My name is Ponyboy. My story is a hard one to tell. Who knew that night would end like that? Johnny and me weren’t looking for trouble. We thought we were just going to have a normal night at the lot. But wow, was we ever wrong.

It all started after we went to the movies. We had picked up two of the nicest looking broads I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting. Unfortunately they had boyfriends. And not any kind of greasy boyfriend like me and Johnny. Nope, they had them some bona-fide Socy boyfriends. Soc, short for Socials, real high class guys, well at least they consider themselves high class. Them and all the adult population of our town consider them the cream of the crop and us greasers the earwigs.

So anyways after Johnny and I had a little of a scuffle with their boyfriends the whole group of them had driven off. So now it was just me and Johnny relaxing in the vacant lot talking about what we thought the country must be like. We had just lit up a couple of smokes. A sound came from across the lot. Johnny sat straight up, he had gotten jumped by two Socs a while ago and hadn’t really been the same again. He carried a 6 inch blade in his back pocket now even though he was the most law abiding greaser I knew.

The sound came closer it was obviously a car. I stomped the cigarette out under my heel. Johnny followed my example. We could make out the head lights now. Johnny looked at me scared, “Whatta we do Pony?”

“I dunno Johnny cake. We could run for the park maybe some people are left around. The Socs wouldn’t jump us in front of other people.”

Johnny snorted at that, “Yeah sure, the park is always full of people at one in the morning.”

“You got a better idea?”

The car was coming closer. We could hear the drunken hoots from the car now. Johnny paused for a second then bolted towards the park. I followed after. I was a good runner even better than Johnny. I was on the track team even though the coach hated the fact that I smoked. My fast running didn’t do anything to help us out though. That Soc car came after faster than I can even remember.

The car skidded in front of us and blocked the entrance to the park; a real tuff car too, a blue mustang. I could hear Johnny taking his switchblade out of his pocket. I gulped. The car was full of Socs, seniors by the look of it. The doors opened without a sound. The car was in perfect condition. I recognized the two boyfriends of the girls we’d picked up. The rest were strangers. Nameless strangers that with a little booze and half a reason thought it was fine to beat two greasers into pulp in a 5-2 fight.

They advanced slowly. The dark haired one took a big gulp of something out of a tin flask. Johnny was trembling. There was no doubt in my mind he was remembering the last beating he had taken. Almost in perfect synchronisation the Socs took out their blades. Johnny taunted them, “Oh clever, did you practice that one.”

I was too scared to say anything. I was looking around desperately for someone, anyone. Just as the first Soc was going to reach me a loud noise rang out.

I looked around confused. I couldn’t see anything. Then right in front of my nose a giant blue box appeared out of nowhere! It had a light flashing on the top of it and POLICE was written along the top. Not only did the big blue police box appear the Soc directly in front of me had suddenly disappeared! I looked over to Johnny, he was standing shell-shocked.

I felt the edges of the box. It felt like just normal wood. Then suddenly it opened! A man walked out. He was dressed smartly, a tweed jacket, dress pants, bowtie. In one hand was what looked like a rolled up T.V. remote with a green light coming out of it. The other hand was firmly clasped on the Soc who had just almost attacked me. The man was waving the glowing T.V. remote up and down the boy. The Soc himself looked terrified. He stammered, “It’s, it’s bigger on the inside.”

“Yes, yes.” said the man. It sounded like he had heard that a lot. He stopped waving the remote. He put it up to his face and examined it. Nodding he let go of the Soc. A woman’s voice came from inside the box.

I was confused. How many people could he fit in that tiny box? A woman came out, a good looking broad she was. Even better than the Soc girls we had. She had long red hair and was almost as tall as the odd man. “Doctor what’s going on now? Why did that boy appear in the tardis?”

The man she called the doctor hemmed and hawed, “Well Amy, see I’m not quite sure. The tardis says this is the early 60s, 1965 to be exact. But this isn’t 1965.”

I decided to address him, “Uh, s’cuse me mister but yes it is.”

