I woke up late the next day. My first thought was 'Darry must've gone to work already'. My second thought was 'What time was it?' My third move that morning was to grab my clock in shock and fall out of bed. It was eleven o'clock, meaning that school had already started. I grabbed a pair of clean jeans out of the closet and pulled them on over my boxers.

I ran out into the living room where Dally was sitting on the floor drinking a Pepsi and Tera was sleeping on the couch. "Hey kid," said Dally with a smile.

"Why didn't anyone wake me up!" I yelled as I searched the living room for a tee shirt.

"We figured you didn't want to go to school," said Dally finishing the Pepsi and lighting a cigarette. "That's why we let you sleep."

I found a tee shirt under a stack of newspapers and pulled it on, "Dally, I've got a HUGE test today! Now how am I gonna pass ninth grade huh?" I pulled on my old Converse and looked around the room for the math homework I'd done last night.

"Hey," said Tera groggily, sitting up and sliding Dally's jacket off of her. "What's all the noise for?"

"Pony here wants to go to school," said Dally with a chuckle. Tera smiled and passed Dally his jacket.

I groaned and began frantically looking for my homework; Darry would kill me if I didn't show up at school! I finally found it under an empty plate with chocolate bits on it. Then a horrible thought occurred to me, and I turned to talk to Dally and Tera.

"Dally, we're not allowed to turn up at school late. The people in the office know me by now, and I'll get busted for sure unless I climb in a window or something."

Dally gave me one of his looks that said he was planning something. "So, the people in the office know you do they? Then we'll just have to make sure they don't see you won't we?" He stood up; putting on his jacket over the dirty white tee shirt he was wearing.

"What are you planning?" I asked, throwing my homework in my bag.

Dally gave me a smile, "Ponyboy, if I told you how we was gonna break into the school it would ruin all the fun wouldn't it?" I gulped thinking this might end up like the time Two-Bit was late to school and got busted for breaking in. Tera stood up, wincing from the pain of a few bruised ribs.

"I'm comin'," she said, pulling on her shoes that were at the end of the couch. "I don't care what you have to say Dallas Wilson, but I don't plan on spending two weeks or who knows how long hiding out in this house." She walked up to him and looked him in the eye, and I was struck by both of their eyes. They were both blue, and both harbored the same look of hatred towards the world. I thought Dally would explode, nobody talked to Dallas Wilson like that. But Dally just shrugged and took another drag on his cigarette.

"Whatever. I'm not tellin' you what to do." He opened the door and held it as we walked out. By now my mind was racing trying to find out what Dallas had planned to get me into school in time to take a test that my entire grade depended on. Dally led us to Buck's house. Buck was a party man, and Soda and Darry had promised to pound me into the ground if I ever came within thirty feet of his house. I was fine with that, seeing as how Buck hated kids my age. 'Young vandals' he called us.

Dally opened up the garage and hotwired Buck's Mustang quicker then you can blink. He drove it out of the garage with a grin on his face and honked the horn, making me jump. "Dally, hasn't it occurred to you that Buck might actually be in his house?"

"Sure Pony, but he's probably sleeping off a hangover," he said as Tera jumped into the shotgun seat. I groaned, but got into the backseat. In a few seconds we were speeding down the road, and I could actually smell the rubber tires burning. Dallas drives like a madman, ignoring the laws of the road. Within seconds we were a few blocks away from the school. Dally stopped the car and parked in the parking lot of a Denny's.

"Okay, here's what we're gonna do..." Dallas lit a cigarette and took a drag from it. "Pony, me and Tera are gonna go up to the office and…'distract' them. While we're talkin' to them you're gonna run past and get to your test."

"And how are we gonna distract them?" Asked Tera, taking Dally's cigarette out of his mouth and taking a deep drag from it.

Dally smiled and took back his cigarette, "Be glad you're Sodapop's kid brother, otherwise I wouldn't be doin' this for you." He jumped out of the car and ground his cigarette out on the pavement.

Tera and I followed him towards the school. We passed the DX Station where Soda and Steve worked and Dally waved at Steve who was obviously was cutting school today. I groaned and hoped Soda wouldn't come out to see me sneaking into school. Darry would be so incredibly mad, he would ground me forever. I could already hear his voice in my head.

'What were you thinking! You have to go to school; otherwise you'll get put in some boys home! Sneaking into school, what were you thinking Ponyboy!'

