Sorry this one took a while, too, but I was having trouble with the beach =S

Disclaimer: same applies for my whole story =D because trust me, if suddenly during the time I was writing one of my chapters I owned The Outsiders and Victoria Winston I WOULD KNOW.

Recap:

Two-Bit, Johnny, Dally, Pony and I walked out of the garage and down the drive.

"Hey Two-Bit." A pretty, young red-head said.

"Hey Jackie." Two-Bit answered bored.

"We were just wondering if you guys wanted to go bowling with us." Jackie said.

"No thanks." Two-Bit said.

"Pony, Johnny? Uh...I don't think we've met I'm Two-Bit's sister Jackie, you are?" She asked.

"Emma." I answered.

"You're more than welcome to come." Jackie said.

"Uh… Sure why not?" I smiled, shrugging. "You two are going, right?" I looked at Pony and Johnny.

"Sure. Nothing better to do." Pony said and Johnny nodded.

"Ok, let's go." Jackie smiled, motioning for the two young, good looking boys standing nearby to join us. I guessed they were not involved with gangs or anything, because they weren't smoking, and looked kind of awkward in the current setting. They smiled and walked over beside us.

"Hey." They greeted simply, nodding to us.

"I haven't seen you around before. You're new in town?" Jackie asked looking at me through golden brown eyes, unlike Two-bit's grey eyes.

"Um, ya. I've only been here a couple of weeks." Hmm, should I tell her more? She seems nice enough... "I came here to find my dad. I've never met him. The Shepards took me in but now I'm staying with the Curtises." Pony looked away from his conversation with the other boys for a moment when I said that, so I quickly added, "They're really nice."

"Ya, they're pretty good guys. My brother is a little bit of a different story. He's annoying - especially when he has to baby-sit me and then he gets mad because he'd rather be out partying or at the Curtises." She said a little annoyed.

"I think brothers are made to be royal pains in the butts." I had yet to see how much, if at all, Dally was a pain, but I knew how much some of my gang got on their sister's nerves.

Jackie laughed, "Haha, ya I think so."

I laughed too for good measure.

"So did you find him?" She asked me.

"Huh?"

"Your dad. Did you find him?"

"Well, sort of." I looked away. There was a cloud that looked like a dragon in the sky. "He's in jail."

"Oh." She was quiet for a moment. "You're not by any chance Dallas' sister are you?" She said slowly.

"Apparently I am." I said flatly.

"I should have known; your hair and eyes are a dead giveaway." Jackie said looking at me thoroughly.

"Oh really." I said not interested.

"So..." Jackie said realizing the sudden awkwardness. "Where did you come here from?"

"New York city."

"Oh cool!"

"Most people think so."

"What's it like?"

"Busy, loud. Dangerous."

"But I bet it's cool with the Statue of Liberty in the distance all the time. Have you ever been to the Statue?"

"A few times." I was a bit bored with where the conversation was going, but it was better than if she were to ask me about my friends or my life, or worse – my family. Why not humour her? "It's actually pretty sweet, and the view is amazing..."

We played three games of bowling. We had two teams: Johnny, Jackie and I, and Pony with Jackie's friends; Zack and Tom.

The first game we won, and the second game they won. The third game was a tie.

Jackie and I hit it off pretty good. I was surprised to find I actually liked her. Usually I don't get along with girls; the only exceptions are a few of my female cousins and a couple of my boys' ex-girlfriends. Why ex you ask? Because they were too good for the guys – which means they were too good for New York, and therefore not slutty bitches like almost all the other girls I knew.

So, I had only ever really got along with about five or six girls in my life; now about seven or eight; counting Victoria and Jackie.

I definitely liked Victoria; and her being my sister – well half, but that didn't matter to me at all – was a very big bonus.

And Jackie and I really got along well. She was funny, and very innocent. Innocence is one of the few things we DIDN'T have in common, but oh well. It was better that way; I wish I was innocent like her.

