Kindergarten was not the place you would find aggressive children. They may push and shove but nothing too violent that would cause serious damage. Those that do are punished like any other.
The biggest first grade bully, Dallas Winston, was up to his old ways: bothering the kindergarten class while having lunch time. Sodapop Curtis and Steve Randle, best friends, expected Dallas to come over to their playground but not to bother them.
Dallas had stolen a kid's lunch and another's jacket. He made his way to Soda and Steve.
"Hey, thumb-sucker." Dallas said to Steve and ripped his sandwich out of his hand. "You want your sandwich back, momma's boy? Come get it you little baby!" Dallas continued eating his sandwich and didn't bother to return it to its right full owner. The sandwich was gone by the time Soda stepped in.
"What'd you call my friend?" Soda stood up. He was not much taller than Dallas but he was feeling brave.
"Thumb-sucker, momma's boy, and a baby, is he not?" Dallas mocked. Soda stood still for a moment, thinking what to say. Instead of speaking, he threw a punch and hit Dallas square in the nose. Dallas stumbled back and was caught in the arms of the teacher, who stared at Soda with eyes of fury. The teacher, Miss Caroline, led Dallas to the nurse and Soda to the principal.
While sitting outside the principal's office, which inside the principal was on the phone with Sodapop's father, Dallas approached him with a bloody tissue held to his nose.
"You're alright, kid. Finally someone's had the guts to teach me a lesson and punch me in the face. We should definitely hang out some time. You can bring your friend too. And I'm sorry about the names I called him. See you around…" Dallas said a lot for someone who didn't like talking to people.
"Sodapop Curtis and my friend is Steve Randle. Nice to meet you Dallas." It was sort of ironic to say it was "nice" to meet Dallas Winston because he was one you don't want to run into on a daily basis.
Everyone continued on with their days as they normally would. Darrel Curtis picked up his two kids from school, Darry and Soda, at the end of the day along with the best friend Steve. At the Curtis home, Sue, the Curtis mother, was home taking care of the young Ponyboy. After dinner and when Steve was gone, Darrel lectured Sodapop about punching people.
Over at Dallas' house, afterschool, things weren't any better. Dallas got off the bus as usual. He walked inside his dreadful home and found his father sitting in his chair reading the paper and his mother was cleaning dishes.
"What happened with this Curtis kid?" Jack, Dallas' father, asked, still looking down at the newspaper.
"He just punched me, I'm alright though." Dallas tried to get away and sneak off to his room but Jack wasn't finished with him.
"Maybe that's why you don't have any friends, you can't defend yourself; you're a baby!" Jack shouted.
"Jack! Please stop making him feel bad about himself. He will make friends with time. Dallas, go to your room and do your homework." His mother, Grace, pleaded. She was always defending Dallas when Jack was always putting him down. Grace loved Dallas but since Jack never wanted a kid, he treated Dallas like he was nothing. Dallas really had no one to love him. If he talked to his mom about it, all she would say was that his dad did love him but he knew it was only a lie. A few friends were all he needed; someone to keep his mind off of home and somewhere to go other than home.
By the Friday of the week Soda punched Dallas, the two were hanging out afterschool and were becoming good friends. Steve was there too and was having just as much fun.
"Hey, Dal, I was thinking you come over this weekend and you can meet my brothers." Soda offered.
"Sure that'd be great. I'll be you by the big oak tree at the park tomorrow at ten." Dallas was happy to finally have some friends. Soda was a good friend too. Dallas didn't tell his parents anything about Soda and Steve; he kept it all to himself.
On the other playground, Sodapop Curtis wasn't the only one in the family making friends. His older brother Darrel, more known as Darry, was bigger than most third graders and he was very popular. He had big dreams of playing football and marrying the most beautiful girl in school: Maryanne Parker. He knew of course that marrying her most likely would never happen, though he lived for football.
Darry was strutting around the playground looking for someone to hang out with. He spotted Maryanne with her friends and Darry stared at her with gleaming eyes. While staring at her, Darry ran into someone.
"Hey, watch it man." It was Keith Mathews, the most sarcastic little kid anyone could ever meet.
"Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to. I didn't see you coming." Darry apologized, sincerely.
"Maybe you shouldn't be looking at girls while you're walking." He paused, looked over at Maryanne and laughed. "You looking at Maryanne?"
"Yeah, so what." Darry shrugged his shoulders.
"Go talk to her. She can't resist a big… guy like you. You got a good rep; she won't say no." Keith pushed Darry toward the pretty girl. What was he supposed to do? Ask her out on a date? Third-graders don't do that, the best he could do was ask her to eat lunch with him tomorrow.
"Hi Maryanne," Darry mumbled. "I was wondering, maybe, if you'd have lunch with me tomorrow." Darry thought to himself: That sounded really stupid. Maryanne turned around and looked at her friends. They giggled and Darry felt real embarrassed for a moment. Darry had asked plenty of girls to eat lunch with him and with them it wasn't so hard; but with Maryanne, he struggled, because he really liked her, more than ever.
"I'd love to." She flashed her beautiful smile that made Darry melt inside.
"Great, I'll meet you at the front of the playground." Darry said. There was a lump in his throat that wouldn't go away, even if he swallowed.
"Perfect." Maryanne turned back around turn her friends as Darry walked back to Keith. Darry put his arm around his new friend and said, "We should hang out sometime."
"I'm free this Saturday. I'll meet you by the big oak tree." Keith winked at him and they continued hanging out the rest of the day.
On Saturday morning, Soda woke up early and was surprised to see his big brother, Darry, awake too. They didn't question each other but continued to look at each other with suspicious eyes. Darry was gonna ask one of his parents to give him a ride to the park but he then decided to hitch a ride with Steve when he came to pick up Soda.
The oak tree in the park was huge; so one person could be on one side of the tree and be completely oblivious to what was happening on the other side. On the east side of the tree, Dallas was waiting for Soda and Steve and unaware of Keith on the west side.
Once everyone met up with their friends, they all headed back to the Curtis house. Still, going to the same place, both groups were unaware of each other. Back at the house, Sue, Darrel, and Ponyboy were just waking up. Sue began making her famous blueberry pancakes. Outside, Soda and Darry arrived with their friends. The brothers gave each other weird looks. Eager to introduce the new boys to the family, all five walked through the doorway all at once, resulting in squeezed boys in between the door frame.
"Well, who do we have here?" Sue laughed as she saw the boys wiggling their way out of the doorway. Pony laughed and cheered in his highchair.
"These are friends from school." Darry explained.
"Oh, wonderful! Why don't you boys make your way to the table for some breakfast?" Darrel, the inviting father, asked. Keith and Dallas did not refuse the offer, nor did the Curtis brothers, along with the family friend Steve. Darrel politely gave up his seat and pulled up another chair so all the boys could sit. Sue served up two whole plates full of pancakes. The boys devoured them in less than fifteen minutes.
"So what are your boy's names?" Darrel asked.
"Dallas, Mr. Curtis, sir." Though rebellious, Dallas could be polite when he wanted to.
"I'm Keith, sir. And who's this kid." Keith pointed to Steve. Soda stood up and said, "I'm Soda, this is Steve, Darry, Keith, Ponyboy, and Dallas. Now we all know each other."
All the boys got along real well while eating blueberry pancakes. Keith, Steve, and Dallas stayed all day and they all hung out with each other, all six of them.
Quickly, all the boys became the best of friends. They became dependent on each other and almost like a little gang of grade school boys.
