Disclaimer: First, I do not own the Outsiders. They belong to S.E.Hinton. Second, I do not own the song, ' A Quitter'. It belongs to Rasputina. I mearly loved the song and thought it would be interesting to base a story on. No profit is made by this, it is only for enjoyment of me and other people.

Note: Johnny Cade may be abit Out Of Character. He is more open. This takes place nearly 1 month after the book, though Johnny and Dally didn't die. But Johnny is in a wheelchair, now.

Also, in the first paragraph, things may not be accurate because they are NOT first hand experiences. Blah.

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I have worked out every small detail

In this plan I've made.

This thing which cannot fail.

I dare myself to do this one thing.

You can have my car

You can have everything.

All that's good is gone.

I have tried too long.

I don't think I miss my mom & dad,

The class I cut,

The friends I never had.,

These things I won't miss,

Won't miss me.

My house,

My block,

The baby bird I set free.

The dance that I was never asked to,

The teachers

that thought they knew me.

They'll all remember what I did.

They'll ask Whose fault was it?

Oh she was just a kid.

I'll be glad to go, you see.

You don't even know me.

Not at all.

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Dierdre was 15. She lived on the West side of town.She had royal blue eyes, and her hair went down to her shoulders, dyed blond. She doesn't like having blond hair, though, her step-father makes her do it. But she was practically a ghost at her school. She had no friends and people ignored her. Her home life wasn't any better. Her mother died last year, which left her with her step father, who liked to beat, cut, and even on some occasions, rape her. Dierdre. She what her named meant. Young girl, Broken- hearted. Fits, doesn't it?

She sat on her knees under a tree in the park for the past 2 hours. It was late. Very late. It was almost 3 in the morning. She had been crying all night. She had taken 4 pain killers so it wouldn't hurt as much. She took out her step-fathers switch blade knife. She had stolen it before she left the house..this will be the last time I get cut by this knife... She thought to herself. She was light headed, dizzy, vision blurred. She gripped the knife and placed it on her wrist. She needed alot of control to keep it in place. She pushed down on it a yelped when it cut the skin, but didn't stop. She pulled the knife along her vein for 5 inches before she dropped the knife. It hurt more than she thought it would, worse than she imagined. But she figured it be worse if she hadn't taken those pills. She cryed even more, biting her lip so not to yell. She almost past out. But she tryed to hard to fight off unconsciousness. Trembling, she picked up the knife. Things were getting dark, unfocused, worse that just 2 minutes ago. She cut her other wrist several times before she could actually make a serious injury. She finally got it into the skin, just before everything went dark.

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Johnny was woken up by people behind the curtain. They had put someone into the bed next to him. He looked over. It wasn't closed all of the way. He noticed as the doctors moved away, there was a very pale girl laying there. If that annoying beep from the heart monitor, He could of thought her for dead.They were saying something about 'major blood loss', 'give her 3 pints', 'anti-depressants' and 'Find out who she is'.Then, a doctor appeared in the opening, gave Johnny a glare, and pulled the curtain over the rest of the way. Johnny sighed and just stared at the ceiling until he fell back to sleep.

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Johnny once again was awaken. Only this time, the sun was shinning though the window, and Two-Bit was repeatedly poking him in the shoulder, and Ponyboy was smiling weakly.

"Hmm...stop it..." Johnny mumbled, rubbing his eyes slightly.

"How ya feelin'? Two-bit wasn't using his indoor voice.

"Better, if ya stop pokin' me..." Johnny smirked and Ponyboy laughed slightly.

"Man, How boring is it in this place, Johnny?" Two-Bit sat down at the foot of the bed.

"Very. And could ya keep your voice down?" Johnny asked.

Two-Bit tilted his head slightly, and then Johnny motioned to the closed curtain. Interested, Two-Bit went over and looked on the other side, " Oooh...Johnny. Got a pretty new roommate.."

"Two-Bit.."

"She's a blond, too" He grinned.

"Cut it out, Two-Bit.."

"What? She's asleep. She can't hear me. I think she's a soc." Two-Bit said, pushing the curtain open.

"what are ya doing?" Ponyboy asked him.

" I wanna talk to her when she wakes up. Hey, Johnny, you know why she's in here?" Two-Bit asked, sitting back down.

Johnny shook his head, " No..."

"Probably just a sprained ankle or somethin'. Walkin' around in a pair of high-heels." He laughed, and he got a little chuckle out of Ponyboy. Johnny just shook his head, " I don't think so.."

