Once again – I'm just writing this for fun, there's no real plot to speak of, and the canon characters only make small appearances. I'm just posting it here for anyone who would like to see more of some of the characters I created in Ten Years Later. Because the canon characters do appear in the story, I cannot post this on Fictionpress. It's just a light summer read, so have fun and feel free to make suggestions :). Liz

Thanks to all who reviewed. I will get my responses out to you soon, sorry for the delay!

Disclaimer: S.E. Hinton owns The Outsiders

Dedication: This one's for Amy, an old friend of mine who's out there somewhere, maybe still trying to figure out how to bounce a ball. There's another sort of "hidden" dedication within the chapter; I think the person it's for will recognize it when she sees it ;).

Chapter 2

"Gina, look out! The giant green snake is trying to eat you!"

I untangled my foot from the garden hose and gave Robbie a disgusted smirk. How many times can the same joke be funny? "I told you, I thought he meant there was a snake next to the hose!"

Robbie nodded. "Yeah. Uh-huh."

"Stop it!" Last summer, one of Robbie's friends had gotten me thinking there was a snake following me around – you know, 'no, it's there, right next to you! You just walked past it!' – kind of stuff, and I had been practically in tears hysterical. I can't stand snakes. I don't mind spiders, mice, bugs, or any of the other stuff that people usually think girls are afraid of. But make me think there's a snake nearby and I lose it. I have no idea why, either; I guess you'd call it a phobia. Anyway, Robbie's friend had been talking about the garden hose the whole time, and they were all practically rolling on the ground laughing at me by the time I figured out what was going on.

"It's coming back around for another go at you, Gina!"

I reached down into the bucket of water balloons that we'd just finished filling, snatched one out, and hurled it hard at Robbie. Naturally it sailed right past him and exploded on Jason's side as he crossed the yard on his way to Dad, who was setting up tables back by the maple trees. As soon as I saw the balloon make contact I froze for an instant, just long enough to hear Jason swear loudly and turn in fury as he sought out his assailant. I was about to blame Robbie, who looked even more amused than ever at this new development, but as soon as Jason and I made eye contact he knew it was me who had thrown it. I turned and ran as Jason rocketed toward me.

"Wasn't…my fault!" I shrieked once I could hear him directly behind me. Something hit me in the middle of my back with the force of an icy bullet. "Ahhh!"

"You little brat!" Jason spat, grabbing my arm and holding the hose, set for power wash, about three inches from the back of my neck and pulling the trigger.

I screamed and twisted as bitter cold water ran down my back and drenched my shirt, not to mention that it was practically ripping my skin off. "Stop!" I kept twisting, and Jason kept curling the hose around to account for my movements. "I was throwing it at Robbie!" I finally spluttered after getting a face full of water. He at least moved the hose down some. "He was making fun of me with that stupid snake joke again."

The water stopped, and Jason tossed the hose onto the ground and thrust my arm away. "Your aim sucks," he informed me, like that was my fault.

"No kidding. And now you're five times as wet as I made you, genius," I pointed out. It was true – in attacking me with the hose, Jason had gotten most of the front of his shirt and jeans wet. "Was your little revenge worth it?"

"Shut up." Jason turned away from me, shaking his head, and started walking back toward where Dad was. As he passed by the bucked he reached down, scooped out a water balloon, and fired it halfway across the yard at Robbie. It broke on the back of his head. Jason's aim is a little better than mine; he plays varsity baseball.

"Are you ready?" At Vic's question I turned around to see him coming out the back door spinning his keys around on his finger. He stopped to take a look at me. "You're wet."

"Yeah," I answered.

"Maybe you should go change your shirt," he suggested.

I shrugged. "I'll dry."

"I really think it would be a good idea to go change your shirt."

I wrinkled my forehead. "What's the big deal? It's just water." I was thinking of making fun of Vic for being afraid of getting his back a little wet from me leaning into him on the motorcycle.

Vic sighed. "Gina, you're wearing a white shirt. You're dripping wet."

Hadn't we just gone through this? I stared at my brother, waiting for the punch line. He doesn't usually hedge like that, and it was getting a little weird.

"I don't know how much clearer I can make this," Vic finally said. "Okay, at the very least – go…put…on…a…BRA."