After our three games, we snacked on some stuff at the food counter in the bowling alley. The guys got fooling around and I ended up with a couple French fries in my Sprite. But that was alright because hot sauce accidentally replaced the ketchup on the wrongdoer's fries.

Jackie and I talked for a while, laughing and joking about stuff. I didn't even realise what time it was until Zack mentioned he had to go home. Tom left, too and so we decided to wonder home also.

Jackie left us about halfway home and went to her house.

"That was fun wasn't it?" I asked the boys.

"Yep." Pony said.

"You guys like the boys?"

"Not really." Pony looked at me. "You got along well with Jackie, though."

"Oh, ya. She's nice. Funny like Two-bit; but she has more manners." I laughed with the boys at the last part.

I ran up the steps ahead of the guys and opened the door for them.

"Thanks." Johnny said as I came in behind them.

Two-bit and Victoria were zoned into Mickey, Darry was in the kitchen, and Steve and Soda were playing poker and Soda was winning. But I could see the cards hidden in his sock. No sign of Dally.

"Hey guys." I greeted, but all I got was a violent, "Shhh!" from Victoria and the sound of Steve accusing Soda of cheating. I huffed and sat down on the couch between Pony and Johnny.

When Mickey was over Darry announced supper was ready. This time Dally didn't show up for supper. We had rosemary chicken with mashed potatoes, corn and green beans. Of course, chocolate cake followed.

Dally didn't show up at all that night so I was stuck watching everybody alone. Victoria read her book, Pony and Johnny played cards, and Soda and Steve arm wrestled. Halfway during Mickey Darry stood up and went to do the dishes.

"Hey Emma, why don't you come help me with the dishes?"

"Yes!" I hopped up, glad to get away from the awkward, boring silence.

As we did the dishes, Darry made some conversation.

"So Emma how was your day?"

"Good. Yours?"

"Great. What did you do?"

"Well Victoria went to train for barrel racing at Buck's and let me come. She's really good."

"Yes, I heard she let you try and you were pretty good, too. Your first time. Did you enjoy it?"

"Yep." I dried a dish and set it on the pile with the rest. "Then we tried to sucker money off of Tim for lunch, but he was in a very... grumpy mood. So Billy gave us some money. We had a burger and fries and milkshake each. And when Victoria went to visit the boys on break I returned the change to Billy."

"You could always have come here to eat." Darry handed me another dish.

"Ya, but we kind of wanted something out. Hey do you get any breaks in the day? I heard from Pony you do roofing."

"We take a short lunch break to eat. I bring a lunch with me. Or sometimes the other guys order something."

"Where is your roofing job?"

"Well currently on Midland Ave. Why?"

"Maybe sometimes I could drop in on your lunch break...? I'd bring my own lunch."

"Well, we don't really break at any set time – not always the same from day to day."

"I could just check in around lunch hour and see. I promise I wouldn't pester any of the other guys, and I'd leave as soon as you guys had to go back to work. And it wouldn't be every day, just every once in a while in case I have nothing to do."

"Sure why not? The guys probably won't mind. And the home owners are on vacation right now so that's no problem. Hey are you coming to the beach with all of us tomorrow? I took the day off. Ha, I even think Dal's coming."

"Yep! I'm coming. It'll be fun." I smiled as I dried and put away the last dish.

"Come on, I think Mickey's over." Darry drained the water from the sink and dried his hands off on the tea towel.

Mickey was over and everyone looked bored. Well, they didn't LOOK bored; they were acting bored, in other words; misbehaving.

Steve and Soda were arm wrestling still, Two-bit was trying to pin Pony on the floor, and Victoria had a look on her face that spelled out trouble.

Darry just sat down not bothered. I sat down beside Johnny on the couch. He was laughing at the two silly boys rolling around on the floor.

Just as Two-bit managed to half-pin Pony I jumped up and sat on him, causing him to collapse on Pony with a groan. Pony protested in muffled noises.

Victoria pushed me over a bit and sat beside me on Two-bit's back. Johnny laughed more and Pony yelled louder, well as loud as you can underneath three people.

