"Hey guys," I said. I tossed my tool belt on the table. "Soda what'd you make for dinner?" I asked walking in the kitchen. I peaked under the plate that was wrapped in foil. "That's cute." Green eggs and ham.

"Darry, we have a problem." Soda edged himself into the kitchen.

"What is it?" I threw down my green eggs.

"Pony locked himself in his room. He won't come out, I even put a plate next to the door and he's not opening it, he won't eat and he's been in there all day!"

"Can't blame him for not eating." I muttered. I knocked hard on the boy's bedroom door. "Pony you alright?"

"Go away!" He screamed.

Two-Bit approached the hallway. "Maybe he's looking at a dirty magazine; you know he's at that age."

I rolled my eyes. "Shut it. Ponyboy, can you at least tell me why you want to lock yourself in there?"

"Why can't you just leave me alone?"

"Because I'm Darry, and I get the privilege of knowing everything."

Soda and I waited for an answer, there was nothing? "Fine, do your homework while you're in there!"

"Darry, I don't think that's going to get him out." Soda said. He looked hopeless at me.

"Pony you have until Soda needs to go to bed, and then I'm taking the hinges off."

If he wanted to lock himself in his room then I was going to let him. Hell, I almost wish it'd be Soda, then maybe I'd get some quite time. I shook my head. This place will never be quite. I haven't had time to myself in months. I dragged myself into the kitchen and ate the green eggs and ham. I flipped through the bills for this month. Social Services would be here to check up on us soon. One more payment and the funeral would be paid off. I looked down at my hands, I gave myself a couple more cuts; talk about dirt underneath the fingernails.

I went to go change. I stepped foot in time to see Pony peak his head out but he couldn't make it in time. I crossed my way into his room. "What's going on?" I asked.

"Ryan's dead." He answered.

I sighed. I knew Ryan turned up dead but I didn't think it'd affect Pony this much. "It's my fault."

"How is it your fault?"

"I let him leave the library." Pony looked up at me. I could the scrapes on the side of his face from the fall yesterday. I couldn't help but smile. He just looked so small especially sitting down when I was towering over him.

"No, Ryan knew better than to go out alone, no one's blaming you, Ponyboy."

He shook his head. "Yeah they are at school. I had to put up with their crap all day!"

"I think they are just scared."

"Everyone's scared." He said. "Except you."

God, he had no clue. "You do your homework?"

Pony pointed to his desk where a stack of school books were. "Finished it three hours ago."

"Good boy"

(Soda's P.O.V)

"Darry!" He was in the house somewhere; I wasn't sure where so I screamed loud enough for him to hear me.

"Soda, don't yell like that. I already have a headache." He came into the living.

I waved my hand at him and kicked my shoes off. Bugs Bunny was going to come on any minute and if I beat Two-Bit I'd get to watch the entire thing. I changed the channel and went to sit down when the news interrupted the theme song.

"Breaking news! Michel Tosh a 16 year old boy is reported missing for the past twenty four hours. The boy never made it home from school."

I jumped when I felt someone touch me. "He was in my class." I said. I looked up at my older brother. "Do you think they'll find him?"

Darry didn't say anything. He just squeezed me. "We need to go get keys made."

Darry was going to lock our doors. I watched as they flashed a picture of Michel across the screen and then Bugs Bunny came back on.

"What the hell is that?" Two-Bit cried. "That isn't the mouse."

I swallowed the lump in my throat. "Here you bum watch Mickey. I need to do something."

I was going to have to wait a while. I had to wait until Darry went off to his PTA meeting. We were outside playing a game of football when he left. "Guys, I'll be right back; I have to get something."

I went down into the basement. We never went hunting anymore, not since Dad died. The gun cabinet faced the wall like always. I turned it slowly hearing it squeal on the floor. I unlocked the cabinet and grabbed a gun. It felt heavy in my hands. I haven't held a gun in a long while. I loaded and brought it to my room. I put it under the bed. There was one thing that was never going to happen; no one was going to hurt me or my brothers.

"Soda, what are you doing?" Steve asked.

I whirled around wondering if he saw what I had. He was looking at me like I had grown another head. "Come on; let's win before Darry gets back. You know Pony and Johnny always get him on their team."

Darry's (P.O.V)

I had been to meet the teacher night, and even open house. There was nothing scarier than a junior high PTA meeting. My parents went every now and then; but I had never been to one. In fact my last run in with a teacher was Soda's math teacher and boy was she ever ticked.

"Darry, what on earth are you doing here?" I knew the voice.

I spun around. "Well, I thought I maybe should come."

Mrs. Matthews smiled. "It's not easy in there."

"I bet."

I walked in to the gym where the meeting was being held.

One dark haired man looked up at me. I was going to guess that he was some kind of leader. "Boy, this isn't a frat party." He said to me.

"That's good, I wasn't planning on parting."

"Jim, hush." Mrs. Matthews hissed.

"No, we discussing a serious matter here today, junior."

I hated when people called me junior, my Dad is the only one who can call me that. This guy was looking at me like I was some kind of little kid.

"Do you have a name and reason to why you are here?"

"Darry Curtis, My brother goes to this school and well I'm his guardian seeing how my parents died two months ago."

The man paled. It was very easy to guess that his little snot nosed brat was probably a soc. "Have a seat son."

I hated when people called me that too.

I walked Mrs. Matthews to her car. I sat around for an hour and a half to be called degrading names like junior, boy and son and our final solution was to have a police officer come to our school talk about safety and make sure no children were walking by themselves. If I was smoker I would have gone through a fucking carton.

Mrs. Matthews looked me up and down the way she did when I was a little kid. "Look at you, I remember when you're Mama brought you home. Now, you're all grown up. Your parents would be real proud of you."

"Thank you."