The Doctor looked at me for the first time, “No you see it isn’t. It is here yes but not the rest of the world. The rest of the world doesn’t exist. It’s just here, this little piece of earth’s history suspended in this weird state. Amy, do you notice anything different?”

“Uhh not especially no,” the woman replied.

The Doctor ran over to her, “No Amy you’re not looking hard enough. What’s wrong.”

Amy squinted her eyes, “What year did you say this was again?”

“1965” I said.

“But Star Wars wasn’t even invented in the 70s!”

“Exactly,” the Doctor said, “that brings up the question. Why are teenagers in the 60s fighting with lightsabers?”

I looked down at my blade. What were they talking about, my switch blade was normal. 3 feet long and bright blue, I had stolen it from the corner store down the street. Johnny’s handle was six inches long giving the blade part an extra 5 inches. The Socs had all thrown down their blades and run by now. But for some reason Johnny and I stayed. I don’t know why. We probably should have run too.

“The sky Amy, look at the sky!”

I looked at the sky, it was the normal stars with their bright twinkling faces. And the moon laughing merrily like it always does.

“Why it looks like something out of a child’s book!” She breathed.

“It’s exactly from a child’s book.” The Doctor said, “Someone is messing with fiction and reality.”

A glow came from his pocket, The Doctor took out a piece of paper in a little book. He read aloud. Johnny and I listened curiously. “Hello Doctor. I know you love your precious world, so I just improved it.”

“What are you talking about!” he said to the air. The paper glowed again. He read aloud, “I have meshed fiction with reality, isn’t it nice?”

The Doctor looked angry, “You can’t just do that! You’ll harm the space time continuim.”

He read from the paper, “Fine then stop me. Your tardis is programmed to a location. There are three locations. In each one a version of you, Johnny or Ponyboy is there. Find yourselves and follow the clues then I will take the fiction out of the world.”

The Doctor stamped his foot like a child, “Or you could just change it back!”

I guess the paper didn’t really like that answer since it stopped responding.

He turned to his companion, “Who are Johnny and Ponyboy?”

I put up my hand, “That would be us sir.”

Amy started jumping up and down. The Doctor looked at her, “What is it Amy. This isn’t a joke.”

“I know, I know.” She tried to look serious, “But I know what this is! It’s the book The Outsiders! I loved this book so much when I was a kid. I had the biggest crush on Ponyboy!”

The Doctor looked a bit miffed, “Yes, well apparently someone else was a fan too and decided to try and ruin the universe because of it.”