"Ok, come on. At least let Pony out." Darry said trying to care, but chuckling to himself.

Victoria and I pushed Two-bit over so he was off Pony, then sat harder on him. Pony wiggled out and went to sit by Johnny, not looking very pleased.

We thought we had Two-bit but he was too strong; he kneeled up and sat up straight so that I fell off, but Victoria held on tight like a baby monkey.

They continued that for a while, and Steve and Soda were trying another game of poker.

Eventually everyone was just sitting around, practically falling asleep on each other before Darry told Soda and Pony to go to bed; ordering Victoria and I to do the same.

He said goodnight to us and went to bed, too. The lights went out shortly after and I knew the other boys had gone to sleep or left.

Jet jumped up beside me and curled up in a ball; purring sweetly and smelling like grass.

Lying there I felt as if I'd never go to sleep; even though Victoria was already asleep and I was exhausted.

But it didn't take long for my mind to take in the smell of grass and wander itself into a wonderful dream of my Grandmother and her ranch in Texas.

Grandma and I were picking flowers in the garden when it started to spit rain.

No, that's my annoying cousin Kyle pouring water on me.

I sat up in my bed, soaking wet with freezing water.

Pony stood in front of me with and empty bucket in his hand and a grin on his face. "Two-bit told me it was you who pushed me off the bed." He shrugged and walked out of the room.

"Jerk." I muttered, laughing to myself.

Just as I closed the door so I could get ready it burst open again, revealing a very enthusiastic Two-bit. "Hurry up! We're going to the beach!" He yelled happily and ran into the living room.

Darry walked by with a beach bag in his hands; heading to the boy's room. "He's been here and ready to go since 5:30 this morning. Hasn't stopped yapping since he got here. Victoria's excited, too – driving Dally near mad. We aren't going to leave for a bit, you don't have to rush." Then he paused, looking at me. "Are you wet?"

"Ya, Pony thought it would be nice to pour a bucket of water on me." I rolled my eyes.

Darry disappeared for a minute, cam back and tossed me a towel. "Thank-you."

He nodded and I closed the door. Beach, hmm. What to wear?

I pulled out my blue bikini and put it on first, then put on the jean shorts from Angel and my red t-shirt over top. Black Converse without socks; I didn't have any sandals.

I grabbed my messenger bag and then realised I didn't have a book to bring – so I'd have to go to the library later today after the beach.

I didn't have a beach towel so I packed the towel Darry had given me.

I made the bed and went into Pony's room, but Darry wasn't there. I found him in his own room, putting sunscreen into the beach bag and a few band aids.

"Band-Aids?" I asked surprised.

"There is going to be six rowdy boys – we'll need them."

I shrugged.

"Come on, you want something to eat before we leave?" I nodded and Darry led me to the kitchen.

"We had pancakes again and there's two left. Sorry, the boys were ruthless with the bacon and sausages."

"That's ok." I grabbed both of the cold pancakes and put them on my plate, drenching them with maple syrup and wolfing them down.

"Ready." I mumbled with my mouth full of pancakes.

"Alright, let's see if everyone else is." Darry put some food in a cooler and closed the ice box as I rinsed off my plate and fork.

In the living room Dally was sitting by the door looking unimpressed with a very excited Victoria bouncing on his lap. "We're going to the beach! We're going to the beach!"

"Ok, sit down and calm down. Just wait till we're ready." Dally growled pushing her off.

She sat down on the couch but still looked antsy.

Two-bit ran inside with a big, stuffed bag in his hand. "Got everything!"

I raised my eyebrows. "I can see that." Steve chuckled when I said that.

"Where's..." I started but was cut off when Soda rushed in with the mail in his hands and Pony and Johnny behind him, Pony with the beach bag in his hands. Terror rushed in from behind them, nearly tripping the bunch of them, jumping up and sitting on Victoria's lap. "Never mind." I shook my head with a laugh.

"Ugg get off of me dog." Victoria said. "You're too big to be a lap dog." So Terror sat down on the ground but kept his head in her lap.