"You don't let those people get to you. They don't know what its like to be good, hard working people. We try to raise our kids right give them what they need. We get looked down upon because our clothes aren't perfect and our jobs aren't always" She paused for a second. "Moral;" she put her hand on my face and brushed her thumb across my cheek. "You love those boys and that's the only thing that matters. You aren't junior, son or boy to them. In their eyes you're always big and always the hero. You remember that."

I nodded. She was right; I was always the big brother no matter how many times those stupid soc in there put me down. "I will thank you."

I unlocked the front door to find Johnny and Steve on opposite ends of the couch. They'd have no reason to leave here. I walked down the hall and pushed open the door to their room. I leaned on the door room. The moon had created a white wash over their faces. It was weird Soda looked so delicate when he slept, yet Pony looked like he was a solider over in nam trying to sleep. They were safe, completely safe nothing could get to them. This was the only time when they were right in front of me that I realized they were perfectly okay.

"I don't understand what's so exciting about them sleeping." Dally's voice came from behind me.

"Means more than you'll ever understand." I mumbled not bothering to look back at him.

"Stick around tomorrow, I'm getting keys for everyone since we are locking our doors."

Dally looked at me. "Coming from New York, this stuff only happens to people who are stupid. No one in their right mind if going to just prance into the house and take your brothers."

"I'm not taking the chance." I said. "Not with three kids missing and two dead."

"Darry, don't beat yourself up"

"Shit" I interrupted him. Pony sat up in bed with his eyes clothes and his face drenched in sweat. He was biting his jaw down hard. I felt bad for the poor kid because ever since Steve started sleeping here a lot more along with Dally and Johnny, he was afraid to scream and cry when he had nightmares instead he'd do it to himself. He was biting down so hard I was surprised his jaw didn't snap at the tension.

"Baby, shah." I whispered. I picked him easily off the bed. I heard the door shut and I thanked God that Dally was wise enough to leave. He dug his face into my neck. I knew the water works were coming next. I rubbed the back of his head. I hated this. I swayed back and forth for the sake that he wouldn't know that I was freaked out by his dreams. I hated not being able to protect my brothers by something that wasn't tangible. "It's all over, its all over, you're okay"

"I ain't going back to sleep." He choked out. Pony was making a desperate attempt to stop crying.

I had a strange feeling that he meant it. "Alright." I wasn't going to argue with him. When he was this upset. I took him into the kitchen and filled up a glass of water and went outside. "Here, take a sip." I put the glass into his hands as I sat down he spun the glass around in his hands. I liked it outside; it was quite and light was beginning to peak.

"Ponyboy, I think we need to see a doctor." I wrapped my arm a little tighter to stop him from shivering.

He shook his head. "I'm okay now." His shaking told me other wise. He played with my fingers. "Do you think Mike is going to die?"

"Don't think about that kind of stuff. It will make your nightmares worse." I told him.

"Sorry, you can go back to bed in you want."

"You have nothing to be sorry about." I said. Pony snuggled closer. I watched him try and force his eyes open. "You know it's better if you just try to sleep."

Pony shook his head. "Darry?"

"Hmm?"

"How come you're never scared?"

"Because, I'm superman." I rested my chin on his head. "I'm scared too, kid. I don't want anything to happen to you." I looked down at him. Of course, he falls asleep.

"The kid alright?" Dally asked when I walked into the living room.

"Yeah just spooked." I answered.

The next two days seemed like they'd never passed. Ryan's funeral that Pony and I went too and Michel Tosh was still missing; along with another one. I passed out keys to the entire gang. I managed to tell my angry boss that I wasn't working the late shift as soon as the next schedule came out. That was two weeks. I separated the last of the whites and darks. Soda would get out of work at three, I checked my watch. It was just me, Pony and Johnny today. Dally was recovering from Bucks party and Two-Bit stayed home to watch his sister. I picked out a red sock that had found its way into the whites.

"Leave now!" Pony screamed.

My head shot up. He wasn't talking to Johnny. I looked up out the window and they weren't in the backyard like they were supposed to be. I heard him scream again and then bolted to the front yard.

It was those people who came to either read us the bible or try to get them to join their church. I pulled my little brother close to me. "What's going on?"

"Them!" Pony jerked a thumb to the two strangers standing in my front yard.

"We didn't mean to cause trouble." The lady said immediately.

"The door was locked we couldn't get inside." Johnny looked down at his feet.

I knew that would backfire on me in some way. I looked at the two people in front of me. "I'm sorry; they are just really spooked with everything that is going on. I'll take the lititure and read it."

The man handed mea stack of papers and pamphlets. "We are sorry, we never meant to scare, and we just wanted to share God's word."

I nodded and watched them walk off. "You guys alright?" They nodded; both red from embarrassment. "Good, I thought I told you to stay in the house or back yard!

Pony held up a football. "We just came to get this and then they showed up saying they had something to share."

Soda's (P.O.V)

"Hey, Steve watch this." I turned a somersault and landed on my hands in a handstand.

Steve flicked his cigarette but a small smile managed to escape. We went over to his house after work and his old man came back drunk. It just wasn't good. I toppled over and landed on my ass. Steve finally laughed.

"You should look into joining the circus." He said sarcastically.

"You should too. You could be a clown; you wouldn't need the costume!" I stuck my tongue out at him and then left to go inside.

"Where the hell have you been? You got off work at three! It's almost five!" Darry screamed.

I bit my lip down and jumped back. "I just went to Steve's house for a little bit."

"Is Steve's phone disconnected? You could have called me!"

"I'm sorry." I said to him even though I was starring at me feet. It was really hard to look at Darry when he was mad at you.

"I want you in your room for the rest of the day."

I frowned and waved to Steve and braced myself for boredom.

"I'll go find Dally." Steve said.