I do not own The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton does :)

Ponyboy woke up feeling hot and scared; he knew he'd had a nightmare yet he couldn't remember what it was about. All's he could remember was Mr North's pale face smiling at him wickedly.

"You okay, Pony?" Soda mumbled, pulling Pony back down.

Ponyboy shivered so Soda wrapped his arm around his little brother. The teacher's face haunted the younger boy's mind, making it difficult for him to get back to sleep.

"What's wrong?" Soda asked more awake this time. Ponyboy shrugged and turned away from Soda, though he regretted it when he felt a warm hand on the back of his neck. Ponyboy remembered the bruise that he had sworn to hide from his brothers.

"That's nothing Soda. Leave it alone." Ponyboy whispered, but Soda wouldn't move his hand.

"What happened, Pony?" he asked softly.

Ponyboy felt like crying; nobody was supposed to find out!

"I can't remember." Pony answered quickly, pulling away from his big brother.

Sodapop, sensing that his little brother was getting upset, decided to let it go for now. The teenager simply pulled Pony closer to him again and shut his eyes; however Ponyboy hardly slept for the rest of the night.

XXX

"For goodness sake, Ponyboy! What time did you go to bed last night?!" Darry hollered at a pale Ponyboy whose eyes were drooping.

"It wasn't his fault, Darry; he had a nightmare." Soda piped up, wiping chocolate milk off the side of his mouth.

Darry muttered something inaudible and glared at Ponyboy, who was now staring at his breakfast.

"Well don't just look at it! Eat it!" Darry ordered, but Pony shook his head.

"I'm really not hungry Darry." Pony responded softly, though Darry's glare did not fade. He roughly placed his hand on Pony's forehead and then crossed his arms.

"You're not sick, so eat your food." The oldest Curtis said, but Pony shook his head again. "Fine! Do what you want!" Darry stormed out of the room before either brother could respond.

Soda looked at Pony, but quickly looked away again when he saw tears slip out of the younger boy's eyes; he didn't want to make Pony feel uncomfortable.

"Why am I never good enough for him, Soda?" the boy whined, and Soda turned back around again and hugged his younger brother.

"He's probably just in a bad mood, Pony. He'll be over it by tonight." Soda assured, even though he wasn't certain; Darry's mood swings could go on for a few days, though that was only in dire circumstances.

Ponyboy pushed Soda's arms off him, grabbed his backpack, and started walking to school. Two-Bit said he was skipping, so Pony didn't have a ride. It wasn't like he cared anyway.

"Darry?" Soda called.

"Yeah, little buddy?"

"Please, just try to be easier on Pony. He thinks that you don't like him." Soda pleaded calmly. Darry sighed.

"Well that's his problem isn't it? If he can't accept that I'm trying to help him-"

"But you constantly holler at him, and it's not fair." Soda complained, and Darry sighed again.

"Alright, I'll try to be easier on him." Darry promised, and Soda beamed.

XXX

"Everybody, please take out your math homework which was set last week." Mr North asked, and every student except for one or two did as he had asked.

Ponyboy set his homework down on his desk, looking up at Mr North. Maybe Mr North was a little loopy yesterday? Maybe he hadn't actually meant to hurt Pony?

The teacher collected everybody's pieces of paper, except for the students who hadn't been bothered to do their homework. He told them to wait behind at the end of the lesson, then came and knelt beside Ponyboy.

"Ponyboy, I want you to come back to my classroom at the end of the day. If you don't, I'll be calling home." Mr North demanded quietly, and Ponyboy nodded.

The youngest Curtis actually felt scared; what did this teacher want now?

For now, the boy decided to forget about Mr North, and headed to the cafeteria. A few boys beckoned him over to their table, so Pony headed over and sat with them.

He recognized a lot of the boys: Steve Randle, Curly Shepard, Mark Jennings, Bryon Douglas and Johnny Cade. The rest were all familiar, though he didn't know their names. A few girls were sitting around the table too, all of who were way out of Pony's league.

