Disclaimer: I am not S.E Hinton and do not own The Outsiders (Well, I do own a copy of the book, muwhahah). All the characters belong to her except any characters that you are unfamiliar with, which are owned by me and any unfamiliar plot.

Author's note: This is my first time writing a Fanfic so be gentle. Read and Review and tell me what you think. Your ideas and comments are welcome.

I'll try making this chapter a bit longer. No promises. If I don't, I'll just make more chapters

"Welcome back everyone. I hope your summer holidays were enjoyable." Said Mr. Vector, the principle, up on the stage over the microphone. Everyone had been seated in the assembly hall and the bell had just rung. Nina was sitting next to a bunch of junior Soc boys who kept eying her with hungry eyes. Nina felt really uncomfortable.

"Hey there doll face, how about you take that skimpy little dress off for me some time?" said the Soc boy on her right. Nina felt like a bone that was going to be passed around a pack of hungry dogs. She poked Millis and asked if they could swap seats, and they did. As she sat down next to another Soc girl, someone tapped her shoulder from the back. It was Cherry. She was sitting directly behind Nina now, but at first didn't notice her till she stood up to change seats.

"Hey Nina, this is my friend Marcia"

"Oh, Hello. How are you?" Nina replied quietly.

"Bored! Can't wait till he gets over and done with it!" Marcia said.

Nina giggled. She smiled at Cherry and turned back to listen to Mr. Vector. Nina actually thought that it was boring too, but the effort was worthwhile and his effort should be respected, just like how all teachers should be.

"… And so I wish all our students a prosperous year, full of academic achievement from all" Mr. Vector turned to the teachers "Anyone like to add anything?" They all shook their heads, except for Mr. Syme. He got up and took the stand.

"I'd just like to inform everyone that the Book Club will operate on Wednesdays during lunchtime in the Library, so come if you're interested". Mr. Syme stood down and Mr. Vector took the stand again.

"So without further ado, you're all dismissed and can now head on to your first classes".

"Hey, I'll meet you later in Social Studies, 'Kay?" Millis told Nina whilst they were getting their textbooks from their lockers.

"Alright, I'll look forward to it" Nina replied walking off to her first class – English. She was actually excited as she headed off to D4, her English classroom. She had always held English as her favourite subject. Maybe that was because she liked reading and using her literacy skills, who knows?

Nina surprisingly wasn't the first student there in the class. There was a Socy looking boy sitting in the front of the class, and a group of Socy girls sitting on the right side of the room. In the back, the scruffy looking boy who called her a Soc earlier had his feet on his desk. Nina realized that this boy was most likely a greaser, from what Cherry had described to her. Nina took a seat at the desk to the left of the Socy girls. After a few minutes, Mr. Syme walked in, and the rest of the desks became occupied, except for one to the left of Nina.

"Alright everyone" Mr. Syme began "I am Mr. – Oh hello Mr. Curtis, it's good to have you join us." Everyone looked at the door. There stood the boy whom Nina had bumped into earlier that morning. "Please take a seat," Mr. Syme said, pointing towards the desk to Nina's left. The boy walked to the desk and looked at Nina. She simply gave him a shy smile and looked back to Mr. Syme.

"As I was saying, I am Mr. Syme and I will be your English teacher for the rest of the year. I am looking forward to teaching you all, and hopefully you will gain something out of this class," he said, looking at the greaser boy at the back in particular, who took his feet of the desk. "Now, I'd like you all to introduce yourselves, starting with" Mr. Syme looked at the top of the roll list. "Nina Ambrosia".

Nina looked around the room for a split second, then stood up from her desk, adjusted her glasses and started.

"Well, I'm Nina. I'm 12 and my birthday is on Valentines Day. I have been attending St. Mary's Boarding School for Girls since I was 5 and I love the classic works by Charles Dickens, Shakespeare and many others." She finished and sat down. Next it was Jessica Brown's turn, the Soc on her left.

"Yeah, I'm Jessica. Only my friends can call me Jess. My daddy works as a judge and says I can choose my own car when I turn 16 and lets me have anything that I want. And um… I like so love The Beatles! And Paul McCartney is such a doll!"

