Disclaimer: I do not own The Outsiders or any recognizable bands. I do not own The Mix Down, charmedgurl1891's friend owns it.

Reviewers:

Alaskajenna- Glad you liked it.

Charmedgurl1891- Who do you think silly? It's you of course. You're door is funny.

Thanks: To charmedgurl1891, my first review and beta.

I sat while looking at the screen. No new messages yet. I checked my e-mail. Nothing new, it was only Spam. I hated Spam with every blood vessel in my body. It flooded your e-mail and sent you viruses. How is that a good thing? Tyler came in behind me.

"What's eating you?"

"Nothin'," I told him. He spun the chair around so I was facing him.

"That nothin' sounds like a somethin'." Tyler wasn't stupid, this was a surprise. I looked down at my feet. I had pulled off my socks and now I had little pieces of sock lint stuck between my toes. I hated sock lint. I spun my chair back around and went to (1) www. shoutcast .com and searched for The Mix Down. It played music, mostly punk and took requests. It was only on when the guy decided he wanted to cast.

"The Mix Down, that's cool," he said and then I got an instant message.

I saw u running 2day Ur pretty fast

I quickly minimized it, hoping that maybe Tyler wouldn't see that.

"Who's that?"

"I don't know." He looked at me in disbelief. "I don't know, honestly."

Who's this? Tyler typed in.

Im not tellin, I dont want u 2 no who I am

U better tell me... it's Tyler

Tyler? Wut r u doin on Amb's computer, Ty?

None of Ur business tell me who u r

No

Whoever it was quickly signed off the instant messenger. Tyler looked at me and walked out of my room. I sighed; I really wanted to know who this guy was. At least, I hoped it was a guy. Not many people called me Amb. Only Tyler, his friends, Erica, Kim, Jane, and Megan did. Not many people called my brother Ty, not many people were allowed to. Just his friends called him that and probably a few ex-girlfriends. I bit my nail nervously. It was probably some stupid prank.

I turned on Green Day; the sounds of "Holiday" filled my room as I turned off The Mix Down. Tyler yelled at me to turn my music down, but I only turned it higher and switched to Evanescence. He wasn't a big fan of Evanescence. I started singing at the top of my lungs.

He came into my room looking pretty pissed. He grabbed a flip-flop off the floor and threw it at me.

"Next time, I'll throw your guitar," he said. I stared at him. My face said, 'you wouldn't dare do that'. He shot me a look back. 'Oh, yes, I would'. I knew he would. I'd just have to go and bust his precious drum set in. He took more care of that drum set than his pet snake. I was okay with the snake. It was in a glass cage, far away from my rabbit.

He turned away as soon as I lowered the stereo. From his room I could hear the sounds of Simple Plan. He knew I wasn't a fan of Simple Plan. I wasn't going to get aggravated. The two of us were in the house by ourselves so I ran into the hall singing with the music. I knew the words.

"WELCOME TO MY LIFE!" I shrieked and he slammed his door and turned the music down. He got the message. I went back into my room and turned off my music. I fed my rabbit. I named him Benji-Joel after the twins in Good Charlotte. My brother's snake was named, well, I don't know. I sat on my stool and picked up my guitar. It was an Ibanez acoustic and I loved it. Next to Benji-Joel, this thing was my baby. I played a few chords.

"Shut your damn door!" Tyler yelled and came near my room. He slammed my door and I laughed at the noise it made. My dad insisted the hinge wasn't broken, but it was. All of my friends saw it. Bling, somebody signed on the instant messenger. It was the mystery guy.

It's Amb, how do I no u?

From skool, who do u like?

Y shud I tell u? U wont tell me who u r

If I told u wud u tell me?

Depends who r u?

There was a noise like a door shutting and he signed off. I was really mad. He really didn't want me to find out who he was. I leaned my head back in the chair. A thought struck me and I shook it off. That would be creepy, and I didn't want that. Besides, they didn't have a good computer with the internet. I put on my flip-flops, removed some more sock lint from in between my toes and went into the living room.

"Where are you going?" Tyler asked me.

"The library, where else would I go?" The library was like my second home. I spent about 40 of my time there, 25 of my time at home and 35 of it out of the house (school, movies, mall, and other things like that). Tyler nodded and I walked to the library. The library wasn't far away, barely a mile and it takes about 10 minutes to get there. As soon as I get there, I'm supposed to call Tyler. So, I did, because I'm such a good girl.

I walked into the library. Why is he here? I wondered. Crouching near a shelf of books was the only boy my brother never wanted me to associate with, Dan. I had a crush on Dan. My brother hated him and it wasn't because he was prep. He wasn't prep. My brother said he had once picked a fight with Dally. That was a smooth move. Dally had given the guy a black eye and knocked a few teeth loose. Dan was the toughest guy in the 11th grade. (I was moved up a grade, with Ponyboy, just not at the same time. I was moved up a year before him.) Dan had a book in his hand and I tried to get a glimpse at the title. I couldn't see it and because I was so occupied with that, he rammed into me.

"Didn't see ya," he said extending a hand and helping me up. "I'm Dan."

"I know; we go to school together." Not that we were in any of the same classes, we weren't. "My name is Amber."

"Okay, nice to run into you," he laughed. I giggled a little hoping that I didn't snort. "Here's my number, maybe we can hang sometime."He didn't say anything more and walked off. I got so excited; Dan touched me and talked to me. I went into the corner and pulled out my phone. I wasn't supposed to use it in the library, but this was news! I called Erica who in turn called the other three girls. I rushed home, because they were coming over.

"Oh my god!" Erica shrieked when they got to my house. We ran to my room.

"I can't believe he touched you! Did he smell good?" What kind of question was that?

"Jane, are you on drugs?" I asked her. "He smelt okay."

"What else happened?" Kim asked knowing there was more to the story. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a Wrigley's gum wrapper.

"He gave me his phone number," I said calmly and they shrieked. Tyler knocked on the door and walked in.

"What's going on?"

"Amb just ran into Dan in the library," Megan began to say.

"Dan, as in the guy I hate?" He asked cutting her off. I shook my head no and when he left I gave Megan a hateful look.

"Your brother doesn't like Dan?"

"No, but that doesn't matter to me. I have Dan's number!" I shouted, still in disbelief. They helped me pick out my outfit for school tomorrow. I ended up getting out a red plaid skirt, my black knee socks, low top red converse (they were kind of old and ripping. Megan had shaken her head when I pulled them out of my closet), and a white shirt. I had my black sweatshirt jacket incase it got cold. I packed my track bag complete with cotton socks, running shoes, cotton shorts and an Evanescence shirt.

"…notch in your bedpost, but you're just a line in a song…" I heard Erica begin to sing as she turned on Fall Out Boy's "Sugar We're Goin' Down."

"We should so totally learn how to play this!" Megan said jumping off of my bed and logging onto her screen-name. I had invited them to eat over so they each were calling their parents, or in Megan's case, instant messaging siblings. Tyler was having Steve, Soda, Two-Bit, and Katie over. Katie was his most recentgirlfriend. It was sort of like a tradition, we could each have four friends over the night before school starts for pizza. I don't see why Tyler bothered inviting Soda; he didn't even go to school.

I looked at Tyler; he was going to be a senior, as well as Steve and Two-Bit. They threw a big party at the end of last year when Two-Bit finally passed 11th grade. If he hadn't, I would've been in the same grade as him. Probably not the same classes though, I'll be taking some senior classes this year.

(1) That's a real place. If you want to go there type in www. shoutcast .com (take the spaces out0 and search for The Mix Down. The guy can only have 5 listeners in at a time and it sucks.