Disclaimer: Hopefully you've figured out by now that I am by no means SE Hinton and so I therefore own NOTHING. Thank you.

I had to go through and rid my story of all song lyrics, save one on the first page. Oops. I'm just going to save all my chapters, and if worst comes to worst and this gets taken down, I'll have it back up in roughly a day without the ABBA song.

And for the record, if anyone reads my other story, it's NOT DONE YET. Just clearing up some confusion.


February 2nd, 1968

Mom went back into the hospital today. Dad, who came home from Oklahoma City early, said that the doctors said it had to do with her kidneys. I'm not a doctor, so I wasn't even going to pretend I knew the level of seriousness.

Due to alot of snow,(A/N...I don't know how much it snows in Oklahoma, so for this story, it snowsthe same amount as Atlantic Canada...ouch.) we didn't have school for a few days, so I had a lot of time to practice my singing, and listen to my music.

I hadn't listened to anything classical, or opera, in over a month or more. I'd since aquired albums from The Doors, Bobby Gentry, The Wanted, Monkees, Van Morrison, The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Elvis Presley, and Jose Feliciano. And I'd still stare at the electric guitar in the music shop window every time I passed it.

I'd gotten completely sick of the song Shirley picked out for me, that one called 'Now You've Gone and Left Me' but I really couldn't learn a new song in the ten days I had. I chalked it up to nerves, and decided that in order to get myself back into a 'music mode' I'd write my own song. I still don't know how I came up with that idea. But if I felt exceptionally musical, maybe I'd like Shirley's friend's song again. Who knew?

I was lying on my back, strumming some chords on my guitar. It was only eight in the morning, but since Mom had to go in to the hospital around five in the morning, I hadn't gotten much sleep.

Suddenly, a tune popped into my head. I don't know where it came from, andI did know it would take a while to figure out how to play it, but once I started, I made suitable changes, and soon the lyrics were pouring into my head from God knows where.


It was about three in the afternoon, and the snow had died down considerably. I was in need of company, and I'd been alone all day with nothing with me but the farmiliar ache of not having Grampy...he was always around, it seemed. So I did the only thing that I really felt like doing right then. I went and got Ashley, and dragged her off to go pay a visit to Soda, who I knew was working that day and probably snowed into the gas station.

I didn't know how accurate I was. There was literally a four foot drift against the door.I could see Soda and some guy with a brush cut laughing at us from inside. Ashley gave them a rude sign with her hand.

I brushed some of the snow off the top, but it wouldn't all come off.

"Perfect," Ashley said, "Just perfect. Now we have to go back-"

"Ash-"

"And we came all this way-"

"Ash-"

"And in the freezing weather, too-"

"ASHLEY!"

"What?"

"The door pushes in."

Ashley looked bewildered for a second.

"I knew that." She said quietly, and walked forwards to push the door ahead. Even so, we had to climb over the snowbank, which was anything but easy. Soda and that other guy were in hysterics laughing. Soda I could understand, but I didn't know what the other guy found so funny. The look of us climbing over the snowbank wasn't near as funny if you didn't know us...

"Merry Christmas," I grumbled, slumping against a wall to brush the snow off of my pants.

"Quite the weather, isn't it?" Ashley said airly, leaning against the counter and tucking her hair behind her ear. It didn't matter that she'd embarrassed herself outside...Ashley was, as usual, the epitome of calm.

Well...I could think of a few times when she wasn't so calm. Take Christmas Eve, for example.

This was a bad train of though for me to get on while Soda was that close, because I'd inevitably start to stare at him without realizing it or something. But my god, he'd kissed me! I had the right to think about it! Even if it was only about two or three seconds because Ashley got a little hacked off when she came back. Why did she have to come back when she did? Why...

I noticed I was staring off into space, turning a delicate shade of pink. I put my head down, covering my face with my curls, and rubbed my forehead and chin. Stop thinking about that...stop thinking about that...stop thinking...

"Whaddare ya thinking about, Naomi? You seem distracted."

I could hardly bring my amber eyes to meet Sodapop's brown ones. It was horrible.

"Just...imagining what London might be like...if I get to go..."

I saw something flash behind his eyes, something that I don't think I was supposed to see.

"How're you getting on with your chemistry project, Naomi?" Ashley asked, grinning, "Have you started?"

"No," I argued, "It's due in March. I'm gone to London by February 19th."

"Looks like you're a little more confident than you let on." Soda said, grinning, but I saw it in his eyes again. Something he was trying to conceal. A really sad, defeated kind of hurt.

"Maybe." I said, smiling shyly.

"London?" piped up the guy with the brush cut, "Why're you going to London?"

I was about to explain, for what seemed like the millionth time, when Ashley held up her hand.

"I'll explain this time."

It wasa nice change.

"How've you been?" I asked Soda suddenly, in the middle of his sentence.

"Good...why?"

"I mean, really. How are you really?"

"Good...I'm really good..."

I only asked because I sensed something was wrong. And, partially because I'm pretty humble, and partially because it's true, I sensed it wasn't all because of my leaving.

"Okay. It's gonna be weird...being gone from here, and all."

"Yeah...when you grow up here, it's sorta a part of you."

"Yeah..." I said, a realization dawning on me, "It's almost fifty percent of who you are..."

Soda's POV

I'd expected alot when I'd lost Sandy. Alot of bad experiences, alot of girls who'd turn me down, and then I'd expected the unexpected.

But I'd never expected someone like Naomi. She wasn't different from alot of the middle class girls, it was mostly her singing that made her stand out, but she was really different from any of the girl's I'd taken an interest in. It used to make me wonder how many girls like Naomi I might have fallen for if they'd talked to me.

Now I know that I wouldn't have. Because none of the other middle class girls would have had the gall to leave Tulsa and go to London. When you're born in Tulsa, you almost always stay in Tulsa. If you're a Soc, or a greaser, it's your way of life...and wherever you go, you're always from Tulsa. It's always part of you.

Then there are people like Naomi, who can go anywhere and still be part of Tulsa without Tulsa being part of her.

So here she was, standing in front of me, a hidden kind of pretty, a little giggly, a middle class girl, with a voice like some sort of angel, day dreaming about her time that she'd spend somewhere else, and I was falling for her.

The problem was that, Naomi could live anywhere, but I felt that I'd never leave Tulsa. It was a huge part of me, as much as I didn't want it.

We both had two completely different futures, and I was starting to see that it was dumb of me to want them to both be one.


I don't know if I'm happy with this chapter... but I updated, so...there you go.

I'm going to update Bridging the Gap next. I swear.

------>OFFICIAL NOTICE --------

Singing Her Heart Out is officially coming toa close...whoa. Didn't take too long in my standards. I'd say five or less chapters left.

And I know how much you guys have been missing Jon lately...so he'll be back in... one or two chapters.

I'm not serious. I know you don't like him. Buuuuuuut he's a convienent obstacle, so I'm using him.

And that's all for now.

Cheers,

Jamea