…September 1, 1967; first day of school…

"I can't believe it, I'm actually a senior in high school!" Evie beamed as we walked to the school.

"And I can't believe that you convinced Soda to come back to high school," I said to Candy, who smiled proudly at her boyfriend.

Candy had somehow convinced Sodapop to come back to high school. He would still have his job at the DX, just an after school shift and on Saturday's like regular. Steve had left school not long after Soda, and since he was going back, Steve decided to go back too. He said- and I quote- "If he's goin' back, who am I supposed to be stuck at work with? Hell, I'm gonna go back too." Which made Evie happy for her boyfriend. Both Steve and Soda- if they never left- would be senior's with Evie, but since they left they would start the first semester in junior classes with me and Candy. But if they had good enough grades and such by the beginning of the second semester, they would be switched to the senior classes along with Evie.

A few of us had birthdays over the summer. Steve turned eighteen, Ponyboy turned fifteen, Suzie turned sixteen, Marilyn turned twenty-two, and Two-Bit… who was still away… turned nineteen.

Sodapop laughed a bit, "If I knew how she did it myself, I would tell you."

Candy smiled at him. "Well I'm proud of you for it. Plus, now we'll have the same classes- at least for the first semester."

"But you won't be with me," Evie frowned at Steve.

He wrapped his arm around her and kisses her cheek, "Then I'll try to do good enough to get into your classes."

She gave him a teasing smile. "Then you're first lesson: in that sentence, it would've been well instead of good."

"Y'all should've seen Darry when they told him they were g=coming back to school," I laughed.

Ponyboy laughed too, "Soda looked like he was gonna explode when Darry hugged him."

Soda draped his arm over his little brother's shoulders, "Well, now I get to spend more time with my baby brother." He attempted to pat Ponyboy on the head but failed when Pony pulled away before he got the chance, making Suzie laugh, which made Pony's cheeks turn pink and he let out an embarrassed chuckle at his girlfriend.

At school, our lockers were all pretty close together, but we were kinda separated by grade. Evie was at the end of the hall. Steve, Soda, Candy and me were all pretty close together. On the other side of the hall was Ponyboy and Suzie. Part of the reason though that we weren't so far apart was cause the school all knew that we all lived close to each other; and by that, I mean they all knew we were Greasers from the East side of town. The principal tried to hide that as the reason, but everyone in the school knew that's how lockers were divided. I mean, the irony that nearly every Greaser was on one side of the school for lockers and the other had almost all Socs lockers? If you ask me, it's pretty screwy, but it wasn't a complete bad thing. Sure, all Greasers didn't get along, but Greasers got better with other Greasers than they did with Socs… connecting the dots, here?

…end of the day…

The day, shockingly, didn't go by completely slowly. Maybe cause there were more people I knew in my homeroom and classes I knew this year than any other first day, so that could be it, I guess. I don't know, but it didn't go as slow as the first day always went.

We all had taken the day off after school whatever our shifts were. We decided to just hang out after school was over to celebrate that we all survived another first day of school. We went around the entire town, even pretty close to Soc territory. I odn't really know exactly why we did that, but somehow, we were able to get away from there without a scratch. I don't know how that happened, but I wasn't complaining.

We got back to the house a little late; a little before nine, I think. Marilyn was at the house with Darry, and so were Danny and Sandy. They had been coming to the house a lot lately, or Darry and Marilyn went over to their place. Which was understandable. They were all about the same age, which was probably preferred than hanging out with bunch of teenagers. I mean, think about it. Danny and Sandy graduated in '58 or '59, Darry and Marilyn graduated in '62 or '63, so the years weren't too far apart. The rest of us on the other hand, were graduating starting from '68 to about '70, and that was just high school.

"Rain," Darry stopped me before me, Suzie, Evie and Candy went into my room. I turned and he handed me an envelope, "From Vietnam." I smiled, took the letter, then turned back to go to my room. The other three started to talk while I opened the envelope:

"Rain,

First- don't respond to this letter. Now before you panic why I said that, let me explain… ok. I'm being transferred. Now, I don't know exactly where yet, but even if I did, I'm not allowed to say. And because I wouldn't be allowed to say, that means I can't write nay letters back home, at least not till my Sargent says so. And I know your birthday is in three weeks, but because of the transfer, I'll say it now: Happy Birthday Rain! I wish I was there to celebrate with you!... look, I would write to you if I could, but like I said, the transfer and cause letters need return addresses, I can't send anything. It's gonna kill me not writing to you or getting a response back from you, I swear. Make sure you have your locket from Christmas last year; I have those pictures in the locket with me always in my pocket. Until I write to you again, I miss you and I love you. Don't forget that.

