Hello to all my readers, here is another installment of Not What You'd Expect. But before I start the story, I want to reply to all the people who were kind enough to read my story, and answer a few of the questions that were asked.
Paulina32196: It made me happy to read that you loved my story. As for Markie's full name, it is Markie Rose Curtis. Markie will explain why her mother named her Markie in a later chapter. But, I actually have met a girl named Markie at my elementary school. But whether or not that was her real name, I do not know.
tinkerbelle22: I am working on my typing. I sent this chapter to one of my friends to edit it for me so, hopefully this chapter turns out better then my first two.
seuss fan: Hey girl friend! Yeah I know about my grammar mistakes, but you know me. I put a smile on your face? Hey, that makes me smile!
bree123: I love the "He's got boobs," part too. It was a last minute rewrite, that I thought would make the chapter funnier. I'm glad someone liked it.
manthaS115: I thought the chapter was cute too.
smallncrazy91: Here is the update.
ronnie94: I wrote more.
Maximum Ride all the way: Thanks for saying my story was amazing.
Indiana9311: Yes Markie is going to fall for someone, but it won't be for a while. I try to draw the relationships out, before anything seriously happens. But the relat ionship will have its problems, and there will be a break-up. Markie will speak in one of the upcoming chapters, but it will take a seriously terrible event to get her to speak.
Not. Really.: Thank you so much for your helpful review. I'm sorry to disappoint you by making Markie a girl (and it's okay that you spelt her name wrong in the first review). But I'm happy that you said Markie doesn't appear to be a Mary-sue so far, and that I kept everyone in character, because that is hard for me. As for my grammar, I am working on it.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Outsiders, or the characters in the book. The only thing I own, is the character Markie Curtis, and any other characters that might appear in my story that were not a part of the original novel.
Not What You'd Expect
Chapter 3: Markie Meets the Gang
"He's got boobs!"
"Two-bit!"
Markie cracked one eye open. She saw the two boys who she guessed were Steve and Two-bit staring at her, both with shocked expressions on their faces. If she was not so nervous about meeting so many new people at once, she might have laughed at the two boys' expressions. Instead, she pulled her arm out of Soda's grip and hid behind Darry once again.
"Hey darling what you hiding behind Darry for? We don't bite," Steve said, getting up off the floor.
"Well, we don't bite till we get to know you better," Two-bit added, also getting up.
"She probably got a look at your two faces and got scared."
Markie peeked around Darry, seeing two more boys sitting on the couch staring at where she was hiding. She noticed the smaller of the two first. She took in his dark hair that was heavy greased, and his large eyes. He reminded Markie of a puppy that use to hang around her apartment back in Philadelphia. Her eyes moved over to the next boy. She shuddered as she took in his blond hair and cold eyes. Her senses all told her the same thing, this boy was trouble.
"Hey! We ain't scary looking!" Two-bit yelled at the blonde.
He looked at Markie, grinning, "You don't think were ugly do you doll?"
"Hey look she turns red when you talk to her," the blonde-haired boy said.
Two-bit smirked, "It think she has a crush on me."
Darry pushed Two-bit to the side walking into the living room, Markie following behind him.
"You wish, Two-bit."
He put Markie's suitcase on the floor, and then turned too looked at the four boys in the living room.
"In case you idiots haven't already figured it out, this here is Markie," he gestured to the silent girl who was staring at the floor, her face bright red. "You all know she is a girl thanks to Two-bit's loud outburst," he shot a glare at the rusty haired teen, who only grinned in response.
Darry rolled his eyes and turned to Markie, "Markie, this is the entire gang. That's Dallas Winston, Johnny Cade, Steve Randel, and Two-bit Matthews," he pointed to each boy as he said their names.
"Markie, huh. Is that your real full name?" Steve asked.
Markie nodded her head.
"What kind of name is that for a girl? It sounds more like a guy's name," Dallas said.
"She's a Curtis isn't she?" Two-bit said. "They all got weird names. What I want to know is why she hasn't said a single word since she walked in the door."
"She hasn't said a word since we picked her up," Sodapop said. "I've been trying to get her to talk the whole ride home, but she won't say a word."
"So she's an um ... oh what's that word Ponyboy when a person doesn't say anything?"
"A mute?"
Two-bit smiled, "Yeah that's right! Thanks! So you're a mute, right?"
Markie shrugged her shoulders. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a small note pad and pen. She flipped the pad open to a new page, and began writing something down. When she was finished, she handed the pad to Darry to read.
"Can you show me to my room? I'm tired," the note said.
" Sure thing kiddo. Follow me."
Darry picked her suitcase up again. Then Markie, Ponyboy, and Soda followed him to what would be her new room.
"We thought you were going to be a boy, so we put a cot in Soda's and Ponyboy's room."
