"You don't look so good, Johnny." Pony said to his friend while they walked down the crowded hallway to the cafeteria.
"I don't feel too good, either." Johnny replied, sluggishly following Pony to breakfast. He hadn't felt his best this morning. It had started when he woke up and was just getting worse by the minute.
"Think your sick?" Pony asked, grabbing a tray off the cafeteria rack and going through the breakfast line.
"I don't know." Johnny muttered, grabbing an apple and following Pony out to the tables.
"Just an apple?" Pony asked him. Johnny wasn't one to skip out on a meal. It was something he'd picked up living with his deadbeat parents for so long. Snacks were never available so whenever he got a chance to eat he usually took it.
"I don't feel good, Pony." Johnny replied, voice low and tired as they took their seats at one of the back tables. Nobody ever bothered them back here.
"Think you need to go home?" Pony asked.
Johnny thought for a moment before shaking his head and bringing his apple up to his mouth. "Naw, I'm fine." He told Pony, biting into the juicy fruit with a crunch.
"Okay..." Pony sighed, taking a bite out of his oatmeal.
Johnny chewed on the bit of apple slowly for a minute then stopped right away when a nasty twisting feeling in the pit of his stomach threatened to send his dinner from last night back up.
"Johnny?" Ponyboy asked, concerned. "You okay?"
Johnny groaned and covered his mouth before pushing away from the table and running toward the bathroom.
Pony got up and hurried after him. "Johnny!" He called, concern for his best friend rising.
...
"He's right here, Mr. Curtis." The school secretary informed Darry when he came through the office door, pushing her glasses up as she worked at her typewriter.
Darry closed the door behind him and turned to see a sick looking Johnny and a worried Ponyboy sitting in the chairs by the nurse's office.
"Hey, Kiddo. You ready?" He asked Johnny, giving him a warm smile and putting a hand to his head to feel his temperature.
"Yeah..." Johnny sighed, standing from his chair and picking his backpack up from the floor to leave with Darry.
"Hey, Darry?" Pony piped up, rubbing a hand across his own forehead in a sickly manner. "I don't really feel so hot either. Maybe I'm sick too."
"Uh huh, nice try kid." Darry replied, unimpressed, giving him a little shove to the shoulder while he signed Johnny out at the front desk.
"No, really. I think I've got a fever. Feel my forehead. It's warm." Pony pleaded with his big brother.
"Go back to class, Pony." Darry told him, opening the door for Johnny and letting him head out to the truck. "I'll see ya home at three."
Pony sighed and walked out of the office in the opposite direction, back to his first hour class.
"Hey learn somethin' will ya?" Darry called after him. "Gotta keep those grades up."
Darry headed out to the truck to take Johnny home and Ponyboy went back to class to spend the rest of the school day without his best buddy.
...
"Johnny!" Pony called through the house when he came through the door.
"Hey, man. How'd school go?" Johnny asked from his spot on the couch. He sure didn't look sick anymore. Looked like whatever had been ailing him was long gone.
"Fine." Pony sighed, setting his backpack down on the floor. "We got an A on the biology project. Thought you'd like to know. Mr. Swartz really liked it."
"Cool. Ain't real used to gettin' good grades. Havin' you for a partner makes it a lot easier." Johnny replied, scooting over on the couch so Pony could sit down too.
"How ya feelin?" Pony asked him, propping his feet up on the coffee table.
"Better." Johnny replied. "It's like it all just passed on after this mornin'. Kinda weird. I thought for sure it was the flu before I left school but it only stuck around for an hour or so."
"So you're comin' to school tomorrow, right?" Pony asked hopefully. "Cause we've got that presentation in history and I really don't wanna do it all by myself."
"Yeah, I think I'll be alright." Johnny assured him with an amused grin.
"Good. Or else I'd have to throttle ya." Pony chuckled at him, giving him a joking punch in the shoulder.
The front door opened up and Darry came in, all covered in specks of dried cement and dirt, his tool box in hand, masculine as ever.
"Pony get your feet off the coffee table." He calmly scolded his little brother as he passed the boys to get to the kitchen.
