A/N: Hello Everyone! Thanks again for the wonderful reviews! This way I can count on you guys to jump on me if ever I make a mistake! Not a long Author's Note. I have some reviews to respond to!

Lintuciel: Thank you! I'm glad that you're still interested. I can tell I'm going to see more reviews from you, lol. But I guess you'll see if Pony's and Jimmie's relationship grow over time in the story!

Duranie For Life: Why, thank you, I'm flattered! Here's your update, I will make you wait no longer!

Bambola: Oh I just love your reviews! You know how to review a story WONDERFULLY! Thanks, I hope you keep reading and if I slip up, I know you'll be the first one to warn me! Here's the next chapter for you!

Rugrats101: I don't get it either, but people fear things that are different from themselves. It's one of the many flaws of mankind. But I'm glad things have changed too...not all that much, but they are a lot better.

JoHnNy CaStLe: Thank you! I most certainly will, and I hope you keep reading and reviewing!

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I know I didn't respond to each of your reviews but thank you anyway, and I hope you all keep reading and enjoying the story, which reminds me...here's chapter 5!

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Disclaimer: Sorry, I don't own The Outsiders or the characters, but I do own the ones that you've never heard of, because I made them up!

Summary: Ponyboy asks a girl to help him train for track try-outs. But as their friendship forms he'll have to witness a lot of things that he never even imagined was real. The Drama ensues.

Ages: Ponyboy, 14

Jimmie Lee, 15

Runnin' Barefoot

Chapter: Five

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I had heard that somewhere in the world, there was someone that was exactly like you. I would have NEVER in my life, even imagined that my person would be a black girl. Not ever.

Saturday sure came around quick. I was still asleep at 9:00. I heard Soda and Darry from down the hall but I didn't care. I was physically and mentally exhausted from the previous days. I just turned over and pulled the sheets further over my head. But while I was trying to get back to sleep, Darry's voice cut through my unconsciousness:

"Hey Soda, I gotta run to the grocery store. Get Pony up so he can eat; I'll be back in a minute."

It took only half a second to process in my brain.

Run.

I shot up in a second, and cursed blue and green when I saw what time it was. Soda opened the door to my room and not a second later pressed himself against the wall to avoid me running over him while I darted to the bathroom.

"I guess he's up." I heard him mumble, going back into the living room to watch t.v. before him, Steve and Darry had to head off to work.

I turned on the shower and two minutes later I stepped out still wet and brushed my teeth. I guess Soda could hear me from the living room.

"You in a hurry or somethin', Pony?" He laughed. I was busy trying to brush my teeth, grease my hair, and dry myself off at the same time and didn't answer him.

I threw a towel around me and ran back into me and Soda's room to try and find something to wear. I looked in my closet and pulled out my track uniform from last year. I put it on as fast as I could and put a sweatshirt on over it so people wouldn't look at me weird. Well...at least not weirder than usual. I put on some running sneakers and headed out the door.

''Were you goin', Pony?'' Soda hollered when I whizzed past him.

''Out runnin'.'' I said. ''Tell Darry I'll be back in a few hours!'' I yelled, running out of the door and heading towards the school as fast as I could.

It took about five minutes, but I finally got there, huffing and puffing like crazy. I had booked it before on some occasions, but never like that.

I looked around for her and she was nowhere. But when I heard a voice behind me, I turned and saw here standing a few feet away.

"I told you don't come late, and you do it anyway." She said, beginning to walk away. I sped up after her.

"Hey!" I hollered after her. "Where ya goin'?"

"I'm goin' home. You might wanna go too." She said, storming off. I couldn't believe her. I really couldn't. I mean really! Did she not notice that I got the tar beaten out of me twice over this whole deal, and now she expected me to just think that she could just walk away?

"HEY!" I yelled after her. She stopped almost instantly, maybe I scared her, but turned around just as cool as she ever was.

"You did NOT get me up at 9:00 on a Saturday to walk away from me."

