Yes, I am updating! I know, I love it when I get bored, too. I hope you all enjoy! Well, onto the reviews before I get off track!
Aurorababe: Thanks! I hope you enjoy!
Taurus: Glad you enjoyed! Yes, You said something and now I can't remember, how lovely, eh? Curly? Interesting. Well, thanks again and I hope you enjoy this one!
Keira: She is! He is! I'm happy you think so! Enough with the exclamation marks! Well, as you will see, Darry has plenty to keep him busy in this chapter. Hope you enjoy!
Rock: I know how that one goes. That was one odd day, but satisfying. Thanks! Finally? Well, I'm happy. Glad you liked that! I love that she is a mechanic. Show those men (Jhon). Hope you enjoy!
Nittany Lizard: Yeah, that was my busy day. I love that stage, for about fifteen minutes, then I kind of hide, but it's amusing. Yeah, poor Pony and Darry. They'll have plenty to keep them busy and the Texan cousins will definitely be in on it. Hope you enjoy!
TwoBitGortez: Thanks. Hope you enjoyed
Berserker Nightwitch: Hey! Thanks! Yeah, I love that because no one ever does. Thanks for that one, too! I plan to try and kick them out more often! Hope you enjoy!
Ale Curtis-Carter: Thanks! Hope you enjoy!
Sodapop's#1gurl: Thanks! Hope this was soon enough and that you enjoy!
Moni: Thank you. Yeah, I am, they just don't have all my attention these days, but I hope to work on them all more. Hope you enjoy!
Disclaimer: I own my characters and S.E. Hinton owns the Outsiders
Dedication: To Keira who can't wait for Friday and for Liz who can't wait for Thursday. Hopefully this will make the time fly.
/-/-/-/-/-/-
Darry's POV
"Now, don't go spacing off on me. It's bad enough I have to show you around without you taking a trip to Mars."
I glanced over at Brand, wondering if there was anyone on this earth that didn't mind his company. He didn't seem to really like anyone, but River, and he wasn't even that brotherly to her, either. If he wasn't family, and as big as he was, I would have hit him and asked him what he thought about that. I decided he wasn't worth my time, not today. Not on the day I was starting my new future.
University was the last thing I thought I would be doing at this point in my life. I knew since I was a little kid that we didn't have the money for it and that I would have to work to get anywhere in this world, but here I was. It was almost unreal to me, but the vivid memory of why I was here kept me vowing to do my best. My parents may have been gone, but they would have wanted me to become something and to watch out for Ponyboy and Sodapop. I smiled a little. It wasn't like they were five years old anymore, but I liked to think that I should be watching out for them.
"I wasn't going to Mars," I replied coolly, "How long until we get there?"
"A couple minutes," he answered
And that was that. Neither of us had anything else to say to each other. Brand drummed his fingers to the beat of a song I didn't recognize and I continued watching the scenery change. I was bored stiff, but at the same time I was excited and nervous. When we finally saw the university loom ahead, I relaxed a little. I always believed in hitting things head on and going from there and that was exactly how I was going to have to handle this.
Brand parked the car and threw his coat over on shoulder. I got the feeling that around here he was tuff or something, but to me, he was a Soc and not a very pleasant one either. I had known quite a few Socs back in Tulsa. My football team and graduating class were full of them, so I had made friends with a lot of them. I imagined that Houston would be no different and I would have to adapt.
"Name?" A nasally voice asked at the front desk
"Curtis, BJ," Brand answered and she handed him an envelope
"Name?" She repeated
"Curtis, Darrel," I answered and she handed me an envelope too
"The text books have already been paid for, so you may pick them up at your discretion. Name?"
We moved out of the line as she moved onto the next person and Brand paused at a table to sort through his envelope. I knew he was going into engineering, so I doubted we would have anything together. There was an identification card in there as well as a list of my courses and a map of the school. It was a big place and I knew I would need a map for the first couple of weeks. I sifted through it some more and came up with a list of the textbooks J.C. had bought as well as the schedule they ran here. I had four classes in all and they rotated from day to day. I had a four-hour long class in the morning and another in the afternoon. I frowned at the length of time I would have to sit around, but it beat roofing houses, I supposed.
"Let's get the books," Brand suggested, shoving everything back into his envelope and I did like wise
There was a kind of little booth off of a room filled with thick books where we got our textbooks. Mine were all very thick, but all looked very interesting. Brand glanced at his with passing interest. I reminded myself that this was his second semester and he was probably used to all of this. He sighed and led the way back out of the school. I frowned but didn't comment.
"Neither of us bothered to apply for lockers this year, so we'll be using the car," he explained, throwing most of his books into the back seat "Keep what you need for the day and stash the rest in here."
