Disclaimer: I do not own The Outsiders, and Victoria's events for the day belong to texaskid; I just wrote them from Emma's POV.

The next morning I remembered the library card form.

After breakfast I sat at the table and unfolded the paper and smoothed it out.

The form asked for a lot more stuff than I had first thought.

My full name, date of birth, age, address, phone number, my signature, my mother's full name and signature, and I had to read the rules and regulations of having a library card on the back of the sheet and then sign that, too.

I decided to put as much truth on the form as possible.

Full name: Emma Lily Smith. True.

Date of Birth: September 13th, 1952.Partially true; I was born in '53.

Age: 14.I will be on September 13th.

Address: 314 Jay Street. The Shepard's address. She'll never know it's theirs because none of them would have ever had had a library card, probably never even been in there.

Phone Number: Blank I'll just tell her we had it cut off and are having it hooked up again soon. Then I can find someone's number I can give her.

I signed the sheet and then forged my "mother's" name: Leah Mackenzie Smith.

The name wasn't a total lie either; Thomas' girlfriend's name was Leah Mackenzie, and my mom's maiden name is Smith. So no lie there.

I quickly scanned through the rules on the back; return books on time, no more than ten books at a time, be quiet inside the library, do not deface the books, blah, blah, blah. I quickly signed it again, and folded it and put it back in my pocket.

Toria had left early that morning to go train at Buck's and Steve and Soda were at work, as was Darry and Johnny and Pony had gone off somewhere. Two-bit hadn't come over that morning.

I went to the library and gave the form to the librarian.

"And how is your mother doing?" She asked me.

"Pardon?" I forgot for a moment about my lie. "Oh, yeah, better. Much better."

"Oh, dear, you forgot to put your telephone number." She turned the sheet around and pointed to the blank space.

"Oh, yeah. Um, we had it disconnected because we didn't pay, but it'll be reconnected soon." I smiled.

"Okay, that's fine dear." She smiled back and handed me my library card. "Enjoy."

"Yes. Thank-you." I nodded and took my new library card with a swelling feeling. I had my own library card now.

I grabbed about four books and checked them out with my card.

Books under my arm, I headed to the Shepard's. Angel had called earlier that morning to ask if we could hang out.

"Hey, Tim. Your sister home?" I asked when he answered the door; I walked straight in. He had had this funny thing with me the last few days, a cocky attitude towards me and I had no clue why. Fine be that way – but you're getting the cold shoulder from me, too.

"She's upstairs." He said with very little emotion.

"Thanks." I mumbled mindlessly and ran up the stairs to Angel's room.

"Hey, Ang, open the door!" I banged on her bedroom door so she could hear me over the music.

She opened the door a bit and peeked out, then opened it all the way and pulled me and shut the door behind us.

I put my books on her bed and quickly slipped my library card into my pant pocket before she could do something crazy and ruin both.

"Emma!" Angel said excitedly, turning the music down, but only slightly.

"Angel!" I mocked jokingly.

"Haha," She laughed, "What's up? What have you been doing lately? I haven't heard from you for almost a week."

"Well," I sat down on the bed cross-legged, "You saw me last Wednesday, when Ross fought with Toria –"

"Yeah, I never realized that the only reason she was after Liz was about Steve. That's crazy." Angel interrupted.

"Yeah, well then on Thursday, I went with Toria to Buck's and watched her train, and she even let me try a few times, then later I went bowling with Jackie – Two-bit's sister, and a few of her friends and Pony and Johnny."

Angel grunted at the mention of Jackie. Maybe she doesn't like her?

"And Friday we went to the beach."

"Oh yeah! I heard about that from Billy. Did you have fun?" Angel said, sitting on the floor and buffing her nails.

"Yeah, ha! I kind of fell asleep for a while." I laughed.

"Nice, Em." She chuckled.

I decided to skip the part about meeting Stacy; I got the drift that she didn't fit in with all the 'in' girls that Angel hung with, Sylvia, Evie, Sandy, Kathy, pretty much all the neighborhood sluts.

"Hey, ya wanna paint your nails?" Angel looked up, obviously not caring what else I'd been up to.

