Author's note:

I didn't think I would write an Outsiders fan fiction this early, but I couldn't help myself. All characters go to S.E. Hinton. I love the book and the movie. I'll continue writing 'I Don't Love You Like I Should,' soon. Just go loom at my update and you'll see when. :) All the love.

By the way, this takes place after the movie ends. Dally and Johnny Cake sadly will not appear in this story. On that note, let's jump right in!

Hi! It's been a while since this book has ended, and I've gotten a few requests to make a sequel, soooo if this story gets up to 150 votes, I'll start making one! Sorry I'm shooting so high, but I really want to make sure that I'm not writing the sequel for an audience that will never read it. Thank you x

Dear Journal,

9/2/1967

I start high school tomorrow. I'm excited but I ain't. My best friend moved away to Maine over summer break. I miss her more than I miss anythin' else in the world. She was my rock. We used to go everywhere together. But now she's gone. Of course she's gone. Everything good in my life goes away. Well, I should probably hit the sack. Goodnight, thoughts.

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Dear Journal,

9/3/1967

School wasn't that bad today. Everything was alright except for the fact that I'm in basic English. I guess I ain't that good at writin', huh? Shoot, if I had to write a novel to save myself and my entire family, I wouldn't be able to.

Anyway, our teacher assigned our seats. She put me in the back, next to this handsome boy. He was blonde, but I saw his dark roots. I kept on trying to get up the courage to talk to him, but I couldn't. Not even for the life of me. He was trying to focus on the teacher very sternly. I could see that by just lookin' at him! He seemed intelligent for wantin' to focus so good on the first day, huh? Not me. I was drawin' Mickey Mouse the entire time she was talking. Man, she could talk forever. Mrs. Mopan. She's gonna be fun to bother this year...

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Dear Journal,

9/7/1967

Today I talked to someone. Ponyboy. The kid who sits next to me. I dropped my pen and he picked it up for me. Somethin' else happened too... but I gotta tell ya something before I tell ya what that somethin' was. He seems like the sweet-type. He looks like he could get into trouble, but he tries his best to be sweet. Well, I'll tell you exactly what happened.

I sat down at my desk, next to Ponyboy. We were gettin' our assignments.

"Okay, class," Mrs. Mopan started. "I am going to assign you partners and you're gonna work with them. You can make a new friend, you can make a new enemy. I don't care. Honestly, I don't, but I don't wanna hear that you wanna trade partners later. I'm telling you now that you're stuck with who you're partnered with."

She looked around the room and started to see who would be a good partner with who. I thought that you couldn't judge a book by its over and if you do, you'll miss out on somethin' amazing. Oh well. Let her mess up fate.

"Caroline and Jessie, Dave and Brandon, Jake and Barbara, Hilary and Tony, Anthony and Margaret, Ponyboy and (Y/N)..." After that, I kinda trailed off.

I looked at him. He looked back at me.

"My name's Ponyboy Curtis," he said, sticking his hand out at me.

"I'm (Y/W/N)," I said, shaking his hand.

"Now that you have your partners," Mrs. Mopan said, "here is your assignment; You must come up with stories. One person will write the first half, the other will write the second half. However, while you are writing, you cannot, I repeat-cannot-read each other's work. You have to bounce ideas off of each other, but you can't read what the author comes up with. You also must write down the ideas that the other person gives you. There is no specific choice that you must make of who writes which part. Be creative. Make a friend. I will give you each a theme and you have to write your story surrounding that theme." She picked up a stack of index card and began passing them out around the room.

"I hope we get something like Science-Fiction," Ponyboy exclaimed.

"Oh yeah? And why is that?" I asked.

"Well, I'm always writing about like mystery and suspense and I wanna mix it up a bit."

"You write?" I inquired.

"Yeah, a little bit. Only when I'm not reading. That's my real passion."

Mrs. Mopan came over and put a card that said, 'Romance' on my desk.

"Romance, huh?" Ponyboy said, taking the card out of my hand. "I guess that's not too bad. At least I've never written anything about romance before."

"I have," I responded. "It's actually all I ever write about."

"You write, too?" he asked.

"Yeah, but only when I'm not gaming. That's my real passion. Even though I only have a Brown Box." I smirked. He smiled back.

"Now," Mrs. Mopan interrupted. "These are due at the end of the month. You will have no class time to work on these. Get our partner's phone number now or even plan to meet up somewhere because you won't be working on them in class."

"Do you wanna come over to my house tomorrow? That's when both of my brothers are working," Ponyboy asked.

"What about your parents?" I asked.

"Oh, I don't... live with my parents," he said. "I'm not associated with them anymore."

"Oh, okay," I responded. "Well where do you live?" Ponyboy flipped over the index card. He took my pen off of my desk and wrote on the back of it. When he placed it back on my desk, it rolled off. He picked it up and put it back on the desk.

"Great, so I'll see you tomorrow at your house," I said.

"Yes you will." He smiled.