"Hey, Ponyboy, you okay?" Asked Tera, stopping and waving her hand in front of my face, "You don't look so hot."

"He's fine," said Dally, looking both ways as we came upon the school. "Okay kid, you know the plan. Just trust me, it'll work."

Dally and Tera walked into the school, and I followed them at a distance. I wondered if Dallas dropped out, and if he went to this school too.

"Hey," said Dally. I could hear his breathing and I wondered if this would ever work.

"Excuse me sir can I help you?" I saw Dally stiffen and I saw Tera cast a look in my direction.

"Yea, our kid is here and we're goin' on vacation."

I saw Tera hold in a laugh, but she went along with it. "Yes, Jacob Wilson. We're going out of town and we're checking him out." She tried to look like more of a Soc, but I doubted that the secretary believed her. I could see them through the secretary's eyes. They were JDs, hoods, greasers, troublemakers. Surprisingly the secretary nodded and buzzed over the intercom.

Dally nodded at me and I ran, hunched over into my math class. As I opened the door I heard the secretary trying to talk to Dallas.

"Sir there isn't a child at this school by that name," she said, but I shut the door and walked into class. I'm not going to bore you with how long and pointless my day was, so I'll cut to the part where I left my last hour.

I walked out from the cool air conditioned school into the harshness of the real world. As usual a couple of Socs screamed at me from out the window of their car.

"Hey greaser, don't walk away when I'm talkin' to you!" Yelled one of them, slowing down the car they were in.

"Boys I think the greaser needs a bath, why don't we give him a bath boys?"

I could tell they were up to trouble, so I ran as fast as I could to the DX where Sodapop worked. I can run pretty fast if I want to, I'm in track. But these guys had state of the art cars, and they caught me just as I ran into the air conditioned gas station. Dally and Tera were standing there talking to Soda.

"Hey Pony, what up," said Soda, noticing how out of breath I was.

"Soc," I panted, clutching the handrail.

"This aint their turf," said Dally, pulling out his switchblade.

"They hurt you Ponyboy?" Asked Tera, looking out the window with a steely glint in her eye.

I shook my head, still winded. "If they're gonna keep doin' this I'm gonna have to quit smoking," I said, shaking my head.

Soda grinned like the maniac he is and Dally walked over to Tera. "Look," she said, inclining her head. The blue Mustang was cruising around the DX, as if waiting for one of us to come out.

"Damn Socs," said Dally with an angry look outside. "I'm in half a mind to go show them who's turf this really is. Just cuz their dads own half the city, makes them think their better then us, the no good sons of a…" Dally then proceeded to call the Socs every single foul word he knew.

"Nice vocabulary Dally," I said, holding back a laugh.

"Well I for one don't plan to let any no good preppy boys keep me from leaving," said Tera, and she walked out the door, her eyes blazing with hatred for the Socs.

"Girl's gonna get herself killed," said Dally, and followed her, switchblade at the ready.

"Let's make sure they don't kill each other," said Soda, and I followed him outside.

The Socs were sitting in their car, yelling curses at us, telling us where we should go, and what we should do to ourselves. "Hey girlie," yelled one of them, walking up to Tera. "Why are you hangin' with this trash baby, come hang with us." Tera turned around to face the Soc.

"I wouldn't hang with you if I was at gunpoint. I'd rather die then shame myself with a Soc." She sat in his face and turned around to stand next to Dallas, "These people are better then you can ever hop to be, even if your daddy owns half the city."

The Soc looked angrily at her and pulled out a switchblade, "You lookin for trouble?"

Tera walked up to him, so close they were almost touching, but we heard every word she said. "Go ahead, knife me. I'd like to see you try it again. There's a whole bunch of people who'll say that you started it. You'd be in the cooler before you could bat your eye."

The Soc looked stunned that a girl, much less a greaser, would talk to him that way, "Why you little shit," he said letting his switchblade catch the light. "I'm in half a mind to cut you in half."

"You've go the half a mind thing right," said Tera, giving him a look of hatred unrivaled by none.

Soda and I jumped down the stairs to stand next to Dally, pulling out our blades. "That's enough," said Soda, walking over to Tera and the Soc. "I don't want any blood Tera. If you kill this Soc I'll have to clean it up, and I hate cleaning."

Tera gave the Soc a look of hatred and walked over to us, standing next to Dally.

