Disclaimer- I do NOT own The Outsiders
PONYGIRL CURTIS-
I woke up late. My eyes fluttered open and I smelled all the sweet smells of summer, cut grass, barbecue grills sending their smoke down the street, filling the air with their heavy, burning scent. I stretched and crawled out of bed. I met my twin in the kitchen. He sat across from Soda, shoveling cake into his mouth. I poured myself a glass of orange juice and sat at the table with them. Darry and Buddy were both at work and Steve had a shift at the DX until four. I was stuck with both of them all day unless I decided to hike down the street to Two-Bit's. I decided against it. I wanted to watch t.v. and stay in with Pony and Soda.
I sat on the floor in front of the t.v. flipping through the little channels there were. I settled on some old movie and sat up against the couch with my juice in my hand. I loved summer. Especially now that I had a boyfriend and I was old enough to go places instead of stay home all day until someone can take where I have to go. Soda sat next to me on the floor and gave me his usual cheeky smile. I leaned back and rested my head on the couch. Soda playfully punched me on the arm.
"What?" I asked.
"Are we gonna do anything fun today? Or just watch t.v.?" he asked.
"I'm watching t.v." I said. It was clear that Sodapop wasn't going to take no for an answer, and after almost half an hour of begging, tickling, and wrestling, we all walked down the street towards the D.X. to see if Steve could get of early. We stopped in front of one of the old boarded houses on our street. A red truck was parked in the front. We saw boxes and furniture in the back and a man out front was working on getting the board off of the front window. He was tall, and lean, with muscles almost as big as Darry's. His hair was a curly, dirty blonde that he kept long. The sleeves on his shirt were rolled up and I saw how tight they were on his large arms. His jeans were covered in holes, rips, and oil stains. He turned when I guess he sensed that he was being watched.
"Can I help you?" he asked in a hard, deep voice.
"We live just down the road." Soda spoke up and jerked a thumb towards our house. The man spit into the grass.
"Then why don't you go on back there and get outta my yard 'fore I have the cops out here." He said.
"I'm sorry mister, I-." Soda started.
"Didn't you hear me?" he interrupted. "Get outta here!" he screamed, shaking a fist at us. Sodapop took hold of both our shoulders and pushed us down the street. I looked back at the man. He was yelling at his wife now, something about money. I shuttered. I had heard so many of Johnny's parents' fights before.
We met Steve outside as he was pumping gas for a girl with brown hair in a convertible.
"Hey." He said, giving Soda a high five and kissing me on the cheek. I smiled. Soda told him about the neighbors. He raised his eyebrows.
"Just what we need, More neighbors like the Cades." He said. The Cades had moved away a few months after Johnny and Dally died, to our excitement, we had never seen them again. Unfortunately, Steve, couldn't leave early, but promised to come by the house on his way home. We kept walking and decided to go to the Dingo for some cokes before Going back home to wait for Darry and Buddy to get home from work.
We sat in a booth in the back. I rolled my eyes as the waitress popped her gum in her mouth and flirted with Sodapop. I looked at Ponyboy, who had the same look on his face as I did. We stifled our giggles until she left and Soda punched both of us in the arm. I knew he didn't mean it though. He liked Amanda. She was all he ever talked about, like Sandy. We talked to the other greasers that were there that day. We stayed nearly an hour after we got our cokes, talking to Tim Shepard and some other guys that lived a couple neighborhoods over.
When we left, we could see dark clouds rolling in from the west.
"Looks like rain." Ponyboy surveyed, looking towards the clouds. Not five minutes after that, it started to pour and we took off towards our house. We made it record time. We climbed the steps and walked in the front door to find Two-Bit in the kitchen with his head in the fridge. Sodapop snuck up behind him and put him in a headlock. They knocked a few chairs over while Soda wrestled Two-Bit to the floor. Me and Ponyboy laughed as Two-Bit struggled to his feet.
"What was that for?" he asked, pretending to be hurt. Sodapop smiled his signature smile.
"I was protecting my little brother and sister. I didn't know if you were a burglar or not. I guess I'm just a better brother than you." He answered predominantly.
"Hey, I would protect Debbie if there were burglars in our house!" he said.
"You couldn't even see them through all the mess in your house. You can't even find the food or beer in your kitchen. That's why you're always bummin' around here." Sodapop said.
"Well, maybe I come here to enjoy the company of my friends." He said. And I walked to my room to change out of my wet clothes.
I combed my hair and changed into my blue dress with white buttons. When I came back out Darry was home. I sat on the couch and listened to Soda and Two-Bit, who were still arguing in the kitchen.
"Come on, now both of you quiet down!" Darry yelled at the both of them from the living room, loud enough to make both of them silent. I went into the kitchen. It was my turn to cook dinner. I took out the pots and pans I needed and got started on spaghetti. Buddy came in right as the water for the noodles was starting to boil.
"Hey baby." He said as he put his brief case down on the table. That was one thing I thought was strange about Buddy's job, he carried a briefcase, even though most of the time he wore a button down flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up and jeans to work.
"Hey." I said, as I stirred the noodles into the water. He looked over my shoulder at the pot.
"Looks good." He said and kissed my hair before going off to find my brothers.
That night we all ate dinner together at the table and listened while Darry and Buddy talked about work. Darry grumbled about the rain and how it was almost half a day wasted.
"Come on Darry, we make enough, Relax." Buddy said and put a hand on his shoulder. "So, today, Nancy, one of the journalists at work really liked my political cartoon."
"A political cartoon," Sodapop butted in. "The funny pages are better than them. At least you can understand em' anyway." He laughed.
"They're for adults I'll give you that Sodapop." Buddy said.
"I'm an adult!" he said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"You're right. All of my adult friends dye their mashed potatoes blue." Buddy said with a smile. Sodapop rolled his eyes and went back to eating.