I was confused, what did the red-head mean she had a crush on me? She’d never met me in her life. And when she was a kid I would have just been born!
Johnny lowered his voice, “Ponyboy, are you understanding any of this?”
I shook my head, “Who cares Johnny! When does anything like this happen to us? It’ll be something to tell the gang anyway.”
“Well all right, but don’t get too far away from me. I gotta take care of us since your brothers aren’t here.”
“Oh don’t worry Johnny, we’ll be fine.”
The Doctor turned to me and Johnny with this huge smile on his face, “Well boys, into the tardis it is!”
I guess me and Johnny must’ve looked as confused as we were so he simplified it a bit for us.
“Well boys, into the big blue box it is! Just doesn’t sound as cool that way” he said with a huff. Amy had already slipped into the box. Johnny and I walked in. It was the most amazing thing I’d ever seen! The inside was bigger than the outside! It was bright and glowing orange and in the middle was the most odd console sorta contraption. I wondered how the rest of the guys in the gang would’ve responded to this.
The Doctor was running all over the place pushing buttons and pulling levers, it was quite a show. Amy was just chilling watching him do all this, talking to him. He would occasionally grunt a reply but to me it looked like a familiar scenario. My brother Sodapop is a doll. Every girl is attracted to him. He works at the car station and the minute he’s working on a car he’s in love with the machine. Amy looked exactly like one of those girls who tries to talk to Soda when he’s working. Johnny was looking at me with a funny expression on his face so I’m guessing he was thinking the same thing. Suddenly there was jolt and the whole room started vibrating something awful. Johnny and I were flung to the floor. Just as suddenly as it had started it stopped. Amy and The Doctor seemed to have grabbed onto something.
The Doctor looked at us on the floor, “Yes, well, I suppose I should have mentioned to grab on to something. Please excuse me. I’m not used to having this many people in my tardis.”
“And what exactly is this ‘tardis’” Johnny asked.
“Time and relative dimension in space.” The Doctor replied. “Now let’s go, we’ve arrived.” He opened the door gingerly. He poked his nose out, “Well, looks like we haven’t gone very far yet.”
He opened the door for Amy, Johnny and me. I looked over to Johnny, “Wow Johnny cake, you’ve cleaned up.” He was wearing a snazzy suit, something I’d never thought a greaser would wear.
“Hey you don’t look so tuff yourself Ponyboy.” said Johnny.
I looked down at myself. I was wearing a suit too. But something else was weird. I looked around. “Johnny! We’re in black and white!”
The Doctor was walked around. “Good observation Ponyboy, we are. But why?”
We had landed right in the middle of a cobblestoned road somewhere. It was much cleaner than anything I’d ever seen. There was this big theatre beside us.
A huge cheer went up from in front of us. The Doctor whipped around and sniffed the air, “Boys and Amy I smell a large amount of perfume.”
The ground started trembling, it seemed like a stampede! Around the corner four young men came running. They were wearing suits like us, with these skinny little black ties. They all had dark hair in the same kinda style. They sure looked like Socs to me. The kept looking back behind them. The screams of girls sounded closer. They ran right up to us.
“S’cuse me officers but we have a problem.” One of them said. I could barely tell the four apart. They didn’t look like brothers or anything but they were all wearing the exact same suit with the exact same haircut.
“Uh we’re no-”
The Doctor cut me off mid-sentence. “What can we do for you?”
“Look, I’m Paul and we really need a place to lay low just for ten minutes.”
One with a bigger nose started talking, “Please there are these girls chasing us. We just need you for ten minutes.”
Suddenly Johnny said, “Hey! You guys are The Beatles!”
“Yeah, that’s us and right now we really need a hand.”
“Of course,” The Doctor said, “Just come into the police box.”
The Beatles looked confused. I recognized who they were now after Johnny had said it. They looked older than I thought they would. I didn’t really dig The Beatles I thought Elvis was way cooler.

John said, “I hope I don’t sound silly but how are all of us going to fit into that?”

“You’d be surprised.” I said. The first girls started coming around the corner. I guess The Beatles thought that trying to squish into a tiny space was better than being caught by all those girls. We all jumped into the tardis’s still open door. The Doctor shut it quickly. The second he did the screams suddenly disappeared. The Beatles were looking around interested. Amy walked up to The Beatles and started interrogating them.

“Are you actually The Beatles?”

John said, “I don’t know. Are we?”

“How do you come up with all those songs!”

Paul answered this time, “Well y’know there’s this store we go to. 10 pence an idea.” The rest of The Beatles laughed. Amy turned bright red.

“I know this sounds stupid but could I please have your autograph!”

“I thought we came in here to get away from all the girls eh lads.” John said. Amy deflated.

“Oh I am so sorry.”

“I was only teasing girly, this police officer here is lucky to have you along with him.”

“Yes, yes he is.” Amy said looking at The Doctor with steel in her eyes. Maybe I got this girl wrong; she could pass for a greasy girl.

“This little Scottish flower has thorns boys.” John said. He pulled out a rolled up poster from the inside of his jacket pocket. Using an old pen he signed his name with a flourish and then passed it on for the others to do the same. Then the last one to sign, Ringo, gave it to Amy with a smile that could melt ice in the Antarctic. Boy oh boy those guys knew how to charm.

Amy unrolled the poster admiring it, then she pointed to something and shouted out, “Guys! Doesn’t that look like me and the Doctor!?”

