Outsiders is not owned by me. I don't know who owns it, but I know it isn't me.
I realize this book/ movie has a huge following, and I hope that I can do it justice. This story is short because if it went on any longer, it would just be annoying. I'm sorry in advance if I get the math wrong in this. I'm not an Outsiders fanatic, I just finished the book and I really liked it. So, without further ado, A Report from Ponyboy.
Extra Credit Assignment-
Write a no more than six paragraph story summarizing your life. Must be at least 500 words.
Nobody can answer why they hate us. They just do. They say it all started back forty years ago, when a poor boy stepped on a rich girl's foot. I don't know if that's true or not, I wasn't exactly alive; but I do know that nothing can stop it. I am of course talking about the infamous ongoing war between the Socs and the Greasers, two gangs that hate each other for no apparent reason.
We won a rumble a year or so ago, and we'd thought that most of our problems with socs were solved. They were not. Well, they were for about a month, then they started jumping greasers again. One by one, the socs came back, tougher than ever. I've even been jumped a few times since they've come back; and I almost died twice. Aside from the time last year that I was almost drowned in a fountain (don't ask, long story) I've been at gunpoint (the idiot forgot to turn the safety off, giving me time to run away.) and I was once knocked unconscious with a knife in my face. (I don't remember how I got out of that one. I would guess that Dally beat them up for me, but… you know.)
Socs weren't exactly nice people to begin with, either. Last year, my friend Johnny died cause of them. It still hurts to talk about, you know? All of my friend's lives have in some way been effected by the socs, and Johnny's was ended because of them. Let's just say that he died a hero and leave it at that.
The name's Ponyboy, by the way. Yeah, I know it's a strange name, but I've learned to deal with it for my whole life, so you can learn to deal with it for a few paragraphs. I lost my folks about two years ago; I've been living with my brothers. Or should I say, brother. My brother Soda took a vacation to some other state, liked it there, and decided to move. Didn't even bother to say goodbye or anything, he just got up and left. He said he liked the beach or something, I don't know. Darry is the one who got the phone call from him, not me.
As for me, I guess I'm doing pretty well. My grades, all except for this class, are passing. I won a race in track a few days ago, and I'm graduating next year. So, as good as things can be for me being a greaser, I'm ok. Don't get me wrong, there's bad things going on too. How about the fact that the one girl, the only girl, that even remotely has a crush on me is a gross, ugly nerd? (I didn't even know that there was a such thing as a nerdy greaser, aside from me. And I'm not even a real nerd, I'm barley passing!) Or how about the fact that the roof in my bedroom leaks and it hasn't stopped raining for weeks now? Still, I guess those are just common annoyances that everyone deals with. And considering that I'm paranoid of a soc attacking me every time I go outside, I'd say the nerd girl and the roof are the least of my problems.
So, yeah. My life is complicated, I'll give you that much. And in six paragraphs, it's pretty hard to cram everything in. I would like to go on a three hundred page rant about my life, and document everything that's happened, (I actually did that for a report last year) but whatever. That's my life in a nutshell to say the least.
-Ponyboy Curtis