Title- Trying to Adjust

Chapter Title- Caroline

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsiders.

Reviewers-

Hahukum Konn- I'm trying to update quickly.

QTpie4- and you'll find out

Eternal Dragan101- Was this quick enough?

oOoRikku4everoOo- Yeah, she's older… and you meet her in this chapter.

XAmberX- Lookie, look, I thank you down there in my 'Note' section! I love that Note section. It's my personal space for any random nonsense I feel like saying.

Note-­ I was reading my Cosmo Girl magazine for the month of November. It had Mariah on the cover and it says "Mariah on Mean Girls, Matt Dillon, and 'The Meltdown'." So, of course I had to go read it and on Mariah's top five list, The Outsiders was on it. I dunno, that was just kinda cool. ('Cause The Outsiderskicks ass!) I have to thank XAmberX for the weird idea behind this. She told me Caroline should be a murderer, of course, she isn't, but it made me think of the different things I could do with the character. And, she pushed me to update- you all must thank her! I love Halloween. My family hates it, but I love it. I can spray my hair black, paint my nails black and act like the real me without getting, like, grounded. Look for Love people, Look for Love!

After dinner, I went into my room and got some of my old clothes out. I pulled on them really hard and tore parts of them. I knotted my hair and then got dressed in an old Mickey Mouse tee-shirt and a pair of ripped up jeans. I played around in the backyard for a bit, getting some mud on my clothes and in my hair.

Mr. Harrington came when it was dark. I was still outside, hiding in the trees. When he got out of his car I ran to him and screamed 'boo'. He looked at me like I was weird. I watched a girl step out of the back of the car, hauling a bag. She had long, dark brown hair and was very thin and kind of short. She wore glasses and a skirt that flowed behind her as she walked. She seemed to have trouble walking.

"Hiya, I'm Liz," I said. "These people here are really nasty," I lied. Mr. Harrington looked down at me.

"I'm Caroline," she whispered. I don't know why, but I seemed to like her. "Are they your parents?" she asked me. I shook my head 'no'.

"They're the family I'm living with while they decide if I can live with my brother or not. My mommy was killed," I said, whispering the last part.

"Oh," was all she said. I grabbed her hand and led her inside.

"Terry, this is Caroline," I said.

"Hello Caroline, oh my, Liz you're very dirty. Are you hungry Caroline? We have some cookies over there and some milk in the fridge." I think Terry always made cookies. Caroline nodded and grabbed a small oatmeal raisin cookie. I reached up and grabbed a big one. "Caroline, dear, you can have more than one," Terry told her. "Jim, show Caroline to her room, and take her bag, too." Jim was doing everything for Terry again. It made me laugh. I followed Jim and Caroline into another spare room. Terry was talking to Mr. Harrington.

Jim put the bag on the bed and left the two of us alone.

"Go away," she said to me harshly as I opened my mouth to say something. "Go and play with your little dolls. Leave me alone," she said again. I backed out of the room and almost went to my own. Why was she mean to me? I shut the door and stood outside it, trying to hear her. The door opened and she pushed me away. "I said 'go away', do you not understand?"

I did the only sensible thing. I pushed her back. She stared at me and started to breathe heavily. I shrieked and she chased me around the house. She ended up tripping so I went back to make sure she was okay. It was all a game to me. She grabbed my ankle and pulled me down. I screamed as I Banged my chin on the hard, wood floor. She got up and pulled me up by my collar.

"You oughtta listen to me twerp, if you ever wanna see your brother again." She kicked me and then went back to her room.

"I hate you," I screamed. I went into the kitchen where Mr. Harrington, Terry and Jim were discussing things.

"Hello Elizabeth," Jim said.

"I don't like her," I stated.

"We heard," Jim responded.

"She hurt me," I told him, pointing to my chin.

"Oh, baby," Terry said, picking me up. She filled a glass with water and told me to spit out the water. I didn't ask why, I just did as I was told. She pulled down my bottom lip. "You lost a tooth," she stated. I felt around with my tongue and there was a space there. I went back to where I fell and I picked up a little red object. I put spit on my finger and cleaned it off with the spit and the bottom of my shirt. It was my tooth. I handed it back to Terry. "Okay, now you need to put this under your pillow for the tooth fairy." Terry said. I had heard about the tooth fairy in school. Most kids got a dime for their tooth. That's neat.

I walked to my room and put my tooth underneath the pillow. Caroline was coming out of the room.

"Where's your bathroom?" she asked. I pointed in the direction of the bathroom. "I heard you lost your tooth. Congratulations squirt, now the tooth fairy can come. You have to do special things, otherwise the tooth fairy will kill you," Caroline said matter-of-factly. I stared at her. "Yeah, I know the tooth fairy, she was my best friend's mom's cousin's kid's friend. I could put in a good word for you." I nodded, looking up at her. "But you need to do things for me first."

I didn't want to die. I was willing to do anything for Caroline, even though I despised her.

I was only going to make this sixteen chapters, but than this idea came to me. Sorry for the delay, I was busy with essays, Halloween and I got an idea for a fiction story that I'm writing. Its 19 pages long. It'll be on Fiction press when I'm done with it. You can search me; I'm DotCom.