"Oh! I forgot something!" Darry said and ran into the boys' room, returning with a backpack in his hand – he handed it to Soda. "Ok, Two-bit take your car with Steve and Johnny. Dally, since you didn't get Buck's car for today, take Victoria's truck and you get your sisters." Darry tossed a set of keys at Dally.

I sat in the middle of Dally and Victoria as we followed Two-bit's car and his crazy driving; Darry followed us in his pickup with the boys.

The beach was about 40 minutes away, and the ride was pretty boring because Dally wouldn't talk. When we had been driving for about ten minutes Dally turned on the radio really loud, but a few minutes later Victoria turned it off.

"Can you swim?" She asked me, rolling the window down slightly.

"Yep. Da – John put me in swimming lessons before I could walk. I continued a few years after... Well, until I was about six." I didn't really feel like opening up to Victoria about my life yet, besides I doubted she'd care. No one else really did. They just told me to suck it up; my gang was the only ones who ever really cared about me at all besides how good I could or couldn't fight.

"That's good. I was about 10 when I learned. My friend Robby has a pond on his parents' farm. Have you ever been to a beach? I'm sure there is one in New York."

"Only a couple times, Mom didn't have a car."

"I see." She nodded. I wasn't giving her much to go on with the conversation; but I was a little bit stuck for words.

Just then Dally stopped suddenly because someone cut in front of us and we heard a thump come from the back of the old pickup.

"Terror!" Victoria exclaimed.

"What?" Dally turned to her. "You brought the dog with you?"

"I tied him in the back." She informed him. "I hope he's alright." She turned to check and sure enough there was her puppy, tongue hanging out of his mouth and nose pressed against the glass. Victoria breathed a sigh of relief.

"You better hope the state park allows dogs on the beach." Dally said in a low, annoyed tone.

"I checked already. The phone number for their office is in the phone book." Victoria grinned.

"Where exactly are we going?" I asked.

"Tall Chief Cove in Skiatook." Victoria said, and then turned on the radio; giving up on conversation.

And so the rest of the ride was Elvis and The Beatles.

The beach was deserted when we got there because apparently not a lot of people came on a Tuesday in July. Two-bit jumped out of his car hardly taking time to park and ran down the beach dropping things from his overstuffed bag; a beer bottle, a beach ball, a TV remote, his beach towel and some girl's underwear. I giggled; I don't think he purposely packed that.

Darry got all the necessary things out of the truck with the help of Soda and slowly made his way down the beach to a nice spot with clean sand and a picnic table.

Dally and Victoria lingered near her truck trying to untangle Terror from the back of the pickup; Steve wandered down the beach by himself.

I went to catch up with Johnny as he joined Pony making his way down the beach.

"Hey guys." I smiled.

"Hi Emma." Johnny smiled back.

"Hey." Pony said a little absent minded; looking down the beach.

I raised my eyebrows and Johnny shrugged.

"It's a nice day, huh Johnny?" I observed.

Nodding, he agreed. "Perfect for going to the beach."

We put down our bags and spread out our towels with everyone else's on the sand under the huge beach umbrella Darry had set up. Pony sat down and pulled out his book, still in a fog.

Victoria pulled off her shirt and shorts, revealing her purple one piece and ran down to where Two-bit, Soda and Steve had begun a game of beach ball and promptly joined in. Terror was hot on her heels snapping when he reached the ball but not going close enough to pop it.

I pulled off my own shorts and tee, a little bit displeased to see a few old bruises near my waist hadn't completely faded, though I was quite relieved to discover that my bikini covered the scars on my hips.

"Hey Johnny wanna go swimming?" I pushed off my converse with my toes and flicked them behind me.

"Ya." He looked over at Pony who was still reading his book. "Hey Pony, you coming?" No answer. "Ponyboy?"

Johnny sighed at looked at me shrugging.

I came over and stood in front of Pony, pulling his book away from him. "Ponyboy!"

He grasped for his book but I held it away. "What?" He asked, annoyed.