"You better watch it you greasers or you'll be in for it." The Socs hopped back into their car and began driving off, making rude hand gestures at us out the window. The second their mustang had rounded the corner Dally turned to Tera and wrapped her in a bear hug.

"You dig okay," he said, letting her go. I smiled and looked over at Soda, who was putting his blade back in his pocket.

"Hey, nobody tells Darry about this," he said, walking back inside. "He'll flip and throw us all out." He gave us one of his signature grins and shut the door behind him.

I put my blade away and looked over as Johnny walked towards us. "Hey, what were those Socs doin' around here, this aint their turf," he said with a nervous look around.

Dally looked at the corner that the upper class rich kids had disappeared. "Well Johnnycake, you're in luck. Tera here just drove 'em off." He lit a cigarette and took a deep drag.

"Man Tera, don't do that," he said, blowing a smoke ring. "Incredible bluffing by the way," Dallas began walking towards our house, right next to Tera. I followed with Johnny, bringing him up to speed on the events that had occurred during the day. We were about one block from our house when it happened.

The Soc's mustang pulled up right beside us, and the Socs Tera had insulted jumped out. "Hey greasers!" He yelled, pulling out his blade, "Let's go."

Within seconds Dally and Tera had blades out and Tera was on top of the Soc, screaming at him and attempting to cut off his nose. Dally was throwing punches left and right, and Johnny and I had three Socs closing in on us. We pulled out our blades and fought them off pretty easy, because I'm a pretty good fighter. We ran over to help Dally, only to find him beating off the Soc that was in charge, yes the Soc that Tera wanted nose-less. His nose was bleeding and his eye was black. As he jumped into the car he yelled out the window, "Just watch your greasy backs you greasers!"

Tera stood up from where she had fallen, holding her nose which had begun to bleed. Dallas's eye was black, and Johnny was shaking pretty bad. I was okay, just a few cuts here and there. Dally began cussing out the Socs as we walked to our house. "I'm proud of you," he said to all of us as we entered the house. "You kept your head, unlike those idiots in Tim Shepard's outfit."

Johnny sank into an armchair, and Tera sat down next to Dally on the couch. I went into the kitchen, only to find Darry sitting at the table, an angry look on his face.

"Hey Pony, can you grab me some ice for my eye?" Yelled Dally from the living room.

I gulped and grabbed some ice for him, tossing it into the living room. "Hi Darry," I said, trying to stay calm. Maybe he didn't know about the Socs jumping us, or me oversleeping and sneaking into school. He said nothing but walked into the living room and sat down at the armchair across from Johnny.

"So Dally, how'd you get that black eye?" He asked, his eyes blazing with anger.

"What eye?" He tried unsuccessfully to look innocent.

"And Tera, how'd you get that nosebleed?"

"I saw Dally in the shower," she said, hoping the bluff would work.

"Funny, his hair isn't wet."

I gulped, knowing that we were in for it. "Ponyboy, I got a call from the principal today. He said you were missing up until the disturbance at around eleven."

"Well Darry, nobody woke me up, and I had a test today, so Dally and Tera kida helped me…break into the school."

Darry looked ready to kill me, "And then I get a call from the manager of the DX station, telling me that if my kid brothers keep getting into fights that he'll have to fire Sodapop."

"That was kinda my fault," said Tera from her spot o the couch. "I um…angered a Soc. We'll leave it at that."

Darry obviously wasn't done, "And then I hear yelling down the street, so I stick my head out the door only to find you all getting into a fight! Ponyboy if you keep this up…" He went into his rant about 'boys' homes'. Johnny fell into a quiet doze, and Tera fell dead asleep, leaning against Dally for warmth. Dally smiled and lit another cigarette as Darry yelled at me some more.

As my luck turned out, Two-Bit and Steve walked in, "Hey Pony, good job in the fight. We heard all about it!" That sent Darry off on another rant, and this one was so bad that they actually left and Dally put out his cigarette, yawing. He wrapped his jacket around him and Tera and quickly fell asleep. I yawned, and looked outside. It was growing dark and Darry was done yelling, so I walked into my room. I barely had time to strip down into my boxers before I fell asleep.

A few hours later I heard Soda come in, and heard Darry yelling at him. I had dreams of chocolate cakes that carried knives and smoked and wore black leather jackets.

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