Random Summer Challenge

[fosterchild]

It's like I can't read without singing! lol

[Tensleep]

The whole "singing and reading" bit is the only way I can figure out the songs! I know them, but there's no music!

Runnin' Down a Dream - Aside from "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" I doubt there is another song out there to describe how stoned Curly was in this fic! I Loved how you brought that across as fluid and disjointed. Very nice. Also the whole "runnin' down a dream" seems to fit Curly in this. Well planned. I Loved the ending. You can just picture Curly with this dumb, stoned smile while Tim is closing in on him. Priceless. Keep up the good work!

See ya in the funny papers!!!

Tens

[jrc]

Desperado--The Eagels

The Outsiders--SE Hinton

Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses?
You been out ridin’ fences for so long now
Oh, you’re a hard one
I know that you got your reasons
These things that are pleasin’ you
Can hurt you somehow

He didn’t have directions, and he didn’t have a place to stay, but he had to get out. Liquor could only do so much for him. It could give him a buzz, and it could penetrate his guard, but that was all. When he drank he didn’t have to remember, but he couldn’t drink forever, because the smell of the booze on his breath would only remind him, when he woke up from wherever he had fallen asleep.

He was flustered with all of these emotions, flustered and frustrated. Where had they come from? It had been only yesterday when he hadn’t cared about anything. Right and wrong, he knew the difference, but it hadn’t mattered to him. Now all he could think about was the wrongs that he had made in the past, all the people he hurt…

He had driven his buddy’s car, his buddy’s blue car and had gotten out a while back. He couldn’t tell you how far he was from it now; he stopped counting his paces when he reached sixteen. He couldn’t stand to be in that thing. It wouldn’t go fast enough and it made him feel trapped, far too confined.

He had wandered into what he had mistaken for a bar. It didn’t smell like any bar he had ever been to before, but the smoke resting below the ceiling and the people falling over themselves had convinced him that he knew exactly where he was.

Don’t you draw the queen of diamonds, boy
She’ll beat you if she’s able
You know the queen of heats is always your best bet

He looked around and saw a pretty little lady, with nice long brown hair. He felt guilty, momentarily, but he eased the feeling knowing that the girl who he had committed himself to, had felt the same way about him, as he felt about her--nothing. The relationship was for merely entertainment, a way to past the time.

So he sat on a barstool one over from the brunette, and rested his elbows on the counter and let his hands support his head, which seemed to get heavier and heavier by the second, far too heavy for his neck to hold up on its own.

Now it seems to me, some fine things
Have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones that you cant get

He looked over at the girl. She looked older than he did. Not too much older, he thought, not too old. She was one of them hippies, he could tell, and she looked like she was out of this world, and into the next. She was smiling, so hell, she couldn’t have been on this earth. She was worn out, but the way she seemed so care free appealed to him, in ways she would never know.
He was about to walk over to her, and maybe score some of that ‘free love’ shit he had heard about. But, he stopped.

Desperado, oh, you ain’t getting’ no younger
Your pain and your hunger, they’re drivin’ you home
And freedom, oh freedom well, that’s just some people talkin’
Your prison is walking through this world all alone

Could he really go up to her and introduce himself? Could he even look at a girl like that? What was stopping him?

Tonight he needed her more than anything, if not her then someone. Tonight he couldn’t be alone. Not tonight.

He turned his head towards the brown haired angel and tried to cough to get her attention, but she watched the glasses above the bar, twinkle in the lights, in a sort of trance. She wasn’t in this world, she was in the next.

He moved one seat over and tapped her on the shoulder. When she looked back over at him, her smile only grew bigger.

“What brings you here, child? You looked bummed.” He had never heard words so sincere. He could feel her words, and even though she had only said a few he knew that she cared earnest and honest about why he had come here. Or at least, he pretended she did.

Don’t your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky won’t snow and the sun won’t shine
It’s hard to tell the night time from the day
You’re loosin’ all your highs and lows
Ain’t it funny how the feeling goes away?

