For Their Flowers

by AndThatWasEnough

It's the summer of 1967 – the Summer of Love. Or, better known to Ponyboy Curtis as the first summer without Johnny Cade by his side. The summer he learned what a joint was. The summer he decided The Beatles weren't so bad. The summer when not only the nation changed, but so did he.

1. It Begins as It Ends

Author's Note: Hey, guys! Welcome to "For Their Flowers". It's gonna be novel-length.

A while ago, I wrote a story titled "Something Inside (That Was Always Denied)." It was essentially a precursor to this story. It's not essential to read, but writing that story is what inspired the writing of this story.

This one picks up at the end of the school year 1967, aka "The Summer of Love." This time, however, we're gonna let Ponyboy take over the story.

Happy reading :)

XXXXX

Usually, I hate when school ends. This year was different.

The clock on the wall above the door had stopped working ages ago. It no longer ticked. I didn't have on a watch, so there was really no way to keep track of the time. The final announcements of the year and then that final bell were what I was waiting for. What everyone was waiting for, actually. Mr. Syme's class sure was boring without anything left to learn.

"Hey. Ponyboy."

I turned my head. The guy next to me, Evan Peters, was the one who'd gotten my attention. "Yeah?"

I liked Evan good enough. He didn't talk too much, and he wasn't some slob. I mean, that's not to say I am, but he wasn't some socy guy. But I don't know if people really say "soc" anymore. That all sorta changed after…well. After. "You got any plans for the summer?"

I had to hold back a sigh. We never had summer plans, even when Mom and Dad were around. Sometimes we'd go out to the country. I suppose those could be "plans." We'd go out for a day, and us guys would go fishing and swimming, and Mom would do up lunch. It was just hanging out in a different place. These days, though, we hardly did much of anything. Summer was hot; my summer plans included bitching about the heat.

"Not really," I shrugged. I didn't think telling him I planned to read all the books in the library would make him think I was real cool or anything. "Hang around. What about you?"

"We have a lake house out in Sand Springs. Or, my grandparents do. But we use it more than they do. We're prolly gonna head out there for a while. You ever been to Sand Springs? It's real close by."

I shook my head. "Nah. We aren't big lake people." Well, I didn't know if that was true, exactly, but we never went. We did all of our swimming at the community pool, or at the river.

"Well, if ya wanted, you could come out with us for a couple days. It'd be fun."

Like I said, Evan was a nice guy, and he was a whole lot nicer than a lot of people were…after all that happened. But I just wasn't sure. "Yeah, maybe. I'll have to ask my brother," I said, trying to sound a little bit enthusiastic so he wouldn't feel let down. Evan smirked, and that seemed to be enough for him.

"Alright," Mr. Syme said from the front of the classroom. He was standing and had a stack of papers in his hand. "I have all your semester themes graded." He started weaving his way through the desks. "I was very pleased…"

I started feeling a bit nervous. I noticed he didn't have mine in that stack. And I would know. My theme had taken up three whole composition notebooks. I would've seen it right off. What if he'd hated it? What if he didn't like the swearing? What if…what if he didn't like me anymore after reading it? He'd treated me nice after everything…but still, what if?

"I hope you all have a good summer," Mr. Syme said once he'd finished passing out the themes. I was the only one without one. Great. Now everyone's gonna think I just didn't bother with it. Just what I need. The bell rang, and everyone sprang up from their seats to file out of the school. "Make sure to stop by and say 'hello' next year!" Mr. Syme called over the noise. "Oh, and Ponyboy! I'd like to speak to you for a moment."

Oh, boy. "Yes, Mr. Syme?" I asked, trying to hide how nervous I was. He walked around to his desk and opened a drawer. I watched as he pulled out my notebooks. He held them out to me.

"Here it is," he smirked. I took them from him slowly. "Ponyboy – "

"Did you not like it?" I asked hurriedly. Mr. Syme laughed.

"Quite the contrary. I loved it. Gave you an A. You'll see it if you open the first book." I did, and sure enough, there was a big fat A+ there. I was a bit too stunned to smile about it or anything.

"Really?" I squeaked, and boy, did that make me feel silly.