Two-Bit"

I could feel tears start to form in my eyes…he was gonna be who-knows-where and we couldn't even write now? How could I know if he was ok? When he was coming home? What was going on?

"Rain?" I heard someone say and bring me out of my thoughts. I looked at the three. "What was in the letter that he said this time?" Evie asked.

I glanced down at the paper in my hand, blinked my eyes and played with the heart locket on the chain around my neck with my fingers. "Um…"

"Something happened," Candy said, "You're playing with your necklace, and you only do that when you're upset or nervous. What happened?"

I glanced down at the letter again the handed it to her. I tried to say what he wrote, but my throat wouldn't let any words come out. Candy took the letter, Evie and Suzie leaned over her shoulders to see what was written on the paper. They finished reading it and looked up at me with sad eyes. Candy handed me back the letter, "Rain…"

I wiped my eyes with my hands, stood up from the bed and put the letter in my pocket. I walked out of the room, knowing the three followed me out, but I continued to the front door. "Rain? Where're you-" Darry started but someone must've stopped him and I walked out of the house.

I was kinda windy cause it was the end of summer and fall was starting in a few weeks, but it wasn't cold. No one was out, not that I could see anyway. There was only person I could think of who would know exactly how I was feeling and that I could talk to, and I hoped she was home and not asleep just yet the entire walk there.

I walked up to the house and knocked on the door. I heard footsteps then the door opened. "Raina, what a surprise, come on in," Mrs. Mathews smiled and pulled me inside, "What brings you here so late at night?"

"Um… is Keilah here?" I asked.

She shook her head. "No, she's at a friend's house. Sorry."

"Oh, no it's fine. I was curious cause I wanted to talk to you about something important"

She nodded and we went over to the table. "What's going on?" she asked as we sat down.

I took the letter out of my pocket and held it in my hand under the table. "Did you get a letter form T-… your son?"

"Just today, yeah… I'm guessing you did too?" I nodded. "So you know about the transfer?" Her voice got quieter than before.

I nodded. "Unfortunately, yeah…"

"Do you have the letter with you?" I unfolded the letter and handed it to her. She read the letter and handed it back to me. She placed her hand on my arm and looked up at me, "Oh, Raina… I get how you're feeling. I'm gonna miss his letters too and get how worried you are."

"I know… I just… I was kinda hoping that he'd be back here on my birthday, ya know?"

She gave a comforting smile, "I know, Raina… But I can promise you one thing."

"What's that?..."

"Wherever he gets sent, he's gonna be fine. I can promise you that."

"How do you know?"

She smiled again. "Women's intuition."

Oh my gosh three chapters left- well, technically one, cause the other two are kinda "bonus chapters" as I'm gonna call them. The two last ones are just things that happen in the future- one will be in Rain's point of view (POV) like the rest of the story, while the other will be a third person point of view ( I know no abbreviation for that) so yeah! Kinda excited cause this will be my first completed outsiders fan fic, and first fan fic completed on fanfiction. net (I've already completed three expendables fan fics on wattpad) but also kinda sad, cause it's over- but then kinda relieved cause then I don't have to worry about updates and such (at least for this one)

But I already have stuff to replace it so then there's another worry right there

Whatever! Anyway! I hope you like this story and have enjoyed this story so far, next chapter will be cute and kinda comedic, especially with the beginning what I have Sodapop and Ponyboy do to Rain… cue evil grin and laugh like the Tattle-Tale Strangler (if you don't know who the Tattle-Tale Strangler is, you had no childhood and I feel bad for you- especially since the voice of him was Biff Tannen from the Back to the Future series… he was believe it or not, look up Thomas F. Wilson on imdb if you don't believe me)

ANYWAY!

To wattpad: peace from all the hippies of the world! =^-^= -RambosDaughter (aka: Sarah Fusaro)

To fanfiction: hope you like this! Bye! =^-^= -sarahfusaro