He kicked open the door giving Markie her first view of the room she would be living in from now on. She loved what she saw. Books were piled in almost every available space in the room. Markie loved to read any book she could get her hands on. When she found out she could not bring all her books with her to Tulsa, it felt like she had lost another family member. She had only managed to pack a few books from her large library at home, the rest she had donated to her local library.
She wrote something down on her note pad, and handed it to Soda who was closes to her. He smiled as he finished reading what she wrote.
"Ponyboy is the one who likes to read," he said, pointing to his younger brother. "He's read every book in this room."
"Not every book," Ponyboy said, "Only about half of them."
Markie wrote something else down, and handed the pad to Ponyboy.
"Sure you can borrow a couple of my books."
Markie's face lit up in a smile, and before Ponyboy could even register what was happening, he was pulled into a tight hug, courtesy of Markie.
"Aw group hug!" Sodapop shouted, his arms wrapping around the two younger teens. "Come on Darry join in."
Darry looked at the three, half-amused, half-shocked. Both Sodapop and Markie were grinning like Cheshire cats, though he had to admit, he liked how Markie looked when she smiled. It was the first time he had seen her with any kind of real emotion her face. Poor Ponyboy looked completely lost, stuck in the middle of a Curtis sandwich.
Darry kindly interrupted the group hug saying, "Alright you two, let Ponyboy go, and let's get your bags into this room."
Ponyboy looked relieved as Markie and Sodapop let go of him. He grabbed the abandoned suitcase by his feet, carrying it into the room that he and Sodapop now shared with Markie.
"We'll put a sheet up around your bed until we can clean out Pony's old room. Then we'll move you into there."
Markie scribbled something down, holding the pad up when she was finished so all three boys could read.
"I do not want to be any trouble. I can sleep in here it doesn't bother me none." read Markie's scribbled note.
"But social services won't like a teenage girl sharing a room with two teenage boys," Darry pointed out.
Markie started scribbling again, "That is true."
"Come on, you can unpack later," Soda said, pulling her wrist. "Darry already said when we got home and introduced you to the gang, we could all go out and get dinner."
The two ended up back in the living room where the rest of the gang was watching TV.
"Come on you guys, were going out to eat," Soda shouted, pulling Markie out the door, and into the darkening streets of Tulsa.
Markie heard the boys yelling before she saw them. Steve and Dallas ran past her and Soda, yelling about a loser paying for the meal.
"I'm not paying for the entire meal!" Soda laughed, letting go of Markie's wrist so he could run after the two boys.
Markie stood in the middle of the street, watching the three boys disappear into the night. She began questioning Sodapop's sanity, when the sound of feet pounding against the pavement filled her ears. She turned around slowly to see Two-bit running towards her, a wild grin on his face. Ponyboy and Johnny were not far behind him. As he got closer to Markie, he flung his arm out, grabbing Markie by her arm. He tugged at her arm, until she was running side by side with him.
"Can't let a lady pay for a meal all by herself can I?" he yelled.
Two-bit looked at the newest Curtis, and wanted to laugh. Her face was a mix between shock and fear. There was no doubt in his mind that where she came from, people normally did not run around in the street after each other.
"Two-bit you can't pay for the meal either!" Ponyboy yelled, as he passed Two-bit and Markie.
Two-bit looked at Markie, then Ponyboy, then Markie again. He shrugged his shoulders.
"He has a good point you know. Sorry doll."
He let go of Markie's wrist and kept on running after Ponyboy. Dumbfounded, Markie kept on running, keeping Two-bit and Ponyboy in her sight. She had not been in Tulsa for more than a few hours, and did not fancy getting lost in the rough looking neighborhood.
"Come on new Curtis, I know you can run faster than that! Johnny is gaining on you!" Two-bit yelled back at her.
Markie looked to her left, and sure enough, there was Johnny neck to neck with her.
"The Dingo is right up there. We only have to run a little longer," Johnny whispered.
A large sign loomed in the distance with the word DINGO in bright letters written across it. Markie sighed in relief, knowing that her suffering was going to end soon. She and Johnny ran into the Dingo together, tied for last place. Markie felt dizzy from running, and collapsed on the floor, panting and gasping for air. She could not remember the last time she had ran that hard. Johnny, who was in much better shape than Markie, leaned against the doorframe, panting.
"What was that all about?" he asked, panting.
Everyone in the gang except for Darry looked at each other, before shrugging their shoulders.
"Dally and me thought we make things interesting. So, we started a race for the Dingo," Steve said.
Soda gave his best friend a high five, "That was a pretty fun race."
Markie looked at Sodapop and Steve like they each had three heads. She made a mental note that if this was what they thought was fun, she was not going to hang around with them.