I gasped and crossed my arms over my chest. Okay, so I'm not very well endowed. I mean, I wear bras, but they are the smallest size known to mankind, and sometimes when I'm just doing things around the house I don't bother putting one on. They get uncomfortable by the end of the day. "You could have said that from the beginning," I pointed out, ducking past him.

"I was trying to be tactful. My mistake."

One dry t-shirt, one nearly-A-size bra, and three minutes later, we were climbing onto Vic's bike to head over to Carson's General Store. It's kind of like a deli/drugstore/stationery store all in one. They're open every day of the year, even Christmas and Thanksgiving. Half the town is usually there on holidays picking up last minute film or extra whipped cream or more scotch tape. The place isn't even run by the Carson family any more. Mr. Weinhoffer bought it several years back when Mr. Carson won a bunch of money on a horse and decided to retire. But it was Carson's for so long, that's what everybody still calls it, despite the big Weinhoffer's sign hanging out front.

Anyway, it only took about five minutes to get there; I stood and perused the magazines while Vic went and got the batteries he needed. It wasn't until we were standing at the counter behind old Mr. Daniels that I glanced over to the front doors and gasped.

"What?" Vic asked.

"Oh my God."

"What?"

I turned away quickly before he saw me staring at him. "Emilio Montero," I whispered. "Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod."

"Who?" Vic was trying to figure out who I was talking about.

"No, don't look! He's over by the door, the one with the brown hair wearing the blue tank top." My heart was racing. Had he seen me?

"So? What about him?"

Guys, I swear. "He's gorgeous! Just look at him. Do you think he saw me?" I wasn't sure if I wanted him to have seen me or not. Emilio is going into eleventh grade, like Robbie, and he is the cutest thing on two legs. "Does my hair look okay?"

Vic glanced at me while he handed the cashier a twenty. "Like a rat's nest."

"Ah! I forgot about the helmet. No, don't look at him!"

Vic slid his change into his pocket and handed me the bag. "Have you completely lost your mind? He's standing right next to the door we're walking toward. I'm looking at the door, not at stud-man."

Reluctantly I slunk after Vic, desperately trying to straighten my hair as I walked. Emilio was standing there talking to Trent McMasters. I smiled as we walked by, but he barely glanced at me. Of course, he had no idea who I was. He barely knew Robbie, they were just in the same class. But I have the biggest crush on Emilio, pretty much like half the other girls in my grade. Light brown hair, dark brown eyes, bright white smile, perfect nose…I could go on and on.

Come to think of it, I did go on and on. By the time we got home Vic was saying something along the lines of going inside to puncture his own eardrums with a sharp stick. And I had thought I wasn't yelling loud enough, what with the noise from the bike and all.

"Jeeners!" Robbie called.

I trekked over to where Robbie and Jon were lounging in the grass. "Yeah?"

"You're the best sister in the world. Have I told you that today? No, the universe! You outrank all alien life forms in the history of sisterhood." Robbie grinned at me and reached up to rub the back of my hand.

"So what do you want, Coke or root beer?"

"Get out. There's no orange? Didn't Mom get orange soda?"

"How should I know? You're the ones who went to the store with her," I reminded him.

Robbie ignored my comment. "What person in their right mind doesn't get orange soda for a party? Good God, Mom needs to be medicated!"

"Lin's here," Jon announced, looking past me to the driveway as he lazily spun a wheel on his overturned skateboard.

I turned around to see our sister emerging from a beat-up brown car that had one corner painted red. The guy who had been driving climbed out of the driver's side, surveyed the house and yard, and lit up a cigarette. "Looks like a right upstanding sort of fellow," Robbie observed. The guy was wearing ripped faded jeans, had scraggly hair in three different shades of green, and sported a tattoo on his bicep of some sort of firearm.

"He's standing upright, alright," Jon agreed, "which is at least a step up, evolutionarily speaking, from the last guy."

I waved to Lin, who smiled and waved back before saying something to her new man, whose name I actually remembered – Charlie. I love my sister, but I don't understand her taste in guys at all. She always ends up with some loser who treats her like dirt, mooches off of her, and then breaks up with her.