"Next… Ponyboy Curtis" said Mr. Syme. A few of the girls giggled upon hearing the name, and thought that Mr. Syme was joking. Nina thought it sounded unique and actually liked it.

"What kind of a loser name is that?" Jessica rudely interrupted; the soc girls started laughing so hard that they almost fell of their chairs, a few other members of the class giggled quietly. Ponyboy's ears reddened as he stood up and looked down at his feet.

"It's a unique name, and it sounds lovely. That's what type of a name it is." Nina stood up for Ponyboy. "And now I know that any girl by the name of Jessica or Jess" Nina continued in a mocking voice, "is just a rude, spoiled to death brat that has nothing better to do than make others feel uncomfortable!" Nina was infuriated by her lack of decency. This was one of the rare occasions when Nina was brave enough to speak to someone in front of a crowd. Jessica's mouth was wide open. The girls sitting with her had their eyes wide open. Nina sat back down and stared at her desk.

"S-sir!" Jessica yelled at Mr. Syme as if she wanted to tell on Nina.

"Enough Ms. Brown. Let Mr. Curtis go on" he replied bitterly.

Ponyboy looked at Nina. His ears returned to their normal colour, but his cheeks went crimson red.

"I, ah… I like going down to the Nightly Double every now and then and I live with my two brothers, Sodapop and Darrel" Ponyboy finished hastily and sat down.

"You forgot that you're a Greaser too" said a Soc boy, sitting behind Jessica.

"And what if he is? You got a problem with that?" said the scruffy looking boy who had his feet on his desk earlier. "I'll go next and ya'll over there better keep quiet," he said, looking to the right of the room, particularly in Jessica's direction.

"The names Louis and you better show some respect. I'm only here because I'm failing all my other subjects, and Mr. Vector said I'll pass this year if I can behave well here". Mr. Syme looked at Louis as if he understood everything that he said. That was the type of person that Mr. Syme was. He generally seemed interested in everyone when he looked directly at him or her. Nina thought she already liked him as her teacher.

People continued to introduce themselves; the girls on the left side of the room had basically just changed around what Jessica had said. The boy in the front row said his name was Nicholas and that he had been watching Star Trek since it appeared a few weeks back on HBO. Then the Soc boy who had interrupted before said his name was David and his father owned a chain of dime stores around Oklahoma. And once everyone had had their go; Mr. Syme set their homework for that night. It was to recite a poem the next day and give their views on what it meant.

After class, Nina walked up to Ponyboy as he headed for his next class, Geography.

"Hey Ponyboy. I'm sorry if I embarrassed you earlier. I just couldn't stand her talking to you like that." He looked at her for a moment, as if he was addressed by someone better than him, but then replied coolly "No, you didn't. But thanks anyway. I have to head on to Geography now". Nina smiled at him and replied, "I've got Social Studies myself, I'll see you later Ponyboy" and started to walk towards her Social Studies room. Is she for real? Ponyboy thought. She sure wasn't acting like a Soc.

During Social Studies, Nina was glad to have Millis there. They sat together and discussed about their favourite authors, occasionally switching the conversation to their old favourite Elvis songs. Mrs. Harrison their Social Studies teacher had given the students a pop quiz on the Civil War, she wanted to know what they already knew about it. Nina, for one, didn't know a bit about it. That sort of thing wasn't taught at an all-Catholic girls school.

At Lunchtime, Nina and Millis had arrived in the cafeteria a little bit late. Once they had gotten their lunch, they realized that all the seats where the freshmen sat were taken.

"Hey Nina, Millis! Come sit with us!" shouted Marcia across the cafeteria. They walked over the table and sat down feeling awkward. They were sitting with juniors.

"How were your classes?" Cherry asked. Nina shrugged.

"I had Mr. Syme for English. I think he's a really good teacher". Cherry nodded her head.

"Yeah, I had him last year".

"And the year before that" Marcia added.

"I wonder where Bob and Randy are," Cherry said.

"They're probably stuck back in Maths. You know Ms. Bishop won't let them out until they finish their work" Marcia said.

"Whose Randy and Bob?" Millis asked. Marcia let out a laugh.

"Randy's my boyfriend. Bob is Cherry's"

"You've already got boyfriends?" Nina queried.

