AN: Mock exams are over! There's finally no more studying or exams; I can write more! :D
Date started: May 13th 2016 – Friday
Published: May 18th 2016 - Wednesday
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a little, helpless baby again? You might have, and you probably thought it wasn't so bad, huh? No worries or anythin'; your parents or carers would give anything to you to make you happy.
But imagine being stuck in the mind of a teenager while you're a baby. When you actually understand what's going on around you – not like a real baby; they don't have a care in the world. But no: when you're a teenager and you've got all the traits of one – modesty, pride…freaking hormones!
And this was all because of one stupid little wish I'd made when I was angry. It was Darry's fault really; he'd put the words right into my mouth. But that still doesn't erase what happened those fateful two weeks ago, after I'd been out with Johnny Cade.
XXX
Johnny had been my bestest friend in the world for a while now (I know bestest isn't a word but that's the greatest way I could describe Johnny Cade) and I would do anything for him. When he came to the house when I was doing homework, there was no way I'd turn him away just because Darry had told me to. My best friend wanted to go out, and I was going with him.
"Hey, look what I found," Johnny enthused, fumbling in the pockets of his jean jacket. After a few seconds of searching, he produced a single silver coin. I stared at it in confusion. "Well?"
"It's a coin," I stated. Johnny nodded, a smile tugging at his lips. I frowned. "So what about it?"
"Coins bring you good luck!" Johnny grinned. My eyebrows furrowed together; never in my life had I seen Johnny Cade look so happy – all because of a small coin at that. I was about to tell him that coins bringing you good luck was just a myth until I noticed the glisten in his big, black eyes.
I can be pretty cocky when I want to, but I wasn't about to take away that bit of happiness from my scarred best friend. So I just smiled at him.
"If you make a wish on a coin under a gold moon then it'll come true," Johnny said to me. I looked at him then, and he smirked at my confusion. "Do you know what a gold moon is?"
If you know what a gold moon is then you deserve a medal, because at that moment in time I had never heard of a 'gold moon'. Blue moon yeah…but not a gold moon.
"Nobody can really tell when there's a gold moon happening; Siobhan said that they're just too beautiful for-"
"Who's Siobhan?" I interrupted, a bit harshly. So my best friend had a girlfriend now, huh? That was it?
Johnny looked at his feet. "Look, I know you said to never go to a fortune teller…"
"Johnny!" I couldn't help but burst out laughing. My best friend had gone to a fortune teller?! Man that was the most ridiculous yet hilarious thing I'd heard in a long time, and I couldn't wait to tell the gang!
My best friend blushed fiercely. "Hey, my dad kicked me out and you guys weren't in. Siobhan said she'd do it for free."
I quietened down then. Looks like Darry was the cause of my friend's craziness. It wasn't mine or Soda's fault – it was Darry's because he'd dragged us out to go to the grocery store. Still though, I felt bad.
Johnny then cracked a grin. "I didn't even get my fortune told. I just asked her if she had one of those crystal balls, and she said she did, and she really did! It was huge, Pony – a lot bigger than the ones you see in movies. But I couldn't see anything in it; she said it was all clouded over because fortunes could only be told when the moon was out. But she told me all this real cool stuff 'bout gypsies and wishes…"
My mind clouded over like the crystal ball Johnny had been talking about. My best friend could buy that fake information all he wanted if it made him happy, but it didn't interest me that much. Darry would probably skin me alive if he found out I was talkin' to some fortune teller I'd just met; just gone to her place to look at a freaking crystal ball. Johnny didn't think sometimes.
"Anyway, I want you to have the coin. Siobhan said you have to pass the coin on 'cause otherwise you'll go to hell for bein' greedy. Sometimes the wishes don't work and the coin could curse you instead-"
"So you're tryin' ta curse me?"
"Remember to pass it on before midnight."
"Get real, Johnny."
I shoved the coin in my pocket to comply with my friend's wishes (how ironic) and then told him that we would not be talking about wishes and curses anymore. Johnny sighed but didn't fight me; hell if I'd have told him to shut up twenty minutes ago he would have, but I'm too nice to do that.
