Title- Dealing with It

Chapter Title- The Trouble with Aunts

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers-

Darkravenx0- I am finished, and my friends and I believe I am slightly schizophrenic! See, I answered your questions. I miss you!

XAmberX- Green Day is awesome, and it's cool that you're un-defeated! Did your sister like die or something? Where'd she go?

Note- I completely finished my summer assignment…

I bet you can't guess what I did as soon as I got in. Okay, maybe you can. I ran into the bathroom. I didn't care if anybody was in there, I hoped not. Nobody was in the bathroom and I grabbed a towel. The bottom of the shower was dry which meant the last shower wasn't recent. I hoped there was enough hot water left.

I stepped into the shower and let it boil the germs off of my back. The water in the motel hadn't been this hot. I closed my eyes and tried to tough it out. Finally, the water started to turn cold and I was relieved. I got out of the shower and walked into my room.

"Oh, you're back," Winnie said wrinkling her nose. If she wasn't so filthy, I would've picked her up and thrown her out the window. "You're the reason we had to come to this hell hole."

"What did you just say?" I asked her. She was seven, she shouldn't say those things! I knew I didn't.

"Mama said this place was a hell hole and that some people that lived here were dipshits." I tried not to laugh. It sounded awfully funny coming from the seven year old.

"Who is a dipshit?" I asked, careful not to laugh.

"She said your mom had about the sense of a donkey, the only thing your dad had going for him was his good looks, your brother never spoke and he was stupid and you were crazy." Gee, if Aunt Megan didn't like us, why'd she bother coming over? Oh, yeah, that's right, Uncle Steve probably made her.

I stared at Winnie for a bit, debating what to do. Finally I ran into the living room and launched myself at Aunt Megan. She had been standing behind the couch. She pushed me off of her but I just ran back, jumped up, wrapped my arm around her neck (to hold on) and punched her. I couldn't believe I was touching her.

"Never, ever talk shit about my family. It's your family too! My mom happens to be very smart, she took me to New York to get help, you're just jealous 'cause my dad is better lookin' than you, Nate doesn't have to speak and who cares if I'm crazy?" I screamed.

I knew everybody was staring and Megan was shouting at me. She seemed so nice when Uncle Steve was dating her, as soon as Winnie came along; she was the aunt from hell. Finally, mom grabbed my arms and tried to pull me off of her. I let go of Megan and let mom drag me into my room. She didn't say anything, but went back into the living room. I watched from the window as Winnie, Megan, and Steve headed to the car. Steve was ahead of Winnie and Megan. Megan was carrying Winnie like she was three.

"Ronnie, sweetie," mom said. She knocked on the door lightly and opened it. "What's wrong baby? Why did you jump Megan like that?"

"Winnie," I muttered, "she said some things that she claimed Megan said."

"Like what?" she asked, pressing further into the subject.

"She said you didn't have any sense, the only thing daddy had was good looks, Nate was dumb and I was crazy," I answered. I sounded a little like a six year old, but I didn't care. I was fifteen and I could act like a six year old if I wanted. I had a grin for that.

Mom gave me a hug and left the room. I heard her say something like 'if you're gonna smoke, do it outside.' But, nobody here smoked. At least, not anybody I knew of. I peeked out my window, my behavior was getting less and less like a fifteen year olds. I saw Uncle Steve's car in our driveway and he was smoking outside. He was the only one there. I opened my window so I could hear.

"Look, Steve, I'm sorry about Ronnie before," my mom began to say.

"It's not a big deal," he told her. I saw them sit down on the porch steps. "I was thinking about breaking up with Megan, and then she told me she was pregnant. I tried to do the right thing, I married her. She's a bitch and that's all it is. She was so fake before Winnie. She lied and everybody liked her, now I hate her and I can't do anything about it because of Winnie."

"Have you ever tried to talk to her about it?" mom asked.

"Yeah, but if I have to hear another Steven I'm gonna kill somebody. It's worse than when the ol' man said it. She insists on callin' everybody by there full first name. Winifred, I hate it," he muttered.

"Well, does she know you hate it?"

"No, I don't talk to her much. Just when I ask her if we can come over here and when we are here. I didn't want people to know about our problems. When she's in a good mood, I can tell. She's bearable and she always heads to the bedroom early 'to slip into something more comfortable'. I can't say no, she'd make a scene about it and everything I tried to hide from Winnie will be in the open."

"Maybe you shouldn't hide things from Winnie. It's only gonna hurt more if she finds out."

"Yeah, well, I think I'm gonna spend the night here, 'kay?" he asked and looked at mom. She nodded. "Where's Ronnie? I wanna talk to her." Mom pointed into the house and I sat on my bed catching up on the homework Nate had brought home for me. He knocked on the door.

"C'min," I said, not looking up. I felt him sit on the edge of my bed.

"What happened earlier?" he asked. I didn't look at him.

"Your wife," I spat at him. I kept writing and reading.

"I don't like her anymore than you do," he responded.

"Look, you can't understand how I feel, so don't try! It wasn't your mom she said had the common sense of donkey. It wasn't your dad that she said only had his good looks going for him. It wasn't your brother that she called stupid and it wasn't you that she called crazy! And get the hell off of my bed because you are making the sheets dirty!" I yelled at him. I threw my books off of the bed and started to pull the sheets off to wash them.

"C'mon Ronnie," he said grabbing my wrist.

"Get off of me! You are filthy! And you aren't the one that needs to apologize!" I shouted at him. I threw the sheets in the washing machine and turned it on. "I'm going for a walk!" I yelled to nobody in particular and opened the door. I slammed it shut behind me and started to walk down the road.

I need reviews! I love them so much! I know people are reading this and it is pissing me off that you aren't reviewing. I really want to know how to make this better and other things like that! Plus, I always could use a few friends aside from the ones it my mind. AOL Instant Messenger: gcbabe1891 or xshellzx1891x… my Yahoo! Instant Messenger is in my profile under OTHER THINGS since I can't have underscore-thingies here.