"Well, you've got to start some time, haven't ya?" Marcia replied.

As they sat eating, Nina told Millis about what happened in English.

"Wow, Lucky greaser, having a girl like you stand up for him" Millis said in-between bites of her salad sandwich.

"It wasn't like that. I just couldn't stand Jessica talking to him like that. You should have seen the look on her face when I snapped at her" Nina added.

"You'd better be careful though, you wouldn't want a greaser like him spoiling your reputation. You are a Soc, you know."

"Yeah… I'm a Soc" Nina said in a sarcastic tone.

After they finished lunch, they said their goodbyes to Cherry and Marcia, who regretted them not meeting their boyfriends. They walked towards their lockers. Nina read a bit more of Great Expectations and Millis had to go to the Library to finish off her own English work.

After lunch, they had Art for the rest of the afternoon.

There were only 3 other Socs in their class, the rest were Greasers including Ponyboy. Nicholas like earlier was sitting in the front row with a friend, the other person was Jessica. She was intimidated by the Greaser crowd and decided to sit next to Millis and Nina.

"He's just a Greaser! You didn't have to make me look so bad in English!" Jessica whispered to Nina seriously. Nina looked back at Millis and shook her head. This girl just didn't get it.

"Don't worry, she wont try anything. She knows she's outnumbered here, and I wouldn't help her even if my life counted on it" Millis whispered to Nina. Nina smirked. It seemed Millis didn't seem to like Jessica either.

Their teacher, Ms. Peters instructed the class to draw anything that they wished.

Nina turned around to look at Ponyboy behind her. He was sitting in between two other Greasers who were throwing pencils at each other. She noticed he was drawing something bright and sunny. She thought it looked nice. She went back to concentrating on her work. She had managed to draw something that resembled a little forest hide-away. Jessica was drawing herself wearing a dressing gown and Millis impressed Nina by drawing a dinner table with food that looked almost real enough to eat.

The class seemed to pass quickly, and when the bell rang, everyone walked out as if they had just walked in.

"Need a ride?" Millis offered Nina. She shook her head and waved to Millis, as she entered her fathers Ford Galaxie Convertible. It was white, and there was a pair of bulls horns attached above the licence plate on the front. The car vroomed off and Nina walked over to a bench, waiting for her Father's blue Mustang Coupe to arrive and pick her up.

After a few minutes, her father had finally appeared. He parked a few spaces away from her. As Nina walked towards the car, she spotted Ponyboy coming out of the front entrance.

"Bye Ponyboy! See you tomorrow!" Nina yelled at Ponyboy, getting his attention and waved at him. She then walked up to the front passengers seat and got into the Mustang. She buckled up and the car drove off.

"How was your first day, sweetheart?" Her father asked her.

"It was… Interesting." She replied. And it was the truth.

"How so"

"Well… I found out that I'm a Soc."

"Yes, I was expecting that to happen. I remember when I was younger and when I first found that out too". Nina looked at her father…

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Would you have been the same way as you are now?"

"… I guess not…" Nina remembered how Cherry and Millis and even Jessica thought of Greasers. To Nina, before today, everyone was equal … but now… It all comes down to how she approaches it…

"Do you have any homework?"

"Yeah, I have to recite a poem for English. How was work, Dad?"

"The usual, filled in a few peoples teethes, gave three kids braces". Nina's father was a dentist. It was almost his hobby. He liked the idea of everyone having a nice smile. Because of him, Nina had incredibly straight and shiny white teeth. Though, if she were less shy, she'd grin more and reveal them more often.

When Nina got home, she went into the living room and looked at the big bookshelf for a bit.

Frost… Frost… Got it. Nina found what she was looking for, a book of poetry by Robert Frost. She took it back to her bedroom, jumped onto her mother's big family quilt on her bed and started reading it. She looked for a moving poem. There were hundreds, which of course all had a meaning to them.

"Fire and Ice… no… The Run away… no" Nina was looking at the poems, trying to find a good one.

"…No…Hmm… Nothing Gold Can Stay? Yes… Perfect"

The chapter ended up being longer than expected. Hope you enjoy it. Looking for feedback. Next chapter, I'm already working on it. People have been asking for romance. Can't promise anything, but I'll try what I can.