The Doctor rushed over and looked at the poster. Johnny and I followed. Johnny’s eyes went wide when he saw the poster. It was The Beatles on stage with a huge crowd in front of them appearing to be screaming. But right in the middle two figures were jumping out of their seats facing the camera not the stage. It was undeniably Amy and The Doctor. The little version of The Doctor was pointing down towards some words printed on the poster.

The Doctor snatched the poster from Amy and pointed to what the other Doctor was pointing at. “What’s this? Why’s it there?” he said to The Beatles.

“Well that’s where the date of our concert is usually,” John sounded uncertain though, not his usual cockiness, “But we never had a concert at that time. Nor do we have one scheduled.”

The Doctor snapped his fingers, “Got it! Ha!” he screamed at the sky, “You can’t trick me!’

Ringo looked to me, “Is he a little mad?”

I shrugged, “Don’t ask me. I just met him.”

Ringo shrugged back. The Doctor flung open the door. All the girls were gone. Runned right past us I bet. The Doctor turned back, “All right boys, thanks for that poster. You have no idea. But you have to leave now.”

They nodded and grinned. George who had been quiet the entire time said to Johnny, “You and I, I think we’re pretty similar.” I swear I’d never seen Johnny look so happy. The Beatles left yelling thank you the entire time. After they left The Doctor started running around pressing buttons and pulling levers again muttering like a mad man. This time I saw the signs and grabbed onto one of the pipes running around the room.

Amy asked what all of us were thinking, “Doctor what was so important about my poster?”

“Remember what the person who was writing on the physic paper said. We had to find ourselves in every version of fiction-reality. We found ourselves on that poster and there were co-ordinates right on it. Those are probably co-ordinates to the next version of reality. We just have two more to go through and we’ll have saved the Earth!”

A jolt came again. This time I was prepared and Johnny and I made it through standing up. Out nice suits had disappeared and now we were wearing equally weird outfits. We looked like bright Christmas trees or something. I was wearing a jeans jacket like I usually do except that it had this weird sweatshirt attached with the most random assortment of colours I had ever seen. Amy and The Doctor were having some sort of heated conversation on the other side of the tardis so I turned to talk to Johnny.

“Johnny, this is weird.”

“I’m kinda just drifting through it. I keep telling myself it’s some weird dream.”

“What if we died Johnny! What if those Socs killed us and this is some weird twisted version of heaven!”

“Calm down Ponyboy. We’re not dead. I don’t quite know what’s happening but we aren’t dead.”

“How can you tell?”

Johnny reared back and popped me one right on the nose. I crumpled to the floor with a yelp. The Doctor looked to where we were. “Hey! No violence, I can’t stand violence.

“It’s fine,” I said cracking my jaw. “Just a tap to make sure we weren’t dead.”

The Doctor looked confused, “Why would you be dead, you guys are the most alive you’ve ever been.”

Johnny and I smiled. He was probably right. I was just being silly. I walked over to the door. “Let’s go then.”

“That’s the spirit, allons-y!”

We had landed right in the middle of someone’s living room it seemed. A really messy room, my house was still better than this pigsty. Outside it was a bright sunny day and the colours on my stupid jean-jacket sweater thing were as colourful as ever. Johnny made some sort of squealy noise and punched me on the arm and turned me around. And there sitting like a piece of furniture was the most tuff looking car I’d ever seen. I couldn’t place it. I knew that if I’d seen anything like it before I would’ve remembered. Gosh it was beautiful. The doors looked like they would open up like wings and the whole thing was the perfect shade of grey-ey silvery with a hint of blue.

The Doctor was walking around inspecting everything. And was there ever a lot to inspect. Random bobbles seemed to be whoever lived here’s specialty. Then a bark sounded through the room. All of us froze where we were. The barking continued but it seemed to be moving away from us. I heard the door open. A voice called out, “Hey Doc are you here?”

The Doctor looked confused. It was a guy’s voice, sounded my age. “Doc, hey Doc we got a problem!”

The Doctor was just about to open his mouth when a voice came from what sounded like below us. “Marty! Great Scott Marty guess what!”

