Thank you to everyone who supported my story "I've got to do something." Here is a new story. Enjoy and don't forget to review.
I was standing outside the school building waiting for Ponyboy. We always met up during lunch to talk and smoke.
It was windy, and the falling red and yellow leaves were twirling in midair. It wasn't bad though. It was actually kind of pretty. The leaves twirling and then gradually landing on the ground. I never even paid attention to things like that, but Pony always pointed stuff like that out, and I started to notice too.
This was such a contrast though. I mean this beauty and what was going on in my life. My parents, they didn't care about me. They drank heavily, and my dad was always beating me up.
After a while I saw Pony's tall figure turn the corner.
"Hi Johnny," he greeted.
"Hi," I replied. I offered him a cigarette, and he lit up.
"So what's going on?" I asked.
"Nothing much. Darry's getting on my nerves lately. All I ever do is study. I hardly have any fun, and he wants me to study even more. Even on weekends. I know compared to your problems mine are nothing, but I just can't stand it. I feel like I'm suffocating."
"Yeah, that sucks," I nodded.
"What about you?" Pony asked carefully like he was afraid to hear the answer.
"Nothing much, managed to avoid a beating for a few days."
"That's good."
Pony was just grounding his cigarette on the ground, when we saw Curly Shepard walking out of the school building and walking towards us. I liked Curly just fine. He was a tough hood even though not too bright. Sometimes though he could talk too much and that could get annoying.
"'S up Curtis, Cade?" He offered his hand, and we both shook it.
"Nothing much," Pony said, and I nodded, "What about you?"
"This Saturday," he paused, and looked at us like he was about to reveal some huge secret to us. "Black Panthers are throwing a party. I'm allowed to bring people, so if you want you can come with me."
Black Panthers was a tuff gang from all the way downtown. We heard of them, but never met any of them. "So are you coming?" Curly asked expectantly, like he was offering us some incredible gift. I looked at Pony. "Sure we'll come," he said and he had this mischievous smile on him face. "For once I'm going to have fun rather than be cooped up in the house studying."
Curly left, and we kept standing there. "This party will be good for me I want to have some fun," Pony said. I wasn't so sure though. I was a little intimidated by Black Panthers and by the crowd that was going to be there, but I didn't tell Pony, I was too embarrassed.
Finally, it was time to go back, when Pony announced "I'm not goin' back."
"What do you mean man?"
"I'm ditching, I'm tired of this studying and being an honors student. Always all this talk about going to college. Maybe I don't even want to go to college, but have anyone asked me? Oh, no sir Bob."
"C'mon Pone don't say that man," I tried to calm him down, "you are blowing this out of proportion."
"Am I? You can go back if you want, but I'm not going back."
"Where are you going to go?" I asked. He hesitated and then said, "The lot."
"Fine, I'll go with you."
"You don't have to," He replied, "I'm perfectly fine."
"C'mon," I said, "I don't get most of the stuff in my classes anyway so I'm just wasting my time sitting in class."
Pony lit up again, and we started walking to the lot. We spent the rest of the day at the lot, smoking and talking. Pony did most of the talking complaining about Darry being on his back all the time.
"He didn't even get mad when Soda dropped out," Pony complained, "And with me it's all study, study, study. I can't wait till Saturday," He sighed.
On Saturday Pony and I walked over to Shepards. Tim was driving Curly and us to the party.
"Does Darry know about this?" Tim turned around from the driver seat and asked.
"No, and I'd like to keep it that way. He only knows that I'm going out with a couple of friends from school, no details," Pony replied.
"Going behind superman's back. I like that," Tim smirked.
We arrived around 8, and the place was already packed. People were dancing and drinking. A whole bunch of people were wearing black hoodies with blue jeans and converses. "Those are the black panthers," Curly explained. "Let's go say hello."
He led me and Pony to one of the guys, wearing a black hoodie. "This is their leader," he whispered under his breath.
"'S up Jesse?" he shook his hand, "this here is Johnny Cade and Ponyboy Curtis." The guy looked at me funny, "'S your real name?" I nodded, feeling my cheeks turn red. I hated being introduced to people.
"Well hope you have fun tonight," Jesse gave us a half smile and went into the crowd dancing. We kept standing awkwardly until Curly started laughing at us.
"Go get yourself a drink," he laughed, holding a beer bottle. We grabbed a beer and went into the crowd to dance. To be honest with you I can't dance to save my life, but Pony seemed to have some moves, and I tried to copy him. The black panthers were dancing too. After a while we got bored of dancing and went into one of the other rooms.
As we opened the door we saw 4 black panther guys sitting on the floor in a semicircle, and one of them was counting money. "Good," he said to the rest of them, "tomorrow the same thing." We didn't want to intrude so we closed the door quickly, and went back to the living rom.
"The black panthers are tuff," Pony said out of the blue, "I bet it's a lot of fun to be part of their gang. This is the real gang not like ours. And we never even do anything anyway." I thought about that for a little while and found myself agreeing with him.
"Let's ask Curly," Pony said, "if he can put a good word in for us since he seem to know them pretty well."
"Hey, Curly," Pony called him when we saw him again in the crowd. "Do you know... um do you know if the black panthers accept more people into their gang?"
"What, you two want to be in it?" He snorted.
"And what if we do? Maybe you can put in a good word for us."
"Fine I'll talk to Jesse for you," he smirked.
"Thanks Curly."
In about ten minutes a guy in a black hoodie came up to us and asked, "Curtis, Cade?" We nodded, "come with me."
He led us to the spare bedroom where Jesse was sitting in a black armchair, grounding his cigarette in the ash tray. I thought they were going to ask us to sit down, but they never did so we were just standing there.
"So," Jesse started, smiling widely, revealing his teeth, "I hear you'd like to join my gang." We nodded. Looking at his facial expression and his smile Jesse reminded me of a wolf.
"I don't usually recruit just from the street, but Curly tells me you are friends with Winston." We nodded again.
"We are real good friends with him," Pony supplied.
"I could use an extra pair of hands. So listen up, this is how it works." I felt my heart beat faster, he was actually letting us be a part of his gang.
"Every day," he continued," you are told what to do, like different jobs. You do what you are told for now for free and when I say you are ready to be the part of the gang for real you start getting paid, capish?" He smiled his grim smile again.
"Sure," Pony said, and I nodded.
"Just remember I'm doing you a favor taking you in. Only 'cause you are friends with Winston. Your first job is easy. On the weekend we always have one of our guys beg for money on the 215 bus. There are lots of rich bastards traveling on that line. So you should do good. Whatever you make bring to me by 8. We are set up in an abandoned warehouse on the corner of Clyde Street.