Suhaas

Outsiders Alternate Intro (from the perspective of a middle class kid)

As I walked down the street in the bright daylight, I had two things on my mind: a ride home and a greaser kid across the street…being chased by a mustang. Kids in the middle class usually stay out of the Soc-greaser grudge, but I was curious, and I didn’t really have any place to be, so I followed cautiously. The car was really fast, but that didn’t really help it because all of the streets that the kid ran down had lots of curves. It had to stop or crash at every single corner. Usually they crashed...

The car finally cornered him, and a bunch of Socs got out. They looked really drunk. All of the kids were from my school. I think the greaser’s name was Pony or something. He’s on my track team at school and the coach would probably throw a fit if he lost his star.
“Get off of him,” said a voice as they took out a blade. I looked around to see who it was until I realized that all of the Socs were looking straight at me. I was already stuck in the dark corner that I had been watching from, so it was pretty easy for the Socs to grab me and shove me against a wall.
“I think he needs a haircut, too,” a kid with lots of rings said. I had no idea what he was talking about until he stuck his blade up to my head. That’s when Pony tackled the kid with the rings from behind. The knife slipped out of Ring Kid’s hands and landed on my unlucky forehead. Pony had called for reinforcements as every Soc was escorted back to the car with giant sticks, poles, and many bruises.
“Thanks,” I gasped. My response was pretty sympathetic for my pain,
“What’s your name?” a rough, angry voice answered.
“Cool it Dally,” defended Pony. “This kid probably saved my life, but what is your name?”
“Brian,” I responded as calmly as I could.
“Well Brian, you’ve gotten yourself into a whole lot of trouble messing with Socs like that. You’re gonna be one o’ their targets from now on. Good thing we came by to help you two out or they would’ve beaten the tar outta you. Maybe even given you both ‘haircuts,’ ” grunted Dally.
“You shouldn’t have gone off by yourself like that. You could’ve at least carried a switch!” yelled one of them
“Yeah Darry, that would have been a perfect reason for them to let their knife ‘slip’ a little more,” yelled another as I noticed that I wasn’t the only one who had been cut.
“Guys, all of you, cool it!” I exclaimed to my surprise “ How about all of you start being glad that he’s alive.”
“Thanks,” Pony whispered in my ear, “Darry and Soda were about to blow up at each other.”
“So far it’s Pony, Darry, and Dally…” I thought to myself
“So, Where do you live?” asked one of the gang, “East or West Side?”
“Neither really,” I replied “I’m kinda in between…in every sense.”
“Whaddya mean?”
“Well, I bet you guys think that it’s great being in the middle. You’re not a Soc without any feelings, or a Greaser who’s all the way at the bottom. Well, sorry to break it to you, but it’s rough all over. With my kind, the problem isn’t emotional or money-related. It’s that no one notices you. Everyone’s heard about the rich Socs and the hoody, well actually not so much, greasers. Who am I though? What kind of gang do I get to be in? I’m part of the Nobodies.”