"Sure." I hopped off the bed and grabbed her box of nail stuff off her dresser.

I quickly buffed my nails and picked out a blue-ish turquoise colour for my nails.

We sat there for a bit just listening to music, when Angel mentioned a new girl in town.

"A girl newer than me?" I laughed.

"Yeah. You've been here almost a month or more; she just arrived a couple days ago." Angel was painting her nails a dark brown; almost black, it had a slight sparkle to it.

"What's her name?"

"Haven't got that yet. I might introduce myself to her soon." Angel blew on her nails as she finished. I doubted there would be a lot of talking at that introduction.

"Hey I like that colour," I twisted the lid back on the turquoise bottle, "Pass it here would ya?"

She handed me the bottle. "Here ya go." She continued to blow on her nails and I shook mine and blew on them a few times.

I looked around for a bit. "Got a toothpick?"

"Check my makeup bag."

I looked at her funny, but shook my head. "I don't wanna know." I laughed and went over to her dresser, searching for her makeup bag.

It was a hot pink bag stuffed with all kinds of things. I dug through it for a bit, finally finding what I wanted.

"Aha!" I exclaimed when I found a couple toothpicks in her makeup bag.

Shaking my hands a few more times to be sure they were dry, then sitting down cross-legged again, I painted a dark brown star on each of my middle finger nails, with sparkly gold dots at each point of the stars.

"Wow, nice!" Angel said, inspecting her own nails. "Can you do some designs on my nails?"

I took her hands and inspected her nails. "Hm… let me see. Yes, I've got an idea."

I took the gold nail polish and drew a fancy swirly pattern on her thumb, fancy hearts with dots on her pinkies, and fancy stars with lots of swirls on her middle fingers.

"Wow! I love it!" She exclaimed, examining her nails as I put the gold polish away.

I smiled. "How do you do it?" She asked me.

I shrugged. "It's just drawing." I put all the nail polish away. "Wait for about ten minutes and keep blowing your nails but do not touch them – even if it's mostly dry you could stretch it because it gets rubbery before it dries completely. It will be ruined if you touch it." I warned.

I helped put everything away and when I was finished her nails were perfectly dry.

I looked at the time and grabbed my books off her bed. "Hey, this has been great, we hung out all morning. But I'm gonna go home for lunch, I'll seeya later today, maybe."

"Yeah, just come over whenever. I'll be around, probably." She answered.

"Alright, bye." I left and closed her door behind me.

Tim was gone when I came downstairs and the house seemed empty except for Angel's blaring music.

When I got back to the Curtis' Pony and Johnny were making sandwiches. "Hey, Emma. Want one?" Pony asked.

"Sure." He handed me his and started to make another one. "Thank-you."

We ate our sandwiches in front of the TV and after that Johnny said he was going to wander around town for a bit.

"So… Wanna go do something?" Pony asked after Johnny left.

"Sure." I hopped up. "Where we gonna go?"

He thought for a moment. "I know somewhere we can go. You might want to grab a sweater or something."

I gave him a look but got my hoodie anyways.

We started walking but after a bit I decided we should stop in at the Shepard's again.

"Hey, can we stop at Tim's for a bit first?" I asked Pony.

"Yeah, sure."

Curly was on the couch when we got there. "Hey, Curly. Your sister home?"

He nodded. "Hi, Pony, how ya been?" Pony sat down with Curly and I went upstairs to Angel's room.

"Hey, Angel." I greeted, hopping up on her bed.

"Hello again, Emma. Where'd you go?"

"Just had a sandwich with Pony and Johnny is all. You stayed here all day?"

"Yeah, but your sister's been all over town."

"Oh really. What'd ya mean?"

"Got jumped by about five guys…"

"Let me guess, Ross?"

"Yep. But then a couple PR hoods. You know… the gang on the far North, almost West side of town?"

"Mhmm."

"Well a couple guys she knows from the PR from an incident that went on with the PR and her last month…" Angel kind of skipped fast over this part, but I caught it and was somewhat curious. "They came and scared off the guys and Evie left and apparently Toria owes them from saving her butt so many times that she agreed to have dinner with one, and dinner and pool with the other." I didn't see how this was a problem but she went on.