"I bet this cafeteria food could actually kill people." Mark remarked, pushing his tray around. All of the girls giggled while a few of the guys nodded. Ponyboy made a face at Mark's plate.

"What is that?" he questioned in disgust.

"I think its meatloaf or somethin'." Bryon chided. "And anyway, Mark only went over there because of the new lunch-lady."

"I asked her if she was serving melons." Mark chuckled, making a few of the other boys laugh while the girls blushed.

"That's disgusting, Mark." a blond haired girl tutted, smacking the boy on the arm.

"So, what's goin' on with you, Curtis?" Curly asked, "You look glum."

"Well you'd be glum if Mr North wanted to talk to you." Ponyboy frowned.

"Mr North? I think he's alright." Steve asserted.

"He tried to touch my leg once." Veronica, the girl who had smacked Mark on the arm, announced with a look of disgust on her powdered face. This just made Ponyboy even more fearful of Mr North.

"Well, what's wrong with that? I do it all the time." Curly smirked, rubbing his hand on the girl's knee. Veronica tutted, though she didn't try and shove his hand off.

"I heard somebody say that the new lunch-lady is Mr North's daughter." Johnny added.

Everybody stared at the small greaser, shocked. Johnny turned red.

"It's just what I heard!" he defended.

"Who cares? It's not like she is Mr North." Mark chuckled.

The rest of the lunch break was spent with all of the teenagers fooling around, except for Ponyboy who was too busy worrying about Mr North. Parts of his nightmare were coming together like a jigsaw, and it was terrifying.

The young greaser went through with his next two periods, and then found himself waiting outside of Mr North's classroom door. His gut was telling him to just run away, but he was scared of the threat that Mr North was sure to carry out with if Ponyboy didn't wait.

Eventually, Mr North opened the door, placed a hand on Pony's back, and then walked back inside. He forcefully shoved Ponyboy down onto a chair, and made sure that all of the windows (including the one on the door) in his classroom were covered.

"Yesterday's session was just a start. Today we're going to focus on more important things." The teacher declared, making Pony involuntarily shudder.

Mr North sat on his desk, forcing Pony to look up at him.

Without warning, Pony felt a hard blow to the side of his face. He was knocked right off his chair, and had managed to hit his head as he went down.

Pony sat up and clutched his head, trying to stop his head from going round in circles. He felt like he was going to throw up with the amount of dizziness whirling through him.

"You are a horrible person! I am just giving you the beating that you deserve!" Mr North roared, picking up the books on his desk and throwing them at the boy, while Ponyboy just cried and took the hits.

XXX

"Where could he be?!" Darry shouted at Soda who was pretending to watch TV. "There wasn't even any point in me getting off work early!"

"He might have just gone to see a movie or gone the library, Dar. You know how he is." Soda smiled.

"He could at least call! What is up with that boy?!" Darry responded loudly.

"Now come on, Dar. Me and you both used to do it and mom and dad weren't bothered. Hell, I used to do it before I dropped out and you didn't care that much." Soda replied.

"Well we're responsible. That boy sometimes acts like he doesn't have a brain." Darry spat.

"Give him some credit, Dar. You act like he's a baby sometimes." Soda sighed, swivelling his eyes back to the TV. He didn't even know what was going on in the show; he was too busy listening to Darry ramble on about how Pony needed to be acting more responsible.

"Ponyboy is so grounded when he gets home." Darry thundered.

XXX

Ponyboy was close to unconsciousness when Mr North was finished with him.

The young boy was covered in bruises, he was sporting a split lip as well as a split eyebrow, and his head felt as if it was about to explode.

Mr North picked Pony up from under his armpits and roughly placed him down on the chair that the boy had previously been sitting on. The man grabbed a rag and started harshly rubbing the cuts Ponyboy had on his face.

Ponyboy squirmed around but let the man clean the blood out of his wounds, until eventually they just looked like scratches. The split lip was an exception, but Mr North told Ponyboy that if anybody asked, the boy had fallen and split his lip by accident.

