Here is chapter 1 on my next story. I hope you enjoy this story.

I don't own any characters, S. E. Hinton does.

Enjoy chapter 1 and please review.

Ponyboy POV

Everything had been crappy since the incident at the fountain, when Bob died. The socs hated me more they ever after windrixville, and I had a feeling that when they jumped me, they wanted me way more then hurt. They hated me 100%, and I knew it.

Darry did too, because he never wanted me to walk alone by myself anymore, at least not nearly as much as I used to do before.

Today Steve was supposed to walk me home, because Two-bit was busy, nd Soda and Darry were at work.

I waited for Steve at the front of the school. Today had been a long day. Almost every class I was in contained at least two socs, and each class they were always glaring at me, and making me feel uncomfortable.

Steve finally walked out of the front doors, and we were off. We started walking, until Steve questioned me with, "Hey, have any of those socs been bothering you lately?"

Why did he care? It's not like he really cares about me, does he? Does he really care. or only thing I'm nothing but a tag-along?

I don't know why that made me upset, because if he did care, that would make me feel a little bit better.

I finally responded with, "No, I'm fine." A little more mean they I intended.

He looked at me and said, "Well hey, I just wanted to make sure, no reason to get snappy."

I looked at him and he looked kinda upset. I was fine right now. I was glad that the gang cared about me, but sometimes it got kind of annoying. I don't know why, but I felt like I had to voice my thoughts.

"I'm sorry Steve, it's just that sometimes it gets annoying, having everyone worry about you all the time."

He said, "Well we don't want you to get hurt. I'm sorry we care."

He started walking a little faster, but he wasn't going very far ahead of me. I heard the sound of a car engine and turned around. It was just another car driving by.

I was so jumpy since I knew that the socs were mad at me.

We kept walking, with Steve still ahead of me by a little bit. I could tell that he was kind of angry with me at the moment. I sighed. He had every right, right?

I heard another car engine, but ignored it at first. My thoughts were the only things going through my head. We were on the east side of town, so we would be fine, right?

The sound of the car engine wouldn't go away, and there wasn't a car in front or passing us, so I knew that it had to be coming from behind me. I didn't look behind me, but instead I went a little quicker and caught up with Steve.

He never looked at me, but I could still tell that he was mad at me.

The sound of the car engine grew louder, and it was still behind us. No cars were passing us, and I had a feeling that it was following us. I was right. I turned around and saw a blueish-grayish mustang.

It was the socs, and i knew it.

"Steve." I whispered, as I turned and looked at him.

He never looked at me but muttered, "What?"

"Socs." Is all I said, and that got him to turn around.

He looked at the car, then at me. His look of anger turned to worry when he looked at me.

He whispered, "Hurry, we gotta get you home."

Not a second later we were both speed walking. The car sped up, but only to keep up with us. It went right next to us on the street, and Steve said, "Over here." I looked at him and watched him curve in front of me to the right, (The car was on their left) and start running. I sprinted after him, which I regretted.

He had led us right into an alley, because he thought we could go somewhere where their car couldn't go, but he was wrong. He thought there was going to be an escape route we could take, but he was wrong.

The socs parked their car right in front of the alley. Five socs got out of the car. They all had some type of smile on their face, and started walking towards us.

They created a half circle around us because the back of the alley was all that was behind us. We were trapped. I saw the one in front of the group, pull out a switchblade, but the blade was inside the handle, yet to be flipped open.

They all started laughing, and Steve saw the blade.

"You dumb-" But he stopped, because the socs with the blade flipped it open. I was shaking, between fear and anger. Five against two, and they have a blade. How is that fair?

The socs with the blade saw me shake, and aimed the knife at me, which only made me more frightened, and angry.

"Hey guys, look, he's scared." They teased me, and that only got me more angry.

"Five to two, and you need a blade. That really shows how scared 'we' are, yeah right." I said sarcastically.

This made the one with the blade angry, and he aimed the knife at Steve again, and said, "We are here to teach you a lesson. Were taking from you what you took from us." He said, and he was looking at me right when he said it.

I knew what he was talking about. He was talking about Bob, and they had come here to get revenge. Then it came to me. They lost Bob, so they were going to try to take Steve from me.

I wouldn't let them without a fight. This was my fault. This was all my fault. They should be aiming that knife at me, not Steve. He didn't do anything, and all of these thoughts just made me more upset.

Steve looked frightened, and backed up a little. The guy with the knife saw me slowly creep towards him, and he must have known that I was going to try and lunge at him.

He yelled out, "Get him!"

Two guys stayed where they were, while the other two lunged at me. I ran towards Steve, but one of them grabbed my arm and yanked me back. I saw Steve try to help me, but the guy aimed the knife closer, which made him stop.

The guys only pulled me to the ground, and held me still. They were watching the guy with the knife now, and they didn't know it, but they had loosened their grip on me. I saw the guy say something to Steve, and knew that I had to act soon.

When the two guys were least expecting it, I threw them off of me and quickly got to my feet. The guy saw me running towards them, and pulled the hand with the knife in it back. Then it dawned on me. He was going to stab Steve!

I sprinted forward as the guy's hand flung forward. I lunged at Steve and toppled him over.

We laid on the ground for a few seconds, and everyone, including the socs, were still. they all looked shocked, but the one that had the knife looked happy. I knew what happened.

I let out a scream as I felt pain in my stomach.

I had one more thought go through my head before I passed out.

I was happy. Steve didn't get the blow!

I did.

Here is my first chapter, and if you read it, please review it also. I want to know how I am doing.