Disclaimer: I don't own The Outsiders.

Summary: One-shots about the Curtis family on the forth of July. Age's : Ponyboy- 12 Sodapop- 14 Darry- 18. Sodapop's point of view.

One hot summer night me, Darry, Ponyboy, and our parents were at the beach. It was the Forth of July, in 1963. Me, Darry and Ponyboy sat quietly on a beach towel, staring up at the bright sky. Fireworks were flashing in every direction, making the sky so bright, it was almost like day-time. The sky went black for a moment, then a light blue firework lit it up again. Ponyboy was completely dazed, and never took his eyes of the sky, but Darry wasn't too interrested. He just sat there, a blank expression masking his face.

We had a bowl of boiled peanuts sitting in between us, and three Pepsi's. I put my hand in the bowl of peanuts, still staring at the sky. Me and Pony both grabbed the same peanut, and I pulled it toward me. He wasn't letting go either so we had a little game of tug-of-war with it.

"I had it first!" I yelled, glaring at him and jerking the peanut my way. Darry stared at us disapprovingly, but I ignored him. Ponyboy pulled the peanut toward him, glaring back at me.

"No! I did!" Ponyboy yelled at me. We kept on fighting until our mother got up and walked over to us.

"What is all the commotion about?" she asked us. Me and Darry were silent, but Ponyboy immediately pointed to me and said,

"He's trying to steal my peanut."

"What?" I shoued, bewildered at my younger brothers lie. "He was stealing it from me!" Mom shook her head, but a smile was pasted over her lips.

"Boys, there's a whole bowl, can we please just have a civilized Forth of July?" she begged us. I shrugged, and Ponyboy jerked the peanut from my fingers, quickly pealing it open and shoving it in his mouth. That was enough to make Mom happy, because she walked back to her lawn chair beside Dad. As I picked up my Pepsi, and lifted it to my lips, I noticed Darry was still glaring at me.

"Why do you two always have to be so immature?" he questioned. I sighed, frustration building inside me. Darry always thought he was so much more mature than us. And he always wanted to be in control too. He was like a third parent.

"C'mon Dar, we were just playin'. Lighten up," I said, playfully punching his shoulder. He turned his eyes back to the sky, and didn't say anything else. I nudged Pony's arm, and he turned around to face me.

"What?" he asked. I motioned for him to come closer, and he did.

"Let's get handful's of dirt," I whispered to him. "And throw them at Darry." I finished, trying not to laugh. Ponyboy grinned at me, and nodded. We both nonchalantly grabbed two handful's of dirt. I whispered "1...2...3..." then yelled, "NOW!" and we both let the dirt fly out of our hands, onto Darry. Darry's face was covered in dirt, and so was his hair. He spit dirt out of his mouth and brushed it off his cheeks. He glared at us. Me and Pony were both laying on our backs laughing. Ponyboy was laughing so hard he had tears rolling down his cheeks.

"You two are so immature!" Darry yelled at us. That only caused us to laugh harder. My stomach was starting to cramp from laughing so hard, so I tried to make myself stop.

"We're not immature, your just too mature," I said. Darry raised an eyebrow at me. Ponyboy stopped crying and sat up. He was still giggling a little, but luckily he was in control of himself now. Darry suddenly leaned over and started to tickle me. I screamed and laughed, and Ponyboy backed away, hoping not to be tickled too. I figured it wasn't fair for just me to be tickled, so as Darry was still tickling my stomach, I reached over and started tickling Ponyboy.

"Ah!" Ponyboy screamed in shock, then his screams turned into laughs. We all tried to jerk away, but we werent successful. Ponyboy suddenly broke free and started running. I jumped up and ran after him, and Darry ran after me. We chased each other all around the beach.

I caught a glimpse of our parents. They were both a little shocked, and mom was raising an eyebrow. Darry never played with us like this. Darry grabbed me around my waist and shoved me onto the ground. Ponyboy fell onto the ground beside me, exhausted. Darry sat down too.

"See, Soda?" Darry asked me. "I can be immature too."

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