"Now, see these?" Mr North said, rolling up Pony's sleeves and signalling to the bruises, "This was not me, okay? Because you know what will happen if you tell ANYBODY about our little talks? I will go to the police and tell them that your brother has been hitting you." He announced. "I am a respected member of society, and I have the power to get you and your other dumb brother taken away by the state." The teacher smirked, and Pony sniffled.

"What have I done wrong?" he asked, allowing tears to drip from his eyes.

"Well, other than the fact that you're a horrible person…you were born. You shouldn't have been born; you should have died at birth. Really; I knew your dad and he told me that there was complications and you almost died, but luckily you pulled through." Mr North explained.

"You knew my dad?" Pony questioned.

"Yes, and you're just as horrible as him. You deserve to die just like he did." The teacher spat. Ponyboy didn't even know what happened next: he felt his hand hitting something, and then felt himself falling to the ground again.

"How dare you strike me!" Mr North screamed, kicking Pony in the ribs. He continued to kick Pony until the young boy went limp. Mr North gasped and picked Pony up, but sighed in relief when he saw that the boy was still awake. "Leave right now." Mr North hissed, and Pony limped his way out of the classroom.

Ponyboy lifted his shirt, and saw that his stomach and chest were both covered in large purple bruises. There was one on his hip that was larger than all of the others, and it was a dark maroon color. The boy knew that he had track tomorrow, and was scared to think about the pain that he'd have to endure.

No! He couldn't let anybody in the changing rooms see his arms and upper body! He'd have to convince Darry to write him a note for coach.

The youngest Curtis walked home slower than usual, trying not to put too much pressure on his hip. He tried to hide his limp, though it was very obvious.

Ponyboy finally reached home at 4:30 PM, though when he saw Darry's face he felt a little bit of regret sink through him.

"Where the hell have you been, Ponyboy?!" Darry shouted. Johnny, Steve and Two-Bit had all come to the Curtis house about twenty minutes before, and all were interested in the argument that was taking place.

"I…I s-stayed at s-school for a little bit." Pony stuttered.

Darry grabbed Pony's arm and pulled his younger brother over to him. Pony winced though he tried not to make it obvious that he was in pain.

"I've had just about enough with these stunts you've been pulling lately. Go to your room now!" Darry yelled, and shoved Pony harder than usual.

A sharp pain shot through Pony's side and arm, and everybody watched as the youngest greaser fell to the floor. Pony had fallen right on his hip, making him scream in pain.

"Pony, I'm so sorry!" Darry cried, picking Pony up.

"It's okay, I'm fine." Pony muttered quickly, pushing past Darry and running to his and Soda's room. The boy collapsed on the bed and began crying, and wondered if what Mr North had said was true.

"A brat. A burden. You should have died at birth."

All of these thoughts whirled through Pony's head, making him feel dizzy like before. He quickly snapped out of his daze when he heard arguing in the next room. It sounded like Soda and Darry.

Pony listened to Soda shout at Darry and call him out on things while Darry shouted about how he never meant for Pony to fall and everything. Darry didn't mean to do something? Well, that was a lie in itself; Darry never made mistakes, or so Pony thought.

Suddenly the bedroom door was opened and Soda jumped on his and Pony's bed.

"Sorry about that Pony. I was just-" Soda stopped abruptly when he saw Pony's arm. The youngest Curtis still hadn't rolled his sleeve down from before when he was checking the damage that Mr North had done.

"Geez Pony, how did you do that?!" Soda exclaimed, pointing at Pony's arm.

Pony looked up at Soda and sighed.

"…I fell."

AN: Hey guys, so here is the second chapter of North and South! Thank you to everybody who has reviewed, favorited and followed this story! Damn, Mr North is so evil! Who could possibly hurt Ponyboy and…wait, am I rambling about a character that I've created? Oh well! Please feed me some feedback as I would love to see everybody's opinions (and burning hatreds for Mr North!)! Until next time :)
P.S. I feel that this chapter is a bit rushed. I hope it's okay for all of you :D