A/N: Thank you for all the e-mails and inquiries about my reposting my stories on here for those of you that enjoyed reading them. I did receive your notes and I am responding now by reposting a few of the more popular fan fics for you to peruse once again. All of my works have been completed except for this rewrite of Let It Be, which has been put on hold due to an overload of work and family problems. The original version will be posted in its entirety. Thank you once again for all the e-mails and requests. ~Medea~

Disclaimer: I do not own the Outsiders, nor anything therein. All I own is my dog, my car, and a broken record player.

Crashing Through Reality

Chapter One:

Heart pounding in my chest, I bolted upright in the bed, a scream of terror lodged in my throat. I could feel myself shaking violently from the after effects of the nightmare, and hoped that I hadn’t screamed loud enough to alert my brothers to the fact that I was once again having them. It had been a while since I’d had one that I couldn’t remember, and I knew it would worry them if they had even the slightest idea that I’d had another one.

Looking around the quiet room, I realized it was almost dawn. A dim, gray light was coming in the window from outside, making everything look like an old Mickey Mouse cartoon that Two-Bit liked so much. A low snort from my left reminded me that my brother, Sodapop, was still sleeping beside me. He could sleep through a tornado spinning right through our bedroom.

With a sigh of relief that I at least hadn’t woke him up this time, I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them in an attempt to stop the shaking before the shuddering of the bed under him did the job for me. Lowering my forehead to rest on my knees, I closed my eyes and slowed my breathing. I’d had nightmares before, but nothing like these was and it scared me something fierce. At least my other dreams were gone when I woke up. These stayed and haunted me for hours afterward even though I could never remember a damn thing that was in them.

“Pony?”

Raising my head, I met my brother’s sleepy brown eyes. He must’ve seen the remnants of my nightmare reflected in my eyes because his darkened slightly with worry. “M-Morning, Soda, “ I forced myself to say with a small smile that I really didn’t feel like letting show.

Yawning widely, Sodapop pushed his blond hair out of his eyes and peered around groggily. “You okay?” Without waiting for an answer, he added, “What time is it?”

I glanced at the clock on the nightstand beside me. “Almost 6 o’clock. “ I flinched when a hand came down on my shoulder, and turned back to face him. “You can go back to sleep, Soda. I’m fine.” When he looked doubtful at my still shaking hands, I hurried to reassure him. “ Really, Soda, I’m fine. It’s just a nightmare. No big thing.”

He frowned briefly. “You sure? I can stay up with a while, you know.”

Another shudder of icy prickles coursed through me, and I shook my head, sliding over to the edge of the bed. “It’s too early, Soda. I’m gonna go smoke.” I could feel his eyes on me as I rummaged through the cloths piled on the floor and quickly got dressed. I had to get away from him quick, or he would pry the details of my dream out of me, and I didn’t want to talk about it since that would mean admitting that I couldn’t remember what had happened. The fear was still to close to the surface.

“If you’re sure….”

“I am, “ I snapped unintentionally. Guilt flooded me as I recognized the hurt in his features, and I tried to soften my tone. “You have to get up for work in a couple of hours, Soda, so go back to sleep. I’ll be fine alone.”

Without waiting for him to reply, I made my escape into the hall and pulled the bedroom door shut behind me, hoping he wouldn’t follow. I didn’t feel like talking about anything right now, especially not about that dream. I just wanted to forget it had happened; push it to the back of my mind and forget about it for now. The same way you’ve done Johnny and Dally, a small voice accused from somewhere inside my brain.

Crossing the living room, I was surprised to see the couch empty. Darry’s “open door” policy usually meant waking up to someone sleeping on the couch, and sometimes there would be two or three people sacked out on the floor. I opened the front door as quietly as I could and stepped out through the screen door, freezing when it let out a loud shriek. I definitely didn’t want my oldest brother awake and on my case this early in the morning. After a minute or two without any noises from Darry’s bedroom, I padded out onto the porch in my socks and dropped down onto the top step.

As I drew in the first lungful of smoke, my gaze focused on the amber and violet glow on the horizon above the shabby houses and cluttered yards that made up our part of town. The sun would be up soon, and the peace of the neighborhood would be shattered by angry shouts and banging from the inhabitants as they arose to another day of drowning their misery and poverty in fights and booze.

I took another draw from my cigarette and leaned my back against the porch post as the fear of my nightmare slowly dissipated. We didn’t have it as bad as some in our neighborhood, but money was still pretty tight. Darry worked full-time as a roofer and Sodapop worked at the DX full-time, and still barely made enough to keep the bills caught up, but at least we had each other and the gang. You mean what’s left of the gang, don’t you? that annoying voice piped up in my head.

It seemed to love reminding me that we’d lost two of our closest friends in such a small amount of time. I missed Johnny and Dally … Johnny most of all. He was my best friend and my confidant; the only person that understood me and didn’t ridicule my thoughts on things around us.

I jumped as a loud bang echoed from across the street, my eyes jerking away from the colors spreading across the sky above me and settling on the house almost directly across from ours. My eyes widened slightly when I noticed for the first time that I wasn’t the only one on the street up this early. A dark haired man was standing at the edge of the porch with his back to me, a hammer in one hand and what looked to be a two by four in the other.

I remembered Two-Bit saying something about somebody moving into the old Morgan house, but for the life of me I couldn’t remember what he had said after that about them. I shrugged to myself. I was probably reading or thinking when he told the gang about it. I’m bad about zoning out like that. Besides, one more face in the neighborhood wasn’t going make a difference in anything any way.

Wincing a little when the man slapped the board down onto the porch and started nailing it down, I tossed my cigarette into the dirt beside our porch steps and got to my feet. It was time to start breakfast. The noise echoing from across the street would surely wake my brothers up, and they would be looking for food.

For once I would be the cook and my brothers would have to clean up. If I worked it just right, maybe I could be on time for school for a change. It would all depend on Two-Bit and whether he managed to crawl his lazy ass out of bed on time. I was about to go back inside when a loud shout resonated from across the street behind me.

“Get your ass down from there, Sidney! You’re gonna break your stupid neck!”

Turning to look back over my shoulder, I couldn’t keep the laughter from coming through my lips when I spotted the smaller figure of a boy perched on the porch roof of the old Morgan house with his feet hanging over the edge, what looked to be long, blonde hair reflecting the rising sunlight. The sun-faded football in his hands brought back memories of the time we’d played football and Dally had punted Steve’s new ball all the way across the street where it landed on the roof, rolling down to wedge in the corner where the eaves had pulled loose a little. Darry had forbidden us to retrieve it from its resting place, so the ball had just laid there in the sun and rain over the last two years.

“I found a football, Des!” The blonde boy dropped the ball over the edge, narrowly missing the man below him. “Looks to be okay, too!”

“That’s great,” the man answered in a voice that was clearly sarcastic. “Now get your ass down from there right now.” He nudged the bleached out football with one foot while the boy flipped over onto his stomach and dangled his legs over the edge of the roof. “You got one of your own, Siddy. Why would you want this old thing?”

Anger flared in me at his words, and I wasn’t sure if it was because of the tone of his voice or that his words somehow cheapened the memories I had of the football. There’s no way he could know what the football means to you, the snappy voice in my head reminded me. No use in getting all uptight about it.

Sighing as I realized the voice was right for a change, I pulled the screen door open and headed inside to start breakfast. It would be time to get ready for school soon, and I didn’t want Darry on my ass about my stalling the inevitable again. There would be plenty of time to find out who our new neighbors were.

There is no need for you to review since this is just a repost for those who enjoyed reading it before.