He waited for me to do as I was told, so I held back for a minute and wasted his time. He didn't look impressed, but there was no way he could accuse me of anything. I knew this was going to be an interesting day to say the least.
"There's your first class room," Brand pointed at one on the second floor a few minutes after our trip to the car, "I don't care what you do for lunch, but I leave at four thirty - with or without you."
I wanted to tell him where to get off when a pretty blonde came up behind him and rose on her tip toes to hug him around the neck.
"Hi, BJ," she greeted "Who's your friend?"
Brand rolled his eyes and sighed heavily. I was sure I was cramping whatever style he thought he had and just smiled.
"Harbor McKay, Darrel Curtis," he introduced
She eyed me curiously, but she looked friendlier than Brand and it seemed to be annoying him, so I didn't interrupt her.
"Pleased to meet you." She smiled "I didn't know BJ had another brother."
"We're cousins," Brand clarified "I'm going to class."
He stalked off and Harbor shook her head at him.
"He really doesn't like you," she commented
"How could you tell?" I asked
"I'm just very observant," she said smiling "Do you have marketing now?"
"Yeah, do you?" I asked
"No, I'm down the hall in Socio-economics," she added "I cringe at the thought of math for four hours a day."
I grinned at her and wondered why it didn't bug me. I'd always found math really easy and I guess it was only natural for me to continue on with it. I wanted to say something more, but the bell rang and people started filing in to the room.
"Well, try to enjoy class, Darrel Curtis." Harbor started off down the hall
"It's Darry," I called after her
She disappeared into the last door down the hall and I headed into class. I was surprised I had met her so easily, but she must have known Brand pretty well. You could tell by the way she hugged him that they had some form of close relationship. She did have a pretty smile, though.
"Welcome to Marketing 2B." an older man stood up at the front, looking almost impatient "Those of you who pass will go on to make a profit in your lives. Those of you who don't should remember that Dairy Queen is always looking for a good burger flipper."
There were a few laughs from the back of the room and the professor smiled a little.
"Everyone put your feet on your desks," he instructed and a few people did it without hesitation while a few students were hesitant "Come on, put your feet up."
In another minute even I had my feet on my desk and the professor was smiling. He sat on his desk, looking a little amused, but you could tell he had something serious to say.
"This, ladies and gentlemen, is as comfortable as you will be all semester, so enjoy it while you can," he advised
"You say that every year, Mr. Stevens," someone called from the back
"And every year you don't take me seriously, Mr. Harris," Mr. Stevens smiled "Now, put your feet down and lets get down to business. How many of you know what marketing is?"
From that point in I found myself jotting things down like crazy. I was finding that there was a lot more to marketing than just math, but I was also taking an accounting class in the afternoon that would be purely math, so I was fairly confident. Then there was my architecture class that would be all charts and measurements and finally would be the literature class I was required to take. The last one was the one I was worried about. I had always been bored to tears by books and movies unless they hooked me right away. All I could help thinking was that tomorrow was going to be interesting to say the least.
"Alright," Mr. Stevens brought my attention back to him "For Wednesday have the first chapter in your text read and make notes on what is good for marketing and what is bad for marketing. For all of you who put Mr. Harris at the top of your bad list, then you're already getting a good eye for what not to use in advertising."
There were some laughs and I could hear Harris was trying to say something in his defense, but the bell rang and we all began filing out of the room. I ended up behind two boys who looked around my age. The first thing I noticed was that they looked more like Greasers than anyone else I had seen here.
"You're not going to give him a break all semester, are you, Harris?" One asked
"Not on your life, Verne," he smirked "He would get bored without my constant observations."
I was curious, but decided to look and see if Harbor was anywhere in the hall. In my opinion, she was more interesting than Harris and his friend.
"Piss anyone off yet, Tim?" A girl asked making them stop and me, just behind them
"Harris tried," Verne answered "Stevens wasn't biting."
"Excuse me," I pardoned, not willing to wait on them to move any longer
"Hey, are you new?" Verne asked
I looked at them, wondering if they knew everyone in the school or if they randomly asked people if they were new. I decided I was just a new face.
"Yeah," I answered "Just got here from Tulsa."
"Tulsa sure boots out big guys," Harris commented
"Don't mind Tim, he's got no filter from his brain to his mouth."
"Harbor, Harbor, Harbor. You know you love it." Harris grinned
Harbor rolled her eyes and grinned good-naturedly at him. He winked and the other girl elbowed him in the ribs.
"Well, I see you've met the bulk of BJ's friends," Harbor commented
"How do you know Barby-Jane?" Harris grinned
"Yeah, I'm curious how he knows Betty-Jo, too," Verne teased
"He's my cousin," I explained, wondering if either of those were really his name
They both laughed and Harbor smiled.
