Author's Note:

To all those who are waiting for the next chapter of Fire Day, I have the chapter almost finished, but I'm stuck and I will update whenever I figure out how to end the thing. For now I'll just be doing this little collection of one-shots. Most of the gang is still the same age, but Ponyboy is seven and Johnny is nine. Sorry if it doesn't seem like he's seven, I have difficulties getting into a younger mind under the age of thirteen. Enjoy!

Sticker and Pain

Pony's P.O.V.

I looked at the clocked again to see how much longer I was going to have to wait before I could go home. I couldn't wait to show my big brother Darry my spelling test. I had gotten them all right and my teacher, Mrs. O'Donnell, had given me a bright red star sticker on it. Darry and me had spent almost the whole night making sure I knew how to spell all the worlds. Villain had been a little hard because I thought it had an 'en' instead of an 'ain' but I remembered and spelled all the words right! Darry was going to be happy 'cause that meant I was smart and that I might get into college when I get older. Darry wanted to go but he had to take care of me and Soda after Mommy and Daddy got into accident with me in the car. Soda said they had to go up to heaven to help the angels with the things the angels only got to do. It didn't stop me from missing them though.

As soon as the bell rang I ran out of the classroom, barely remembering to grab my homework on the way out. Darry wouldn't be happy if I forgot to grab it because not doing homework was bad. He would have put me in the corner even if I had showed him my spelling test.

I stopped running once I was a couple of streets away from our house. Looking around, I could see a Soc car following me. Darry and Soda told me to stay away from the Socs because they were mean and they liked to hurt greasers. I ran away.

They had me down against the ground and my head was hurting. I think they punched me or something because I've never had my head hurt like this before. I couldn't help but whimper as one of them pulled a blade. "Well, well, well, look what we have here," the one with the blade said, "It's a baby greaser. Shouldn't babies be with a grown up?"

"I'm not a baby!" I shouted, but one of them hit me for it. I guess this is what the guys call a jump. I remember the one time Soda got jumped and it had scared me. Were they gonna kill me?

"DARRY! SODA! JOHNNY! HELP ME!" I screamed, trying to get away from the Socs. One of them, the one with the blade, swung it at me and cut my forehead. Then he swung again and he made this one really long. I started crying because I didn't want to go to heaven; I just wanted to show Darry my sticker.

Then they were gone and I could hear Soda talking to me. I saw Johnny sitting with him while everyone else chased the Socs back to their car. "Soda," I said.

"What is it baby?" he asked and he picked me up, holding me like Daddy used to do after a nightmare.

"My face hurts," I said, looking around, "Where's my bag?"

Johnny held it out to me as Soda stood up to take us home. I grabbed it, holding it close the Socs came back because they wanted my sticker. They couldn't have my sticker, it was all mine!

Soda put me on the couch as Darry ran by. "We ain't supposed to run in the house Darry," I said.

That made Darry stop and turn around. "The word is aren't Pony," he said and grabbed the first aid kit. He came back over and began to clean my cuts.

Soda whistled. "They did a number on you baby brother," he said, "You've got a cut from your ear to your lips,"

"I do?" I asked and I tried to make me sound tuff, but I ruined it because I started crying.

"Hush baby," Darry whispered, holding me close when he was done cleaning me up. Once I was done crying he pushed my chin up so I was lookin' at him. "You're alright baby," he said, "Now, why didn't you wait for Johnny and Two-Bit like you usually do?"

"'Cause I wanted to show you something!" I said, leaping into my bag.

I found the test and a picture I had drawn of me and Darry and Soda. I gave him the picture first. "Mrs. O'Donnell wanted us to draw our families," I said, "So I draw us,"

Darry smiled and I gave him my test. He looked it over and passed it to Soda, who whistled again before giving it back to me. "Well, I've got one smart kid brother, don't I?" Soda said, messing up my hair, "Perfect score on the spelling test. Guess all that studying was worth missing Mickey, wasn't it,"

That caused a big gasp from Two-Bit and they started arguing about Mickey. I just smiled, stickers were worth so much more then Mickey. Mickey doesn't make your brothers proud of you and stickers do. I love stickers!