"Really," he said. "I left some comments throughout as well. It really was well-written, Ponyboy. Can't say I wasn't surprised to get a whole novel when I only asked for a few pages," he laughed, "but it was a good read."

I was still staring at that A+. This theme had gone and saved my grade. Thank God. Darry would be happy about that, for sure. "Thanks, Mr. Syme," I breathed.

"You're very welcome, Ponyboy. Be sure to come and see me sometimes next year."

I looked up and grinned. "You bet, sir," I said, and he laughed as I left the classroom.

Two-Bit was my ride home that day, but finding him was gonna be a challenge. The hallways were like if all the animals in the zoo had got loose and were now running through the halls of Will Rogers High School. The end of the day is always sorta noisy, but nothing compared to this. I still couldn't get past two things: I'd actually made it through my first year of high school, and Mr. Syme had liked my theme. I hadn't been expecting that.

I found Two-Bit leaning against a column in the lobby. There was sun streaming through the colorful art deco windows, shining down on him and the girl he was with. I recognized her as the girl I'd sat next to in art class. She was writing something in his yearbook.

"Hey, Two-Bit," I said, worried I'd walked into something and that they didn't want me there.

"Hey, kid. Gimme a sec," Two-Bit greeted, briefly glancing at me. "What're you writin', a novel?"

"Shut up," she said, but she didn't seem mad. She just shut his yearbook and handed it back, smiled at him, then ran down the steps to join her friends. I was able to see Cherry Valance at the bottom of the staircase, but she didn't see me. Two-Bit smiled after her. Then he seemed to snap out of it and notice me.

"Kid, gimme your yearbook," he demanded, and then just yanked it out of my hands.

"Careful," I said, sounding a bit whiny. "I've kept it real nice so far."

"I ain't gonna screw it up," he said dismissively, waving me off. He was flipping through the pages.

"You know, you got one of your own. You can just look through yours."

Two-Bit looked aghast. "Kiddo! I need to find a place to sign yours!"

I rolled my eyes. Two-Bit pulled a pen out of his pocket after he'd found the perfect spot, held the cap between his teeth, and scribbled something in my yearbook before passing it back off to me. His message read:

Ponyboy –

See you at home!

Kisses,

Two-Bit

I must've looked at him funny because he laughed at me. "You're weird," I grumbled.

"So're you," he shot back. "C'mon, Ponykid, I wanna get the hell outta here."

"Where's Steve?" I asked as we walked down the lobby steps. Two-Bit raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, so suddenly you care where Steve is?" I scowled. "He and Evie split pretty quick. They were gonna go do somethin', but he'll be at your place tonight, is what he told me. Hope you don't mind walkin' – my truck's still in the shop. And…" He looked down at my feet for some reason. "Looks like you remembered your shoes today, so I'd say we're good."

The guys still teased me a lot about that time I came home from track practice without my shoes. But that was a long time ago. I wish they'd just drop it. "I don't mind walkin'," I said. "Ya know, maybe you should just ditch the truck and get a new car."

Two-Bit shrugged. "Maybe. Costs money," he said. He pulled out a pair of sunglasses and put them on. "Man, kid, am I glad to be outta there."

"You're a senior now," I said, actually feeling a little proud of him. Not that he couldn't have graduated in four years easily, but because he decided to quit screwing around.

We'd all changed, after all.

"I know. It's crazy," he said, and even though I couldn't see his eyes, I could see his eyebrows shoot up. "But I ain't even worried about it right now. There's a whole summer in front of us, Ponyboy! Got any plans?"

I shrugged. "Not exactly. Evan Peters said I could go with him and his family to his lake house out in Sand Springs for a couple days."

"Yeah? He's a friend?"

I mean, I guess he was. I liked him well enough. "Yeah," I said, hoping I sounded confident. "I don't know if I'll go, though."

"Shoot, why not? All you gotta do is get Darry to OK it, and if he's bein' a jerk about it, we could work on 'im."

"I just don't know if I wanna."