"Anyways, she told Tim about it and he was pissed and told her she had to stay away from' any and all hoods'– his exact words. Then she said fine and stormed off."

"So basically, he just said to stay away from him and Curly and the gang…?"

"Pretty much." Angel shook her head. "He doesn't think at all sometimes."

I shrugged. "Guys."

She laughed at that.

"Well, Pony's waiting downstairs for me; we're going for a walk. So, seeya some other time." I got up and Angel opened her door for me, her mood having seemed to change.

"Enjoy your walk." She said coldly and closed the door loudly behind me. What's her problem?

Pony and I left and he led me across town. We went passed the DX, down by the Ribbon, and up by the train tracks. Instead of crossing the tracks, we followed them east.

A train went by and I giggled as it blew my hair around me. Suddenly Pony grabbed my hand and dragged me into the woods. We ran through the trees and I watched in wonder at all the creatures, frisky squirrels, chirping birds flying past my head, and chipmunks with bulging cheeks.

Finally, we came to an open clearing where there was a stream.

Pony let go of my hand and walked down to the water. I surveyed the area in amazement. It was beautiful. I could hear the train in the distance, but nothing else besides nature.

I wasn't sure how far from town we were, but I was pretty sure we were a ways.

I wondered down to where Pony was sitting, his jeans rolled up and his bare feet dangling just above the water. I sat down beside him and pulled off my shoes and socks and rolled up my pant legs, too.

"I come here a lot to just relax. It's quite and calming." Pony said quietly, as if not wanting to be too loud and disturb the peace. "I saw a deer once. Over there." He pointed across the creek by the trees on the other side.

"Mmm. It's so nice here." I almost whispered. It felt strange to speak in the silence.

After a while the sun started to go down and Pony got up and pulled me up, too. "Here, come with me. I picked up my shoes and followed him as he led me back into the trees and then back out again to a bridge farther down, where the creek got really wide.

We walked on the bridge a bit, waiting for a car that passed us by. Pony took my hand and led me to the one edge of the bridge; climbing over the cord at the side, and clinging to the support beams before sitting down comfortably on the edge of the bridge.

"Sit down." He patted the spot beside him. I sat down close beside him. Our sides were squished tightly together, his warm body against mine. My heart beat fast.

"Look." He whispered, pointing in front of us.

We were high above the creek and could see the whole town from our spot. We could easily see the sun setting with its beautiful colours down the horizon.

I sat there for a while, but started to get cold and rubbed my arms.

"You forget your sweater?" Ponyboy asked looking at me.

I nodded. "At Angel's" I said softly. Second time I forgot my sweater.

He took his sweater and put it around my shoulders, putting his arms around me and rubbing my arm. I leaned my head on his shoulder and smiled.

I don't know how long we sat there, but I couldn't see the sun anymore and it was getting dark fast.

"Come on, we gotta go." Pony got up and helped me climb back over the cord.

We pulled on our shoes and ran through his 'short-cut' through the forest. We came out behind a big warehouse and we quickly snuck out of that private property before the security guard saw us.

Making our way through alleys and running, trying to beat the sun; me in Pony's hoodie, and our hands locked, I felt as if maybe, just maybe I could fit in here in Tulsa.

I felt at home, and I didn't want to ever leave.

We made it home just in time; Darry, Soda, and Toria had just sat down for dinner.

Pony and I slipped into our seats at the table, and put our heads down and started eating right away.

Soda and Toria just looked at us curiously, and Darry continued to dish up the food.

"Where have you two been?" Darry asked casually after he started to eat.

Pony and I looked up at the same time, then at each other. I shot Pony a questioning look.

"We went for a walk." Pony said turning to Darry but giving me a sideways glance. "Lost track of time watching the sunset."

Soda leaned over to Victoria and whispered something to her with an ear to ear grin on his face. She smiled, too, looking at us.

"What?" I looked at them, lost on what was so funny.

Darry just shook his head and chuckled.

"My tummy hurts." Toria complained a bit later.

"You shouldn't have had that last piece of chocolate cake." Darry said knowingly.

"I was just so hungry and it was so tempting." She answered.

