Ok here's the first chappie, enjoy:)
It was a sunny September day, and Ponyboy was sitting in a waiting room, waiting to be interviewed. After High School Pony enrolled in the University of Oklahoma, in Oklahoma City deciding to go into journalism. He loved writing and being a journalist would help him bring certain stories to people's attention. Maybe even things like rivalry with socs, or telling people not to judge a person by how much grease he puts in his hair. Pony didn't have to decide what he was going into for two more years, but he was sure he wanted to do journalism.
He applied for a spot on the university newspaper team, which was a big deal. A week earlier he submitted a writing piece and now he was waiting to be interviewed by the head of writhing department and chief editor for the paper.
He was nervous, running the possible scenarios of what he thought they would ask and what he would say. There were a few other people in the waiting room applying for the same thing.
Pony was tired of waiting, and he felt beads of sweat forming on his forehead. Finally his name was called. He wiped his hands on his shirt, because he knew he was going to shake their hands and his palms were sweaty.
"Hi, I'm Mrs. Roberts," the woman greeted him and held out her hand. She was tall, looked well into her fifties and had gray hair which she was wearing in a bun. At the moment she had a friendly smile on her face. "And this is Jenna," Mrs. Roberts said, "She's the head of our paper team." There was a girl in the room, who looked a year or two older than Pony, and she held out her hand too. She had light blond hair and big grey eyes. Cute Pony thought, but remembered that he was there for a purpose and not to get distracted by her looks.
"So Ponyboy," Mrs. Roberts smiled slightly at the mention of his name, "Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself." Pony didn't like this question even though he expected it.
"Well," he started, "I am from Tulsa and I live with my two older brothers since my parents died in a car crash." That was brief but he didn't know what else to say.
"I'm so sorry," Mrs. Roberts said,
"Me too." Jenna added.
"It's ok." Pony replied
"So why do you want to be on the team for our paper?" Mrs. Roberts asked next.
"Well, I've always liked writing and reading, and I am planning to go into journalism and this would help me bring important stories to people's attention and writing articles for the university newspaper would be a good start for that." Mrs. Roberts was impressed Pony could tell. Jenna on the other hand wasn't. The look in her eyes was that of boredom and indifference like she'd seen and heard things like that many times before.
"You graduated High School a year early is that so?" Mrs. Roberts asked.
Pony replied that he did, and explained that he was put up a grade in middle school.
"Ok," Mrs. Roberts said, "that's all for now. It was nice meeting you Ponyboy, we will call you with our decision." So that was it, Pony thought. It wasn't so bad. He didn't like though how they asked if he graduated High School early, maybe they would think he was too young to be on the team. Well, there was nothing he could do now, but wait.
When Pony got back to his dorm he already had a message from Darry and Soda who were asking how the interview went and if he got the spot on the paper team. So he called them back telling them what happened at the interview and explaining that he had to wait a few days before they call him with the result.
"I'm sure you'll get it," Soda assured him, "your writing piece was amazing." Pony read his writing piece to both Soda and Darry in order to get their opinions. And even though they weren't ideal audience for his writing since Darry only understood facts and Soda never cracked a book open, it was all he got, and he had to be content with that. His writing piece was about storm chasers in Oklahoma.
On Thursday Pony was studying for his science class when the phone rang. It was a needed distraction. Pony didn't like science to say the least, but it was required as part of the program that every freshman takes one science class.
"Hello," Pony answered the phone.
"Hi, may I speak to Ponyboy Curtis,"
"This is he."
"Hi, Ponyboy how are you doing? This is Mrs. Roberts."
"I'm fine thank you and how are you?"
"I'm fine too. I'm calling to tell you that you got a spot on the team for the paper, congratulations."
"Thank you very much, I appreciate it. You won't regret your decision."
"The first meeting is this Monday at six p.m. at the student center."
"Thanks again."
"Bye now."
Pony felt great. He was really happy. His science homework forgotten he called Darry and Soda to tell them the news.
"I told you you were going to get it" Soda laughed then gave the phone to Darry.
"I'm really happy for you buddy," Darry said.
Darry and Pony got along much better these days. Pony was older, and Darry didn't treat him like a little kid anymore. He showed him respect and gave him some space, and Pony appreciated that. He was really glad when Pony enrolled at the University. It was Darry's dream to see Pony go further than he himself could afford.
