Another class project, had to rewrite the ending of The Outsiders and seeing as Johnny was my favorite character I brought him back to life.
L.A. New Chapter Ending
Ponyboy's POV
"Common." Dally dragged me through the hospital. We pushed our way through the crowd, a couple people exclaimed in anger but Dally didn't care -he was worried about Johnny, who hadn't been looking good. A doctor stepped in our way.
"We would like to go in there." Dally ordered flicking out Two-bits switchblade. "And if you don't..." He trailed off.
"I'll let you, just not because of the knife." As he moved aside we both raced into the room, it was dead quiet and for a moment I was sure Johnny was gone.
"Johnny?" Dally called out to the pale form in the hospital bed. "Johnnycake?" Johnny didn't respond. "We- we beat the Socs good." Dally babbled. "They'll never bother us again. You hear that Johnny? They'll never jump you again, you'll be safe. Just... don't be dead Johnny, don't be dead." When Johnny didn't stir Dally whirled around and punched the wall. "Damnit! We came to late, we-" He suddenly darted out of the door leaving me standing there alone, in the all-to-quiet hospital room where Johnny had died. Slowing I approached his bed and stood over him. I wanted to say something but didn't know what to say, I was still shocked by Dally's reaction. Then, ever so slightly, his mouth moved.
"Johnny?" I quietly asked, his eyes fluttered open.
"Ponyboy? Is Dally with you?" Johnny's voice was painfully quiet. Shaking my head I said,
"He just left." His face fell. "I'm sure he'll come back though, then you can talk to him." He nodded, but didn't look convinced. We sat there quietly for moment and as every second passed I was sure he was going to die, finally the doctor came in and broke the unbearable silence.
"You need to leave now, Johnny needs his rest." With a nod and a quick 'I'll be back tomorrow' I left the room.
The moment the door shut the doctor grabbed my arm. "This is good! We were sure he was going to go to day. If we give him a couple more days he'll be okay and might actually come out of this alive!"
I felt elated as I walked out of the hospital. I couldn't wait to talk the gang, I could practically picture they're reaction already! I picked up my pace eager to get home.
"You'll never believe what I heard at the hospital!" I shouted as I threw open the door and marched into the kitchen.
"That can wait until after we deal with that blood."
"What blood?" I asked Darry, my smile slowing fading.
"The blood coming from your head." My hand flew to my head which came back with blood smeared on it. I stared at my hand, dumbfounded.
"Gee." I managed to spit out before I blacked out.
"Ponyboy? Ponyboy?" My vision slowly focused on to Soda, who was kneeling above me.
"Yeah Soda?" I rasped.
"Golly Pony, you just fell down we didn't know what to do." Suddenly it hit me.
"Johnny!" I exclaimed, changing Soda's look of concern to one of puzzlement as he helped me onto a chair.
"What about him Ponyboy?"
"He's alive! I talked to a doctor and he said-"
"Whoa! Hold up Ponyboy, we can't follow you." Darry cut in. "Start from the beginning."
"Well... Dally an' me where stopped by this doctor who wanted to tell us that Johnny might not make it and we went in and when Dally tried to talk to Johnny but-" I stopped to catch my breath, then continued at my neck breaking pace. "Johnny didn't respond so Dally ran off and-"
"Wait!" This time it was Steve to cut me off.
"Dally ran off?"
"Yeah." I said confused, "he's here, right?" Two-bit, and Darry, who were standing beside the sink shared a quick glance.
"He hasn't been here at all." Darry began slowly, "in fact we haven't seen him since the rumble." I stared at him blankly.
"But- but-" The phone started to ring, forcing me to wait.
"Hello?" Darry answered. "Okay, we'll be there." Once he had hung up the phone he turned to us and spoke urgently, "Dally just robbed a grocery store and the police are after him." For a moment we all just stood there with our mouths hanging open, then we a snapped into action and -after shoving on our shoes- we raced out the door in a dead run.
