I do not own The Outsiders and the song Secrets belongs to The Runaways

We speak in codes and no one knows

'Cause we're living a double life

Kept inside our love dreams hide

'Cause we're living a double life

Secrets, we're got dreams

Mysteries and crazy schemes

Secrets, we've got dreams

Secrets can't be seen

The Runaways

Tara woke up the next morning, groggy and disorientated, faced with a mush of red lipstick and black gunk on her pillow. She evidently did not do as good of a job as she thought she had last night wiping off all the makeup Sylvia and Dru applied on her. Just another thing I'm no good at, thought Tara as she replayed the events of the Dingo in her mind. How many other people snickered behind her back as she tried to play tough?

Tara decided she needed to get the full extent of the damage from Sylvia and Dru. Maybe only Winston saw right through her. She first took a nice long shower that steamed up the whole bathroom and as she went to her bedroom to change, her father tried to give her a lecture about curfews and going out without saying where she was going.

"I'm going out with some friends, alright?" said Tara sweetly as she slammed her bedroom door on him. Thankfully, Jessica needed him for something so Tara's father just left her alone. Tara dressed in a wrinkled sweater and a plaid skirt before legging out of the house as quickly as possible. Tara still had to pretend to be a good girl when she left the house but that was only part of the reason she dressed in her old clothes. She was afraid she would pass more greasers who could see right through her if she tried to wear a daring, sexy outfit.

Cherry Bomb looked exactly the same as yesterday when Tara arrived: men's clothes on the left and women's the right. Everything was hanging on old rusty rails, the bare floorboards were covered in a layer of dust, and the counter was covered in magazines and discarded bottles of nail polish. Tara had found out yesterday that Dru's aunt owned the shop and Dru basically ran it when she wasn't there, which was all the time so Dru never really got in trouble for not keeping the place clean enough.

"Hi," said Tara sheepishly.

Dru looked at her attire and immediately asked, "What happened?" in a surprised tone of voice.

"Dallas Winston happened," said Tara as she flicked through a rack of clothes. "If he saw right through me last night, then who else did too?"

Dru laughed. "Don't worry about it. All the boys were drooling over you after you left. None of them are as mean or as tough as Winston so they don't see what he can. He won't give you away, don't worry. Sylvia can just talk to him. Besides, he might think it'd be funny to see how you turn out."

Tara was about to ask how Dru thought she was turning out but then the store door opened and an eighteen year old greaser dressed in battered Levi's and a white t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up entered.

"Keep your trap shut, you hear?" whispered Dru.

"You know him?"

"Shh!" hushed Dru. She turned her attention to the boy. "Welcome to Cherry Bomb, my name is Dru. Please let me know if I can help you with anything," said Dru in a strikingly professional manner.

"Aw come on, baby," drawled the boy. "You can't be this mad at me for breaking one little date?"

Dru continued to look right through him. "We are currently having ten percent off all women's jewelry."

"So you want me to buy you something pretty, is that?" asked the boy. He looked around the room once and his eyes settled on some cheap looking earrings on the counter. "How much for these?" he asked as he picked them up but Dru slapped his hand away.

"What's her name?" she spat.

"Who?"

"That girl you were with last night instead of me."

"There was no girl. I was just with the boys at Buck's."

"For what? The stimulating conversation?"

"We played poker. I won. I got some dough to spend on my best girl if she'll let me."

Dru softened. "Maybe I will if you take me someplace fun."

"There's another party at Buck's tonight. Is that fun enough?"

"With you there, it might be," purred Dru.

"See you there, then."

With a grin, the greaser boy headed out. Dru sighed. "It is so exhausting dealing him sometimes."

"Boyfriend?" asked Tara.

"It depends."

"On what?"

"If he's in the cooler, or if we're going through a rocky stage. Like, when he breaks our dates all the time just to hang with his buddies. Or worse, other girls."

That's when Tara realized that it didn't matter if she failed to impress Dallas or was dumped by Tim. All the greaser girls had trouble their boys and the difference between them and Tara was that continued to hold their heads up high and tried to regain control. Tara realize that Dru must have felt humiliated and hurt as she waited for her boyfriend all night, just like she did, but Dru didn't wallow in self-pity or throw herself at him. She made him come to her. Tara resolved to be more like that.

"Want to go to a party?" asked Dru suddenly.

"Where and when?"

Dru chuckled. "Well I know for a fact that Mr. T. Shepherd is attending said party at Buck's tonight. Fancy paying him a visit?"

"If you don't mind me bumming a ride off of you?"

"Meet at the Dingo at eight. I can take you home too."

"Great!"

More customers walked in so Dru had to actually work. Tara waved goodbye and decided to walk around town to kill time. She saw old men sitting outside the barber shop, gossiping about all the kids in town. They're almost as bad as the girls in school, thought Tara as she walked past the Dingo. It was lunch time so the place was hopping with greaser girls dressed in tight black pedal pushers or short skirts were talking to the boys showing off in their hot rods. Tara noticed that there were some more modest greaser girls there too, looking longingly at the groups of vivacious yet dangerous hoods. Before, Tara would have been one of them, quietly sipping a milkshake as she watched the people go by, wishing someone would give her a second look.

Tara knew that being plucked from obscurity to join a fabulous group of people was something that only happened in movies and books. If those timid girls really wanted to be noticed, then they had to do something about it, like how Tara was.

Still, she was nervous about going back to Buck's. Even though she would be dressed in another new outfit, Tara knew she would still be the little mousy girl from before on the inside. It was a battle trying to get rid of that girl but Tara was confident she could do it.

Thank you to those that have reviewed and don't worry Mr T Shepherd will appear in the next chapter and may even have his own POV. Hope people like my story and if you have any suggestions how to make it better, I loved to hear them. Thanks to my Beta dizzyizzy123!