Disclaimer: I don't own The Outsiders or any of its affiliates. That'd be cool if I did though. I love that book! The movie wasn't so great.
A/N: I know I haven't finished my Furuba stuff yet, but I couldn't help it. I read The Outsiders for the millionth time last month and I just had to write about it! Haha, well anyway, I hope you enjoy! And don't flame, but DO REVIEW!
It all started out fairly normally. I was just walking down the street one day, suitcase in hand, waiting for the bus that would take me directly to Seattle. I took out my favorite book of all time from my purse: The Outsiders. I loved that book. I loved the characters in the book. I found I could always relate to Ponyboy, no matter what situation I was in in my life. The bus pulled up as I opened it to the first page. I stepped up on the bus and read the first three words. Suddenly, the world began to spin.
Everything was black. All kinds of weird sounds were going on around me. Pirates shouting, parrots cawing, roosters crowing, an opera star singing, crash, booms, and bangs. Gunshots, the shouts of "Yee-haw!" and the thumping of horse hooves. The sound of china chinking together, and finally the sound of nothing. I could feel my feet on something solid again. Unfortunately, I was no longer holding my suitcase or my book. I was positive that the bus driver and the occupants on the bus must have thought that I was acting quite strangely. I giggled a little, and opened my eyes, fully expecting to see a befuddled bus driver.
"Uh, ma'am?"
It was not the bus driver. No, it was a boy about my height, with sandy blonde hair and blue-green eyes. He looked a lot the way I would have imagined Ponyboy to look. But that was crazy. He must be getting on the bus too, and wondering where my suitcase, purse, and book had gone, just as I was wondering.
"Ma'am, are you okay?"
I looked around, ignoring the boy. Where was the bus? Where were the people? There was no one around. No one. Just the boy, a movie theater with a fifties theme, and cracked sidewalk.
"Ma'am?"
I looked at the boy again. "I'm fine. Where's the bus depot?"
"Bus depot?" He looked thoroughly confused.
I was feeling impatience and a little bit of fear begin to creep up from the pit of my stomach. "Yes," I said slowly. "The bus depot."
"The bus depot is way down there. And how did you get here all of a sudden?"
I shook my head. "No, no I was just at the bus depot. I had a suitcase, and a book, and a purse…and…and…I was going to Seattle!" I was really starting to feel afraid now, spinning around in circles trying to find the bus.
A blue Corvair started pulling up beside us. There were about five boys in there, all dressed very nicely for a Saturday afternoon. They whistled and asked Ponyboy how a greaser like him had picked up such a pretty dame.
"Excuse me?" I asked. The fear was still definitely there, but a huge wave of indignation and anger had swept it away.
The boys sniggered and drove away. One leaned out the window and called out something I won't write down.
I looked back at the boy. He was blushing and his ears looked like they were about to start steaming they were so red.
"Calm down. I live in Seattle. I've heard worse." I was pretty angry myself, but he didn't seem angry, just embarrassed.
"They shouldn't talk to ladies like that," he mumbled. I was a little taken aback. He had called me a lady. No one had called me a lady since my kindergarten teacher had said, "Take that play-dough out of your mouth this instant young lady!"
"Anyway," he continued, looking up at me. His face had returned to its normal color, but his ears were still burning. "My name's Ponyboy Curtis."
Disbelief made everything seem a lot slower. "What?" I said. The word seemed to take a month to get out of my mouth. "What did you say?"
"My name is Ponyboy Curtis."
"That's impossible."
It was the boy's turn to look indignant. "Look, it's what my parents named me okay? And don't give me any grief about it. I happen to like my name."
"Yeah, I like the name of the fictional book character too. But that person is fictional." He just continued to look at me as though I were speaking German. "Fiction!" I yelled. "Fiction!" He just shrugged and started to walk away. I just shook my head and caught up to him.
"So where are we, Ponyboy?" I had decided someone must have been playing a trick on me.
"South east." I just laughed. We were no where near the southeast. But if I laughed at this absurd joke, maybe it would end quicker. Sally was always trying to pull stuff like this on me. Of course, she'd never been able to do anything this elaborate. The sounds when I was still spinning and in black (how did she manage that?) were very good. And this person really did look like the person S.E. Hinton had described in her book.
"Well, where are we going?"
He looked at me strangely. Apparently he hadn't been aware I was going to follow him until he led me back to the bus depot so I could finally confront Sally about this. It was so not cool to take away my purse, with all of my money in it except for the twenty in my pocket, and my suitcase, and my favorite book. Even if she was trying to put me in my favorite book, it still wasn't cool.
"I am going home." He continued walking.
Suddenly, the fear was coming back. It crept up my spine like cold water. "What year is it Ponyboy?"
Again he looked at me like I must be a lunatic. "1960."
The fear had now reached an escalating pitch. Now there were whoops, and the sound of male voices coming near us. I looked away from "Ponyboy" and saw five other boys walking toward us.
The one in the lead was big. Not fat big, but he was incredibly built, with a short crew cut. The one right next to him was about as tall as the boy next to me, and so handsome I couldn't help the little giggly feeling I felt building up in my chest. Behind them were three other boys. One was really dark, with black hair falling in his black eyes. The other one also had dark hair that was greased into complicated swirls. The one next to him had a cigarette hanging out of his mouth, and blonde, almost platinum, hair that wasn't greased like the other boys'. They were all wearing clothes from the fifties. This was so weird. And Sally certainly couldn't afford to pay all of the boys to wear these clothes and act like gang members. Could she? No. And she wouldn't go to all this trouble anyway. So what was the deal?
"Hey Pony," said the one that looked like a Grecian god. "Who's the girl?"
I giggled. I quickly stifled it. I was not going to make a fool of myself in front of these thugs that Sally had paid to scare me.
"My name is Sassy. Well, my real name is Sarah Winters, but everyone calls me Sassy." Was I babbling? I made my face behave, and not start blushing.
"Okay," the big one said kind of slowly. "Well, I'm Darrel Curtis, and this is my younger brother Sodapop Curtis. Ponyboy is also my brother."
"Yeah," I said and started laughing. "And I'm really in the year 1960. What is this? Did Sally put y'all up to this?" So far, all I was getting was confused stares. But I didn't care. The fear inside me was so bad now I felt like I was going to wet my pants. Where was I? Who were these people? Then a sudden calm settled over me. Of course! Why hadn't I thought of it before? Sally didn't have enough money to put anyone up to this kind of thing. And why would she want to? I was having some kind of nervous breakdown, and reading The Outsiders had triggered this kind of delusion! It was a pretty vivid delusion though. Maybe I was already on the bus and I was dreaming. Whatever it was, I felt safe in knowing that it wasn't real. "Okay, okay, I know what it is now. I'm having a nervous breakdown," I informed them.
The big one took a step closer. I felt no fear now, because he couldn't hurt me. Delusions couldn't hurt you!
"Listen, this isn't a nervous breakdown," he said slowly, as though I were some kind of imbecile. "Or maybe you are having one, but I can assure you this is quite real."
"No…." I said. Then I remembered all the stories and movies where this kind of thing had happened. And as I watched I had always longed for the opportunity to come to some kind of imaginary place like this. But if I had known how terrifying it would have been, maybe I wouldn't have wished for it so hard. But because I had, I was now in a serious pickle. Again, everything went black. But there were no strange sound effects anymore, and the world wasn't spinning. No, colors were just too bright and why was the pavement going up so fast?
