Disclaimer: S.E Hinton owns The Outsiders.
A/N: Thanks so much to fireyhotspot for being my first reviewer.
We got to Jack's house about twenty minutes after. Jack could walk home if he wanted, but sometimes kids got beaten up if they walked home alone. Jack isn't scrawny but he hasn't got huge muscles either. We waved goodbye to him and Taylor climbed into the front seat of the car and turned the music down. I felt a little guilty as I saw Jack walk into his falling apart home.
Taylor must've noticed because she kept looking at me with a questioning look on her face.
"What?" I asked finally as we drove into our street.
"Nothing, you just seem….distracted" she said to me smiling.
I shrugged and kept on driving. By the time I pulled into our driveway, Taylor seemed to have caught on that I didn't want to talk about it. Our house was a brick house with a blue coloured roof. It was two storeys but a big house nevertheless. I got out of the car and locked the door. Taylor pulled her bag out from the back seat and jumped out. I locked the door behind her and followed her into our house. Taylor dropped her bag at the door and sniffed the air.
"Uh oh I smell burning food," Taylor said walking towards the kitchen, "Oh no, Dad why don't you leave the cooking to Mom?"
"What? I can't see what I'm doing so wrong," Dad said looking pleased with himself.
I laughed and sat down in the seat next to Mom. She was reading a formal looking letter, and was biting her nails. Mom always did that when she was nervous.
"Err Dad, hate to break it to you but its black," Taylor said looking into the pan with a doubtful expression on her face, "And that's definitely not normal,"
I saw Dad give her a disapproving look and turn off the stove. I turned back to the letter Mom was reading. When I leaned over she moved it away from me. She was looking at Dad, who was looking back at her. He nodded and led Taylor to the table. She sat down and stared blankly at both of them.
"Kids we have some bad news," Mom said looking at both of us, "Well, actually it's very good news but for you it may be bad,"
"I got promoted!" Dad said smiling.
"Really? That's great Dad! Why would it be bad?" Taylor said jumping up and giving him a big hug.
"Yeah that's great, you've wanted a promotion for ages," I said smiling.
"So we will be moving to Tulsa," Dad continued smiling.
"What," Taylor said. It was more of a statement than a question. She had stopped hugging Dad and stood up straight. Her eyes were wide as she was looking from Mom to Dad. I could see the pleading look in her eyes, probably praying that it didn't mean what she thought it did.
"Well your father has been promoted and the job is at another hospital in Tulsa," Mom said looking at Taylor, smiling.
"Where on earth is Tulsa?" Taylor asked me, with a blank expression on her face.
"Oklahoma isn't it?" I asked Mom who nodded.
She and Dad walked out of the room, Dad patting Taylor on the head. She was standing there with a shocked expression on her face. I gave her an unconvincing smile which she didn't return.
"We're going to the hospital, your father has to do some paperwork," I heard Mom yell from the front of the house, "We'll be back at around six,"
The door slammed shut and I heard the car drive off. Taylor turned and sat down at the table with me. She stared down at the wood and started fiddling with the cloth. A lock of blonde hair escaped from behind her ear and fell in front of her face. I leaned back in my chair and looked out the window. Suddenly a door banged open and slammed shut. A second later my older brother came running into the room and picked up Taylor, swung her around. When she didn't do anything, he stopped and set her back down again.
"What's the deal? It looks like a funeral in here," Alex said as he went over to the cupboard and started digging around for some food. He pulled out a few cookies and sat down at the table.
"You're an idiot, didn't you get any of what Mom and Dad said on their way out?" a girl said, hitting Alex on the head.
"Yeah, but we're moving! That's a good thing, new adventure," Alex replied rubbing his head, "You've gotta be open minded about these things Heather."
Heather and Alex are my other two siblings; I have one more but more about him later. Heather is nineteen and the most preppy person I know. She was cheerleading captain at high school, student body president and prom queen. She's got long, curly blonde hair which is a little darker than Taylor's. Heather also has brown eyes and is tall and thin. Alex has dark brown hair like me and brown eyes which are always full of some happy emotion. People say I look like Alex's twin, except I'm more serious and two years younger. Alex is eighteen.
"Well I don't see anything to be open minded about, Tulsa better not be a town where all there is to do is read and other boring things. I'm supposed to call Peter," Heather said walking out of the room, "Don't even think about eavesdropping,"
Taylor looked up and grinned. She looked at Alex who nodded and then they both stood up. I pulled them back down.
"She'll kill you," I said.
"Yeah, she's will I guess. I'll go horse riding then, it's the safer option," Taylor said standing up and pushing her chair in.
"Aww Taylor you're letting the team down," Alex said pleading.
Taylor shook her head and walked out of the room. "What's wrong with reading anyway?" She called to us.
"It's boring," Alex and I called back.