"You poor, son of a-"
"Would you care to join us for lunch, Darry?" Harbor offered
"Yeah, sure," I agreed
/-/-/-/-/-
J.C. 's POV
"Ok, so we know there's oil deposits here," I said pointing to the map "But has anyone looked here?"
My analysts looked at each other and I frowned. I knew what was happening, because it happened every time I made a suggestion. I think they forgot a long time ago who was the boss around here.
"Well, sir," one started "We don't own that land."
I looked at him blankly and he shifted under my gaze. I tried to remember what exactly he did, but didn't come to mind. Whatever it was, it wasn't a job where he could talk down to me like I was a preschool student.
"I am well aware we don't own it. If we owned it, we would know if there was oil under it or not and I wouldn't be standing here listening to you avoiding the question. Has anyone looked there?" I repeated
"We do not know…" Another trailed off
"'Come on, people! My five year old could do this job!" I pointed out, disappointed in all of them
"I think we can find out," the first, Bob maybe, said
"I'm disappointed in the work ethic being put out, people. You have fifteen minutes to actually do your jobs or I'll go ask my Kids if they want jobs," I threatened but they didn't move "What do you do, Bob?"
"It's Bert," he corrected "I'm a seismologist."
"Well, Bart. My eldest son can be a seismologist. It doesn't look like all that difficult a job and with the openings that will be coming up he should make it there. He likes rocks and he does as he is told, too."
Ok, so that wasn't entirely truthful, but it got them all moving towards the door and I glanced at the clock. It wasn't even noon and I had threatened to fire half of the office staff. I was just glad that the rig workers actually knew their business. I sighed and headed back to my office. It was a nice office, don't get me wrong, but I'd taken down all the drawings Summer had made when the Chinese investors came. Wait, it was my secretary that had taken them down. Apparently they weren't professional looking, but they had added a touch of color to the tan and black scheme. There were no toys in here, no books and no distractions. You'd think my investors actually wanted me to work or something with how empty the office was. I sat down at the desk and drummed my fingers for a minute, before picking up the telephone.
"Grace?" I asked for my secretary
"Yeah, boss?" She answered
"What's on my agenda today?"
"You cancelled your appointments for today last week because your horoscope-"
"What's a horoscope?" I interrupted
"You called it a Horror-scope," she explained
I tried to remember when I had done that, but nothing came to mind and I told her to continue.
"You told your kids you wouldn't pick them up after school because you are going to go grocery shopping and you're mail needs to be picked up. As well, you need to return those calls to the senator and your ex wife-"
"Don't tell me, I don't want to know, not even which one," I instructed
Ok, so I didn't mind Faye or Michaela, but Gloria was just…what do you call a two timing skank that could have quite possibly played the witch in the wizard of OZ? Then there were the showgirls Holly and Gina and then who could forget Pam? I tried to recall if I actually technically married Pam, Gina or Holly, but that wasn't important.
"Mr. Reynolds is here. He says it only took them 12 minutes," Grace informed me
"Who?" I asked
"He says his name is Bert and he's here on behalf of the staff you threatened to fire."
"Oh, send Brat right in." I wondered how badly he got teased in school with a name like Brat "And have him bring coffee."
He set the mug on my desk a minute later and then the list of people who had actually looked for oil in the area I had pointed out. It was surprisingly short and Benny was looking nervous because of it. I took a swig of the coffee and nearly gagged.
"Grace!" I yelled
"Doctor Smith phoned and said: Less sugar, more cream," Grace said, coming in with a few messages
"That quack doesn't know anything," I muttered "How can he justify tampering with a man's coffee?"
"If you would lay off the sweets, he wouldn't have to," Grace minded
"I am a chocolate addict. Find me some help group for that, but leave my coffee out of it."
Grace stood there, chewing on her gum like some type of bovine, looking bored out of her mind. I motioned for her to write that down, noticing that Brett had left the office. Oh well, he was boring anyways. She pushed her glasses up on her nose and looked at the mess I had started making.
"Maybe you should go home and get some work done," she suggested
"With all the kids gone?" I asked, surprised
"Who knows, you might actually get your work done with them gone." She shrugged
"Who would get me my coffee?" I teased
"Who knows?"
Grace left the office and I was left all on my own, yet again. This day was going to be too long. I looked through the messages and decided I could handle those. Senators were just blowhards who wanted to know if you were donating to any charities and the rest of these people I could talk to and move on. By then I would have done enough to justify going grocery shopping. I never thought I would see the time when I would want to go shopping. I was turning into my mother! Not even my father, but my mother! I needed to get out of here, bad.
Ok, I had too much fun, I know. Bad habit of mine, but hey!
Any comments at all are welcome and flames are accepted.
See ya in the funny papers! Tens