Faded (The Outsiders FF)

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Riley's POV

When you think of little kids and storms, you usually think of their fear of storms. Not me. Ever since I was little I always loved storms. Im not going to sit here and tell you that when I was little I never jumped at the sudden sound of lightening crashing, but I mean come on I'm only human. I like to just sit there and watch the rain fall and the wind blow, even if it was just a small spring shower. In fact my favorite scene from Bambi is...you guessed it, the April shower scene. Most people will say "oh, that's not unusual. A lot of people find peace in rain," but for me the sound of rain isn't just peaceful. It's reassuring. I guess that as long as there are storms, there's someone up there controlling them. And that someone has the mercy to protect me from the storm. I'm usually not this gushy and sentimental. If I did say anything to anyone about this they'd probably ridicule me just because my family isn't well...sensitive like that. No one really understands.

My name is Riley, Riley Tays. I'm new to Tulsa, Oklahoma . We moved here well today, in a house that my great-aunt owned before she retired. Bye "we" I mean me, my dad, my 5 year old sister, and my 17 year old brother, our mom passed away a year ago in a car accident. She was driving home from work April 12, 1963, a drunk driver drove up full speed in her lane . Neither one of them survived. We get along well...most of the time. My dad jumped on the offer in a second. I guess he was just depressed to live in a home that my mom lived in too. I was glad he was finally happy about something, but I wasn't happy about it. I wished I were, because it was nice to see my dad finally smile, but when we moved I had to leave my life long friend Brianna. We were inseparable, connected by the hip. When we moved it was bittersweet, but mostly bitter. My dad never asked me if I wanted to leave. When I would sulk he didn't even bat an eyelash. All he ever did was talk about how much better our life would be, how we would love the house, and how we would make so many new friends. In truth I was mad. Not necessarily at him, but at life itself. I have so many questions. Why did mom have to die? Why do we have to move? Why is everything changing so fast? The thought of it all makes my head spin. I need a storm, I need to think.

Riley's POV

"Riley! Riley, wake up we're here!" My little sister Sarah woke me up. She sure is quite a little ball of energy for a five year old. But I guess I was probably like that too.

"I'm up, I'm up!" I said rubbing my eyes still groggy from the trip. The ride from our home in South Dakota to Tulsa, Oklahoma was around 14 hours including breaks. Why we didn't fly is beyond me. I guess we just didn't have the money. I've been doing a lot of guessing I thought to myself.

Ponyboy's POV

I saw a big orange and white truck pass by the school on my way home. Two-Bit was supposed to pick me up, but no doubt he had picked up some blonde on the way, and totally forgot about me. I think those trucks are called U-hauls. You don't see them very much in Oklahoma, especially in Tulsa. Mostly because people are trying to leave this town not move into it. I saw that they weren't going to the East side of town, so I immediately thought Soc. Then I realized they weren't heading toward the West necessarily either. I knew they must be Regulars. Not Socs yet not Greasers ; Middle Class. It's not like I have anything against Regulars, but I really don't know any of them. They mostly like to keep to themselves, and hang out with Socs and other Regulars.

I wonder if there are some kids my age. Oh yeah, it wouldn't matter anyways because most 14 year olds are in the eighth or ninth grade. I'm in the tenth, because I skipped a grade.

Riley's POV

After I got out of the car I saw the workers unloading the U-haul. My dad was directing the workers where to put things and yelling out things like "be careful with that!" Or "careful that's labeled fragile! Can't you read!"

Once my dad saw me he walked over to me with a grin plastered on his face. My dad is 30 years old, he took my mom's...passing pretty hard the first week or so. Then he realized he needed to pull himself together for his kid's sake. He wasn't helping much just sulking around not giving a shit about anything. Now you wouldn't even be able to tell he went through anything like that. He was a pretty funny guy. Always teasing and joking around, but he was serious when he needed to be, and pretty open-minded.

"Hey, Ri!" My dad called out, "since this change is probably going to be hardest on you to adjust to , you know with having to move away from...friends and all," I knew he knew that I was upset about Brianna, and he didn't dare to mention her name, "I'm going to let you pick your room out first, Hon."

"Ok, thanks dad," I said with a fake grin plastered on my face. I couldn't bare to see him upset just because I was.

I walked into the house, and the smell of must was present. Not quite overwhelming, but present nevertheless. I searched through the house and found 3 bedrooms and 3 baths. The first one I found was definitely the master. It was obvious because it was connected to the master bath. The next bedroom was average size with a pretty decent size closet, and the next one was pretty much the same.

"Riley!" I jumped at the sudden noise being called through the empty house. When I turned around I saw My little sister right beside me. "Haha! I scared you!" She laughed. I couldn't help but smile at her. Even though she was pretty annoying, I couldn't stay mad at her for more than 5 seconds without regretting it. If you looked at her you'd see why. She was about 3'5", she had bright blue eyes, and dark brown hair. It went down to just above the middle of her back, and she was dark complected with a light tan that she kept year-round. The complete mirror image of our mom, and in three words, Just. Plain. Adorable. Me on the other hand is the complete opposite. I have absolutely, positively no idea where I get my looks from, but it sure as heck ain't either of my parents. I'm average height for a 14 year old, about 5'1", I have gray-green eyes, and long, wavy strawberry blonde hair, my skin is pretty fair, but the light dust of freckles all over my face, arms, and a little on my legs helps even it all out. Do you see my dilemma? If my dad sat me down and told me I'm adopted I might just believe him, because it's either that or I just somehow ended up with every single recessive gene in our family's DNA. "Riley, don't you love it, the house is so pretty!" Sarah said in her high, adorable voice.

I agreed with her the house was very nice. It had light colors and an open flowing set up with large windows. Although the house itself wasn't very big. Sure it had 3 bedrooms and 3 baths, oh and an office (which I assumed my dad would be taking over for work) but the living room and kitchen weren't as big as I would've hoped. In fact they were fairly small.

"Yes, Sarah, I do like it," I said with as much enthusiasm as I could muster up. Even though the house was nice, it didn't change the fact that our dad practically moved us over night...actually it was a week, but even so I didn't get to give my friends a proper goodbye, because my dad took me out of school during the last 3 days we lived there to help pack.

"So, Riley, did you pick a room yet?"

It was then that it hit me I end up sharing a room with Sarah. At our last house we had shared rooms, but I thought for sure that this house would be different. Having my own room was one of the few things that I thought would benefit from moving, that and dad finally being happy. "Riley?" I hadn't realized I didn't answer him yet.

"Oh, sorry," I said

"That's ok, now which room?"

"I have to share a room with Sarah don't I?" I asked trying to make sure I didn't sound to sorrowful.

"Oh no," he said, "we're going to turn the office down there into a room, I know it's small, but I was thinking Sarah could have it. "

"Darn it," she said, "I wanted a big room," she said with puppy-dog eyes, but with the playful tone in her voice you could tell that she really didn't care and was trying to get people's attention.

"Come on, Riley let's go help get the stuff in. You have a very big day Monday at your new school."

Oh, great school.