Title- Dealing with It

Chapter Title- It Isn't Right

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders

Reviewers-

Tikagem- It changed, I have up to 20, and I just wait for reviewers…

HMMMMMhmmmHMMMMMMhmmmm- I don't know, what happened?

XAmberX-

Note- My Chemical Romance is on, I'm tired, and my legs hurt from running. That's important… Yeah, right. Any way, the front page of my Newspaper: 'The Outsiders are Still In' That is now pinned to my wall... picture and artical. "Love is the red, the rose on your coffin door"

Nate and I walked to the corner the next day. Josh met us at the corner and walked next to me. I was going into school for the first time with a boyfriend. I still wished I knew what dad said to mom last night. It was killing me.

"Nate, do you know what dad said to mom last night?" I asked.

"Nope, but, we could take a detour and see Uncle Darry," he told me.

"He's at work," I replied.

"I forgot," Nate whispered, embarrassed. We walked to school and went to our lockers. The three of us had 1st, 5th, and 7th period together. So our lockers were close together. They put our lockers near our first period class. Nate and I had, well, every period together. Nate was always quiet, he hardly ever spoke. He never raised his hand and most of the time when a teacher asked a question he just shrugged. He wasn't the teacher's favorite. I, on the other hand, talked non-stop. I never raised my hand but when I was called on, I had a pretty good answer or a remark to make. I, also, wasn't the teacher's favorite.

We had lunch fifth period. The three of us sat next to each other, me in the middle. Nate and I had identical lunches, except he had peanut butter and jelly and I had ham and cheese. Josh had some kind of fancy food. He always stole my cookies. He never liked his food.

"You guys wanna come over and do homework?" Josh asked in between bites of whatever.

"Sure," I said. I wasn't going to pass up a chance to stay away from Winnie. Besides, this guy was my boyfriend.

"I'll ask mom and dad if you guys can eat over. I need to introduce you to my family," he told me.

"We'll have to ask mom and dad," Nate piped up. Oh, god, he was right. Would mom and dad let me?

"I'll go call now," I told Nate. Dad would be the easiest to persuade. I got some changed from my bag and went to the nearest payphone. "Hello, is Mr. Curtis there?" I asked when somebody picked up.

"Hang on... CURTIS," my dad's boss yelled.

"Hello?" dad asked.

"Dad, can I eat dinner over my friend's house with Nate?" If I didn't go into specifics, maybe he'd let me.

"Yeah, look, I'm busy," he told me.

"So we can?"

"Sure, bye," he said. Dad must've been really busy. Oh well, it worked out for me.

I went back to the lunch table and told them that we could go over. Nate wanted to know how I got it past mom. I didn't ask mom, I was smart. I know who to ask for certain things. Maybe, tonight we'd figure out what freaked everybody out last night.

The Holden house was really clean. Everything sparkled in their house. I loved it.

"Who are your guests, Josh?" Mrs. Holden asked.

"Mom, dad, these are my friends, Ronnie and Nate. Well, Ronnie isn't just my friend. She's my girlfriend." He was looking her in the eye. That's where he got it from, he was raised right. We were eating dinner at the dinner table. It was quiet. It wasn't like my family. At my house it was so noisy and everybody talked over everybody else. Here, Josh didn't talk unless he was asked a question.

"That's wonderful son, so, Ronnie where do you live?" I knew it was coming.

"I live on the East-side, sir," I added quickly.

"Nate is your brother?"

"Yes sir, he's my twin. I'm Ronnie Curtis and he's Nate Curtis."

"Curtis," Mr. Holden repeated. "Do you know a Darrel Curtis?" he asked.

"Yes sir, he's my uncle. My dad's Sodapop." He nodded.

"I used to play football with him, then I went to college and he stayed with the Greasers. We met again at the big rumble. I started it, the Greasers ended up beating us Socs." Greaser, Soc, now I was confused...

"Um, sir, may I ask what Greasers and Socs are?" He looked at me like I was crazy. Well, don't blame me for my OCD!

"Your family hasn't told you? Well, the rich kids from the West-side were Socs and the poor kids from the East-side were Greasers. They were constantly fighting, eternally enemies." That's what was wrong. My dad must've told my mom that the Holden's were Socs. I shouldn't be here, I shouldn't be with Josh. I glanced at the clock, it was six.

"I just remembered, dad said to be home at six, we gotta go, c'mon Nate!" I grabbed his hand and got our stuff from Josh's room. "Thanks for dinner Mr. and Mrs. Holden," I called as I dragged Nate out of the house.

"Why'd ya do that?" he asked.

"Don't you get it? Our family hates Josh's family! I can't be with Josh! I need to find some East-side kid."

"C'mon Ron, they didn't seem to mind," Nate pleaded.

"But it's just not right!" I shouted. I ran home and locked our bedroom door. I sobbed on my bed. It wasn't fair; the one kid I like is eternal enemies with my family.

"Ronnie, can I come in?" Nate begged.

"Go away," I snapped and threw my pillow at the door.

"Veronica Lynn, you open the door for your brother this instant!" Uh-oh that was my mom. She didn't sound so happy. I unlocked the door and walked into the bathroom. "Ronnie, baby, what's wrong?" she asked, blocking my entrance to the bathroom.

"Why do we have to be poor?" I asked her.

"I was stupid and I dropped out of high school. I could have stayed there and become like a doctor or something, why?"

"Josh is rich and I can't be with him," I whined.

"Baby, we never said that," she said.

"Mr. Holden looked disgusted when I told him we were from the East-side; I didn't want him in trouble. I need to call him now." I walked to the phone and dialed his number. "Is Josh there?" I asked.

"Speaking," he replied.

"Look, Josh, it's Ronnie. I can't be with you anymore."

"Why Ron?" he asked.

"I just can't," I said sharply. "Bye," I told him, softly.

"Bye Ronnie," he whispered. I hung up the phone, feeling like crap. I searched our kitchen, finding some cake. I got out some chocolate milk and ate my cake quietly. I knew I was going to cry, I just didn't want to. He was the first person, besides Nate, that I let touch me.

Hate me; go ahead… that leads up to some very important things in the next chapters… The next chapter is serious…

"You bitch," she whimpered, on the verge of crying. I walked away, quickly into the class. She left in the opposite direction. She went towards the principal's office.

First period, the teacher gave us a pop quiz. God, I had missed so much school. I was struggling. I always struggled in school. I was only in the advanced class because Nate was. After that whole thing in kindergarten, we had to be in class together. Nate flew through the regular classes with such ease that they couldn't keep him in them. I was pulled into the advanced classes. I was trying to sneak glances at Nate's paper. It was hard to do without getting caught. Nate sat in a weird way. I tapped my fingers on my desk, and Nate knew what it meant. Occasionally, he started sliding his paper over. He understood that if I failed, he got put back into regular classes with me or we got split up.

Then there came the knock. It was a light tap on the door. I jerked my head up, like everybody else and watched the teacher open the door. Standing on the other side was the principal's secretary. 'Oh, please, don't be for me,' I thought. 'Please, don't say Veronica Curtis.' I watched the secretary talk to the teacher. As she nodded her head, her gray bun bobbed up and down. The teacher turned towards me and pointed. She signaled for me to go over there. I got up and walked over to them.

I opened up my files :-)… XAmberX- maybe I will get lazy…