Sorry it took me a little while to upload, but I wasn't as motivated since no one reviewed. Anyways, this chapter gives you a little more of Alex's life and why she's so angry. Sorry it's kind of short or if it seems rushed, I have a bad habit of doing that.

I do not own The Outsiders

The familiar feeling of someone jumping on the bed woke me up. I groaned sleepily and turned, not wanting Soda to wake me up yet.

"Come on Pony, time to get up." He started to tickle me to get me up. I tried turning again to get away from him, but I forgot how close I was to the edge of the bed. I turned a little too far and fell onto the floor.

I opened my eyes to see Soda leaning over the bed, looking at me with a smile on his face. "You weren't supposed to fall off the bed you know." He reached down to poke my sides.

I shoved his hand away and stood up. "If you hadn't tried to wake me up I wouldn't have fallen."

"Nice try. You've got school so let's get going." Soda jumped off the bed and left our room. I quickly got dressed and went out to the table where Darry had set out breakfast. We ate quickly because we were all running a little late.

I grabbed my books and walked out the door, saying bye to Soda and Darry as I did. I turned and walked down the sidewalk towards the school. Most of the houses along our block looked like they would fall down any minute. Dangling shutters, broken windows, missing shingles, columns that had crumpled and caused the roof section they had supported to sag. I had to admit, even though we had a hard time making ends meet, we were doing pretty well compared to how it could be.

I kept walking until I got to a part of town that looked different. I wasn't at the West Side of town yet, but this was the part of town that the middle class families lived. Except for the fact that the houses were in better condition and the yards were clean, it didn't look much different from our part of town.

It wasn't much longer before I passed a small white house. I stopped because I heard really loud yelling coming from inside. I knew it was a bad idea to listen, but I couldn't help myself. It sounded like an older man did most of the yelling. His voice sent chills up my spine because he sounded worse than Darry when he was hacked off at me.

I felt my eyes widen in surprise when I heard a younger voice yell back and heard that it was a girl. Then the front door opened and Alex came out with her bag over her shoulder and a really pissed off look on her face.

She stomped down her front steps before she looked up and saw me. I thought she would holler at me to go away and mind my own business, but she didn't even look surprised that I was there. The front door flew open again and a tall man with thin brown hair and mean eyes stood in the doorway.

"Alexandria, get back here right now!" he yelled.

I saw a fire light up in her eyes before she faced him. "I'm going to school!" She could yell even louder than him.

He looked at me with such anger in his eyes that I almost cringed away. Then he looked back at Alex. "You come home right after school you hear me?"

"Maybe," she threw over her shoulder. She ignored his shouts, walked up to me and grabbed my arm. "Let's go," she said quietly, dragging me away from the man.

When I heard him go back inside, I turned to her. "Who was that?" I already had an idea, but I wanted to be sure.

She let out a long sigh, the fire in her eyes still burning. "The bastard I have to refer to as my father. I don't call him that though. I call him Jim and it pisses him off something awful," she said, a smirk playing across her lips.

I wanted to ask her another question, but before I could two boys who looked to be about sixteen or seventeen ran up around us. Both had hair the same color as Alex's, but their eyes were a dark brown. They wore clothes that were better quality than what I wore and both had mischievous looks on their faces.

The taller one shoved Alex's shoulder. "You really did it this time Allie."

She drew her fist back and punched his arm so hard he reeled back and grabbed it. "You will die next time you call me that Brian. And what did I do?"

The other one, whose hair was a little longer, spoke next. "You really got Dad pissed off." He glanced over at me real quick. "You better come straight home after school or else you're gonna get it." Neither of them sounded concerned, they both sounded like they were taunting her and they were smiling evilly.

She threw him a look. "I'll come home before my curfew Tyler. He can't say anything against that."

"You know he won't care about that. He told you to come home after school and if you don't he'll be so pissed off he'll make the devil look like an angel," Brian said, getting real close to her and making her stop.

Alex shoved him back, looking even angrier. "Get out of my way assholes. Leave me alone too. Just because your blood don't mean you're family." Grabbing my arm again, she pulled me ahead of them until I couldn't hear them laughing.

She let go of my arm and sighed, covering her eyes with her hand. "Before you ask, those were my asshole brothers."

"Don't get along with your family I take it?"

"Not my whole family, just them. I love my momma. She treats me right. Jim and my brothers are the jackasses. I hate them and I know they hate me. Jim has never told me he loves me, I can't even remember him ever hugging me. But Brian and Tyler can do no wrong in his eyes while I'm the mistake." She sighed and looked at her feet.

I kept quiet, afraid to say anything else. The rest of the walk to school was silent.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you want me to update sooner, then you're gonna have to show the review button some love. 3

Ciao,

Kris