We decided to go watch a movie. The two of us had recently seen a movie about The Beatles, but we were both kinda rooting to watch a Paul Newman movie since there was more action. I didn't really like movies about bands that much.
On the way to the movie house, I saw a family huddled together on a bench, watching the two of us intently. I stopped and eyed them coolly, trying to intimidate them like Dallas would have done if he was there.
The family consisted of a man, a woman and three boys. The oldest of the three boys, who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen, narrowed his eyes at me. I swallowed and glared right back at him before dropping my gaze. Johnny had been oblivious to the whole thing. So he should have been; that family wasn't anything special.
Since Dallas wasn't with us, we paid to get into the movies. After Johnny left to get more sodas, I sunk down in my seat and stared at the screen, relaxing as the soft light from the large screen illuminated the whole movie house like a full moon during the night.
XXX
"A D? You got a D?!"
"No," I answered my brother simply. His cheeks flamed. "It must be wrong. I got four A's and one B in my math exams this semester. Just call 'em up."
I was so casual about the whole matter, and I think that angered my big brother a lot, because he threw the paper right at me. Soda sat up but I barely flinched.
"Don't act smart with me."
"I wasn't…"
"Be quiet!"
"Guys please-"
"No! He's bein' smart with me and I ain't toleratin' that."
I groaned and sat back. It was funny at first but the situation got boring pretty fast. Darry never backed down to an argument – with me anyway – so this was gonna go on until I apologized. But I wasn't gonna apologize; I did nothing wrong.
"Why can't you just admit that you're not even trying?" Darry seethed. I blinked.
"I am tryin'. Told ya the teacher's just got it mixed up."
That wasn't a lie. I had really applied myself in math during this semester 'cause I didn't really do too well in the last one. But of course the one time I get something right somebody has to go and do something wrong.
"And even if it is true what you're sayin'…you still got a B!"
That was too far. I stood up, picked up the report card that Darry had thrown, and threw it right back at him. Sodapop's eyes widened and he stood up quickly. Darry looked as if he was about to go on fire.
"How dare you-"
"No, Darry – how dare you?! I try my best and a B still ain't good enough for you? Oh wait I get it now; you wanna turn me into what you dreamed to be." I stated smugly.
Darry gave me a confused look for a moment and then reverted back to angry. "What do you mean by that?"
"You could never get straight A's – there was always that one B and you couldn't stand it. And now that I've got one B-"
"They said you got a D!"
"Well they've messed it up! I remember what I got, but it still ain't good enough. Even when I do get straight A's they still ain't good enough! You are such a freaking hypocrite!"
Darry gave me a horrible glare. Sodapop stepped in. "Pony, calm down now. Darry's only wants to-"
"Don't get involved, Soda – go back to makin' out with Sandy."
I regret saying that so much to my big brother – in-fact I regretted it right after I said it. Though I didn't yell, I pushed my big brother away, and I know that hurt him a lot. Soda darted his eyes to the floor. Darry's horrible glare got worse.
"He ain't done nothin' wrong, so don't be bein' mean to 'im."
"Look, I'm sorry Soda-"
"You're actin' like a real baby right now, Ponyboy. Can't handle such big responsibilities, huh, is that it?" His tone turned to a mocking tone, like he was talking to a small child. "Maybe I should start treatin' you like one. Probably do you some good."
"I wish I was a freakin' baby! At least then you'd prolly treat me nicer!" I yelled, and then stormed away from my brothers, all the way to my bedroom. I locked the door and fell on my bed, ignoring the golden light that flooded through my room.
On that night, I had mistaken a gold moon for a sunset. The coin still remained in my pocket – it had not been passed on.
XXX
It was still pretty dark when I woke up. I smiled to myself; that meant that I still had more time to sleep before school. However, as my eyes opened and adjusted to my surrounding, I immediately realized something was off. Way off.
My bed was so low I was almost on the floor, and somebody had appeared to move my bed into Darry's bedroom, 'cause I could see his bed through the wooden bars that surrounded me. Speaking of that: where did the bars come from?!
I tried to yell for somebody, but it came out in a bunch of words that I didn't even understand. This scared me, so I tried to yell again, only this time I began whimpering instead.