"Ooh, here comes Vic," Robbie pointed out with renewed interest as Vic approached Linleigh. "He looks thrilled to meet the new beau." Vic was giving Lin a hug and throwing nasty looks over her shoulder at Charlie, who seemed oblivious.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a volleyball bounced off the side of Robbie's head. He fell sideways and laid there like he was dead. "You losers up for a butt-whoopin'?"

Robbie sat back up and tossed the ball back to our Uncle Soda. "Oh, please. That game was such a farce. It was fixed, I tell you! We had the pregnant woman and," Robbie glanced at me and lowered his voice to a loud whisper, "and Gina on our team."

I waved my hand at Soda. "Throw the ball at his head again, only really mean it this time. Knock him out."

Soda held the ball back and pretended to lob it forcefully at a Robbie, who cowered in the grass and made pleading noises.

"It's not my fault I'm not athletically inclined," I announced. Seriously, I'm not; I was one of those kids who, while trying to bounce a ball, either tossed it down onto my own feet and watched it ricochet across the playground, or managed to let it bounce straight up into my nose, missing my hand entirely. But I'm okay with that, because my aspirations lie elsewhere. I have images of myself being an important lawyer or private investigator or something along those lines, living in the city, having my own apartment, meeting with clients in fancy restaurants…

I even bugged Vic once to let me go to work with him, so I could get some experience. He's a lawyer, so I was hoping for some good courtroom drama and maybe a little coy intimidation. No such luck. We sat in a stuffy office all afternoon surrounded by papers and files. He made me organize a bunch of the files while he spent half the time on the phone with a hundred different people, including Dad. Vic does a lot of pro bono work, most of which in some way originates from Dad. Pro bono means that he works for free, usually for people who need more help but can't afford it. I didn't know what it meant until I asked him. "I'm going to solve mysteries," I said.

"Of course you are," Soda agreed. He doesn't let us call him Uncle Soda, I should mention. He's been telling us for years that once he's the same age as 'Old Uncle Darry', we can add the title.

"Maybe for her second investigation, she can find Jimmy Hoffa," Jon added, and everyone snickered.

I stiffened. "It could have been a body!"

"It was a body," Jon pointed out.

"And by God," Robbie said, shaking a fist, "we will find the bastards who killed it, if it takes every ounce of manpower at our disposal!"

Okay, so I have a rather active imagination. But when you find a large bone sticking out of the vegetable garden, exhuming the body takes precedence over the tomatoes. Unfortunately for me, Mom didn't see it that way.

"Are you people talking about that dead cow again?" Vic plopped down on the grass across from Robbie and took a swallow of his beer.

"Actually, we were talking about Gina solving mysteries," Robbie corrected.

"Actually, we were talking about how athletically inept Gina is," Jon corrected.

Soda sighed. "Actually, we were talking about volleyball." He tossed the ball in the air for effect. "Anyone game?"

Everybody dragged themselves up off the grass, volunteering in groans. "Is the baby inside?" I asked.

Soda nodded. "Don't worry about it if she cries. Mel and I are the only people she wants all of a sudden. Stranger anxiety or something."

I stopped. "But she was just here two weeks ago!"

Soda shrugged and grinned. "Hey, I don't understand 'em. I'm just the dad."

I tromped across the lawn to the house, where I found Melanie in the kitchen holding Janelle and talking to Mom. My cousin is seven months old and completely adorable. It took a long time for Melanie to want kids, and now that she has one she's all about the baby. Business suits were traded in for sweats and t-shirts, and you'd never know that two years earlier she didn't know which end of a baby was up.

"Can I hold her?" I asked.

Melanie looked skeptical. "You can try, but don't be disappointed if she throws a fit." She bounced Janelle around and raised her pitch a few notches. "Look, Jannie! Look who's here! It's Gina!"

Janelle smiled and waved her arm around, so I held my hands out, and Melanie eased her over to me. It took her about three seconds to assess the situation and come to the conclusion that she had never seen me before in her life and wanted nothing to do with me. Her bottom lip bulged forward and her face scrunched up, so I handed her back to Mel before anything loud happened. Melanie gave an apologetic smile.

"Well Jannie," I said, letting her get a grip on my finger from the safety of her Mom's arms, "I guess I'll go ahead outside and help somebody lose their volleyball game."

Hope ya'll enjoyed! I wanted to get an Independence Day chapter up by the 4th or 5th, so we'll see how far I can get by then. Have a great week!