Out of the ball park
Chapter 4: "Benevolent Shadowing"
Summary:
So, turns out there's a fourth to the Curtis household. She's a little bit different from her older brothers Darry, Sodapop and Ponyboy. She's quite literally 'THE' outsider. She kind of struggles to fit into the whole gang, of course by birth she has her place. But never seems to really fit in. She loves her brothers and all of the gang, but she's kind of just a drifter. Read on to follow her journey in fitting into the outsiders.
Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders, but I do own my OC's and anything I add to the plot. Other then that i own nothing.
A/N: I'm getting ideas.
Word Count: 1,200
It took her more than a handful of attempts at styling her hair before she left it alone. Giving up, she shook it loose and left her hair down for the day when every attempt to make it look nice completely failed. Who was she trying to impress anyways? She frustratedly thought to herself, allowing her eyes to scan her appearance.
After a few stray hairs were plucked from her brows, smoothed out, and eyelashes perfectly groomed. Applying a thin layer of gloss to her bottom lip before rubing it against the top and smacking them when she was satisfied with the coverage.
For a moment she felt pretty. She hadn't worn much or done anything special with her look, but as she looked at her reflection carefully, she saw someone new smiling back at her. Never had she paid this much attention to the fine details of herself.
Soon the holler of a few boys on the other side of the door drew her back in, lightly clapping her hands together and exiting the bathroom.
After making her way through the door, still not having picked out an outfit, she headed back to her room.
Being brought back to reality, her grumpy body slowly pulled open two drawers. Running her eyes over the options in front of her, her left hand shoved in to pull out a shirt while the right grabbed a pair of pants.
She was pleasantly surprised with the bell-bottom jeans and white blouse. The jeans were worn out, with a patch on the side of the thigh, but still looked quite nice. The shirt hugged the shoulders and the short sleeves puffed up around the arms. A yellow stitching flowed around the bottom of the fabric. It was a little more dressed up than Elvie went for, but today she wanted to feel pretty.
Elvie slipped out of the wrinkled night clothes and hopped as she put on the jeans, laughing as she tripped over one of the legs. Once she had finished fluffing the sleeves of her blouse and pulling at her jeans, a smidge, she was satisfied. Throwing the fronts of her hair over her shoulders and making her way to everyone else.
Sodapop walked from the bathroom, buttoning up his DX shirt with sloppy wet hair. Ponyboy sat at the table reading a piece of paper Elvie couldn't make out. Steve walked behind him to snatch it away before giving it back when it showed him no interest. After receiving his paper back, Ponyboy shoved it into his bag, getting up and throwing it over his shoulder.
"Hey Elvie, do you wanna' walk with me and Johnny? We're heading out now." Pony offered, Johnny standing up to follow Ponyboy's lead.
"No, still gotta get my shoes on and I'm actually starving, go ahead. Thanks though." I tapped Soda's shoulder to let me by, both him and Steve moved out of the way for me to get into the kitchen.
Darry stood with a cup of coffee, drinking its remaining black liquid before he put the mug in the sink.
"This yours?" I asked, pointing to a plate of chocolate cake and he nodded as he finished swallowing his drink. I picked up his fork and stole a small bite before opening the fridge and grabbing some eggs.
After a few cracked eggs and a hot frying pan, Elvie's breakfast was finished and on her plate. With a fork in hand, she picked up a large bite with a few stabs at the plate. She opened her mouth wide and fit in as much as possible. She was hungry and could care less about pleasantries this early in the morning.
"You gonna finish that?" Steve questioned when she released her fork, sounding off a clank as it plopped onto the ceramic plate.
"No, 'mfull. You can have it." She smiled, sipping her water and shoving the plate aside before leaving the kitchen. Steve quickly thanked her before she could get too far away to hear.
It was almost time for everyone to rush out of the house before they were late to school or work.
The backpack that leaned on the leg of the dinner table was snatched up and thrown over Ellie's shoulders. She was careful to lift her hair off her shoulders to avoid a knot from the straps of the bag.
She waved herself off as she set her path to school. She had almost forgotten about the boy who was to walk her to school this morning, but a pang of anxiety and exuberance was persistent in her chest.
After setting off on her first step, her eyes darted left to right, scanning the area for Mark Twains.
"Elvie Curtis." The name dripped sweetly off Mark's tongue. Say that again, please. She shook the thought before smiling even bigger than before.
Elvie didn't have to say anything. She simply strolled over next to him and continued walking to his right. Dally and Steve stood watching the girl skip away alongside the boy they couldn't make out.
"How'd you sleep?" Elvie asked.
"Good," Mark lied right through his teeth as his eyes grazed his runners. Truth was, the house was loud and he couldn't stop thinking about how he was going to impress Curtis' sister.
"That's lovely."
The conversation continued and developed into a more interesting debate on if books were truly better than movies or not.
Mark had walked all the way to Elvie's first class of the day. The classroom that was inconveniently on the other side of the building to where he needed to be.
"How about a movie? I mean—do you want to see a movie with me?" Mark asked silently, begging her to agree.
The bell rang and Mark knew that if he didn't get to his classroom in the next five minutes, he would be locked out for the test.
Elvie didn't answer right away. She had paused for a second to think and just couldn't find a reason to say no. It was just a movie.
"Yeah," Her voice answered sweetly before she walked into the classroom. His chest swirled and they hadn't even confirmed a movie or date or time, but he was satisfied anyways.
He allowed himself to feel excited until he could no longer see her from his spot outside the door. A second more and he went sprinting down the hallway.
With the loud stomps of him scaling the stairs, his breath heaved. He was so close to making it on time.
The door closed right in front of him and he grabbed the handle. The older female teacher glared at him through the glass part of the door; he was screwed.
Mark's back collided with a few lockers and he ran his hands through the greasy black locks that fell onto his face. In order to keep his grade up, he would have to do everything in his power to take this test.
He couldn't go back.
Anxiety, naturally, found its way slithering through his insides. But he tried to pull himself through the other side of optimism. Elvie Jean Curtis is going to the movies with me.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed. If you have any ideas or things I should change, please comment! :o)
-Amory
Published: March 11th, 2022