The boy threw down something and then started heading for the living room. “Where are ya Doc?”

We panicked. The Doctor dove behind a couch. Amy hid behind a lamp. Johnny and I plastered ourselves up against the wall.

“Marty stay there, I’ll be up in a second.”

We all let out a collective sigh. Johnny started fidgeting, “Shhh Johnny.” I whispered, “Do you want us to get caught.”

Johnny prodded me with his foot. “Ponyboy, in front of us.” I looked where he was looking. The floor was moving! Not the whole floor just a square.

“S***,” I swore. I am a greaser when things get bad I swear.

Suddenly the trapdoor opened with a snap! A head came out with bright white hair and huge eyes. At first I don’t think he even noticed us he was so excited. He leaped out of the hole with the weirdest looking little box in his hand.

“O.K Marty, come on, come on!” Then he saw me and Johnny leaning against the wall. Both of us had these lame clothes on but our eyes were still hardened and our hair was long and greased back. We probably didn’t look like friendly visitors. “MARTY!” he yelled.

A dishevelled boy ran into the room. He was shorter than I was and wearing the same kind of clothes, “Doc who are all these people. I thought you said I was the only you were going to show this to.”

“Why are you asking me?! You brought them!”

“What are you talking about?! I just got here!”

“Don’t lie to me Marty!”

Then The Doctor decided was a good time to intervene. He popped his head over the couch, “Um yes, hello.”

“Wha-!” Marty and Doc said at the same time.

“Yes, sorry for interrupting, I see you are at a very important stage in the flux capacitor.”

“How do you know that?” Doc asked.

The Doctor turned to Amy who stepped out from behind the lamp, “This was my favourite Earth movie ever made. Oh how wrong they got paradoxes but still good show humans!”

This time it was me and Johnny who were confused, “You’re not from earth! You never told us you were an alien!”

“Wow Michael J. Fox. You are my idol!” Amy was trying to say to whoever Marty was.

“I’m really sorry but I have no idea who that is.”

“Aliens! I knew there were aliens!” The other Doc was freaking out.

“Oh yes, did I mention. I’m actually a different species from the ancient world of Galafray.”

“No, no you missed that part!” I was half crazed now. Everyone was yelling and apparently I was with an alien. And the colours were so bright!

“QUIET!” Doc screamed. We all shut up. Honestly with those eyes and his crazy hair he was a pretty scary figure. “Now let’s go around the circle, say our name and why we’re here. I’ll start. I’m the Doc. Right now I am working on a way to time travel using a sports car. Marty you can go next.”

“Ok, um, I’m Marty. I’m a friend of the Docs and I was going to help him with this time machine thing. I’m sorry Miss but I don’t know who Michael J. Fox is.”

“I am The Doctor. I am a time lord. I can travel anywhere in space and time and I spend my free time saving Earth from other aliens which is what I’m doing right now.”

Johnny shrugged, “I’m Johnny, and I’m a greaser.”

“I’m Ponyboy, I’m a greaser too. We like cars and I’d like to say that’s one tuff car you’ve got yourself there Mr. Doc.”

Doc blushed, “Why thank you, I thought if I was going to make a time machine out of a car I might as well make it with some style.”

I nodded my approval.

“OK, before you two start going off about cars I’ll say who I am. I’m Amy. I am The Doctor’s companion and I keep him out of trouble and make sure he doesn’t get lonely.”

The Doctor started talking again, “That was a good idea, thank you for that suggestion. But we’re kinda in a hurry. Have you ever seen us before? Maybe in a photo? Anywhere really? Any of us, me, Amy, Ponyboy or Johnny.”

Doc hemmed and hawed. “Yes actually, those two look very familiar.” He pointed at me and Johnny. “Did you two say you’re greasers?”

“Yup,” I said.

“So that’s not how you usually dress I’m guessing.”

“I wouldn’t be caught dead in these clothes back home.”

“I’ll be right back.” Doc said with a hint of mystery in his voice. He disappeared into the trapdoor. I heard some rummaging around, then some swearing, then something dropping.