“I guess I am,” was all that he needed to say, for this girl, the beautiful brunette knew just what needed to be done with this boy. She had known at first glance what his problem was, and with that came a solution.

“Well, you can call me Trish,” He smiled at her, a true smile. “We should get to know each other better. What’s your name?”

Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin’, but there’s a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you, before its too late

“I’m Randy.” He said without a moment’s hesitation.

[fosterchild]

Wow!!! I wasn't expecting that ending, jrc! Nice work!

[fosterchild]

Your welcome! Just so you know, I did go back and re-read it again just to see the signs that it was Randy. Makes so much sense but I still didn't see it! Really good story and it leaves it open for more, too.

[Tensleep]

Desperado - That was an interesting take on Randy's story. You can see him through out the story wanting to just find something to make the hurt stop, to feel...something. Nice going with out saying it was Randy until the end - clever. But reading back through it you can see the signs. Great job!

[zevie]

Pretend To Be Nice
By Josie and the Pussycats

A/N: My first song-fic. My songing skillz need some work, lol…this is anything but seamless. It’s not a super serious work, if you know the song, but go as harsh as you like on this one, cause I need the work. It’s a little long, but not worth the two-parts.

Rated a nice pg.13. Well. I dunno I guess I should rate it R just in case.

P.S. There’s a “crime” in here that I wrote in that sounds really familiar to me all of a sudden, but I’m not sure. If someone recognizes it, then let me know and I’ll change it.

xxx

“What the fuck is that.”

“It’s a skirt.”

“It’s a fucking Kleenex.”

“I got it at Wallmart…”

“Jesus. You’re one fucking classy broad. Jesus Christ, you look like a hooker.”

Well, he looks at me with those innocent eyes
And says: “It looks like you’re wearing some kind of disguise,
Because your hair sticks up, your shoes are untied.
I hope that you got that shirt at half-price.”

Dallas took a drag off his cigarette. He flicked his gaze at me with his ashes and gave this stupid little half-laugh without moving his mouth from that mean smirk.

“Well, come on, honey, I bet you’re just itchin’ to show off that little number downtown.”

He held his arm out to me like a gentleman and laughed and gave me a challenging look.

I stood up from the bed, stretching, arms over my head, standing on tiptoe. “I been sittin’ too long, I guess.”

Dally put his hands in his pockets. Hah.

I turned to smooth the bedspread and by the time I turned back, I knew he’d changed his mind about the skirt.

“Are we going?”

“Just waitin’ on you, princess.”

I gave him my sweetest smile. “Honey.” Asshole.

He turned around and went out in the hall and down the stairs and out through the kitchen onto the grass before he even looked back at me.

“Hurry the fuck up,” he said, irritable-like. He’s always got something buggin’ him.

“I’m coming, I’m coming,” I said, trying to scramble down the stairs in my heels.

He smirked. “That right? I look that good?”

I felt my face get hot. I never blush for real though – if I did I don’t know how I’d survive dating Dally.

I tripped going across the lawn and had to grab at him. “Shit!” I scrapped the mud of my heel. “Damn three-inchers.”

He gave that little laugh again. “You’re lucky you got me then, baby. All the inches you need.”

Can’t you take anything at face value, Dallas? But I didn’t say nothing, cause I’m smarter than that at least.

He slammed into the driver’s seat and started the car before I’d got the door open. Some gross tan thing, paint flickin’ off, sticky door, the engine soundin’ like a chainsaw…

“Where’d you get this car?”

He’d tossed his cigarette butt out the window and took a drag off the one already lit in his mouth. “You don’t like it, then you can walk.”

He was in a bad mood, then. I decided to pull him outta it with his favourite suggestion. I put on a sexy smile.

“You wanna drive to the lake?”

“No.”

He was in a really bad mood, then.

