The Outsiders: Before My Time Sequel | Sodapop

Grandpa K

"And I can't believe I ain't seen you in two weeks!" Soda stated in the same tone.

"It's only been two weeks?" He cocked his eyebrow.

"Yep," Soda said with a nod.

"And you ain't come to visit?" He scoffed offendedly.

"We're sorry!" I laughed. "We were setting their house up."

"How are the others?" He asked.

"Jenni had been going around introducing Pony to her friends so he can fit in with the upcoming school year," I told him. Last year, we tried to keep everyone away from the other students as much as we could. Now, we want them to be as involved as possible to try to give them normal lives.

"Jenni is your sister, right? Your younger sister?"

"That's right. She is also your other granddaughter."

"Oh, right," he said with a laugh. "I keep forgetting you two are the same person."

I think he was referring to me as his friend, Bri, and me as his granddaughter. I began to wonder how many times he has seen me the past few years and was desperate to talk to me about the 60. Maybe that's why growing up I remember him enthusiastically telling me all about his stories from when he was growing up, and really making me fall in love with the 60s.

"I have something I want to show you," he said.

"What is it?" Soda asked.

Grandpa led us to a shelf he had in his living room. It was stacked full with pictures in frames that he has kept for decades. He handed us an old brown frame with a rustic photograph on the inside and he asked, "remember this day?"

It was a picture of all of us standing in the back of Darry's truck. I was standing between Soda and Dally with my hands behind my back and a big smile to the camera.

"Oh, yeah," I laughed. I did not realize before that I was the only person smiling in the picture. I can still remember the sun that was in my eyes, forcing me to squint a little.

"Me too," Soda said, smiling at the memory. "Look, Bri, you're cheesing."

I remembered that day so vividly because we were all driving in Darry's truck, around the back roads, and a tire blew. We passed the time until a tow truck came by playing cards and the guys were smoking and had contests on who could smoke a pack the fasted without getting a head rush. We had the tow truck guy take our picture because we made so many fond memories that day. We were stuck on the side of the road on that hot day for hours.

Soda was still dating Sandy at this time, so it was before the Windrixville incident. I noticed another picture towards the back of his collection where we were all flipping off the camera, except for Dally. Soda had said something funny, so I was looking at him with a laugh and I noticed that Dally was gazing at me when the photo was taken.

"That sure was a fun day." Grandpa Two smiled at the photo before putting it down. "Or this one." He took out another photo, that was hidden behind all the others. It was a picture of him and I, in our graduation caps and gowns, showing off our diplomas. It was taken just less than a month ago.

"I keep this one hidden otherwise people would ask questions," he chuckled.

"What kind of questions?" Soda asked.

"Like, 'oh, is that you and your girlfriend?', 'why is the photo in such high quality if you were a teenager?' and 'why is there a picture of you as a teenager and your granddaughter, you sicko?'" He said in a funny high-pitched voice. "Your mom would be real confused if she saw this."