"Oh, you gotta do somethin' with yourself this summer, Pony. And you can't just read all the books in the library," he added, sticking a finger my face. I grinned sheepishly, and my ears got hot. "Yeah, that's what I thought. I'mma make sure you have a good summer. Damn sure."

"If that's how you wanna spend your time." We'd been so into our conversation that I'd barely noticed how far away from the school we'd gotten. And I hadn't even gotten a chance to take one last look! "Go for it, I guess. You got any plans of your own?"

Two-Bit smirked. "Hell yeah, I do. My summer's got Bee Stevens written all over it."

XXXXX

Two-Bit had to stop by his place first, but he dropped me off at home. I wasn't expecting anybody to be there. Darry and Sodapop both had work. It wasn't like I wasn't used to being home alone. It happened all the time. At least, it happened all the time these days. Back in the day, Johnny would have come over, maybe even Dallas, and we might go do something. Or maybe we'd just watch TV. I don't care what we would do, it would just be nice if I didn't have to spend all this time alone. You know what I mean?

I let the screen door slam behind me and I set my theme and my yearbook on the coffee table. Then I kicked my shoes off and sat right down in front of the TV and turned it on, flipping through the channels to find something. Bonanza reruns. Fine enough. Then I got up and headed for the kitchen to get something to eat. I was just opening up the fridge when the back door opened up. I was expecting Steve or Two-Bit, but instead –

"Oh, hey, Ponyboy. Didn't hear ya come in."

I jumped. "Darry!" I yelped. "Why're you here?"

He shrugged, looking a little amused. "Home early," he said.

"You left work early?" I asked, disbelieving. Darry looked at me funny.

"Well, yeah. It's the last day of school, and I thought…well, I thought it might be nice if someone were here when you got home."

I attempted to raise an eyebrow so I could convey my confusion to him, but that wasn't working out, so I just said, "They let you do that?"

Darry shrugged. "Well, I may've told a little white lie…" He trailed off and cut his eyes to mine. "Anyways, I'm here. How was it?"

"Fine," I said, still confused by the whole thing, but I decided it would probably be better not to ask any more questions. "Kinda pointless. I only had one final."

"How'd you do on it?" He asked more seriously.

"Fine," I said again, hoping he'd buy it and just drop the subject. When he kept staring at me, I said, "I got my yearbook, if you wanna take a look. There's a whole page in there dedicated to you!"

Darry gave me a wry look. "Right. Yeah, I'd like to see it. Wanna see the football pictures…" He trailed off and headed for the living room. I sighed and grabbed a Pepsi and a ham-and-cheese sandwich and sat back right down in front of the TV to see what Hoss and his boys were up to today. Darry and I sat in a comfortable silence, me watching TV and him going through my yearbook. Sometimes he'd say something about a teacher he either loved or hated, or ask me what the play was that year and why didn't I go because Darry went to things all the time, and why don't I go out for football? I was too worn out to really respond, so I just shrugged or nodded or grunted. Look, Darry's great and all, but I don't always want to have a conversation with him.

"Hey," someone called, and I knew it was Two-Bit.

"Hey," Darry said back. "Did your sister get home?"

"Naw, shipped her off to the circus this morning."

"Good."

Two-Bit laughed. "Yeah, she got home. I had to wait for Mom to get back before I came here, though. That Pony's? You see what I wrote?"

I wished I'd put something on my sandwich like mustard or mayo. It was kinda dry, but it tasted fine. With Two-Bit here now, we just had to wait on Sodapop and Steve. Darry and Two-Bit pretty much ignored me. I guess they figured I'd given them all I had to give for the time being. Two-Bit kept pointing out stuff in the yearbook, and Darry would ask questions. They started on hunts for the ugliest girl, funniest school picture, best candid. Darry sure does have a whole lot more fun with Two-Bit than he does with me. But maybe that's my fault.

"Lookit Kathy, man. She looks halfway decent in this picture, don't she?"

"Yeah, I guess she does."

I put my plate in the sink and drained the rest of my Pepsi. I cleaned out the bottle. It'd be good for holding flowers, but the guys would probably tease me for that, say it was too girly. They're probably right. So I put it in the trash. When I went back out to the living room, Darry looked up.

"What's the thing on the coffee table?" He asked.