“Is he all right?” Johnny asked.

“Oh he’s fine,” Marty said, “He’s just a bit clumsy.” Doc popped up through the trapdoor again with a photo album in his hand.

“Here look in this. It’s an album someone gave to me years ago. Just dropped it off at my doorstop, all the pages were blank except for one.” He flipped to the page and there was a picture of me and Johnny leaning on the inside of the tardis in full greaser attire.
“Yeah that’s definitely us.” I said.
Doc flipped it over, “And this is the real weird part. It’s got these numbers on the back.”
The Doctor took the book in his hand and read over the numbers. “Yes! These are co-ordinates. Thank you Doc, you have no idea. Thank you so much!” Just as he said that the images on the picture started to fade and turn into a picture of all of us. Me, Johnny, Amy, Marty, The Doctor and Doc.
“Could I keep this?” asked Doc.
“Of course!” said The Doctor. “But we really must be going. A world to save and all.”
“Yes, yes, go, of course! Thank you for stopping by.”
So all four of us piled into the tardis once again. Little did we know it would be the saddest trip of all.
The Doctor plugged in the co-ordinates. The jolt happened again. I looked down to see what monstrosity I was wearing this time. But I was wearing fairly normal clothes. I was wearing my good buddy’s jacket though. Dallas Winston, he never gives out his stuff.
“It looks like the back of that jacket is a bit burned Ponyboy.” Johnny said. I took it off and saw he was right.
“Weird,” I said and put it back on. Johnny was wearing what he was wearing on the night we left.
“Last stop boys,” The Doctor said happily. We stepped out of the tardis for the last time. I looked around in amazement. We were back home. We were right in front of the hospital. Johnny had relief in his eyes. The Doctor looked around for someone to ask about seeing us.
“Doctor there’s the hospital there. Maybe one of them will have seen one of us before?”
The Doctor agreed, “You’re right Ponyboy. Let’s go.” He turned to Amy and said in a really low voice. One of those voices that you use when you don’t want others to hear, “I have a bad feeling about this.”
We walked up to the hospital then I saw my brothers. “Darry, Sodapop!” I shouted. I ran towards them. Darry gave me a huge bear hug, “Oh lord Ponyboy we were so worried about you!”
“Don’t worry Darry, I’m home now. I’m home and so is Johnny.”
Darry and Soda exchanged glances. Soda said very gently, “Ponyboy, Johnny’s already here, in the hospital. He broke his back remember?” He was choking up, he never chokes up! Greasers don’t cry.
“What do you mean?!” I said.
Darry finished for Soda, “He’s not going to make it Ponyboy, we already told you. You ran away remember?”
“No, you have it wrong! Johnny’s right here!”
Johnny walked towards me, “They can’t see me Ponyboy.”
“This is Johnny right here!” I cried. Why couldn’t they see him? He was right beside me!”
The Doctor and Amy were behind both of us watching the scene solemnly.
“Come on Ponyboy, let’s visit him.” Sodapop said.
“Can my friends come in too?”
Sodapop and Darry nodded. “Now come on Ponyboy.”
I looked at Johnny. His face was turning white. We stepped into the room and there he was. Johnny. His face was burnt and his breathing sounded awful. I started bawling I couldn’t help it.
Johnny took his own hand in his. His breath was shaking. I turned to The Doctor. “This is just, this is just a story right. This won’t actually happen. Amy, you said you read our story. This doesn’t happen right. It just doesn’t! It can’t.”
Amy was crying her eyes out, I knew it was true. Johnny was going to die and soon. The clothes he was wearing on the night The Doctor picked us up were hanging on the chair. Holes burned out of it.
“Doctor you can fix this! You can go back in time!”
“It’s already written Ponyboy, your life is a story. I can’t change fiction. This is why you don’t mess with reality! Why did you do this!” he yelled in rage at the ceiling.
A voice of a girl came through the room like a thunderclap.
“I’m sorry Doctor. I needed a good mark.”

THE END