Pony sighed and took his feet down just in time to trip Steve, who was just walking inside.
"Son of a bitch..." He growled, regaining his footing and shooting Ponyboy a glare. "Watch where your puttin' those damn things, Sasquatch!" He snarled at him.
"You know what they say about men with big feet, don't ya Steve?" Two Bit cackled, coming in after him.
"You're nasty, Two Bit." Pony chuckled at his friend.
"Nasty and thirsty." Two Bit corrected him. "Hey Big Daddy! You restock the fridge yet?" He then called to Darry, strolling through the kitchen to look for his beer in the refrigerator.
"Top shelf." Darry replied, walking back through the living room to the bathroom for a good shower.
Two Bit grabbed a bottle of beer out of the fridge and popped the top off before coming to sit between Pony and Johnny on the couch.
"What're we watchin' boys?" He asked with a smile, putting an arm around each of them.
"Andy Griffith." Pony told him, yawning and stretching out his arms.
"Sounds good to me. How you feelin' Johnny Cake? That nasty bug head out yet?" Two Bit asked the dark haired boy.
"Guess so." Johnny confirmed. "I'm feelin' a whole lot better."
"Well good. I hate to see ya so sick." Two Bit said, ruffling Johnny's thick black hair and taking another swig of his beer.
The front door opened up again and Sodapop walked inside.
"Hey kiddo." He smiled at Ponyboy, plopping down on the couch next to his little brother.
"You stink." Pony complained, a joking grin spreading across his lips.
"Yeah, I know." Soda sighed. "It was a hot sucker out today. Sweated off most of my deodorant before lunch."
"Well get your armpits out of my face then." Pony whined at him.
"Aw it ain't that bad." Soda laughed, getting Ponyboy into a headlock.
"Ugh! Soda! My nose is burning!" Pony wailed desperately.
"What do ya'll want for dinner!?" Darry called from the shower.
"Food would be nice, hon!" Two Bit called back with a cackle.
"I kinda want somethin' with potatoes." Johnny chimed in. "Don't care what. It's just gotta have potato in it."
"So what, like fries?" Two Bit asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion. "Mashed potatoes? Fried? Baked? Tater tots?"
"As long as it's some kind of tater I don't care what we eat." Johnny replied. "I been wantin' 'em for days."
"Fine by me." Darry replied from the kitchen, lifting a bag of potatoes out of the cabinet above the sink to peel.
"Where's Dal at anyway?" Two Bit asked, cracking open another beer. "Ain't seen him all day."
"He had a race." Johnny informed him. "He won't be home till late."
"Aw yes. The big workin' man now. I forgot." Two Bit chuckled.
"You okay, Johnny?" Pony asked, noticing suddenly the saddened look on his best friend's face.
"He's never home no more, Pony..." Johnny whimpered.
"Who? Dal? He'll be back soon, Johnny. Don't worry about it." Pony assured him, putting an arm around his shoulders.
Johnny sniffled and shoved it off, quickly wiping at his eyes as he stood up from the couch. "I'm sorry..." He whimpered, heading off down the hallway to his room.
"What's the matter with Johnny?" Steve asked, walking in from the kitchen with a big piece of chocolate cake in his hand.
"I don't know." Pony shrugged. "He just got upset and ran off. I don't even really know what it was all about."
"Mood problems huh? If I didn't know any better I'd think Johnny was knocked up." Two Bit chuckled.
Pony hit him hard in the shoulder to shut him up.
...
"Darry? Where's my backpack?" Pony asked, yawning as he strolled into the living room all dressed and ready for school.
"Soda's closet." Darry answered, flipping the bacon on the stove for breakfast.
Pony turned back around to hunt his backpack down when Johnny came rushing out of his room with a hand pressed over his mouth.
"Johnny?" Pony tried to ask as his buddy ran past him and into the bathroom. The unmistakable sound of vomiting echoed throughout the house.
"Hey, Johnny, what's the deal?" Dally asked worriedly, hurrying to help his boyfriend.
Pony sighed and grabbed his backpack out of Sodapop's closet. It looked like he'd be soloing it at school again today.
TBC