We had just reached the vacant lot when Dally came running as fast as he could from the opposite direction, the wail of sirens that had followed was quickly coming closer. Dally halted under the circular glare of a street lamp as the cops parked their cars on the street opposite from us, the side Dally had run from. Doors slammed as policemen came out. Calmly Dally pulled a sleek, black object from his waist band. The gun. Then it hit me! Dally thought Johnny was dead. I opened my mouth to tell Dally Johnny was alive, dimly I heard Soda and Two-bits shouting, but then the was a sickening Bang! and Dally collapsed. I remembered what Dally had said: 'I been carryin' a heater. It ain't loaded, but it sure does help a bluff.' I fought tears, Dally and I had known that he was only bluffing, but the policemen hadn't. Tearfully I watched as policemen swarmed around his lifeless body. Searching for weapons, I thought dully. Mere seconds later I was proved correct when the found Two-bits switchblade. I watched all this in a trance, part of was unable to accept -believe- that Dally was dead.
"Let's go." Darry said in a low voice, his eyes watery. Wordlessly we obeyed and started walking back to our house.
Later that night as I lay in Soda's and my bed, I thought about the events of the day. Something was bothering me and I couldn't quite place my finger on it. It had something to do with Dally being shot, there was something about it... then it hit me. He'd been smiling! A grim, bitter, triumphant grin, like he'd won something. But what I'd never know. I then moved on to what had happened after that, Two-bits had complained about the loss of his switchblade and when Steve had asked if that was all he carried about he admitted that it wasn't but that he wished it was.
Soda rolled over, snapping my out of my mussing.
"Soda?" I said real quietly.
"Yeah?"
"I'm gonna go and see Johnny tomorrow." Soda sighed, but instead of telling me I had to go to school chose to say,
"Darry might not let you." After that we both fell silent until, eventually, we both fell asleep.
In the end I won and Darry let me visit Johnny. I had quietly slipped into Johnny's hospital room only to find him asleep. Aimlessly I wondered around his room until I had found Gone with the Wind. Idly I picked it up and flipped to the page where the bookmark was. Without a sound I slipped out and fluttered to the ground.
"Ponyboy?" I jumped and dropped the book. "Oh gee! I didn't mean to scare you." Johnny's voice was still quiet, but it sounded better. I couldn't help but grin at the fact that he was getting better.
"Sorry 'bout losing your spot."
"That's fine. Could you read it though? No one has had the time so I'm still in the same spot. Is Dally with you?" My stomach turned and I fought back tears, pasting a smile on my face I said,
"No, he's busy. Said he's come by soon." With that I sat down and began to read.
Over the next few weeks I visited Johnny every day and read a bit more of the book. Steve and Soda dropped by a couple days, Darry came by to say 'hello' and to give me a forgotten lunch. But Dally never came, and that's who Johnny really wanted to see. For the first few days I said he was 'busy', then that he'd been caught by the fuzz (that saved me from making up excuses for five day), then that he'd caught something. Johnny believed me, but each day he was a bit more agitated. Finally one day I put down Gone With the Wind.
"What's wrong?" I demanded.
"Nothing." He replied, cleary confused.
"Something's buggin' you, why do you want to see Dally so bad?"
"I have something to tell him." Johnny admitted. "I thought about that poem you told my, you know, the Robert Frost one? Well I thought about it and I want to tell Dally to look at a sunset I don't think he ever has. He's so hard and -Ponyboy! what's wrong?" I hadn't noticed until then, but I had been crying. I didn't know how to tell him, didn't know what to say.
"Dally's dead." I said, it came out flat and lifeless. I watched Johnny's eyes widened as what I had just said sank in.
"Why didn't you tell me?" Johnny asked quietly.
"I didn't- I wanted someone else to tell you." I took a deep breath to steady my quivering voice. "It was after he ran out of here, he robbed a grocery store and the police got him before we could hide him. He pulled out a gun, it wasn't loaded, but the police didn't know that- they shot him." Johnny sat silently for several minutes.
"Could you read bit more?" He asked in a quiet, quivering voice.
