Disclaimer : I do not own the Outsiders. duh. hehehe.

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They were silent most of the way. Johnny kept looking over at Dierder and he could tell she was nervous. She wasn't used to being in this part of town. Johnny understood. If this had been the West side of town, He knew he would be nervous.

"Hey,Soda! Lookie what Johnny picked up.." The boy who talked put his arms over Dierdre's shoulder, saying, "he got himself a -"

Dierdre pulled away before he finished speaking, " Don't touch me." She said, taking a step back, " I don't like being touch..." she noticed that there were two of them. The one that had put tried to put his arm around her had very greasy, swirly hair, the other looked like he'd be an extra in a movie, or something, And both of them had on a DX t-shirt.

"well, well, well. Someone seems to have a little attitude problem.."

"Well, you seem to have an Idiot problem, So I guess we're even."

The pretty one almost fell over laughing. The other one just glared at her. He started forward, but his friend, apparently named ' Soda', stopped him. Then, he turned his attention to Dierdre, " Just ignore Steve, he turns into the Were-ass sometimes when he's around Soc's." He put on one of the biggest grins she had ever seen. She didn't smile back, she only looked confused. His smiled disappeared, but only for about half a second. He extended his hand, " I'm Sodapop." She just looked at his extended hand, but her arms stayed crossed. She looked over at Johnny, who gave her a nod. Then she looked back at Sodapop, " I'm Dierdre."

When she didn't shake his head, he awkwardly put his hand back by his side, " So, where are you two heading?"

"To your place, actually" Johnny told him.

"Hey! what a coincidence, so are me and Steve!"

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They got to the house in just under 8 minutes. A very sorry looking ramp was attached to the step, obviously not done professionally, but served its purpose. Once inside, she saw two people, One was a boy with auburn roots and bleached blond hair, greased back, the other was a very big man with dark brown hair. She saw the younger one before, at the hospital, visiting Johnny.

"Hey guys"

"Hey Soda." They replied, not even looking up.

"Guys, this is Johnny's new friend-," well, that got their attention. Both of them were now staring on 5'3 blonde Soc that looked like she didn't really want to be there, " -Dierdre. Diedre, these are my brothers Darry and Ponyboy."

"Hi." She said to them quietly.

Sodapop patted Dierdre on the shoulder, and she fliched and stepped away from him , "Don't touch me..."

Ponyboy and Darry exchanged looks."Now is this a general thing? or you just don't like greasers?" Ponyboy asked. Not to be rude or anything, he was just curious.

"General. I just don't like being touched, ok?" She looked down at the floor.

Luckily, Darry changed the subject. " Alright, guys. Suppers ready."

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Shortly after Dierdre left, Johnny went into the kitchen while Darry was reading the news paper.

"hey...uh..Darry..can I uh...talk to you for a moment? I uh, kinda need some advise..."

Darry folded the paper, " Sure, John. What for?"

"Well...its about Dierdre..."

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At eleven that evening, Dierdre was at home, laying awake in her bed.Her step-father just left the room and headed down stairs for a shot of scotch. With a sigh, she stood up and went over to her vanity and just stared at her reflection. She noticed her roots had grown in.Atleast 1 inch of black hair. She knew that she's be forced to dye it soon. She hated having long blond hair. Before her mother died, she used to have it black and not going past her chin. She didn't like it going over her shoulders, but her step father loved it that way. He never hit her or cut her face. So she always looked beautiful...Then she got a plan. It would work much better that her...last plan. She opened the drawer to her vanity and pulled out a pair of scissors. She started to cut it off all of the blond. When she finished, she had less hair than most of the boys. An inch of black, messy looking hair. She got up and sneaked quietly into her step fathers room and got the smallest pair of pants and shirt she could find and hurried back into her room. She put on the pants, but she had to roll up the waist then put on a belt. She out the shirt on. It was way to big, but atleast no one could make out her figure. She rummaged through her closet and found a pair of sneakers that she hardly ever wore. She stood infront of her mirror. She looked alot like a boy..a short boy with a feminine face... She sighed. Step one was about as complete as she could make it.

Step two? She wasn't looked forward to it. She needed some bruises. She opened her window and climbed down the drain pipe. She headed toward the east side of town. She saw alot of greasers still out, but she wasn't going to try and get into a fight with a group of them. She waiting in an alley way until she saw a single guy walking down the sidewalk. She stepped out of the alley and walked toward the guy, bumping shoulders as they passed each other, she spun around, " Hey! Watch where you're going, damn greaser!" She did her best to make her voice deeper.

The greaser turned around, " What did you say to me,little man?"

"You heard me, dumb ass."

That had done it. The greaser came forward, grabbed her by the shirt collar and punched her, 3 times in the face, 2 times in the stomach. Luckily, he stopped at that, " Stupid Soc." He murmered, then walked off.

Dierdre sat on the ground for nearly 5 minutes before she got up and ran all of the way home.