"What thing?"

He rolled his eyes. Two-Bit laughed and mumbled smartass to Darry. "The notebooks."

"Oh. They're nothin'. Just notes from the year."

Darry's mouth formed an 'o'. Guess he had bought it. "Can I look?" I asked. "It is my book."

"Here, kid, just lookit mine," Two-Bit said distractedly. I hadn't even noticed he'd brought it over. I sat in Darry's chair and started at the very beginning of the book. The first section was a "year in review." The top song of the year was "I'm a Believer" – gotta love The Monkees. There was something about that crazy Paul McCartney conspiracy. The Orioles won the World Series. People under twenty-five were Time's Man of the Year. There was that whole "bigger than Jesus" thing. Actually, there was a lot about The Beatles and music in here. Speaking of Bonanza, it was the hit show of the year. Twister was the hot Christmas present apparently, The Sound of Music won best picture, and the war in Vietnam still raged. Tell us something we don't know!

After a few pages of candids, there were the staff and faculty pictures. I kinda skimmed through those. Mr. Syme's picture was pretty typical. He was really the only teacher who I wanted to find. Principal Vernon's was really corny, though. Then there were a few more pages of candids. Then they had all the senior pictures. There was a little cross next to Bob Sheldon's name underneath his portrait. My chest tightened just briefly when I saw that. Most of the people I knew or were friends with were juniors. There was Evie Martin and Two-Bit and Steve. On one of the 'S' pages, there was a heart next to Bridget Stevens' name, and in girly writing was the message I've reserved the entire inside back cover for myself. Xoxo. I'd have to check that out once I got there. I tried hard not think about how Sodapop's picture should've been in there. Instead, I thought about how Steve and Two-Bit actually cleaned up decently. I found a picture of Cherry Valance. She was still a looker, that was for sure. I got to the sophomores next. There was a cross next to Johnny's name, but I really quickly skimmed over that. Heck, I skipped pretty much the entire sophomore class. I paid a little more attention to the freshman class and grimaced at my picture, even though it probably wasn't even that bad. I knew almost everybody, I realized. Some of my friends had some pretty unfortunate pictures, too. And some of the girls were pretty cute. Not Cherry Valance cute yet, but still. But I didn't really want to date yet or anything.

All the extracurriculars were last. I found the football pictures, and there was Bob Sheldon again, and all his buddies. There were some pictures of the cheerleaders. Candids of all of them in action. The basketball team, the swim team, the tennis team, the cross country team, the baseball team. I wonder if Two-Bit ever missed baseball. If he was wondering of going for it in his last year. I bet he could whip 'em all. There were pictures of all the clubs and academic teams. Then there were the band kids, the choir kids, the theatre kids. I saw that girl Two-Bit was into again. She'd been in the play. Heck, she was all over the place. I paid extra close attention to the track pictures. I found myself and a few of my buddies in the team picture. I was in the second row. I was a bit embarrassed to notice I was one of the only ones who had smiled. Then there was a picture of me at the state meet. I'd gotten third in the mile. I guess that's pretty good, considering. Some of the older guys on the team were a bit irritated that they'd lost to me since I'm a freshman, but hey – running is what I do.

I guess I'm not a freshman anymore, actually.

"…figure I'll take some extra shifts, now that school's out. Won't have to hang around Dad too much, either."

"Yeah, I guess he's on summer break, too, ain't he?"

Steve and Sodapop. Steve's dad was a junior high math teacher.

"Hey, y'all," Darry said. He and Two-Bit were still distracted by my yearbook and Bonanza. "Soda, don't throw – "

But Sodapop was already in the motion and he threw his hat at the couch, and it hit Darry in the face. The guys thought it was hysterical. Darry didn't. I smirked behind Two-Bit's yearbook.

"Pony, hey!" Sodapop said. "This your yearbook? I wanna see."

I pulled it away. "No! It ain't mine, but I ain't done lookin' at it yet."

"Then whose is it?"

"Mine," Two-Bit piped up. "We're lookin' at his."

"Soda, I got mine."

"You always come through for me, Steve."