Darry rolled his eyes. "You shouldn't have given in to temptation."

"I didn't mean to. It doesn't happen often I swear."

It was going on 10:30 when the phone rang Tore, phone." Darry said holding it out for her. She took it and plopped down on Darry's lap.

"Hello?" Toria asked.

Pause.

"Yeah, Steve?"

Silence.

"Better than I was earlier."

Another short pause.

"Tired, babe?"

"You know you're always welcome over here." She said after a bit.

"Yeah, I get it. I should let you get some sleep." She answered whatever he said.

I tuned out sometime after that and before I knew it I was being shaken awake by a large, strong hand. The house was dark.

"Emma. Come on, everyone's gone to bed."

"Hmmm?" I groaned, rubbing my eyes sleepily.

"Come on, kiddo." Darry put his arm around me and basically carried me to bed.

I fell asleep as soon as he pulled off my shoes and dropped me on the bed.

The next day, Pony, Johnny and I went to see a movie and then wandered town. We ended up wandering down The Ribbon, and on our way back up; near the arcade, we ran into Jackie, Two-bit's sister again.

"Hey guys." She smiled as we came up to her.

"Hi, again." I smiled. I liked her, and it was nice to see her again.

"What are you up to?" Jackie asked.

"Not much, looking for something to do." Pony said.

"Me, too. I was at the arcade with some friends but they had to go, and I don't want to go home 'cause mom's going to work soon and if she knows I'm not with friends she'll make Two-bit babysit me." She made a face at that.

"Haha." I laughed. "That would suck." She nodded. Two-bit was a fun guy, but I could understand her not wanting her brother to babysit her.

"You guys wanna hang at the arcade?" Jackie suggested.

Pony looked at Johnny and Johnny shrugged. "Sure." Johnny said.

We spent a while there playing games, but after a bit Johnny and Pony got bored and left, and I decided to stay with Jackie for a while longer.

"So how long have you been in Tulsa now?" Jackie asked after a while when we were taking a break from the games.

"About a month yesterday."

"Huh." Jackie looked around the arcade for a bit. "How long are you gonna stay?" She asked looking back at me.

"Don't know." I shrugged. "Probably until school starts."

"Then you have to go back to New York, right?"

"Yeah. In a way, I ran away, so, yes, I have to go back for school."

"Why'd you run away?" Jackie looked up, confused.

"Well, I found letters from my father in my mom's closet, and I wanted to meet him." I looked over at a game and squinted. I think that guy hunched over it is Tim. "I guess I thought he'd be nice and I'd get my fairytale life, but, that didn't happen."

Jackie was quiet for a while then.

"Well, I've gotta go now." Jackie said after we played a few more games. "So I'll see you another time."

"Yeah, bye!" I waved as she left the arcade. I was somewhat curious whether or not that was Tim at that game, and I was going to just leave, but as I was walking to the door I 'accidentally' tripped and fell on my face.

Sure enough, Tim was the one who turned around from the game he was hunched over and helped me up.

"Nice trick." He smirked as I righted myself again and dusted the dirt off my pants.

"Thanks." I laughed.

I hopped up on the game beside him as he hunched back over the game and continued to play pinball.

After a short time Billy and Curly into the arcade; Billy was dragging some brunette by the waist. It took me a bit before I realized it was my sister.

"Shepard." Billy said, coming up to us.

Tim looked up and nodded, but as he went back to his game he spotted Toria.

"Which PR guy's butt do I need to kick?" He demanded.

"It wasn't the PR." She said, shooting a sideways glance at me.

"Billy..." Tim said.

"It wasn't, you should look closer to home Shep."

"One of my guys?" Tim asked, and I slipped off the game.

"Too close." Tore muttered.

"Who?" Tim asked again, and I backed away a bit; no one looked at me.

"Think Tim, who do we know that has done something like this?" Billy tried and I continued my escape.

"Ross again?" Tim asked, glancing quickly at me over Toria's shoulder as I walked away from them.

"Indirectly, it was those dumb Brumley boys again. I don't care if you're allied with them Shepard, they're kicking my ass everyday." I heard my sister spit at Tim as I slipped out of the arcade.