A/N

I switched up their ages in the story:

Steve and Soda-8

Pony-2

Darry- 12

Steve POV

Soda and I were just hanging out in his front yard one day when Darry, Soda's older brother, comes walking out of the house and asks( more like commands) Soda to watch after their little brother, Ponyboy. If you ask me, the kid is just a humongous, needy, pain-in-the-butt, tag-along. I suppressed a groan when the kid came toddling out after Darry a moment later.

"Hi, Soda!" Pony squealed as he flung himself towards my best friend. "Hi, Steve," Pony then says, more shyly, to me.

"Hey, Kid," I half-hearted reply while giving a long sigh.

"See you guys later," Darry calls back as he walks back inside the house.

"So, Pony," Soda begins, "what do you want to do today?"

"I don't know, Soda," Pony says with a big grin on his chubby little two year old face. "What do you want to do?" he asks Sodapop.

"I have an idea, Pony," Soda says, "how about you go play with your chalk on our sidewalk?"

"Okay, Soda," Pony agrees while toddling over to the other side of the front yard to grab his chalk.

"There," Soda sighs, " now that he is safe and busy we can go back to our game." Soda then gives me his famous smile, and I can't help but grin back at him; especially since he recently lost one of his front teeth.

-A half-hour later-

I glanced up from my toy car when I heard Soda sigh.

'What's wrong, Soda?" I ask. He is usually so happy that it is really weird to see a frown on his face.

"Do you see Pony anywhere?" Soda immediately asks, worrying clouding his face.

"No, I haven't seen him for a while, I reply while looking around the yard.

We hear the roar of a Mustang barreling down the road and finally see Pony, who is slowly walking into the street, fixated on something on the other side of the road.

"Pony!" Soda screams while jumping up and running across the yard as fast as his legs will take him. He scoops Pony up into his arms and falls back onto the sidewalk just as the blue Mustang zooms past them.

"Sodapop!" Darry yells as he comes rushing outside with his hair dripping wet. "Ponyboy, are you okay, sweetie?" he asks frantically. Then he notices a small cut on Pony's knee and silently points to it to show Soda had had happened.

"Oh my gosh!" Soda squeaked, "Pony, I'm so sorry!" Ponyboy was alarmed by all the yelling and began crying into Soda's shoulder.

"Sweetie, we have to get you inside and get you cleaned up, okay?" Soda asked while stroking Pony's hair.

"D-did I get dirty?" Pony asked in a small voice, that showed he was trying to stop crying.

"Uh a little bit, Pony," Darry said while trying to stop Pony from realizing he was hurt, " but that isn't the point. You know not to go into the street alone. What were you looking for, Pone?"

"I sorry, Darry!" Pony wailed. " My green chalk was rolling out into the street and I wanted it back," Pony explained, "But the car ran over it!" Pony realized and cried out again.

I was only sort of paying attention to what they were saying, because I had gone inside to get a Band-Aid for Ponyboy and could hear the conversation floating in through the open windows.

"Hi, Pony," I said, while grinning sheepishly at him, "I brought you something." I actually felt kind of guilty, because if I hadn't convinced Soda to distract Pony then Pony would have never gotten hurt.

"Ohhhhhh," Pony said, "What'd ya bring me?" His eyes were lit up like the kid thought I had brought him a piece of birthday cake or something. Truth be told, I did bring him a popsicle; just to take his mind off his "injury".

I pulled the popsicle out from behind my back, and he squealed with delight. While he was distracted, I handed Darry the box of Band-Aids and he smile gratefully at me. Darry handed Soda a Band-Aid and Soda put it on Pony's leg so quickly and gently that Pony didn't even notice. I gave Soda and Darry an apologetic look and they looked puzzled.

" I meant that I am sorry that I distracted you from taking care of Pony, Sodapop," I explained.

"It ain't your fault, Steve," Soda said while glancing over at Pony, who was eagerly licking his popsicle.

"Yeah," Darry agreed while placing a hand on Steve's shoulder, " it ain't your fault that you wanted to spend some quality time with just your best friend."

I gave both of them a grateful smile and looked at Ponyboy. I guess the kid isn't too bad, after all.

This is my first Outsiders story, so be nice! No flames please! Do you think I should do a Hunger Games fanfic? Remember reviews are golden! J

-KateCurtis