So this is what the last day of school looked like. What came after. Sodapop and Steve used to do this, sit around and look through their annuals, and Two-Bit and Darry did, too. Johnny and I would, too, when we were in the same school. Even after he went to high school, he'd let me look at his. I'd always wanted to be up in high school with all of them. It's felt like they've been in high school for my whole life, and that I've always been in kindergarten. And now that I've completed a whole year of it, I can't tell yet if it feels like I made it through at all, or if it even happened. This year sure was weird.

I finally got to the back of the book. Two-Bit sure had gotten a lot of signatures – guess he was a popular guy. I mean, I got a good amount, but he got a lot more than I did. But he seemed to know just about everybody. I bet even people who hated him wanted to sign his. I wondered if Steve got any. I don't know who he likes besides us and Evie, anyways. I was curious about what was written on the back cover and had just gotten a peek at it ("Well, well, Keith Mathews. Seems you got the girl…") when the book was snatched out of my hands, and mine shoved in its place. I looked up and saw Two-Bit grinning down at me with one eyebrow cocked.

"You've seen enough," he said happily.

"Why can't I see it?" I asked, careful not to sound too whiny or Steve might make some smart remark.

"'Cuz I said so," Two-Bit jabbed a finger in my face. Then he held his behind his back so Darry could grab it.

"Why does Darry get to see it?"

"'Cuz I said he could," Two-Bit said smartly.

"Can I see?" Soda asked.

"Yeah, can we see?" Steve asked, because if Soda got to do something, then so did Steve.

"Sure," Two-Bit shrugged.

The two of them scrambled up to the couch so they could read over Darry's shoulder. Two-Bit smirked, strolling back over to the couch, leaving me alone on my little reclining island. Hypocrites – all of them hypocrites.

XXXXX

I thought I'd want to stay up real late on the first day of summer, or maybe go out, but after dinner, I took my yearbook and my theme back to my room and sat on my bed, spreading everything out in front of me. I had another bottle of Pepsi and a packet of peanuts, and I dumped the peanuts in. Soda thinks that's weird because that's usually something someone does with Cokes, but I like Pepsi better. So the peanuts go in the Pepsi.

I opened up my yearbook, ready to go through it again. Without everybody around, I was able to focus on each candid, look for people I knew, figure out what event each one was taken at. I found a lot of pictures of Cherry – at dances, at cheerleading. She was real popular. My heart sank a bit; I knew logically why she never really said 'hi' to me, and I guess I couldn't blame her, but it still hurt some. Then I thought of Bob Sheldon and Johnny and Randy Adderson and Marcia and even Dallas, and I looked over at my theme. I hadn't read any of Mr. Syme's comments yet. I picked up the first notebook, the one with the A+ on the first page, and started looking through it. I didn't bother to read what I wrote, but I searched for comments. It was really only little things. The first two notebooks didn't really have much, but when I got to the end of the third notebook and the end of the story, I found something.

Ponyboy,

Congratulations on writing this. I know that might sound strange, but this is a real accomplishment. I have to admit, I was worried about you for a while there. You were always a good student, and I understand how all of this happening to you affected that. It was more than just the change in your academics that concerned me, though. I think that your writing this is a big step for you. I'm flattered that you told me your story.

You're an extremely insightful young man, and what you've gone through is more than anyone should have to go through in a lifetime. So I think that not only are you insightful, you're also very brave for continuing on in the way you are. Unfortunately, not everyone may see it that way, but I want you to know that you're not alone, Ponyboy. It may feel as if you are sometimes, but if you ever feel alone and like there's no one to turn to, you know my extension.

Mr. Syme

I lowered the notebook onto my lap. I looked out the window; it had gotten dark outside. Guess I'd gone and stayed up late anyways.

I want you to know that you're not alone, Ponyboy.

I suppose I knew that. I guess it was just nice to read it. But sometimes, it didn't feel as if I weren't alone. Sometimes, I feel like the loneliest person in the world

XXXXX

AN: Today was my last day of high school, so it was the last day for the boys, too. Art does imitate life.

I obviously don't own anything – Hinton does. I hope to update this about once a week. Thank you so much for reading! See y'all next time :)