Thanks so much for the reviews guys. It really motivates me to write faster.

angeloves1Why thank you! ) That's very sweet of you. I'll try not to let you down by messing it up now.

kaligirl05Gosh, I'm sorry. I just remembered the name from a friend I had in school and put it down. It's a very pretty name. ) I changed it for my story because that could get really confusing for all the readers. Thanks for being cool about it.

outsidersfan5790Thank you too! I'm working on the next chapter right now. I just needed to fix a few things on this one but now I'm on to the next. You can expect something really soon. I'll try not to let you down.

(This Chapter has been re-done and re-posted.)

Joey's POV

When I was eleven, my father passed away. I was devastated but my mother took it worse than I did. She wouldn't even look at me for weeks. Things just weren't looking up. She started drinking, one thing led to another, and now we had to leave our home.

That's how I got to Tulsa. We moved into a slightly run-down house on the East side of town. It didn't take me long to learn about the never-ending soc versus greaser war.

Living on the eastside, I was a greaser. At the time I thought it was horrible. Greasers didn't wear pretty things like I was used to and I just couldn't accept it. My father bought me all kinds of expensive things when he was alive and I intended to wear them no matter what anyone said. Of course I really didn't know that I wasn't supposed to wear them anyway. Not really.

I met my enemies in Tulsa long before I met my friends. The socs thought I was trying to fit in and the greasers thought I was trying to be better than them. Lose-lose situation.

The greasers never really bothered me but they were far from being my friends. The socs were what I had to worry about. It wasn't how they tripped me in the halls or even how they threw pencils at my head during classes. It was how they cornered me after school.

During school, it was kids my age teasing me but after school, it was older kids. Some of them were probably even in high school. Everyday they would cut me off as I tried to walk home and they'd take my school bag and dump it onto the ground and take turns pushing me down while they made fun of my dressy shoes.

One day changed it all though.

"Gimme my bag!" I cried as they threw it around in their circle.

The boys just laughed and continued throwing it around until they decided it would be more fun to push me around. Every time I fell to the ground my head hurt worse and worse. I could feel tears threatening to spill from my pale blue eyes as I watched them waiting for me to get back up so they could push me back down.

"Hey!" A boy around my age shouted as he approached them. I was afraid for the boy. He wasn't any match for the half dozen ones that were surrounding me.

"Get lost grease!" A blonde boy around fifteen shouted to the boy approaching them.

"I can't get lost. I've lived here all my life and I know my way around pretty good by now," said an older boy as he walked beside the other.

Then three more boys appeared behind them. The five of them stood side by side and crossed their arms.

They looked really tough.

They all had dark hair that was slicked back with a lot of hair grease. It wasn't hard to tell they were greasers. The first boy that approached looked to be the youngest. He had short dark hair and looked to be around eleven like me. Between him and the boy to his left, I couldn't tell who was older. The boy beside him who made the comment about living here all his life looked to be the oldest of them. He was probably fifteen or so. The two boys beside him both looked around thirteen and had short, dark hair. All of the boys had grease in their hair. It was easy to tell they were greasers. They looked very intimidating.

I realized I wasn't the only one who thought this as the socs all turned and left without so much as a word.

I laid back on my elbows as I looked up at the five boys with a questioning expression. I had seen a few of the boys before but they never even so much as looked at me. I couldn't understand why they would help me out like they did.

"You alright?" The oldest boy asked me as he stepped forward and reached his hand down to help me up.

"Mhummm…" I mumbled as I accepted his hand and pulled myself up.

I felt really uncomfortable while they all looked at me expectantly like they thought I was going to start screaming at them or something. I didn't have long to be confused about their expressions before the boy who helped me up started laughing hysterically.

Now I was even more confused.

"Look at your shoes!" He choked out as he rolled on the ground laughing.

I looked down at my dressy black shoes and began to get angry.

"Well I like these shoes just fine!" I shouted as I put my hands on my hips and waited for him to calm down.

"What's your name kid?" He asked obviously amused by my outburst.

"Joey" I told him proudly as I tore my attention from my shoes.

This only made the boy on the ground laugh harder.

"….boys…name…." He could barely talk as he began rolling in the grass not caring that he was getting it all over himself.

"Nice to meet you Joey," the youngest boy said as he put his hand out for me to shake it.

I shook it and he no longer looked at me like a danger but more like an interesting object. Like a new toy even.

"I'm Ponyboy Curtis and the one on the ground is Two-Bit," the boy said shaking his head, "and this is Johnny, Steve, and Sodapop, my brother."

I looked at them all as he said their names and had to stop when I saw Sodapop. He was gorgeous!

…and that was the beginning of my long-term crush on Sodapop Curtis.

I smiled at Ponyboy and thanked him and his friends for sticking up for me. He told me it was 'nothing' and then the one called Steve told them they had to get to Ponyboy's house before a boy named Darry, who I later learned was his older brother, got angry with them. I told them all goodbye and gave Ponyboy a hug.

"If you ever need any help with those boys, you know where to find us!" Steve yelled over their heads as they walked down the street.

"No I don't!" I hollered back as I lugged my schoolbag over my shoulder.

"You will!" He yelled back with a laugh as he turned around and kept walking with everyone else. The boy was quite comical but I wasn't really thinking about him.

That night all I could think about was Sodapop Curtis. He hadn't said anything the entire time but I was hypnotized. I'd never seen a boy that good looking and I hoped I'd be seeing him again really soon.

I got my wish.