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----one hour later----

Dierdre was slowly waking up. She heard various noises. Beepings, footsteps, ringing phones, then she heard afew voices. As she opened her eyes, at first, things were blurry. When her eyes began to focus, she noticed she was in a medium sized room, on a bed with blue blankets, a white-ish color on the walls. Her head hurt. As did her forearms.She was cold. She didn't realize where she was.When she heard some laughter, she looked over and saw 3 greasers sitting around a bed with a dark haired kid laying in it. Great.. she thought, looking up at the ceiling. Now, She never had any ill-will toward greasers. Usually, they left her alone, like everyone else did, but she heard of their reputation, and wasn't exactly comfortable in the same room as them. Especially now that she is a failure. She couldn't do one 'simple' thing. Now she'd have to live with the failure for the rest of her life...unless...she started thinking...

"Hey!"

She looked back over and noticed a tall, well-built boy walking toward her. This guy had a huge grin and a Micky Mouse t-shirt and the most ridiculous sideburns. " What do you want?" She asked. Her voice was bitter but low. She didn't have the strength to deal with this right now.

"Oo, Snippy little Soc, ain't she?" A blond boy behind the guy with the side burns stood up.

Oh shit. She thought. She reconsider this guy. She had seem him around before. She heard the storys. This was Dallas Winston. Oh, how she wish she succeeded.

"Leave me alone.." She muttered.

"I'm Two-Bit!" The boy extended his hand as he got to the side of the bed. Dierdre just looked at his hand, but didn't take the arms from under the blanket. She could feel the tight bandages against her skin. She didn't want him to see them. She just turned over and faced the other direction.

At first, Two-Bit frowned, but then he smiled and walked around to the other side of the bed, then extended his hand again, "Hi! I'm Two-Bit."

"Leave me alone." She turned away from him. Only to come face to face with Dallas Winston, who was leaning against her bed.

"Don't you have any manners. Doll?" He had a little smirk on his face.

"Leave her alone, guys."

She noticed it was that dark haired kid in the bed. He was smaller than the other two, but they both left her alone.

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It was late. Real late. But they were both awake. The silence was deafening. Johnny looked over at her, "Whats your name?" he asked her.

"Whats it to you?" She didn't even look at him.

He thought for a moment, " I'm Johnny.."

That got her. She looked over, " I'm Dierdre."

Johnny gave her a little smile, but She only looked away from him.

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The it was like that for almost a week. They had both gotten out of the hospital on the same day. Johnny had to be in a wheel chair and was taken out by his friends. Dierdre was taken out by her step father.

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The following week, Dierdre was back in school and into the same routine. No one knew what had happened to her, no one had noticed she was absent for a week, no one noticed that the sleeves of her sweater were pulled down as far as they could go, no one noticed how pale she was, No one cared. Well... Almost no one.

At the end of the school day, She was at her locker, getting the books she had put there in the morning. She noticed that that boy, Johnny, from the hospital coming up to her in his wheelchair. He was beginning to build some upper body strength.

"Hey." He spoke first.

"Hi..."

"How are you feeling?" He asked her.

She sighed, " fine...you?"

"Not too bad.." He paused for a moment, " Why were you in the hospital?"

"Why were you?"

Johnny was abit taken back, " I asked you first." He smiled abit.

Dierdre looked around at all of the people, then back at him, " Maybe somewhere less crowded?" Johnny asked.

She sighed, then nodded slightly. Then they headed to the park.

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They had been sitting in the park for almost 2 hours, sitting under a nice shady tree. Johnny had told Dierdre about his life and the events that led up to him being in the hospital. Told her about his parents, killed Bob, the fire, and him being acquitted of manslaughter. In returned, Dierdre told Johnny about her mother, step-father, and why she did the night she was admitted into the hospital and begged Johnny not to tell anyone. Johnny reluctantly agreed. But he knew he had help her someway. He was going to ask Darry later. He's smart, he should know what to do, and he's pretty good a keeping secrets,too. He looked at his watched. It was almost five and Ponyboy was expecting him to join them for supper. Then he got an Idea.

"Hey, Wanna go to the Curtis's place?" Johnny asked her, heaving himself back into his wheelchair.

"Where?" Dierdre asked.

"Its..Ponyboy's house...He's a friend of mine.."

"oh..I don't know..."

"Come on..It'll be fine, I promise.."

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