Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- School and the Queen of Evenness

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers-

XAmberX- Here's some more!

Punkforever- Ouch, sounds like something my sister would do

Anybody wanna join my mob and torch some schools with me? It'll be fun!

Note- Do you know how much you can learn by looking at somebody's iPod? I learned a lot about my best friend's taste in music. She doesn't care about styles. She has songs ranging from "The Clincher" by Chevelle to "Ass Like That" by Enimem. I really never thought she was into music like Chevelle. She always plays the hip-hop and rap music. So, you learn a lot about looking at somebody's iPod. I know a lot about her, so we aren't strangers. It's just weird, but, we never let music take control of our friendship. I put up with her hip-hop and rap and she put up with my obsession with Good Charlotte and Green Day.

I thought, maybe over the weekend, maybe over Thanksgiving break, things would get better. I had school on Monday, which would prove to be the test. How was I going to get through school? There were a lot of little kids there. Little kids that I could kill if I said the wrong thing. They would lose their will to live. It would be my fault. I would kill again. I didn't want to.

I woke up Monday and went to the bathroom. I spent my four minutes in there as usual. I made sure everything was even. All four toothbrushes were straight on the rack. I opened the door and walked into the living room. I grabbed my shoes and tied them. Each bow had to be the same size as the other one. If it was just a little off, I pulled out both bows and fixed them. Sometimes it took three tries, and then I would pull it out, that was an uneven number.

"Ronnie, you're going to be late," Miss Mathews called. Nate was pulling on my hand, he liked school. He started to like it more after I hit that kid. I was staring at the clock. As soon as it hit 8:30 I would go out. 8:29, 8:30, I grabbed my bag and headed out to the car. I counted the steps I took. 14, plus the step I would take to get into the car. That would be 15, 15 is uneven. I took a step back and then took a large step into the car. Miss Mathews stared at me. I waved and noticed my fingernails. They were uneven from being chewed. I would fix that later.

We pulled up at the school around 8:35, five minutes late. I waited an extra minute, holding Nate back. I couldn't be five minutes late, no, six was better. Six was even. I sat at my desk and got out my scissors. I started to cut my nails, but it was hard. The scissors weren't sharp enough. I had made my one thumb bloody from trying to cut. One, one, one, it echoed in my head. Uneven, I thought. I worked on making the other one bleed.

"Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie," I heard somebody say. I was busy making things even, I couldn't be bothered. My two pencils were different lengths. I was at the pencil sharpener, I was making them even. My thumbs were a dark red, from the semi-dry blood.

"Ronnie," the same caring voice said. The teacher grabbed my thumbs.

"What happened?" she asked. I shrugged. I wasn't talking.

"Veronica Curtis, you've always spoken out of turn. Now, you expect me to believe you? Who did this?" I pulled my thumbs out of her hands and pointed at me. She gasped and led me out of the classroom. I made this weird noise and extended my hand to Nate. He looked up and walked over to us. I grabbed his hand and held on.

"You did this to yourself?" I nodded.

"Why?" she asked, pressing further than I wanted to go. I started to feel really bad and shook. Nate squeezed my hand. It was his way of saying 'be strong'. I don't think he knew about my evenness. Nobody knew, just me. Nobody understood why I spent a minute in the bathroom doing nothing, or why I wouldn't talk. There were too many words that were uneven. I couldn't say them.

We got home and mom was still in bed. That was bothering me. Yeah, good, I've started to care. No, I haven't. There were only three of us eating dinner. You know what that is, don't you? It's uneven. Sometimes, I tried to get Chocolate to sit in the chair. He didn't want to stay in it.

"Ronnie, honey, what are you doing to your chicken?" dad asked me at dinner that night. I was pulling it in half, and then pulling those halves in half, and so on. I shrugged and put a piece in my mouth. I chewed it 20 times, way past the point of chewing. It had become a paste in my mouth and you didn't need to chew it. I swallowed and then took two sips of my water.

"So, Ronnie, just because Nate talks once-in-awhile, you've decided to become the silent one. I know you can't do that for long." I just stared at him. Did he want to bet? I could do it forever. I noticed this weird mark on his nose. It looked like teeth marks. Did a vampire bite him? I wouldn't find out. I wasn't about to ask him. If I did, that meant I had to talk to him, I wasn't talking to anybody.

I was lying on my back that night. I normally lay on my stomach, but my stomach was worn out from all those years. The seven uneven years. I don't know why that bugged me. I really tried to stop. I tried to only spend three minutes in the bathroom, but my body didn't want to turn that door knob. I tried to kiss my dad good-night only once, but my body automatically gave him a second kiss and on the other cheek. I wanted somebody to pick me up and take me into my mom's room, maybe if I went in there, things wouldn't need to be even. I couldn't get my body to walk there. It was out of my normal routine. Wake up, go to the bathroom, stay in there for four minutes, eat the eggs, chew 20 times, take two sips of my drink at a time, get to the car at 8:30, be six minutes late, sharpen my pencils to the same size, do school, come home, do my homework, if it was uneven: do Nate's, eat dinner, chew 20 times, take two sips of my drink at a time, eat my dessert, go to the bathroom for four minutes, go to my room, hold Nate's hands, blink my eyes twice, let go of Nate's hands, rub my eyes four times, hold his hands again, and then close my eyes. I needed everything to be that way, and my mom just didn't fit into my schedule.

I rubbed my eyes and then my hands found Nate's. I was asleep by the time I could count to ten. I never could remember if I feel asleep on an even number. I hoped I did, it would bother me if I didn't.