DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING!

A/N: Yes, I know it's a bit early for a Thanksgiving fic, but I will be busy for the week preceding it to prepare for my trip to New York. This is just a five-chapter holiday fluff piece. I hope you enjoy it.

It was a crisp November evening. The Curtis brothers were relaxing in their living room after dinner. Twenty-year-old Darry was on the sofa with the second-youngest in the family, sixteen-year-old Sodapop. Sodapop was giving Darry a backrub because Darry had strained some muscles trying to carry too much roofing at work again. The youngest, thirteen-year-old Ponyboy, was sitting in the battered armchair reading a novel.

"Hey, Darry," said Pony suddenly.

"What?" Darry replied, his voice muffled because he was lying on his stomach with his face pressed against the sofa cushion. He winced as Soda dug his fingers into a particularly sore spot between his shoulders and said, "Don't rub so hard, Sodapop."

"Isn't Thanksgiving in a couple days?" asked Pony.

"Yeah, I think so," said Darry. "Why?"

"I was just wondering if we were gonna do anything this year," said Pony.

Darry was silent. It hadn't been very long since their parents had died in a car accident, leaving him to look after his younger siblings.

"What do you wanna do?" asked Soda.

"I thought maybe we could have turkey and invite the boys over," Pony suggested.

"I don't know about that, Ponyboy," said Darry in a serious tone. "I wouldn't mind havin' the boys come by, but money's awful tight right now."

"Since I'm workin' now, I could pay for some of it," volunteered Soda, now kneading Darry's shoulders.

"But somebody still has to make all the food," Darry pointed out. "It's a lot of work putting together a turkey dinner. It used to take Mom all day."

"I'll do it! I know how to cook!" said Soda enthusiastically, letting go of his older brother. "Me and Pony'll work it all out so you won't have to do a thing."

Darry supposed it might be a good idea to celebrate the upcoming holiday since they hadn't even handed out candy on Halloween. "It's a plan," he consented, sitting up now Soda had stopped rubbing his back. "So what'll be on the menu, Chef Pepsi-Cola?"

Soda grabbed a pad of paper and a pencil, then laid on the floor to write out a shopping list. "Turkey, definitely," he said, jotting it down. "Do we still have Mom's old roasting pan?"

Darry shook his head. The brothers had little use for one, so he'd probably sold it or given it away after their parents' accident.

"Then how are we supposed to cook a turkey?" Pony wanted to know.

"We'll buy a new one." said Soda, writing 'roasting pan' on the list. "What else do we usually have on Thanksgiving?"

"Mashed potatoes and gravy," said Darry.

"Sweet potatoes," said Pony.

"And it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie," said Darry.

"It sure wouldn't," Soda agreed.

"Rolls and stuffing," said Pony.

Soda hurriedly wrote his brothers' requests down. Scrawling with his tongue between his teeth, he added his own, saying it aloud as he wrote: "Cranberry sauce."

Darry and Pony flinched; they hated cranberry sauce with a passion.

"Hey, I'm cooking, so I get a say too," said Soda. He loved cranberry sauce; in fact, he could eat most of a can by himself.

"Fair enough," Darry nodded. Soda readied the pencil to add something else to the list, but Darry held up a hand. "Hold on, little buddy. We better figure out how many people are gonna be here before we start shopping."

"Yeah, I guess you're right," agreed Soda. "Who all do you guys want to have over?"

"We probably oughta invite Dally," said Darry. "I don't reckon he has anywhere else to go for Thanksgiving."

"Unless Buck's having a party," said Pony.

Darry shook his head. "Even Buck Merril takes Thanksgiving off."

"We should ask Two-Bit," said Soda. "He always makes somethin' like this a good time. I'd tell Steve to come, but he's grounded for some stupid reason. And I'd ask Sandy, but she's supposed to have dinner with her family. Pony, who do you wanna invite?"

Pony's answer was automatic: "Johnny." He couldn't leave his best friend out in the cold, especially not on Thanksgiving; he knew Mr. and Mrs. Cade didn't cook anything for the holiday.

Soda counted on his fingers. "That's six people." He promptly crossed out "turkey" on the list and wrote "BIG turkey" in its place. He looked down at the rest of his shopping list and let out a loud whistle. "Glory, this is gonna be expensive."

"You can take mashed potatoes and gravy off since we're havin' sweet potatoes anyway," Darry suggested.

Soda did that and grinned excitedly at his brother. "This is gonna be fun. We've never had the whole gang over for Thanksgiving before."

"Yeah, we always have," argued Pony. "Except for last year 'cause Dally was in the cooler and Johnny had the flu."

"Aren't you working an extra shift tomorrow?" Darry asked Soda, who nodded. "Then how are you gonna pick up the stuff for dinner?"

"I'll go on my break or somethin'," Soda answered. "Y'know what else would be fun? 'Member when we was little and Mom dressed us up like Pilgrims and Indians and she had us act out the first Thanksgiving? We could get the whole gang in on it this year."

Darry chuckled to himself, just trying to picture Dallas Winston wearing a cardboard Pilgrim's hat or a construction paper Indian headband. He'd probably beat their heads in if they so much as tried to get him to wear one.

Soda's head hurt from all the planning and thinking he'd just had to do, so he stood up from the floor and said he was going to go to sleep. Pony came into the bedroom a short while later.

"I don't know why Darry wants me in bed already," Pony complained. "I don't have to go to school tomorrow or anything."

Soda didn't answer because he was already out like a light.