She waited outside till the light in her stepfathers room went out, then she went inside. She went into the kichen, got an ice pace, then ran to her bed room.

In the morning when she got up, she actually looked at the damage that one done. There wasn't any swelling, because of the ice she put on last night. But her lip was cut, and she had two black eyes, her eyes themselves were very red. She smiled, even though it hurt. She got dressed in a blue turtle neck and a black skirt and stuck a butterfly clip in the small bit of hair she had left and walked to school.

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The school day went as usual. No one noticed. Hell, Not even the teachers commented on her 'new look'. She wasn't expecting them too. She just wanted her step-father to leave her alone for a while.

After school, as usual, she was at her locker when most people left. She closed the locker and noticed Johnny was there. He was staring at her

"What?" She asked them..

"What happened?" Johnny was obviously worried.

Dierdre smiled, " Oh, I cut my hair, Like it?" She asked, attempting to twirl a lock of her hair,tilting her head slightly to the side.

"I...well...It...Wait. That's not what I mean...I mean..." He motioned to her eyes.

"Oh! well, I got into a fight last night, on purpose. Quite fun." She nodded slightly.

"What! Why?"

"Hello? I'm crazy, remember?" She rolled up her sleeves showing him the bandages he already knew about on her wrists. She didn't really mean she was crazy, Johnny knew that. She was just trying get him off of the subject. She won.

Johnny sighed, " You wanna go to the Curtis's?" He asked her. She shrugged, "sure" and rolled down her sleeves.

They went for a few minutes without talking, then, Johnny said, " You know Darry's gunna ask ya what happened..."

"So?"

"Well...what are ya going to tell him?"

"I'll tell him to suck a lemon." She said, kicking a pebble.

Johnny laughed abit, " I don't think he'll like that."

"Well, I guess I'll just lie then." She smiled slightly.

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Once at the house, Dierdre noticed 3 people sitting on the couch. Ponyboy, and two she had seen once in the hospital. The blond one, she knew from reputation, Dallas Winston, and the annoying one with long rusty side-burns who said his name was Two-Bit.

"Hey, Pony." Johnny said when they got inside.

"oh, hey Johnny.." He looked up and noticed Dierdre was there too..well..he thought it was hurt. Same blue eyes...only with more...red. His mouth opened slightly. She got Dallas's and Two-Bit's attention, too.

"Oh, Dally, Two-Bit, This is Dierdre...you..met her before..." Johnny said.

"We did?" They said in unison, both watching her as she went and sat down on the couch.

"Yeah..remember? In the hospital? You guys were buggin her?..."

They were quiet for the moment, " you talkin' about that blond?" Two-Bit asked.

"Yeah," Johnny nodded.

"No way!" Two-Bit moved closer to get a better look at her. She looked over at him and he smirkered, " You know..you looked better with long blond hair...not that short black..make's ya look tom-boy-ish"He said.

Dierdre just looked at him for a moment with a blank expression, " Wow. Thank you. So much. Just amazing, you really know how to make a girl feel special.."

"How'd ya get those bruises?" This time it was Dally talking. She looked at him and sighed, "Well..The tooth fairy was kinda having a slow night...So she decided to try and knock a few loose...didn't work, though.."

"Oh..." Two-Bit raised an eyebrow. She rolled her eyes and muttered ' dumbasses'.

"Hm? What was that?" Dally asked, leaning in close to her. Now, he was expecting her to say ' nothing', like most normal people do when Dally intimidates them after they say something he didn't like. But he was abit taken back, when Dierdre said, " I said, Dumbasses" She said more loudly. Two-Bit started laughing. Dally stood up and stepped infront of her, glaring down at her. Two-Bit started to her an arm around her, but she jumped up before he could. Only to be standing about an inch away from Dally. This was getting more and more uncomfortable for Dierdre. She tryed to step away, but Dally grabbed her arm, " Let me go." She looked up at him. He didn't let go. So she kneed him in the crotch. Good news, He let her go, curing like she never heard before. Bad news..She just really pissed off one of the toughest hoods in Tulsa. As soon as he got over it, he started running at her. So she ran out the door. But by the time she had gotten to the fence, she had run into Darry...literatly. She almost fell over from the impact.Dally was only two feet away from her...she hurried behind Darry, who didn't know what was going on. Dally stopped just infront of Darry, " Move." he said. Darry looked over his shoulder at Dierdre and saw the noticed her busted lip and two black eyes. Then looked back at Dally, " What the hell did you do to her?" He glared at Dally, and Dally back up, " Nothing...yet."

"No 'yet' you aint doing anything to her, you need to go calm down." They just kind of stared at each other for a moment, and Dally broke eyecontact first, and walked past them, glaring back at them as he left.

Johnny, Ponyboy and Two-bit were standing on the step, watching quietly. Then Darry turned to face Dierdre. He seemed to recognize her right away...she wasn't sure how, thought. " So..are you going to tell me what the hell happened to you?"

She shook her head.

Darry sighed and then went inside...

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tra la la . Leave comments please.