"Oh dear," a voice cooed – I didn't recognize the speaker. "Zach, he's sad. Probably shocked; poor little thing."
"He reminds me a little of Gordie – seems like only yesterday we brought him home." A deep, male voice, answered the other voice; which obviously belonged to a female.
A whine escaped my throat and I looked up to see a man and a woman staring down at me. The man had short, brown curly hair. He was quite tall and muscular – though not as tall and muscular as Darry – with big, brown eyes and hollow cheeks. The woman was quite the opposite. She had straight, long golden hair, a lean build, and a softer looking face. Her eyes were green but they were also a bit on the blue side, but the thing I loved (it's not like she's ever gonna see this) most about her was her smile. Beautiful it was – really, it was.
I could've sworn for a moment that I was staring up at my parents and not these two strangers; the only differences they really had was that dad's hair wasn't as curly as the man's, and mom's hair wasn't as straight as the woman's. Also, my mother and father were much more attractive than the two people I was currently staring at, but still…they resembled my parents so much I could have tricked myself.
The woman scooped me right up out of the bed, which I soon realized was a crib. "Hello, Ponyboy. I'm Evelyn, and this is Zach," she smiled. I stared at her with wide eyes. "Do you remember the wish you made last night?"
My eyebrows furrowed together as I tried to remember what she was talking about. After a few minutes (that's what it felt like anyway) I shook my head, feeling very frustrated and upset.
Evelyn smiled. "You wished that you could be a baby!" she chirped, and then chuckled at the look of horror that I must have given her. The man next to her, Zach, laughed too.
"I didn't mean it!" I claimed, and then got even more freaked out when I realized that I could actually talk. Why couldn't I talk before?
"We can tell you didn't," Zach said. "Though unfortunately, you wished for it, and you had that coin on you, didn't you?"
The coin. Man, that stupid coin! Why did Johnny have to give it to me?!
I dropped my gaze to the floor, feeling angry and humiliated that I'd been so stupid. I guess some fortune tellers are for real. And man, that was real unfortunate (ha, see what I did there?).
"Only you can make it right again, Ponyboy," Evelyn told me, bouncing me slightly. I looked at her; how did I make it right again?
"You're a smart boy; you'll think a somethin'. Siobhan will decide when you've learnt your lesson, little one," Zach added.
My eyes darkened. "Where is Siobhan?" I demanded, wriggling in Evelyn's arms. Both woman and man chuckled at me.
"I'm afraid you won't be able to get to her in your state," Evelyn smiled, tickling me. Then she stroked my hair and placed me back in the crib.
I shrieked and tried to demand the two to tell me where Siobhan was again, but my words just came out in gurgles, and man were they annoying!
"Bye-bye, Ponyboy. We'll see you again real soon," Zach said, putting his arm around Evelyn. And then they just…disappeared.
I breathed out heavily and sat up, then attempted to stand up, however I fell right back down. I huffed and tried again, but again failed, so on natural instinct I began to cry. This scared me however, as this had never happened before (I didn't cry at every stupid thing for goodness sake!), and you know what happened? I started crying even more.
It came as a surprise when I felt somebody lifting me out of the crib I was trapped in. After I had calmed down a bit and opened my eyes, I saw the pale blue eyes of my oldest brother staring right into mine. But the eyes weren't cold and held no glare to them. And when I looked at his whole expression, I saw he was happy. Real happy.
"Good morning, baby boy," he grinned, kissing my cheek. My eyes got bigger as I looked down; man how small was I? If my big brother dropped me now I'd seriously get hurt; there was a great big distance between myself and the floor. And that meant my brother was a lot taller to me now that I was a baby – I'm not silly, I worked out what had happened before Evelyn and Zach had even told me though I didn't want to accept it – so I wondered how he'd look when I was on the floor?
"What are you cryin' for, huh, little man? Is Ponyboy hungry right now?" Darry tickled my stomach and it started grumbling. My big brother laughed but I turned my head in embarrassment.
A few words of advice:
Be careful what you wish for.
I've been wanting to write something like this for a while now. What do you guys think? I'm getting my other stories updated soon too because exams are over! I can't wait to get back to writing! :)