And every word I say falls flat on the floor.
I try to tell a joke. He’s heard it before.
And I don’t think that I can take it no more.
He’s driving me right out my front door.

He drove like a madman, of course. It was fine up till we hit the Ribbon, but who wants to hit eighty when there’s a car stopped a hundred feet in front of you?

“Dally, can’t you slow down a little?”

“No.”

We went screaming past the Dingo. It was packed with kids and Elvis was wailin’ and he didn’t even slow till the car in front signalled left.

He slammed on the brakes. “Shit.”

I twisted to look behind us. “Why don’t we go to the Dingo?”

“No.”

“But, there’s so many-”

“No.”

I was quiet. “You wanna-”

“No.”

He gave me this mean little look that meant “shut-up” and he said: “Shut the fuck up, will ya? I know where I’m going.”

So I shut up.

Can’t you just pretend to be nice?
Could you at least pretend to be nice?
If you could just pretend to be nice,
Well, everything in my life would be alright.

We stopped at this little bar with no sign on the door and a lot of boys and not too many girls, neither. Dally got out and must have known everyone there by the way they hollered at him. My door got stuck.

“Dallas,” I called.

He glanced back at me, He was grinning and talking with his buddies and then he motioned for me to come over. Then he walked into the bar.

“Dallas!”

There was a roaring laugh and I knew it was at something he said. Probably something dirty, but he could make the stingiest Soc girl giggle with one of those jokes if he wanted. My door still didn’t open.

“Dal-”

Someone pulled it open and I almost fell out onto a couple of legs in jeans. I looked up across the jeans and the blue eyes looked down around the leather and he gave me a hand up and raised an eyebrow.

“You alright, there, Sylvia?”

I shrugged. I can’t help getting tongue-tied around Tim cause he’s so good-looking.

He gave me a once over. “You look real nice tonight. Nice skirt.”

I opened my mouth and closed it and took a breath. “Thanks.”

He looked over at Dally’s back. “What you doing here looking so good with a hood like that?”

“He’s my boyfriend, I guess.”

“Yeah. I know. Ain’t acting like it. You and me oughtta run off and teach him a lesson.” He winked. “Kiddin’.”

I shrugged. “I guess he’s in a bad mood.”

Everybody laughed again, real loud, and Dally was right in the thick of it.

The corners of Tim’s mouth twitched a little. “Yeah, looks like it,” Tim said slowly.

“Well, he was,” I said defensively.

“Sylvia!” Dally looked over and scowled and motioned again for me and just like that he was in a bad mood again.

I left Tim and met Dally half way to the door. “Why are you so mad?”

He looked at me and his eyes and his face went blank. “I ain’t mad.” He kissed me real soft and put his hands through my hair like he know I like. “I ain’t mad. Crazy, pretty little chick.””

Then some guy called him and he ran over to drink outta a beer that came from nowhere and laugh like a maniac at some dirty joke.

And I try so hard just to figure him out,
But he won’t tell me what he’s been thinkin’ about

I sat on a picnic table outside and Dally brought me a beer. Then he went to the bathroom, but it took him an hour, and then after five minutes of kissing and talking with me he had to go again. A half hour later I was hungry, but the guys in the bar were giving me looks already. It was a miracle they hadn’t bothered me yet, but I guess Dallas had said something to them. The way the night was going I almost wished he hadn’t said a thing.

I was sitting by my lonesome and playing with the empty beer bottle and feeling like crap when I heard the sirens. I looked behind me trying to see where they were coming from, but I knew who they were after, sure as anything. When I turned back around, Tim was there again. He spooked me something awful, just creeping up and not making a noise just like a cat.

“Don’t think you’ll be seeing much of your boyfriend for awhile,” he said seriously.

I don’t see him that much anyway, I thought, but I didn’t say it cause I wasn’t aiming to be the talk of the town over Dallas again.

Tim looked at me closely. “I mean it. Some boys talked him into riding shotgun in a drag race – in a cop car.”

