I own nothing, S.E Hinton does. I only own this plot and my imagination.
Thank you to Sunkissedchris for helping me with this and other stories. She's 'da best!
Chapter 1
This whole thing seemed unreal to me. Mr. Curtis was bending on his knee before my mother. Darry and Soda were wild-eyed. I looked at my mother and tried to read her face. She had tears running down her face. Tears of joy judging by her big smile. I looked at Soda and Darry again, trying to understand their thoughts. They looked as shocked as I was. I looked at Mr. Curtis again. He looked more serious than I'd ever seen him. He wasn't a very serious guy. Mr. Curtis was always cracking a joke, not like my deadbeat father.
I never really knew my dad that well. All I knew is that he use to smack my Mom and me around and drank a lot. He was sent to prison after he shot two people in a grocery store holdup when I was about 7. Then Mom and I were on our own for a while. We would travel the country in our car, just driving around to see what there was to see. We would stay in one town for a couple of months, and then we would move. While most people didn't understand how someone could live somewhere for a year, then just move at a moment's notice. But I was used to it, heck, that's really all I could remember doing. I always thought of it as an adventure. When I'm not in school for a while, Mom would teach me stuff like math, English, science, history, and even Spanish. She use to live in Southern Texas with her sister.
My mother is golden and beautiful. She has long blond hair with big blue eyes that lite up when she laughs or smiles. She was smart too. She used to be a teacher before she meet my Dad. My Mom meet my Dad when she was about 23. His name was Nicholas Simmons. They got married a few months later and then before Mom found out how big an asshole Dad was, she discovered she was pregnant with me. She didn't have anywhere else to go, so she stayed with him. It wasn't until I was 5 that he started hitting me. Then Mom saved up a bunch of cash and was going to leave, until Dad found out that she set up a separate bank account in her name. He put Mom in the hospital that night. But Mom never complained. She said that it didn't help anything, just made you focus on the bad. She was right about that. It didn't help anything.
It wasn't until I just turned 13 that we finally settled down. That's when Mom met Darrel Curtis. We were just going to stay for a few weeks in Tulsa. Mom was going to get us a room at a cheap motel on the east side of town and find a job as a waitress at the diner. But a few weeks turned into a few months, and then a few months turned into a year. Mr. Curtis was a construction worker that worked on the apartment buildings two blocks over. He and his sons came in the diner that Mom was working at. I walked in when I saw the two of them laughing with each other. His two sons, Darry and Soda were older than me. They were also a whole lot cooler than me.
They were alright. Soda was nice enough to me and would take me out to the races they had. He was like the big brother I never had but always wanted. Darry scared me at first. He reminded me of my Dad when I met him. I guess my Mom found out about that and told Darrel who then told Darry to be friendlier. Darry took me and Soda to the football field and played football with us. It was kinda nice to have guys to hang out with. They also introduced me to their gang.
Steve Randell is Soda's best buddy since they were little kids. He works part-time at the DX station with Soda. He is great with cars and can lift hubcaps more quietly than I've ever met. He doesn't like me very much, but I am okay with it. I don't like him that much either.
Then there's Two-Bit. Two-Bit Keith Matthews is eighteen and is still a junior in high school. He has sideburns that he carefully groomed and a switchblade that he adores. He is always making a joke about something, even though half the time it never made sense. He calls me 'kid' all the time just to piss me off. But he is a good guy, and a good buddy.
Dally also calls me kid, but he isn't as good a guy as Two-Bit is. Dally is one of the meanest, toughest, roughest people I knew. He is blond hair that curled under his ears and sharp teeth like a lynx. Dallas is dangerous. Even Darry won't mess with him. My Mom seemed to take a special interest in Dally when she first meet him. He is a different person around her. He says things like 'please' and 'thank you' and 'can I help you Ms. James?' Dally doesn't care about many people, just himself and Johnny Cade.
Johnny is like some dark puppy that's been kicked around to many times. His parents beat him. I found that out about a week after I meet him. He came by Mr. Curtis's house all bruised and bloodied. My Mom freaked out and actually tried to go over to the Cade's place to call out his folks. Mr. Curtis talked her out of it though. Mom takes good care of everyone and everything, but Johnny was special. She treated him like she did me, like a son. Johnny was really quiet around the gang, but Mom would get him to talk. Mom's always been good with people.
But anyway, back to the present. Mom nodded her head and laughed. Mr. Curtis smiled and slipped the ring onto her finger. She jumped up and he swung her around. Mom turned back to the three of us. She took my hand. She smiled.
Later that night after the Curtis's went to bed, me and Mom laid on our backs on the grass in front of our apartment building. We sometimes did this on warm nights.
"What do think of all this Pony? Are you alright with me getting married? You haven't said anything about it yet. I thought you'd be happy..."
"I am happy Mama. I think it's great that you're getting married. It's just…." I stop.
"It's just what, baby?" she presses.
"I think I'm going to miss it just being me and you. Ya know? Just the two of us driving around the country? Not having to worry about getting stuck in one place, just being able to go wherever whenever we want. I know that he makes you happy, I just never thought that we would ever get tied down to some place." I looked over to her trying to understand what she saw in Mr. Curtis. I mean sure, he's nice and funny and smart, but I never thought she would ever fall in love with someone.
Mom turned on her stomach and looked at me. She brushed my hair back and sighed. "Pony, I know that your father may have ruined your idea of a father and husband, but believe me on this one, Lil' Colt. Mr. Curtis is NOTHING like your father. Darrel has never threatened me, never hurt me, and hasn't ever even raised his voice to me. Darrel thinks of you as a son. He wants to adopt you, Ponyboy."
I close my eyes. Mr. Curtis wants to adopt me? Man, I never thought about that. Mr. Curtis is going to become my Dad. I'm going to have a Dad.
"When can he adopt me?" I ask Mom. She smiles.
"Nicholas gave up his parental rights years ago. We can go down to the court house before the wedding, if you want."
"Yeah, I'd like that. I'd like that just fine. So, do we have to change our last name?"
Mom raised her eyebrow. "Huh? I guess I never thought about that yet. Yeah, we do. So, I'll be Emily Margret Curtis. I think I like the sound of that. And you'll be…"
"Ponyboy Michel Curtis. I think I like the sound of that too."