It had nothing.

I sat in the front yard as I watched the stuff being moved into the house. They finally told me I could go into my bedroom. I had stuff do. I had to put clothes in the closet and drawers. Nate was already working on that. I took the bag I had and pulled out the box of crayons. It was time to make this place more like home.

I spent the whole afternoon drawing pictures on the wall. It was a plain white wall without a window, before I started. Nate put away all the clothes and then joined me. He drew the pictures and I colored them. We spent all day in the room. We had kept the door locked and didn't come out for lunch. We only came out for dinner. Mom and dad hadn't seen our artwork yet.

When they came into the room, it was dark and the lights were off. They gave us our good-night kisses and then left. They didn't notice. We were still alive. The next morning I woke up early and I woke up Nate. I knew that mom would be really mad about it. I was going to keep them from seeing it as long as I could.

"Ronnie, I need to put these blinds up in your room. Could you please move?" mom asked. I was standing in front of my bedroom door.

"No, because, um, Nate is getting changed," I lied.

"I changed his diapers, move," she demanded. Dad came over and lifted me to the side. I laughed out of fear. My mom walked into the bedroom and I peeked in through the door. Her attention went to the wall.

"VERONICA LYNN CURTIS!" she shouted. I walked in, looking at the ground.

"Yeah," I answered.

"What the hell did you do?" Her eyes were attached to the wall. Dad came in and his jaw dropped. Our wall was covered with monkeys and dogs and people and flowers and other things.

"Sorry," I whispered.

"You better be," mom said. I could hear her getting angry.

"C'mon mom, getting angry isn't so good for the baby." If the baby was going to get me out of trouble, I would learn to like it. She sighed, walked out of the room and slammed the door shut.

"You are in there for the rest of the day. I'll bring your lunch and dinner," she shouted. I stared at dad hoping he could get me out of this. He just walked out.

"But, but I didn't do it all. Nate did some. I can't draw monkeys that good," I pleaded.

"Veronica, shut it, you are in there for the rest of the day. Talking isn't going to help you either!" Mom was mad. I felt really bad, but they dragged me out of my home and I hadn't wanted to go. I would've gone to Uncle Two-Bit's house, by sneaking out the window. The only problem was that the window was too high up and not near the bed. I wanted to borrow something from him. Something called a switchblade, so I could make markings on my door frame.

Since I couldn't go out, I had to use what I had. I looked for something that would work. I was making this place feel more like home. I don't care if somebody got killed in the process. I have a grin and I can get away with murder. Mom had taken my crayons away, so I couldn't draw them on. I waited for Nate to come in.

"Hey Nate," I said when he finally walked in. He waved. He must've felt bad about me getting blamed for the whole coloring thing.

"Can you do me a favor? Quietly go into the kitchen and get me the knife mom uses for the cake." He nodded and went out into the kitchen. I didn't need to add quietly. He came back a few seconds later with a grin on. He gave me the knife. I started to saw marking into the door frame while he looked amused. After I was done I handed him the knife. He went back into the kitchen to put it away.

Mom and dad came in that night to give us a kiss. I wondered why I didn't get a piece of cake. Then I realized I was still in trouble. I had fun entertaining myself. I looked at the door frame and admired the nice markings in it. They were kind of small, so nobody would notice them. Yeah, this place was starting to feel a little bit like home, thanks to me.