So on Monday at 6:05 Pony was at the student center. He walked in, and realized that they had already started. He apologized for being a little late and got an annoyed look from Jenna followed by "it's ok, but try to be on time next time." Jeez it was only 5 minutes he thought, but of course he didn't say anything, and took a seat.
"I'm Ricky," the guy next to him said, "I'm the photographer. What about you?"
"I'm on the writing staff. My name is Ponyboy." Ricky looked at him weird.
"That your real name?"
"It is." Pony said annoyed, he hated to explain about his name to each new person he met. Ricky shrugged his shoulders and said that he didn't mean to offend Pony, and Pony said that it was ok and he was not offended. They stopped talking and started listening. Everybody was calling out ideas what to write about in the first issue of the paper this year.
Pony looked around and realized by the way people were acting that they knew each other well and they've been on the team for the paper for a year or more. He was the only freshman on the team.
"We should write about cafeteria food." the guy sitting next to Jenna said.
"We should write about how expensive students' rooms are and how tiny they are," Ricky offered. Jenna wrote that down in her notepad.
"That's a good idea Ricky," she said.
Pony felt the pressure to offer an idea to show that he's not just some freshman who doesn't have any ideas and doesn't deserve to be on the team. "How about we write an article about all the student clubs." Pony offered.
"Um…, I don't know about that," Jenna wrinkled her nose and turned her attention to another guy who was raising his hand.
"Nelson," she prompted.
"We should write about sports teams," he said.
"Good idea." she approved.
"How about we write about the program that teaches students how to start a business, I heard it's really good." Pony said. He was trying desperately to show that he had ideas and he was there for a reason.
"Maybe not." Jenna said and turned her attention to a girl sitting next to her.
"Nicky." she said.
"What about study abroad program?" Nicky said.
"Great idea." Jenna wrote in her notepad.
Pony started to get the idea that she was ignoring his ideas on purpose and she was making it clear that she was only tolerating him because Mrs. Roberts decided to make him part of the team.
"What about writing about Strawberry Festival?" Pony offered. Strawberry Festival was the festival that was held every Fall. Different bands were invited, there was a fair and people from the neighborhood restaurants and diners were invited to serve food at the festival. It was clearly a good idea to cover the festival in the paper, but Jenna shrugged – "I don't' know about that, shouldn't we cover it after the festival not before?" Pony realized that she definitely was dodging his ideas on purpose. Even though the other members of the team agreed that writing about Strawberry Festival beforehand was a good idea. Letting people know what bands were invited and what activities were scheduled, but Jenna didn't write it in her notepad.
Pony was caught off guard. He didn't know what to do, why was she ignoring him? Was she trying to show who's the boss and, that since he was new and a freshman he had no voice and no say whatsoever in what was going on with the paper. He was trying to think desperately of an idea she wouldn't be able to dodge. He thought of a flier he'd seen in the cafeteria – battle of the bands. It was scheduled in two days and it clearly needed coverage in the school paper. "Battle of the bands," Pony almost yelled. "We should write about the battle of the bands." Everybody on the team agreed with Pony so Jenna was not able to dodge it. Pony felt like he won this one, but he was still upset that she had something against him just because he was new and a freshman. A few people suggested a few more ideas, and then Jenna started assigning who would write about what.
Since Pony was the one who suggested writing about the battle of the bands he thought she was going to assign that to him. But instead she assigned it to Victor, who was a junior, and it was his third year working on the paper. When it was turn to give Pony the assignment she didn't even look up at him from her notepad.
"You'll cover the students' rooms situation," she said and then quickly moved to the next person.
Pony was annoyed and upset about the whole situation. This is not the head start he was hoping to get. What was her problem he thought, she was rude and conceited. Some of the other people on the team were not friendly either. The team was seven people including Jenna, but only three asked Pony what his name was and introduced themselves. The others didn't bother, and acted like he didn't exist.
After the meeting Pony was more that flustered. Him and Ricky went to get dinner together. "What's her deal?" Pony asked about Jenna, "She was ignoring my ideas on purpose."
"Oh she is a little bossy." Ricky agreed, "She has a novel published already so I guess she feels like a big shot or something, but overall she's ok once you get to know her better."
"I sure hope so." Pony replied.