I rolled my eyes and dropped the book, grabbing Pony's one arm as Johnny grasped the other. "You're coming swimming with us." I said simply and Johnny and I dragged him down to the water and, and despite his struggling and protests pushed him in the water.

He came out of the water howling and sputtering. Johnny and I were only up to barely our knees in the water so we weren't very wet, until – Pony grabbed me and pulled me down into the water and I grabbed Johnny on the way down. I screamed as I fell into the freezing cold water and the whole gang roared in laughter. Johnny emerged with a somewhat amused grin; laughing it off, but then he tackled Pony.

I was still not used to the cold water but I noticed that Two-bit was still (the only one, now) laughing. He was keeled over laughing so hard, he didn't even see me coming. I got a running start and jumped on him, soaking him in water and as he struggled to get me off his back he ended up butt first in the water.

"Ok, that's it girly." He said and pulled me around; throwing me into the water.

The four of us tackled each other and splashed each other and wrestled until it was just Two-bit and Pony. Johnny sat on the sand by the water line and I went over to where Victoria was making a sand castle.

"Hey can I join?" I admired the tiers and towers that made up her castle. She even had a courtyard.

Victoria looked up. "Oh ya, sure." She smiled and I began to dig out the moat as she added finishing touches to the castle itself.

Just then I heard Steve yell, "LOOK OUT." Victoria and I looked up just in time to see Soda running backwards for the Frisbee and he tripped, falling right on top of the sand castle. Victoria's lower lip started to tremble and I looked around to see everyone watching. Even Terror looked worried.

"You…you…you squished it." Victoria said as a few tears leaked down her face.

I wasn't sure what to do. It was just a sand castle – but she was obviously upset about it being squished; and being rude about it wouldn't earn me any stars. I guess the only reason I thought it was silly was because after a couple too many times of being hurt, I blocked out any feeling or reaction.

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In kindergarten some fat kid knocked over my block castle. When I was eight somebody tore my scrapbook journal that had taken me all year to make; I cried for three nights.

One particular event troubled me greatly and caused me to block out negative reactions to these situations. My mom never really had many friends; hardly ever a female friend. But once she did. She found some funny lady at a bar one night that would actually tolerate my mom and her single-mother lifestyle. After that she quickly became a popular item in our house. On one common occasion of her coming over and drinking wine with my mother she accidentally spilt the bright red liquid all over my white dress that I was supposed to wear to a birthday party that night. It was the only thing even remotely appropriate to wear to the rich girl's birthday party. Now, normally it wouldn't be a big deal; but I had never, before – or after that, been invited to a birthday party at school.

After that I taught myself to freeze my reactions and emotions to these types of incidents.

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Victoria sat there just looking at her castle – now only a pile of somewhat damp sand – with a shocked expression and two tears frozen on her face. Soda was stammering an apology repeatedly and Steve had an embarrassed… possibly annoyed expression on his face.

"It's just a dumb pile of sand, get over it." Dally said annoyed.

My jaw dropped at that comment; not at all what I would have expected a brother to say to his little sister when she's crying. But as soon his cold eyes turned on me I closed my mouth and averted my gaze back to Victoria.

"Hey its ok – we can build a new one. I'll help." I said trying to console her. She looked up at me, her dark greenish-blue eyes watery and filled with tears. "It will be an even better one this time."

"Ya I'll help, too." Soda said cheerily.

"Hey me and Pony will help you too." Johnny said looking worriedly at Victoria as she looked over at him.

"Tator I'll help ya too." Two-bit grinned.

Dallas just rolled his eyes and muttered something along the lines of "spoiled brat" before walking away up the beach.

Victoria perked up when Two-bit joined in ignoring Dal and grinning.

We all pitched right in and made a huge, intricate castle in place of the old one. We even caught a few crabs and put them in our moat filled with water. Ants occupied the towers and the courtyard was guarded by big beetles.

When the castle was finished to our satisfaction we brushed the sand off ourselves and went for lunch. I pulled on my t-shirt and saw that Darry put out the ingredients to make sandwiches on the table. Bread, meat, mayonnaise, mustard, lettuce, tomato, everything!

