Dallas Winston Has A Sister? (Outsiders Fanfic)

Dallas Winston Isn't Afraid of Anything (Which Might Not Always Be True)

Note to Readers: This is another one where it's the same event but from a different person's point of view.  It's the same plot as At the Creek with the Greasers, the first one I wrote.  Hope you like this one, please comment.

        Dally was standing at the edge of a pond, and Johnny and Tara were in the water, up to their necks.  They were drowning, floundering in the water and sputtering up mouthfuls as the shouted his name.

        "Dally!  Save us!" Johnny's scared voice called.

        "Please!" his sister begged, sounding like she was going to cry. 

        Tara never cried, and she never begged and she never said please.

        "Please Dally!  Please!" she shouted again, looking up at him with fear in her eyes.

        "I can't swim," Dally said and then turned around.  He walked calmly away, leaving the only two people he ever cared about, ever really loved, to die.  Swallowed up by the never disappearing water.

        Dally woke with a start, his bare chest shiny with sweat.  Just a nightmare.  A stupid nightmare.  It didn't mean anything, he thought to himself as he got out of bed and headed to the bathroom.  He splashed some water on his face, letting it drip off his nose and run down his chin onto his bare chest.

        It was true, he couldn't swim.  Any area of water that was bigger than a bathtub made him nervous.  But Tara could swim, she wouldn't ever drown, and she could save Johnny if she had to.

        Dally shook the thought out of his head and climbed back into bed, sliding his legs under the sheets.  It took a while before his racing heart and rapid breathing subsided enough for him to fall back asleep.  That was the first time in his life Dallas Winston could ever remember being physically scared.

        The next day they were supposed to be going sucker fishing at the creek, and when Dally and Tara got there, Darry, Pony, and Johnny were already there.

        Dally looked over the edge of the bridge at the wide, shallow, rushing creek.  It was about six feet wide one and a half to two feet deep in this area, with a smooth-pebbled bottom and sloping grassy banks.  A nervous twisting feeling filled his gut, and he vowed to stay close to Darry, if he fell in Darry would save him rather than just laugh like all the other guys would do.  In all honesty, Dally didn't even want to go in the creek, but Dallas Winston wasn't afraid of anything, even a little water, so he had to.

        Everything was going okay, they got a big five-gallon bucket full of fish, and everyone else had quite a few splash wars, the best was when Two-Bit dumped a bucket of water, with a fish in it, down the back of Tara's shirt and then she shoved him into the creek, and he got completely soaked.

        Dally avoided most of the splash wars, he stayed on the other side of the bridge where the creek couldn't be seen from the road and he couldn't get hit by the water being flung about by everyone else.  He did get splashed when Darry slipped on a rock and fell into the creek, but that was minor compared to everyone else who had at least one body part soaked completely.

        All the sudden Dally caught sight of Two-Bit, drenched and dripping from being pushed into the creek by Tara, grab her by the shoulders and shove her head underwater.  She barely struggled before going still, and Dally's nightmare from last night flashed back.

        He surged towards Two-Bit, ready to strangle him, but when he finally got there Tara was up and laughing.  Dally was furious at Two-Bit for almost drowning his sister and he shouted, "Don't you ever do that to her again!"

        "Dal, I can hold my breath underwater for a long time.  I was just trying to freak them out, not you," Tara said, acting like it was no big deal that she could have almost died.

        "Well thanks for telling me that now," Dally said, exasperated.  He hadn't known how long she could hold her breath, just that she could swim, and had thought he wouldn't have anything to worry about.

        "Come on Dally, she's fine," Darry said reassuringly.

        Dally let it go, realizing he was making way bigger of a deal out of this than Dallas Winston would, cause Dallas Winston wasn't scared of anything.

        A wet, cold shock went down his back, and Dally whipped around to find Tara, grinning mischievously and holding the empty bucket that she had dumped on his head.  He lunged at her, ready to splash her in the face, forgetting for just a moment that he couldn't swim and could easily drown in the creek.  But for just a minute, that didn't seem to matter to Dallas Winston, who wasn't scared of anything.