Porcelain

Chapter 1

Everyone in Tulsa knew about the Socs and the Greasers. Even if you didn't, you could just look at them and see the obvious rift between the groups, as obvious as the train tracks that divided them.

Within the Greasers, there was the main gang, a group of boys that one could call brothers just as much as friends. It was made up of Darry, Sodapop, and Ponyboy Curtis, brothers who all lived together after their parents died. Their house became the gang's house, with people constantly streaming in and out, from Steve Randle, Sodapop's best friend, Two-Bit Matthews, the "comic relief" of the group, to Johnny Cade, the pet of the gang and the unofficial baby brother. Lastly, there was Dallas Winston, the fighter of the group. He was the hardest of them all, carving his place and his reputation on the streets for years.

They weren't all of the Greasers, of course, there were other gangs like the Shepard's gang, and other greasers floating around as well. The most notable one was Babydoll Dalton, who was always seen bouncing around with various Greasers, or around parties, but even though he was always around, no one really knew who he was.

Babydoll had come into down late into the night from the train everyone assumed, since one morning a new greaser was seen smoking a cigarette by the gas station, and he'd been there ever since.

Since he was mostly seen at parties, no one had spent enough time with him to get to know him as a person. Or if they had, they'd drank enough that night that they'd never remember come morning.

On the nights he wasn't around at some house party, everyone assumed he had some corner to sleep in, even though everyone knew that didn't make sense, he'd be jumped immediately, with his skinny form and innocent eyes, despite the hard leather boots on his feet and the oversized leather jacket everyone assumed held all kinds of things.

It was no small feat that Babydoll was still alive at all, he'd gotten in more than his fair trouble with both the Socs and the law, known for stealing girls with his beautiful looks, Soc or greaser. That set many an angry man on his trail. He was also known for stealing from any and all stores, he wasn't even careful about it anymore. Babydoll took what he wanted, if someone had a problem with that, it didn't matter, he had fast legs and even faster reflexes, he could have a grown man pinned before he even knew they were fighting. Impressive, since he was barely taller than Ponyboy, the youngest greaser, who was 14.

On that fateful day, the Curtis gang was gathered at Old House, a dilapidated old house on their side of the track, with more rumors surrounding it than weeds in the overgrown lawn.

"Oh come on, it's just a house, take a step in. Besides, you lost that bet fair and square," Steve said to Soda, taunting him.

"Oh yeah? If it's just a house, why don't you go in?"

"Cause I won, and the deal was that if I won you'd have to go in."

"This is unfair."

"You didn't have to take the bet."

"You owe me for this."

Meanwhile, Babydoll smirked at the group from inside the house, walking quietly through before slamming a door shut. His smirk only grew as he watched the fear dance across the greaser's faces.

"I just heard somethin' slam in there! Let's go!" Someone shrieked. Babydoll suspected Ponyboy or Johnny, the youngest two.  He didn't really know them well enough to know though.

As far as anyone knew, Babydoll had dropped out of school years ago, and after a couple of trips to the slammer, there was no way he had a job. So no one knew what he was doing or where he was when he wasn't the center of attention at a trashy house party.

So in a stupor of boredom, he wandered around town, looking for any trouble to cause. He wandered into the music store, nicking a Rolling Stones album and a Beatles album, carrying them out under his overly large jacket.

He then walked back to the abandoned house, and walked up the stairs into the attic, and put down his jacket. An extension cord to the shed next door provided power to a record player, also stolen. The voices of John Lennon and Paul McCartney floated through the air as Babydoll drifted off to sleep on the old mattress on the floor.