"We have new neighbors." I said, breaking the silence.
"Oh yeah," Darry asked "Who?"
"We don't know their names. They remind me of the Cades." I said. Darry grimaced.
"They've been out of the neighborhood for a while now, they have any kids?"
"We don't know, when he ran us off earlier today, we just saw him yelling at his wife." Soda said.
"Well, all three of you stay away from them then." Buddy said. "The last thing we need is for the neighbor to call the cops on any of you."
"Ah, come on Buddy, nobody calls the cops I this neighborhood." Soda said.
"Fine, the last thing we need is for any of you to get into a fight with the neighbors." He corrected. I smiled at the thought of Sodapop trying to fight the man down the street. None of my brothers had ever lost a fight. Well, the fair ones anyway. Ponyboy and Sodapop cleared the dishes from the table and started to wash them while I sat on the porch swing waiting for Steve. He finally came up the street and met me on the porch. He looked up at the sky, speckled with stars.
"Sure is a good night. Wanna go for a walk?" he asked.
"Sure. Let me tell Buddy first though." I said. I came in through the front door and looked for Buddy. He was in the kitchen at the table.
"I'm going for a walk with Steve. We won't be gone long." I said.
"All right, be back soon, and don't do anything me and your brother wouldn't agree on or it'll be your ass." He said from his chair.
"Uh huh." I said, already out the door.
We started down the street and walked towards the park.
"How's summer?" Steve asked. I thought for a moment about the first day we had been out.
"Boring" I concluded. "How was work?"
"Boring" he said. "Til' I got off." He smiled. We walked in silence for a few blocks until we came to our new neighbor's house.
"That where he lives?" Steve asked. I nodded.
"Yeah." He nodded as well, pondering the house for a minute. We kept walking until we reached the park I sat on one of the swings that wasn't broken and Steve pushed me. I laughed as he pushed me higher and higher. Every time I would soar up into the clouds I would look up at the stars and my heart would pound and my stomach would drop. I laughed harder when that happened. I jumped off and we continued through the park and circled back around through the neighborhood.
I said goodbye to Steve and made my way up the porch steps into the house, where my brothers all sat on the couch or in the chairs, staring into the t.v.
SODAPOP CURTIS-
"How was the walk?" I asked my sister when she walked in the door.
"Fine," she said and made her way to her bedroom. I shrugged and went to the phone to call Amanda. I waited while the phone rang.
"Hello?" I heard my girlfriend say on the other line.
"Hello? Amanda?" I asked.
"Yeah, what's up Tony?" she asked.
"What?" I asked; confused at why she thought I was someone named Tony. Who was Tony anyway? "No, it's Sodapop." I said awkwardly.
"Oh! Soda, I'm Sorry, I thought you were… Never mind, what's up?"
"I wanted to know if you wanted to do something tomorrow." I said. "Who's Tony anyway?" I asked.
"Oh, he's my… cousin. From Houston." She said.
"Oh, well you up for a movie tomorrow then?" I asked. She paused for a minute to consider it.
"Yeah, that sounds, oh, I just forgot, I have to… babysit tomorrow night for my dad. I sorry Soda, I can't." I frowned.
"It's alright. I understand, maybe next time." I said and said my goodbyes before I hung up and got dressed for bed. I had to work in the morning anyway.
I layed in bed alone for over an hour before Ponyboy finally came in. I didn't like to go to sleep until I knew Pony was asleep first. I hated it when he had nightmares. I crawled into bed and I put an arm around his shoulder.
"Did I wake you up?" he whispered.
"No, I was awake." I said.
"Oh, you gotta work tomorrow, huh?"
"Yeah, but Buddy's off, you guys'll find somethin' to do." I told him.
"Yeah." He said; the sarcasm in his voice. I rolled over to look at him.
"What's wrong Pony?" I asked. He looked away quickly and then I knew something was for sure wrong. "C'mon, you can tell me." I said, sitting up. My youngest brother took a deep breath and looked at me with tears in his eyes.
"I still can't get over Johnny and Dally." He said. I closed my eyes and pulled him close again.
"That why you've been in such a bad mood lately?" I asked. He nodded. I still held him close in my chest. "We'll all get over it eventually. It takes time remember when we all thought we would never get over Mom and Dad?" I asked. He nodded again.
"But Johnny and Dally are different." He said.
"Why are they any different? Neither of them would want you to be sad anymore. Not even Dally." I told him. He let a tear slide down his cheek.
"Because if it weren't for me they would still be here; I should be the one that's dead." He said. I sat up again and shook him by the shoulders.
"Don't say that. Don't ever say that. Darry and Ponygirl and me would've went crazy if you would've died in that church or got killed by the cops like Dallas. I don't know why it worked out like that, but I'm glad I still have my brother. Don't say you should be dead ever again Pony, especially in front of Darry and Buddy. You can't blame yourself for that. Johnny dying was a mistake, and Dally, that was his doing."
"Yeah, but if I wouldn't have fell asleep in the lot that night, I wouldn't have run away and we never would've got jumped and Johnny wouldn't have killed that guy."
"No Pony; that was the socs. You didn't ask them to jump you and Johnny that night, you didn't get them drunk, and you didn't do anything wrong to their girls."
"I guess. But either way, they're both still gone." He said.
"Well, yeah, but you can't blame yourself. It wasn't like that." I told him firmly. He settled down in bed again and I layed with a tighter grip over him that night. I hated Pony for thinking it was his fault. He was smart. If we really wanted to, we could trace the blame to anyone in the gang and even more. It could've been my fault, or Darry's or Ponygirl's, the socs, Two-Bit. It was an endless list. I layed in bed for a while more after Pony fell asleep. Maybe we all had some blame in the whole mess.