Weeks passed and Johnny was allowed out of the hospital. After the reporters left and things died down Johnny's parents resumed beating him, and because he was in a wheelchair he couldn't escape. After the fifth time Darry, Soda and I made Johnny stay with us.
It was only after Johnny moved in with us and got settled that I noticed I hadn't seen Sandy since before Johnny and I had run away.
"Where's Sandy?" I asked nonchalantly as Soda poured himself a glass of chocolate milk.
"Moved to Florida." He said it didn't matter. "She had to go to her grandmothers. I told her I loved her... she just didn't love me the same way." Soda took a deep breath and I realised he was fighting back tears.
"She wasn't worth it." I said, Soda shot me a week glance, but I knew he was still hurt by her rejection. Were thing ever going to be okay?
Standing form my vantage point I could see everyone who was at the latest Socs party. Darry had made us come, Soda, and me were ready to say no when Cherry had invited us, but Darry had jumped in and said the whole gang would come. Two-bits and Steve were going to come later though.
Soda was talking to his latest girlfriend Olivia, she was nice and pretty with dark brown eyes and light brown hair, but I knew that in the end that didn't matter, she wasn't Sandy and no matter what Soda said he did miss her.
Darry was talking to Cherry, from his exaggerated gestures I figured he was telling her something he'd heard in collage. Shortly after Johnny moved in with us Cherry heard and convinced her parents to give us some money, not much but enough for Darry to go to college, we'd all been so happy when we found out. Darry had been worried at first, seeing as he didn't want to leave Johnny alone, but that had been fixed and now he spent his days with Soda and Steve at the gas station.
At the moment though Johnny was surrounded by a group of Socs who listening to him re-tell his adventure of saving the kids from the burning church. He was fine and getting over all of the mishaps that had happened... two years ago it's hard to believe it was two years ago.
Two-bits walked over to Darry and Cherry and Marcia, casually he slung his arm over Marcia's shoulders. Two-bits surprised us all by declaring that he was dating Marcia who is not a blond. With a quick exchange of words Darry jerked his head towards the entrance. Steve walked in and with quick, direct strides walked over to Soda and Olivia. He opened his mouth to say something, but at that moment Sandy walked through door.
Soda stood there his mouth hanging open as Sandy walked over, two year old in tow, but before she could reach him Darry stopped her.
"Leave my kid brother alone." He ordered blocking her way.
"But I need to talk to him." She said softly, everyone heard though. The place was dead quiet, watching and wondering what was going to happen.
"You hurt him enough. Leave before you make things worse."
"But- I made a mistake. I know that now." Soda and Sandy had dated for a long time, but I had never seen her cry. At this moment she seemed ready to burst into tears. "Please."
"No." Darry said firmly, clearly not effected by her tears. Nodding she slowly turned away.
"That's it!" Olivia yelled, making me jump. "I'm done with you Soda." Then she stomped out. Clearly Soda and Olivia hadn't noticed Sandy coming in.
"Sandy?" Soda asked. "What are you doing?"
"I wanted to tell you I'm sorry." She glanced at her shoes. "And that I was wrong to leave you." As soon as she said that Soda raced towards her and twirled her around, knocking down the boy who started to cry. "Pepsi!" Sandy exclaimed scooping up the boy. "Hush, hush it's okay. Mummy's here." Slowly he stopped crying and resumed sucking him thumb.
"He looks just like you!" Soda exclaimed, fondly looking at Pepsi who had his mother's china-blue eyes and blond hair. Pepsi stopped sucking his thumb and started stumbling to Soda, arms wide open making it clear he wanted to be picked up. When Soda did pick him up, I knew things were finally okay.
Yeah, yeah. I know, dramatic. But my friend and I were talking to each other about what happened to Sandy and I remembered reading somewhere that it said she'd left b/c she was pregnat so we looked it up and the first five websites said she was. Then we went through depression so I decided to give Sandy and Soda a happy ending. I really wanted to give the kid a cute name close to Soda's and Ponyboy liked Pepsi, so it just kinda worked...