Title- Dealing with It

Chapter Title- Out of Control Tempers

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders... after all these stories...

Reviewers-

HAHAHHA- I'm sorry about the wait. Hope you enjoy

XAmberX- Oh, yeah, your brother went to college?

RangerDan- Oh no, my brownies!

Note- I start school tomorrow… I'm going to go cry. Sorry about the wait, I had to go shopping and we've been at parties this week end. Sucks, doesn't it?

"She just walked out on him?" Dad asked mom in disbelief. Mom nodded. I stared at the table and Nate's fingers as he drummed them on the table.

I hated this subject. I was there, it was my fault. No, it wasn't. It was bound to happen anyway. Why couldn't she have just taken the demon with her? Uncle Steve had no idea how to take care of a little girl. The few hours I used to spend with him were boring, and I was different from Winnie.

Aunt Megan had made Winnie the girliest girl possible. Her hair was always down and she always wore dresses and shoes. I never saw her in pants or sneakers. I used to be able to handle the talks about cars and other guy stuff, Winnie won't be able too. Uncle Steve won't be able to talk to her. She's going to want to play Barbie's and he's not going to.

Oh no!

I would have to become busy, always. I needed plans. I was not going to play Barbie's with the baby from hell, I never liked Barbie anyway. I used to pull her head off. I'm sure Winnie wanted Barbie's with heads.

I had school the next day. Good ol' school, it kept me away from Winnie. I was in high school, and she was still in elementary school. I had finished all the assigned work, which, there was a lot of. I was still stuck on this whole Aunt Megan, Uncle Steve, Winnie thing. I spent most of my time thinking about it.

"Ronnie, earth to Ronnie... VERONICA!" I turned around. I must've been really deep in thought. Nate and one of his friends were staring at me. I blushed and waved 'hi'.

"Sorry, I was, um, thinking about what we did in math today," I lied.

"Ron, we didn't have math yet today," Nate told me. I turned a darker shade of red.

"You know what I was thinking about," I said sharply.

"Oh," he responded. His friend looked at us, confused.

"Family stuff," I quickly explained. He nodded, still confused. I smiled and looked at him.

It was Josh, Nate's friend from the West-side, the richer side of town. Nobody cared that he hung around us. I never cared; he was just Nate's friend. Nate never spoke to him as much as he did to me. Although, that was normal. Josh was a little taller than me, maybe around 5'7", he had blonde hair and brown eyes. His dad was about Uncle Darry's age and his mom was a little younger. I had only been to that house once. It was nice and clean. They had somebody that could clean it. They could afford that crap.

"Do you guys wanna hang after school?" he asked. I suddenly got nervous.

"Can't, um, family stuff," I said and grabbed Nate's hand. I dragged him into our next class, without Josh.

"Oh, c'mon Ron, why'd you do that?" Nate whined. I shrugged. I don't know why I did it. Maybe it was because I finally realized how good Josh looked. He was tall, with blonde hair and brown eyes and a nice body. He was a halfback on the football team. "Oh," Nate gasped and stared at me. "Ronnie likes Josh," he sang softly and laughed.

My hand met the side of his face. That was the first time I ever hit him. He stared at me, and I stared at him. I turned to the front of the room and didn't look at him for the rest of the period. Did I like Josh? No, I couldn't like Josh. He was my brother's friend, one of Nate's, like, three friends. All Nate's other friends were mine, and mostly girls. He would never like one of my friends.

"Nate, I'm sorry," I told him after class. We had lunch next. He didn't say anything. He picked up speed and walked to the cafeteria. That left me at my locker, trying not to cry.

"You okay?" Josh asked. He was leaning next to my locker. He was looking at me, even though I couldn't see him. I had my head in my locker so you couldn't tell I had been crying. "Where's your partner in crime?" he asked. He was referring to Nate.

"How should I know?" I snapped back. I pulled my head out of my locker and grabbed a tissue from the box I had in there.

"Well, you two never leave each other's side. Well, except when you use the bathroom or change for gym, but that is understandable." I looked at him and laughed a little.

"We had a little fight," I said softly.

"Was it a 'family problem'?" he asked, teasing me. I rolled my eyes and grabbed my lunch. I shut my locker and walked off. "No, seriously, what happened?" he asked.

"Nothing," I said stiffly. I started to walk quicker, I hated the feeling I got when I was alone with him.

"Ronnie," he said, and in about two steps, caught up with me. He put his arm around my shoulder and I shrugged it off. "You've never been this quiet. It wasn't a little fight, was it?"

"I hit him," I said and looked at him. "I said I would always protect him and I hit him. I'm such a liar," I groaned. I sat in the middle of the hallway. I opened my lunch bag and started to eat at the ham and cheese sandwich mom made. He sat down next to me and reached into my paper bag. He pulled out a bag of cookies.

"Thanks," he said and started to eat them. "So, why'd you hit him?"

"He was teasing me about y- something." I quickly covered my mistake. Josh wasn't the best person to be talking to about this.

"About y- something?" he questioned. I looked at him and groaned. "Am I going to find out about this y-something?" I gave him the rest of my lunch and picked up my stuff. I walked into one of the only places he couldn't follow me: the girl's bathroom.

Here's next chapter's clip! Review and you find out more!

"I just wanted to say thanks," I told Nate. He just kept walking. "You can't stay mad at me forever, I share a bedroom with you."

"Maybe I'll move into the spare room," he answered. He didn't look directly at me.

"You wouldn't," I whispered.

"I would," he replied. I could see him smirk.

"I already said I was sorry, what more do you want?" I asked him. He shrugged and picked up his pace. Josh looked at me.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, ya know what? I'm gonna head home and not go to school." He nodded and I walked home. I checked Chocolate's water bowl. I went to the couch and laid down. Nobody would be home for a while, nobody would know I was home. Well, nobody would know except Nate.

I just had to hope that Nate wouldn't rat me out. I wouldn't hear the end of it from mom.

Yeah, so, review and you will get this. 3 reviews before I put up a chapter!