Needless to say, I was shocked when I learned Vanessa had returned to our school. Hell, I was shocked anyone would have let her anywhere near Alex after finding out what she and her stupid ex-boyfriend had done to the latter's parents, but it wasn't like I could do much besides help protect Alex where necessary.

Jessie and I both had our fair share of history with Vanessa, too, but nowhere near like what Alex had gone through. With Jessie, it was mostly just the usual bullying. With me, there was a bit more of a story behind it.

In elementary school Vanessa and I had been friends—or so I thought. As it turned out, she was just using me as someone she would go to when she was bored and had no one else to keep her company. She would also meet up with this other girl we knew and they'd sit around and talk shit about me when I wasn't there to defend myself or otherwise do anything to stop it.

Of course, I found out about it later because that other girl felt really bad about it and decided to fill me in. I was grateful she did and I didn't hold it against her. But when I confronted Vanessa about it, that marked the end of our so-called friendship and I became just another bully victim to her.

I only grew to hate her more when I found out what she'd done to Alex.

Thankfully, though, she stayed away from all of us for the next week or so. And it was lucky that she did because something huge happened about four days into that week.

It started during the second period spare Alex and I had. She was lounging on one of the library's couches and reading The Outsiders, while I was typing away at a science essay I had pulled up on my computer. All of a sudden, however, the book in Alex's hands began glowing like it had the day Jessie returned to us, only it was much brighter this time.

Alex noticed it, too, and her eyes widened. "What in the hell?" she breathed.

Panicking, I got to my feet and took Alex by the hand, dragging her out of the library as fast as my legs could carry me. I didn't realize it until we were pretty much there, but my goal ended up being a closed off area behind the school building. "No one else can see this," I explained after she asked what the hell I was doing. The entire time, the book continued to glow ever more brightly.

Alex laid it on the ground in front of us as we backed up a bit, both anxious to see what would happen next. The glow began to spread to the entire area surrounding he book, becoming as bright as the sun and refusing to fade away until finally, seven figures could be seen before us.

They were all boys, appearing as though their ages ranged from 14 to 20. The oldest one had dark hair and icy, blue-green eyes, and he also looked to be much more muscled than the other six. His two younger brothers stood with him, one with wheat-gold hair and dark brown eyes who looked 16 or 17 at the most, while the other was clearly the youngest of all of them and had reddish-brown hair along with green-grey eyes.

Then there were the other four. One had long rust-coloured sideburns and carried a black-handled switchblade while another had brown hair combed in complicated swirls. He looked like someone you did not want to piss off, I had to admit. The guy who immediately caught my attention, though, was the one with the white-blonde hair and cold, blue eyes filled with hatred for the rest of the world. And finally, there was a boy with jet-black hair with a good amount of hair grease added to it and whose dark eyes looked more nervous than the others as he stood beside the blonde.

Alex and I both knew at once who all seven of these boys were, and that they had come from the book. "That's Dally," I couldn't help but mutter to Alex, tugging on the sleeve of her leather jacket in my excitement.

"What's going on?" asked the one who I knew to be Ponyboy, "Where are we?"

Alex didn't answer, instead choosing to grab the book and tuck it into her bag before any of them could spot it. Good call on her part, as Ponyboy was—in-universe, anyway—its author.

"Uh, well..." I struggled to give an answer of my own, "I don't really know how to answer the first question but as for the second one, well...welcome to California 2015, guys!"

"Wait, 2015?" The oldest one, Darry, raised his eyebrows.

"Yeah," replied Alex, "And don't ask how you ended up in the future—like Lana said, we don't really know. Although I suspect my magic may have something to do with it..." she muttered that last part so only I could hear. She and I both knew it was bound to be extremely disorienting for these guys, since not only were they stuck in 2015 instead of 1965, but they were also in California instead of Tulsa, Oklahoma. But we also didn't know how to send them back to the book's universe...or even whether or not we could.

For the next half an hour or so, we stayed right where we were for fear of someone seeing the gang, and we did our best to explain exactly what had happened and that they were all characters in a story. It was a really difficult thing to tell them, but we managed it well enough and, though they were skeptical at first—especially Darry and Dallas—they did come around eventually. It would have been easier if we could show them the book, but that might screw with the events of their story and...yeah, no one needed that happening.

Thankfully for us, the guys didn't look as much like the actors who played them in the film as one might have expected. Dallas especially stayed true to the book's description of him, and the others looked just different enough from the film's actors that people wouldn't instantly think they were them.

"Since we have no clue how we're going to get you guys back home, it looks like you may be here for a while," I said. "Alex, maybe you should call your sister and tell her what happened. She might be able to help us."

Alex nodded and took out her phone to do just that. A few of the guys were checking it out with great fascination, abruptly reminding me that they'd never seen an iPhone before—the first one didn't even come around until 2007 after all, and Alex's was an iPhone 6s.

"Hey, Abigail," Alex started speaking again, so I assumed her sister had answered. "No, I'm not skipping school, don't freak out. Just listen for a minute, okay?" She then explained in her own words the events of the last half hour while Dally, who had been smoking a cigarette, approached me.

I couldn't help but inwardly fangirl a bit. Not only was Dallas one of my favourite characters from the story apart from Two-Bit, but he was also incredibly good-looking in my eyes.

"There is one good thing about us bein' brought here," he said, then with a smirk he added, "You're so hot that you made me forget my original pick-up line."

I blushed at his comment. "Thanks for that," I replied, smiling at him. There was no need for me to introduce myself a second time—both Alex and I had done so during the long conversation we'd had with everyone. So by this point, they knew both our names.

"So what do people do for kicks around here, anyway?" asked Dally, flicking away the remains of his cigarette.

I thought for a minute. "Well, a lot of kids nowadays are pretty addicted to video games and their phones, so—"

"Wait, what?" He was confused.

I sighed. "It's honestly way too hard for me to try and explain video games without giving an example of one," I confessed, "Maybe I can show you my Xbox later. And no," I hurriedly added, "that is not a euphemism for anything." I had to grin as I said it—and Dallas actually laughed. So did Two-Bit, as he'd wandered over to join the conversation.

Something to note here, although not that important, was that while I still had an Xbox 360, the Xbox One would be coming out soon—as this was still 2015 and all—and I really wanted to get my hands on one. When I thought of someone like Dallas trying out a video game, I pictured that game as being something like Dead Rising or one of the GTA games.

"Okay, so Abigail just told me she'd be here in a few minutes," Alex approached us, "We were told to get back to class once she gets here; she seems like she has some sort of plan. Until then, I guess we're meant to just wait here."

I was relieved to hear the part where Abigail had a plan. "Excellent," I said, "Thanks, Alex."

"By the way, Darry, I think you and my sister'll get along nicely," she added to Darry.

"Why do you say that?" he asked.

"Trust me," Alex merely grinned. I couldn't really say she was wrong, although I myself thought Abigail was a bit more on the sarcastic side than Darry was (going off the book, anyway). Darry raised his eyebrows at that, but didn't press further. I took a moment to glance around at everyone else. Soda and Steve were engaged in a conversation of their own, while Johnny and Ponyboy remained fairly quiet for the moment.

Finally, Abigail arrived and ran behind the school to where we were all waiting. "Thanks for calling me, Alex," she said to her sister, "Hey, guys," she addressed everyone else, "I'm Alex's sister, Abigail."

As various greetings were given in reply, she turned to us once more and said, "You two should really be getting to lunch now."

"Okay. Thanks again," Alex replied, taking my hand and leading me back into the school to do just that.