I haven't heard from Johnny on Sunday, but I didn't think much of it since I knew that he lets a few days go by before he starts coming over again. By the following Sunday though I started to get a little worried. And even Darry, who's busy all the time and is not paying that much attention to who is in and out of the house, had asked me about Johnny. "He just needs his space," I said, "I'm sure he'll turn up soon enough." But I felt some uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I didn't like how it felt. What if his old man did more damage? More than Johnny could handle.

I had so much homework to do. I was behind, which I was not telling Darry about, and I was supposed to make it up by Monday. I kept trying to do the homework, but I couldn't go on for more than 10-15 minutes at a time. I would just snap out of it - my thoughts going back to Johnny, and how come he haven't shown up or called or he haven't been seen anywhere by any of the guys either.

I willed myself to concentrate on the work. It was getting dark, and I felt exhausted. I have only done one third of the stuff I was supposed to do. Shit, I thought, I'll have to stay up all night so I can finish it. I really have to bring it all in tomorrow. I'll stay up, not like I haven't done that before. I'd just have to put up a show for Darry pretending I'm going to sleep and then getting up and finishing this stupid homework.

"Pony, are you done with your work?" I heard Darry yelling from the other room.

"Yeah, I am." I lied. Darry hasn't been checking my every single homework lately since he's got to trusting me more. But he still looks it over a lot of times. Just to make sure it's right. This whole week I haven't been telling him the truth of what's been assigned so he couldn't figure that I haven't done it.

"Do you want me to look it over?" He yelled again.

"Sure Dare," – I didn't want him to suspect anything. So he came in, and looked over the parts that I've completed by now, not aware that there was more. I mean much more. He picked up on a few mistakes. Some of them were really stupid, and he kind of gave me this look that said what on earth is wrong with you? But I wasn't surprised I made those dumb mistakes like that. My mind was on something else and I was completely spacing out every 10 minutes and couldn't concentrate to save my life. I was surprised I even got some of the stuff right. Man, no wonder Johnny messes up in school all the time. He's always a nervous wreck, his mind is always on other stuff. Like his parents and his life, and he's got severe concentration issues.

Darry was looking at me expectantly.

"I'm just tired is all." I said fixing the errors.

"All right go on, get some sleep then." He said leaving the room.

"Sure thing," I muttered under my breath sarcastically.

As Darry closed the door behind him, I turned the light off, but turned a little desk lamp on and kept doing this stupid homework. I was exhausted; my thoughts were even more mixed up than before. Now it wasn't just switching between trying to do the homework and Johnny, but it was everything else. It was about how this is my last year of school, and how I should be going off to college, and how things are supposed to change, but I don't really want them to, and yet I want them to at the same time. And how come Two- Bit is not worried abut any of this stuff, and not even Soda. Maybe I shouldn't even go to college.

Then I started thinking about how my mom didn't have any brothers or sisters at all, and how it must've been hard for her 'cause she had nobody to back her up, and my dad had this cousin, but he was nothing like my dad. He was mean and nasty. God! I stopped myself - why was I thinking all this irrelevant and completely random stuff now? I think I got an overload of information while trying to catch up with this homework, and this was my mind's way of relieving itself.

I made an effort to concentrate and then tried to do some more work, but after about 10 minutes my thoughts jumped back to Johnny.

Next thing I knew, I woke up - my head on top of the opened notebook on my desk. Shit, I must've fallen asleep I thought rubbing my eyes. I glanced at the clock – it was 5:30 a.m. Shit, shit, shit - but I still got some time – Darry usually woke me up at around 7. I tiptoed to the bathroom, as not to wake Soda or Darry, and splashed some cold water on my face to feel more awake. Then I went back to my room. My stomach was making funny sounds. I didn't really feel hungry at all, but by the sounds the stomach was making I guess I was. Ignoring it, I went back to the homework.

I felt exhausted though, and restless. Like I couldn't keep sitting on that chair anymore. I got up and walked around the room. I felt trapped in those 4 walls; I felt the need to get out. Walking around helped a little bit, but not really. I wished I could go outside and take a long walk. I wished it was 7 already so I could at least get out of the room. I sat back down. I decided to switch from math to something else, so I closed my math notebook and got the Social Studies book out.

After reading a little bit my mind started jumping to thinking about Johnny again, and then to some random and irrelevant stuff and all this stuff we read in Social Studies books. I felt like my mind was literally on fire.

I wanted to smoke, but Darry's gonna get suspicious if he gets in here at 7 and there is smoke in the room. Great, I can't even smoke now. The homework was forgotten. I sat down on the edge of the bed reluctantly. I may as well go to sleep for the almost 2 hours that I got left. I couldn't fall asleep though, and my head was about to fall off it hurt so bad.

I got up again and tiptoed to the bathroom again and grabbed some aspirins out of the medicine cabinet. I swallowed them on the way back to my room. Without water - just like that. I was feeling even more restless, if that was even possible. I waited for the alarm to go off, and for Darry to come in to make sure that I'm up.

Finally, the blasted alarm went off.

"You up Pony?" I heard Dairy's voice shortly after.

"Yeah, I'm up Dar," - I tried to sound casual. God, but my head hurt. Even those aspirins didn't take care of it. Maybe when I get outside the headache would stop.

I got downstairs. I put all my effort into not looking like I'd been up all night. Darry made an omelette. He made good omelettes - with onions and sausage. After I ate, the headache subsided a little bit, and I felt better.

They didn't notice anything. Dar was too busy with making sure everything was put away before he went off to work, and Soda was too preoccupied with himself, and trying to find his uniform and shit, and not be late for work. Finally, they said their goodbyes, and took off.

I sighed, gathering all my books together and putting them into my backpack. What am I going to say when they ask me to turn in all that late homework? I have a couple of less or more good buddies that would let me copy theirs. I've done it before. I mean, rarely, but it did happen. But the thing is that most of my classes are full of socs, and I don't have any of my buddies there.

I started walking. Dragging is more like it. My head still hurt even though I was feeling better than before. Suddenly it occurred to me – I should skip. Yeah, I should just skip today. I don't have most of my homework done anyway, and what's the point of sitting there listening in humiliation to teachers yell at you or lecture you or tell you how you've been such a good boy (I hated when they referred to me as boy, by the way) with such potential and you are throwing it all away. I was screwed anyway, so I should just skip.

Yeah, I'll skip and maybe not just today. Maybe I'll skip a few days, and I'll make up all my homework during these days, and then it will all be fine. I'll need a note or something saying I was sick. I'm sure Two-Bit will do it for me, he won't mind. Hey, I'll even come down to the cooler and visit Dal and ask him to write that stupid note for me if I have to. Now, he definitely won't mind. I smiled at the thought and the image of Dallas having to write a stupid school note for me while in jail. Now that really was funny.

It was decided then – me, Ponyboy Curtis, a former straight A student (well, almost) was skipping school today. I turned around and started walking back to my house. I felt relieved. I'll go home, and do this stupid homework. No need to sit through the night trying to finish it. Then I remembered about Johnny, and my heart fell. Something was terribly wrong. He hasn't shown up or been heard of for an entire week. I should go and look for him. Yeah, right now. Homework can wait!