Victoria and I got to go first so we could get all we wanted before the boys finished the rest of it off. I put everything on my sandwich. There were a few bags of chips, too, that Two-bit had picked up on the way, and orange juice of chocolate milk as beverage. Water, too.

I took my sandwich and orange juice and searched for a suitable place to eat. After seeing a satisfying place a ways down the beach, I squeezed my way out of the noisy crowd and, grabbing my towel, headed to the line of trees and rocks down the end of the beach.

It was a ways down the beach, but walking in the hot sand was nice.

When I got to the line of trees that came out on a strip of land making a kind of cove where the beach was, I was pleased to find it cool.

Crawling onto a large, flatter rock I sat on my towel and set my orange juice in a convenient dent in the boulder. I savoured the smell of the water, grass and sand as a gentle breeze teased my hair.

As I ate my sandwich, sand crunched lightly in my mouth and I couldn't help but smile to myself. I tossed a passing crab a bit of my crust, and waved to a frisky squirrel.

I sat there for who knows how long; even after I finished my sandwich I continued to sit there. My mind wandered in various minimal-thought directions.

At some point my eyes fell closed and my breathing fell in even rhythm with the waves. I heard only the lullaby of the waves and the singing of the wind through the trees, my mind clear and calm. My hair tickled my cheeks softly as the wind blew past, my shirt slightly lapping against my stomach.

With my eyes closed I noticed that my other four senses were a lot sharper than when my eyes were open. I could hear a pair of birds chasing each other in and out of the trees, I could hear the chipmunk eat the crumbs from beside me, I could smell the chocolate milk, hear the giggles – wait.

I opened my eyes and sat up. "Hey guys." I smiled.

Johnny rolled his eyes. "I told ya you'd wake her up."

Two-bit started laughing. "I'm sorry, it's just – she fell asleep at the beach!" He kept laughing. "Who does that?"

"Obviously she does, Two-butt." Dally growled. "Why don't you go bug Liz or something."

Two-bit shot Dally an odd glare and then walked off to probably do just as suggested.

I picked up my plate and downed my glass of now slightly-warm juice. "We're going now?" I asked Johnny when I noticed Darry packing up and Victoria taking down the umbrella.

"Ya, you slept for a while, I guess. We weren't even sure where you went for a bit and Toria panicked. Pony spotted you over here." Johnny walked beside me while Dally trailed shortly behind us.

"Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realise you guys would be worried. I didn't even think about it." I blushed.

"Naw, its fine. Darry didn't seem too concerned."

"That's good."

When we got back to the rest of the gang Darry took my dishes and put them in the food bag with the rest and I pulled on my shorts. Everyone was gathering up their things and Steve kept pulling at Victoria's hair; which she promptly responded with a swat every time.

"Hey kid." Dally called to me suddenly, making me turn around in surprise. "You forgot your towel over there." He pointed to the rock I had fallen asleep on.

"Woops!" I ran back over to my towel and snatched it up, but coming down off the rock I slipped and fell on my knee. "Ouch!" I got up and ran back to the gang who was now completely ready to go.

"Hey guys. Just forgot my towel." I breathed, catching my breath.

"Um, Em – your legs bleeding." Two-bit's eyes widened and he pointed to my right leg.

I looked down and sure enough, my knee was bleeding from a fairly large gash. "Oh! You're right! Woops."

Darry set down the bag in his hand and started to open it. "No! It's okay – we're by a lake I'll wash it off." I stopped him.

"It'll get infected" He contradicted.

I rolled my eyes. "Worse has happened, I'll live." I ran down the beach and rinsed off my knee, inspecting it – luckily the cut was not deep at all and all I needed to do was hold my towel on it for a short time.

I ran back up the beach. "See? All better." I grinned. "Uh, you just might want to wash the towel, though." I laughed sheepishly.

"Ah, that's fine." Darry took the towel from me and we all headed back to our vehicles and piled in.