"And I ain't get up at 6:30 to wait 2 damn hours for you!"

"Well leavin' now isn't gonna do anything but us both steamed." I said matter-of-factly. She still stood there, with her arms crossed. Man, this broad was stubborn. I sighed. "Look...I'm here now, ain't I?"

We spent about 2 minutes just standing there all quiet. Finally I guess she broke, because she huffed and let her arms hang by her side.

"Let's go." She said, more than a little angry. "And if you late tomorrow, this whole damn thing is off, and don't even think I'm jokin' with you either."

So we started walking. And when I say that, I mean it. . First we were just walking around the town. Street lights and gas stations were everywhere and it seemed pretty normal. But they faded away after a while and after about 20 minutes I didn't know where we were anymore. It all looked like back country or something. There were trees and fences here and there, some houses were around, but mostly little lonely shacks that looked like they were from slave times, and old discarded trashcans and heaps of tires and old clothes. The sky was all wide and open, and there wasn't any streets anymore. Just old dead grass and a thin little orange dirt road.

"We almost there." She said after we had been walking near a half hour. I guess it was about 10 minutes later when the little shacks stopped and the little dirt road opened into what looked like some sort of home made running track. It was about half the size of a football field, and kind of crooked, and just behind it was a bunch of woods. I was pretty confused.

"What is this?" I finally asked. She turned around, her dark face was already glistening under the heat.

"This is where I'm gon' train you."

I looked at her and stepped closer to the little track. "Did you make this?"

"I helped make it." She corrected me. "Why, you got a problem with it?" I rolled my eyes.

"Did I say I had a problem with it?" She looked at me and said something I couldn't make out.

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We were out there for who knows how long. All I know is that I was as tired as I had ever been in my life. Jimmie Lee had made me race her again, but I don't even need to explain how that turned out. Then she made me run suicides, and run around the track with her mentally timing me. I didn't even need her timing me to know that I was rusty. I was 3 whole seconds behind my average middle school time, if I did the math right. But I could blame that on the smoking for now. I felt real lousy. Darry had told me to cut down if I planned on having any kind of athletic future, but I guess he's right. I just don't use my head. I needed to quit. Bad. But it would never happen.

Jimmie cut me out of my thinking. We were nowhere near being close to home and my legs were quivering like crazy. I tried not to show it, but my guess was it wasn't working. I looked over at her. She looked angry. But then, every time I saw her she looked angry. I could almost hear what she was thinking. I was a waste of time. I couldn't even run as fast as I could in junior high, and I smoked.

"I Just haven't run in a while, that's all. I'll get better." I said. I was getting pretty steamed. I looked over at her and quickly realized that she didn't believe me. It could've been because she could tell I was lying myself, or it could've been that we had only been out for a day and I was already on the verge of collapse. Who knows. All I knew was that this was starting to look like a lost cause to the both of us.

I finally got home at around 5:30. I felt like I was about to die. I hadn't eaten anything the entire day and I was dehydrated. But on top of all of that I was tired. And I knew I probably wouldn't even be able to walk tomorrow.

Two-Bit poked his head in from the kitchen and saw me collapsed on the couch. My eyes were closed but I could tell he was grinning.

"So how'd it go, Mr. Curtis? On your way t'being a track star yet?"

"Put a sock in it, Two-Bit."

"Who's gonna make me?"

"Oh believe me, I would take the pleasure of doin' it myself if I could walk."

"That's just wishful thinkin' Ponyboy." He went on talking, but I didn't pay him any attention. It didn't take five minutes for me to drift off. I was exhausted.

But it was only the first day. That wasn't anything compared to the weeks that were ahead of me.

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Please forgive me for this chapter not being my best work. I just wanted to get this updated as soon as possible. I promise you this will get more interesting, but I must set the foundation for this story otherwise it'll just fall apart. Thank you for reading anyway and please review if you wish to tell me/ask me anything!