Drag race? But, we were on a date! He’d swore last time he wouldn’t get caught again and leave me stuck without a way to get home. He’d swore it.

And then he disappears for a week at a time
And then he shows up just like everything’s fine.
I don’t get what goes on in his mind
But I’m tired of hearing the same stupid lines.

I shrugged at Tim, and now I could talk because I was madder than heck. “It’s okay. I could use a break from him anyway.”

He smiled a little. “He ain’t treatin’ you right, huh? Now why would that be?”

I shook my head. “I dunno. Guess he doesn’t think much of me no more. Guess he’s just tired of me.”

Why do you do what you do to me baby?
Shakin’ my confidence, driving me crazy.
You know, if I could I’d do anything for you.
Please don’t ignore me, cause you know I adore you.

“I don’t really care, anyway.”

Tim nodded. “You shouldn’t.”

“I won’t.”

“Good.”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah.” Then Tim licked his lips and took a breath and I knew what he was about.

We watched the cop cars clear off but I didn’t see any sign of Dally. I tried not to mind much, cause I knew the next time I saw him he would spend a lot of time with me. At least, until he said he loved me, and then after that it’d be no more than ten minutes and he’d be gone, or at least asleep. But, at least he’d be nice for the whole time while he waited. But, after the last cop car went, and Tim told me how long he figured Dally’d be gone, I thought about it and I thought about the bar and I thought about the five minutes he’d spent with me that night and I felt like shit.

If you could just pretend to be nice,
Well, everything in my life would be alright.

Tim hotwired the car that Dally drove us over in to take me back home. On the way, though, he kept giving me these quick little looks. I guess the skirt was good for something. I rubbed my legs like they were cold and tried to forget about Dally.

“I hear the stars are real nice around now. Full moon, too.”

“That right,” he said lowly, but he barely heard me, I know it.

“Yeah, but you can’t see them cause of all the city lights.”

“That right,” he said again and I couldn’t help smiling.

“Yeah. I love lookin’ at the stars, you know, but I don’t hardly get to see them.”

I crossed my legs and neither of us said nothing while he watched my legs and I watched him swallow. We were quiet for a minute. He took a breath.

“That…right.”

I smiled and put my hand on his shoulder and looked at his good-looking face and thought about how tuff he was. He looked at me quickly. I wanted him to look for longer so I put my hand on his knee and he did it, just like that, just like Dallas, just like anyone. Then his eyes closed a little. “So, stars,” he mumbled.

“Yeah. You know where you can see them real good?”

“Huh.”

“The lake.”

We did a U-turn that almost broke my neck and I felt better.

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh.

The End.

[samanthamae]

Wow, zevie, I loved it

I always, always, always thought it was Tim Sylvia went to when Dallas got arrested. The slashed tires thing gave me the feeling.

I loved the ending. Great job! Is it posted on ffnet?

[fosterchild]

That was a nice little number! I'm smiling at that ending. That was cute. What a slut! lol Can't say I blame her much for that but still. And Tim.....oh Tim. He's so bad!

[zevie]

Samanthamae - thanks! I wasn't going to bring Tim in but he followed me, lol. It's not on ffnet, yet.
FC - This song is kinda ridiculous, so I was laughing while writing the end. It's gotten me out of my writer's block a little - whoever suggested writing a one-shot - thanks! Tim wouldn't have been so bad, but he's brain was eaten by the skirt.

I didn't review the summer fics cause I was so busy, heh, feeling very guilty about it though. I enjoyed reading them though!

[zevie]

Me, too, lol. I'd say Sylvia needs some love too, but uh... Maybe I'll just leave it at she needs some more fics.

[Tensleep]

Alright, this one is officially closed. Summer went fast, didn't it? Ah well, it has to come back next year. Thanks to everyone who contributed and gave feedback! Always great to see!

See ya in the funny papers!!!

Tens