A/N - So I noticed a lot of people read and no one reviewed...means one of two things. It was crap, or it was way way to short to bother with. I'm going to go glass half full today and believe it was the later. Heres a longer section, if you like it and want more, review! If you hate it and want me to quit being an optimist might as well tell me that as well.

Disclaimer - I do not own the Outsiders, if I did then maybe Soda would do the baseball teams laundry...if only I could convince him...

Chapter 2 - American Honey

There's a wild, wild whisper

Blowing in the wind

Calling out my name like a long lost friend

Oh I miss those days as the years go by

Oh nothing's sweeter than summer time

And American honey

The next day during recess Randy came over to me again.

"Hey Alice, I'm really sorry about yesterday."

"No your not! My mother called yours last night and you got in trouble! "

Randy looked at me darkly "Your right, I'm not sorry. I got grounded and a whooping from my old man last night thanks to you!" With that he pushed me down again.

Much to Randy's surprise however, this time I came up swinging. I had a brother, Matthew who at the ripe old age of 12 enjoyed getting in fights. I had watched these enough to know the basics. My fist connected solidly with his nose and I couldn't contain my shock at the blood that came gushing out.

I had my second shock of the day when I felt someone grab my wrist from behind. I looked behind me to see Mrs. Kramer who was not a day over 200 holding me tightly by the wrist. "With me young lady, now." with that I was dragged straight to the principal's office where my mother was called and I received the verbal lashing of my young life.

I also had detention after school for the next week. I'm not going to lie, I was a bit embarrassed by that...no girl I knew had ever had detention! Only the bad boys got detention...my mother said I was lucky that was all I got.

xxx

The next day I reported after school to my very first day of detention. I handed my slip to Mr. Haynes who pointed lazily to a chair in the back. I quickly went to the chair and sat down, already annoyed that I couldn't do anything for the next hour.

After the first 15min Mr. Haynes got up from the desk and walked out without saying a word, just walked out! Do teachers really do that?

For the first time since entering the room I looked up from my hands on my desk and looked around. There was only one other student in the room, I had seen him around school and he always had a goofy smile on his face and looked so happy, but right now all his attention was focused on me.

"Hi"

"I...um...don't think we're supposed to talk in here" I stammered quietly.

"It's ok, Mr. Haynes will be gone for at least the next 10 minutes, always is."

"Oh...so your in here a lot?"

"At least once a week" He answered with a big grin.

"For what! How could you be bad that often!"

"I'm not bad...I just like to make people laugh...and the teachers don't always appreciate that."

"Oh"

"But hey! I know why your in here! You punched that dirty soc Randy in the nose the other day! I've never seen a girl fight before, that was pretty tuff"

"I didn't fight him! I just...hit him once...and made him bleed" I couldn't help but smile as I added that last bit.

"Well, it was still pretty tuff. I'm Sodapop Curtis, but you can call me Soda" He said coming over to sit in the desk beside me.

"I'm Alice Mead" I couldn't help but return his big smile, he seemed like a much nicer person then Randy, and as far as I knew Randy had never had detention before!

Before anything else could be said Mr. Haynes returned to the room. He didn't even seem to notice that Soda had moved his seat next to mine. "Alright detention is over, Ms. Mead I will see you again tomorrow, Mr. Curtis, let's try and make it till the end of the week without another detention shall we?"

"Yes sir" we answered in unison as we collected our things and quickly exited the school building.

"Here" Soda said as we made it to the sidewalk outside "let me carry your bag for you."

"No, that's ok, I'm used to it"

"What am I thinking, your one tuff chic who dons't need to be taken care of huh?"

I couldn't help but laugh at the description of myself as a "tuff chic" "Ya, I guess I am."

"Can I at least walk home with you?" He asked with a grin.

"Sure, I live over on Pinedale Rd."

"Oh...I...um...I live over on Decater St. That's the other side of town." For the very first time, at 10 years old where I lived was making someone nervous. Usually people liked where I lived, it was quiet and safe, lots of trees and cute little houses like mine. I had never heard of Decater St. but I got the feeling that Soda was embarrassed.

"Oh, well, don't worry about it, I don't want you to be late for dinner or anything."

"No, I don't mind, I'll walk you home" He looked as if he had made up his mind.

I smiled at him and we began to walk. As we walked we talked about the things that 4th graders do, Saturday morning cartoons, teachers, our families, and what we were hoping to get for christmas that year.

Suddenly, as we neared my street I heard my name being yelled from behind us "Alice, Alice, wait!"

I turned to see my brother Matthew coming down the street behind us, looking pretty angry as he huffed towards us. "Alice! What are you doing with this grease!" He grabbed me by the shoulder and moved me forcefully away from Soda's side, putting himself between us.

"Ow, Matthew that hurts! Soda was just making sure that I got home ok after detention." My brother turned to face Soda.

"Thanks for making sure she got home alright, you better get home, its getting late grease, and you wouldn't want to be caught in the wrong neighborhoods now would you?" I saw Soda's shoulders slump a bit as he stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Ya, I better be going. Night Alice"

"Night Soda, thank you"

"Oh, and Curtis, don't let me catch you even thinking about my sister again, got it?"

Soda nodded his head and walked away. "Come on sis, I think it's time you and I had a talk about who it's ok to hang out with." Matthew slung an arm over my shoulder and led me to the tree house in the back yard.

xxx

A/N - The song is "American Honey" by Lady Antebellum.