I know what you're thinking (scary, right?): Miso, you suck so hard. Seriously. You do.

And it's true. I do suck, for not writing anything but this stupid thing. Readers of Ted (The Good Shepard), I'm so sorry for taking the longest time with it. I just haven't been in a "haha, -gigglesnort-" mood. And nothing, to me anyway, is as funny in writing as it was in my mind. I've been trying, but I think I have writer's block. This was made before the writer's block hit me head on. I was just lazy and had no confidence in it, but what the hell: Proof I'm Alive!

I don't own "Red Rover" by Rosie Thomas, which is the song I was listening to when I was inspired to write this. It's also where the lyrics and title are from. Yes, you can see the onset of WB in this story. I don't know what I'll do with it, so for now it's a one shot.

Don't eat me.

Red Rover

One

"Red Rover, Red Rover/ Send Mary right over/ School books in her hand/ And a shawl over her shoulders/ And let her run/ Run as fast as she can..."

Ponyboy, now proud to say he was fifteen, was walking home from school with Two-bit, who had made it to his senior year, along with Steve. He wasn't holding up much of a conversation with the older boys though. He wasn't in much of a mood for talking this morning, and they had stopped bothering him about it about half a block back. He really had no idea why he didn't feel like talking. He just guessed it was one of those days.

"Hey, there's the little kids," Two-bit said suddenly, pointing across the street to the elementary school kids. They were standing by the classroom doors, waiting for their school day to end. One of the classes was playing outside, and Ponyboy stopped to watch them. He had grown fond of watching younger children as they played and talked to each other. They didn't worry about anything, because they had nothing to worry about. At least the ones he had seen didn't.

Ponyboy didn't like to think that some of the kids were probably being beat, or weren't being taken care of. He didn't want to know more kids like that.

"Hey, Pone, you gonna ask them if you can play or are you gonna come with us?" Two-bit called. Ponyboy glanced over to see Steve waiting impatiently next to a grinning Two-bit.

"I'll catch up to you," Pony said, raising a hand as he crossed the street. He knew Steve and Two-bit would be shaking their heads, wondering what was wrong with him. But he didn't care. He reached the school yard as the bell rang. He weaved through the stream of kids who were shrieking and laughing as they ran to their parents, or met up with their friends to walk home. Ponyboy dropped down in the grass, watching as the first graders were scooped up into their parent's arms.

They smiled, and laughed, and asked how their day had been and the child would go into an animated chatter as they were carried off.

A few minutes passed, and Ponyboy was trying to figure out what had drawn him over here in the first place. He didn't know any of the children that went to this elementary school, he hadn't been looking for a conversation, obviously.

"Did your mama forget you?"

Ponyboy looked up, frowning. A small girl, who Ponyboy guessed was probably in the second or first grade, was standing in front of him. She had dark blonde hair and light brown eyes. A tooth was missing from her smile.

"No, I don't go to this school."

"Oh... I don't think Mommy forgot me... she's really busy, I bet she's on her way," She said, turning and looking down the street. She was wearing a skirt that looked too big for her, and a t-shirt that buttoned up the front. Her shoes were dirty mary-janes and her socks were the kind that little girls loved, with lace around the edges. Her school books, though there weren't many, were on the ground next to her, and under her books was what looked like a shawl.

"Why'd you put your nice shawl on the ground?" Ponyboy asked, tugging at the corner of it.

"The other kids made fun of me for it. Said only grammas where those... but Mommy said it'd keep me warm, 'cause it was cold this morning... I'm Mary," She said suddenly, turning to him.

"I'm Ponyboy."

Mary giggled, one of those innocent laughs that Pony didn't mind.

"You ain't lyin' are you?" Mary asked, her hands on her hips. "Lyin's bad."

"No, I ain't lyin'. Ponyboy's my real name. How old are you Mary?"

"I'm eight. I started second grade this year," She said, her chest puffed out with pride. "What grade are you in?"

"I'm in the tenth grade. Fifteen years old," Ponyboy said with a smile. Mary's eyes widened as she made a cooing sound.

"Oooh, you're a big kid! Wait until I tell my friends I talked to a big kid!" She said with an excited squeal as she clapped her hands. Ponyboy laughed.

xxxx

A few minutes after watching Mary follow a goose around, Ponyboy realized that her mother should have come to get her by now.

