Disclaimer- You know the drill. I don't own The Outsiders. Nobody ever will, except S.E. Hinton, who, by the way, is brillliant, and I thank her for writing my 3 favorite books of all time, The Outsiders, Tex and That was Then, This is Now. Thank you, S.E. Hinton!

Chapter One

Ponyboy POV

Strangly enough, me and Two-Bit arrived at school 10 minutes early. "There goes my perfect lateness record." Two-Bit said as he got out of his car and cracked a grin. I grinned back. As far ans I knew, Two-Bit really did have a perfect lateness record, I have never seen his car in the parking lot when Darry gets me to school and when I ride to school with Two-Bit, we're late. That's why Darry usually takes me to school, but he had work earlier then usual this morning.

Both Soda and Darry got off early from work today and would be home after school. That was even stranger then Two-Bit being early for school. Soda and Darry are always working until at least five to pay the bills, and I tell ya, it really drains Soda. Soda and Darry were both only working seven hour shifts, from eight am until three pm.

the office secretary shot Two-Bit some smart remark about him being early and Two-Bit shot one back. I've never know Two-Bit not to do that, and if he hadn;t I prolly woulda fainted or somthing. That woulda scared Two-Bit for sure, I bet. None of the gang has realized this, and I don;t think he does either, but Two-Bit scares easily.All you gotta do is sneak up behind him and yell "Boo!' and he'll jump a foot in the air.

I made it to my locker and opened it without trouble (I usually forget my combonation). I grabbed my Algebra 4 and Language Arts 6 books taht I needed for my morning classes. Then I slid into my seat in homeroom just before the bell rang, when not many kids are there. Three minutes later the warning bell sounded and more kids filed in. Two minutes later the final bell rang and whoever came in after that was marked late.

After more boring announcements I didn't care about and the teacher drowning on and on about some stupid pep rally coming up, we were dismissed to our first class, which for me was Algebra 4. It already felt like the day was supposed to be over. This was going to be one long day.

Soda POV

A couple minutes after Pony and Two-Bit left for school, Steve and me left for work. Darry would be leaving in another five minutes or so. He was working on a house close to ours today, only about five minutes away. I knew he was gald he had the house to himself foronce, even if it was only five minutes, which he would probably spend getting ready for work.

Steve pulled up in front of the DX about ten minutes later. Luckily, we were on time, for once. We weren't due into work until eight, but we were there at 7:55. We punched our time cards and oficially opened the station 2 minutes early because there was a coustemer who was waiting for gas.Steve took care of him while I went to work on a car that needed to be finished by tommorow. It would only take about a half hour more to fix because we had been working on it all week.

Steve joined me as soon as he was finished an oil change and taking care of another coustemer who needed gas but by then I was almost done. I tightened a few more bolts and I was done. I looked up at the clock and realized it had only taken me twenty minutes. I looked it back over, making sure I hadn;t forgotten to do anything. Good news, I hadn't.

Steve and me made our way over to a car that needed to be done by Friday. We finished that one in two houres, stopping ocassinaly to tend to coustemers. By the time that one and one more that needed to be done by Friday were done, I made some phone calles telling coustemers that their cars were ready and Steve worked on a car that needed to be done by Saturday. This took nearly the rest of the time, but the boss had only expected us to finish the cars that needed to be done by Friday.

I hung up my hat, clocked out, and made my way home.

Darry POV

Soda, Steve, Pony and Two-Bit had all left and I had a rare moment where the house was empty, except for me. I cleaned up the breakfast dishes, resolving to do them after work, brought the paper inside, grebbed my tool bekt and headed off to work. The day was going oretty good so far and I was hoping to keep it that way.

We had been working on this house for a week now and were hoping to get it finished today because there was supposed to be a storm tommorow. We all had high hopes we wouldn't have to work tommorow, we hadn't had a full fledged storm in nearly three weelks.

The day started off perfectly. I made it to work on time and the house was almost done when my shift was over. It would only take about two houres to finish, which meant it would be finished today. I had the rest of the day off and I was ready to play football!

Authors Note- There you go! Chapter Two! Hope you like it!