Hello! So this is just kind of a random little story I made up about Darry's work. There will be more chapters coming up :) Enjoy!

Because of Money

It was a Saturday, late in the afternoon. Darry was at work roofing someone's house. Today, it was his turn to haul the heavy bundles of roofing up the ladder to his co-worker, Jerry, who nailed them down to the roof. As much as Ponyboy and Sodapop had told him not to, Darry was carrying two bundles up the ladder at a time. This was far from easy, however Darry felt that carrying one bundle took far too long and took too many trips.

They were on a tight schedule today as the family who lived in the house was coming home that evening and the roofing had to be up and nailed down before they came home.

Darry was going as fast as he could, hauling bundle after bundle onto the roof of the house. If he stayed at this pace, he should be able to get the job done on time.

However, life is unfair. By 5:30 pm, Darry was covered in cold sweat. He was hot inside from working so hard, but it was a freezing day out. He suddenly noticed a dark car driving down the road and parking in the driveway. Darry groaned. He knew who's car that was. It was his boss's. Joe. Joe never visited just to say 'hi' so Darry figured his day was about to get much worse.

"Darrel, Jerry!" Joe barked up the ladder. "Time to pick up the pace and get working. The Carson's are coming home earlier than expected. Job's got to be done by 7:00 instead of 8:00 like I was told."

Darry's face turned pale. He couldn't go any faster than he already was. He'd already pulled a muscle in his shoulder and back. Arguing with Joe wasn't an option though; that would result in either being fired, or being fought and neither would be good in the end. Being fired meant no money and Darry needed money for him and his brothers. If they fought, Joe would win (he hasn't been working all day, whereas Darry had been) and then Darry would be fired. All he could do was obey Joe's order and try and quicken the pace.

He pulled two bundles out of the crate and heaved them to the ladder. Before he could step onto the ladder, however, Joe stopped him.

"Whoa, whoa!" He exclaimed. "No wonder you two are taking so long, you're only carrying two bundles at a time! Well, break's over, Curtis," Joe told him handing him another bundle of roofing.

Darry stared at it. There was no way he could take three, no way! "Sir, that's-"

"That's what, Curtis?" Joe growled.

"I just don't know if I can carry that much weight, sir." Darry didn't like admitting things like this, but it may not have been possible for anyone to do this task.

"Are you telling me that you can't do your job, Darrel?" Joe asked, giving him a harsh, piercing glare.

That was a warning. The glare was to tell him that if Darry didn't work, he'd be sent home, fired.

Darry stared at him for a few seconds, then sighed and said, "No, sir."

"Good," Joe said firmly and with one last glare, set the roofing on the ground and went up the ladder to probably torture Jerry.

Staring at the roofing bundles, Darry wondered how he was going to do this. He took the top bundle and put it on his shoulder, then took another and put it atop the first. The third, he put on the fourth step of the ladder. Each time he stepped up one step, he'd move the third bundle up one too. It was working, until he missed a step and when he tried to catch the falling roofing, he lost balance and the two bundles on his shoulder pulled him down the ladder and the thumped hard on the ground where a sharp rock was there to stab him in the back. Literally.

Jerry, who had heard the thump, peeked over the top of the house to see Darry groaning on the ground. "You alright, Darry?" He asked.

"Yeah, fine," Darry grumbled, cursing as he got up from the hard ground. "Joe, I'll never make it with three bundles, I could go double the speed with two than I could with three," He objected to his boss.

"Alright, Curtis, take five trips with three and then you can finish off the load with two."

That didn't really make it much easier, but Darry knew that that'd be the best offer he'd be able to get out of Joe besides being fired.

The next hour and a half was agony for Darry. He had fallen another three times down the ladder. Every muscle in his body was screaming with pain. By the time he was done work he had lost count of how many muscles he had pulled or popped; how many bruises he had gotten.

When he stepped into his car to pick up Sodapop and Steve from work and drive home, he was unsure about if he should be driving. He was tireder than he'd ever been in his life, he was coughing from the cold air in his lungs, he was hungry and dehydrated and his head hurt from hitting it on the rungs of the ladder when he fell the second and third time. All of this was bad, but most of his pain came from his muscles. Man he was sore.

However, despite all these things, he and the boys had to get home somehow so he drove as best he could to the DX Gas Station where Steve and Soda were waiting.