"Goosey. Goosey, goosey. Honk, honk," Mary said with a giggle as she strolled by, the goose leading the way. Ponyboy twisted his upper body to watch her walk behind him and wander a bit further away. Frowning, he turned back and craned his neck to look down the sidewalk.

"S'cuse me, miss?" Ponyboy said, trying his best to not scare the older woman half to death. She paused, a wary look on her face.

"D'you know what time it is?"

"Oh," she said, a bit surprised as she glanced at her wrist. "It's about 4:15."

"Thanks," Ponyboy said with a smile as she walked away. "Hey, Mary."

"Goosey," Mary squealed as she ran after the goose, before it took off into the sky. "The goose left, I don't think he wanted to play anymore," she said as she trotted over.

"It's gettin' kinda late, Mary... maybe I should walk you home," Ponyboy said carefully. Mary frowned.

"My mama'll come get me. You just wait 'n see... she's comin'. She's jus' busy... she's probably makin' dinner."

"Mary... I can't just leave ya here, an' I have to get home and do my school work too. Let me walk you home, please? It'll make me feel better."

"...Well all right Pony... since you really want to," Mary said slowly. "I live down that way," she said, pointing in the direction that Two-bit and Steve had taken; she lived on the bad side of town. This knowledge alone was enough to make Ponyboy feel awful as he stood up and took Mary's school books in one arm.

Mary pulled the shawl on and took Ponyboy's hand, smiling up at him as he began walking her down the sidewalk. He hoped Mary's mother wasn't like the others in the neighborhood.

xxxx

Mary's house was small and about as run down as any other house on the block. There was no car in the gravel driveway, or on the street in front of her house. The grass was long, and some of it was dying. He could see a large tree in her backyard, and he wondered vaguely if the grass was short enough for her to play back there. If there was a tire swing or something hanging from the tree's strong branches. He had always wanted a tire swing.

Mary led him through the front yard, along a path of grass that had been flattened down over time. Patches of red dirt poked through in some places. "I bet my mama will wanna say thanks to you, 'cause she didn't have to leave dinner," Mary said confidently. If she had been older, Ponyboy would have thought she was just trying to convince herself with those words. But then, Johnny had been doing that when he was about that old. And the next year he had been smoking.

'Glory... I hope that doesn't happen to Mary...' Ponyboy thought with a frown as he was lead onto the porch. She dropped his hand and opened the screen door. Placing a hand on the doorknob of her front door, she pressed her body against it, the screen door closing until it met her side. Mary turned the doorknob, and hit the door with the entire side of her body a few times, which forced the door to open.

"It gets stuck sometimes," Mary explained as she held her hands out for her school books, her body keeping the screen door open. Ponyboy handed them over and smiled a bit, before flinching. He heard the familiar shriek of an angry mother from somewhere inside that house and Mary quickly kicked off her shoes and pulled the screen door closed as she stepped inside. "She doesn't like the door bein' open," Mary said, her eyes glancing about nervously.

The angry shrieking got louder as her mother appeared, a frail woman with hair like Mary's, and eyes of the same color; there was no happiness in her eyes and she didn't share the same rounded face as her daughter, and their noses didn't look similar either. Mary had the face of her father, someone Ponyboy guessed she had never seen.

"Who're you? If you want somethin' you ain't gonna get it, I ain't some walkin' charity," her mother snapped, grabbing Mary by the arm and pulling her away from the door. "An' I don't want anything of yours either, so you just get outta my yard."

"Mama, that's Ponyboy. He walked me home from school," Mary said, looking up at her mother with wide eyes. She had no idea why her mother was acting that way, but Ponyboy thought he had a good idea.

"Oh, so now you want somethin' from my daughter is that it?" she asked, her eyes narrow. Pony got the feeling that if he had been a girl, her mother wouldn't have cared.

"No ma'am... it was getting late and Mary was still at school on her own. I walked her home. I didn't want somethin' to happen to her."

She let out a bark of laughter. "Well, aren't you just the perfect citizen? You still ain't gettin' nothin' so you can just get on home, ya hood."

And the door slammed shut. Ponyboy, still a bit stunned, stood on the porch and listened to Mary's mother yelling. Mary yelled back a few times, before she started crying. He thought he could hear her mother trying to comfort her, apologizing feverishly.

But he didn't want to listen anymore, and took off at a run to get home.

"Don't let her grow up to be like her mother..."