I do not own the Outsiders S.E Hinton does.
Chapter 3
Pony's POV
"Pone, Ponyboy I need you to wake up for me." Darry says to me softly. I open my eyes to see him kneeling down next to the bed. "I don't feel to good Dare." I said. I was surprised how weak my voice sounded. "Yeah, I know. Me and Lizzy are going to take you to the hospital, ok little buddy?" he asks brushing my hair back. Jeez how sick am I for Darry to be this gentle. "I need you to sit up for a second so you can get a shirt on." He sits me up and my stomach screams in protest. "Darry let me lay back down." I say gritting my teeth. "Hold on for a second Pony. Let me get this shirt on you." He says picking up the shirt off the floor and putting it on me.
"How bad does your stomach hurt?" he asks as he helps put my jeans on.
"Really bad. I can't sit up and I feel dizzy." I say feeling like a 5 year old.
"Alright, we're going to the hospital right now. They'll get ya feeling better once we get there." He soothed. "Hey Ponyboy since you can't sit up I'll carry ya." Now I really feel like a 5 year old. Being carried out of the house whining that my stomach hurt. That was real tuff.
He picked me up and carried me to the car and sat me in the seat next to Lizzy causing my stomach to cry out in pain. "Here Ponyboy," Lizzy said "Put your head in my lap." She gently pushed my head in her lap and the pain in my abdomen lessens. I close my eyes when Lizzy starts to stroke my hair and Darry gets in the car. "Is he asleep?" Darry asks as he starts up the car. "Not yet. Poor kid. Hey Pony if you feel like you're going to be sick tell us and we'll pull over, alright?" she tells me and I nod my head in her lap. Boy am I tired. I hear Darry and Elizabeth talking about things and the car driving.
I must have fallen asleep because the next thing I knew is that my head is now in Darry's lap and he's smiling down at me.
"Hey little buddy, how you feeling?" he asked in a gentle tone.
"The same really. Where's Lizzy?" I ask looking around the hospital waiting room.
"We're at the hospital that she works at so she's signin' you in and putting on her scrubs. Lizzy's going to be your nurse while we're here, since you hate hospitals so much." As soon as he says that Lizzy walks in the waiting room with blue scrubs on. She smiles at me and grabs a wheelchair for me and helps me into it.
"Alright, Ponyboy I got you signed into a room and the doc is going to check you to see what's making you sick, kay?" She tells me as she pushes me into the elevator and into a room. Before I can protest Darry picks me up and puts me into the bed.
"Um, thanks. Hey Darry, where's Soda?" I ask him.
"Oh, crap! I still need to call him. Mind if I leave you for a minute to call him?" he asks
"Jezz Darry I ain't 5 you can leave me for a minute." I said a little annoyed at him. I know he knows that I'm scared of hospitals but I ain't a baby about it.
He rolled his eyes at me and then smiled. "Be right back, Pone." Then he left the room. I looked around the room and I started to get depressed. The room was boring white, with a curtain running down the middle. Then Liz walks in the room with an I.V bag in her hand. Oh crap, if she sticks me I'm goin' freak out.
"Hey, little Curtis, I'm just going to put an I.V in your arm so you can get hydrated. Dr. Lower should be here in a sec." She grabs a needle from the drawer and cleans it with a strange swap looking thing. She walks over to me and I start to scoot away from her and the needle. She smiles at me and says sweetly "Baby, this will only hurt for a second. Just close your eyes and look up at the ceiling. I'll distract you so you won't feel it." I take her advice and look up at the popcorn ceiling.
"So, how does your stomach feel?" she asks as she wipes off my arm with disinfectant.
"About the same, but now it's mostly in my side now." I said trying to ignore her about ready to stab me with the needle.
"Ouch!" I yelped shocked as the medal went thru my skin.
"All done." She announced smiling at me. "Now was that so bad?" she teased hanging up the bag.
Darry walked in and smiled at me then kissed Lizzy on the cheek. "Thank you for everything Liz. You didn't need to take your day off for our sake." He said being polite. "It's no problem for the last time!" she laughed and hit him in the chest. "Thank me again and I'll stick you with a needle!" she threatened.
The doctor walked in and smiled one of those fake doctor smiles. "Hello, I'm Dr. Lower. You must be Ponyboy." He said gesturing to me. He shakes my hand then turns to Darry.
"Are you his guardian?" he asked him
"Yes sir. What do you think is wrong with Ponyboy?" he asks getting down to business.
"Yes I do. Nurse Mason has told me of his symptoms and I believe that he has appendicitis. I want to confirm though so, Ponyboy would you lift up your shirt for me?" I do as I'm told and let him push down on my side I gasp and feel awful again I look at Darry and he tries to look encouraging . He's failing miserably.
"Yep, I was correct. We'll schedule you for surgery tomorrow. Nurse get him something for the nausea and pain." He walks out of the room and Lizzy looks like she would like to stab him with a needle. "Typical, I figure out what's wrong with Pony and the doctor takes all the credit. I'll be right back with your meds." She leaves the room and leaves me and Darry alone.
"I called Soda, he'll be here soon. Are you ok with getting the surgery?" he asks me looking right into my eyes.
"Yeah, I'm fine about the surgery." I stammer. I really wasn't. I hate hospitals they smell like disinfectant and everything is too clean. People are hollering at each other to get in different rooms and they wheel freakin' body bags with the bodies in them like the flower guy delivering the arrangements. Then Soda and Two-Bit walk in.
"Hey, kiddo how you doing?" he asks as he sits down on the bed next to me.
"Been better. Darry abandoned me when his evil girlfriend stabbed me with a 4 inch needle look it." I show Soda my I.V and he laughs. "You're such a liar. Darry what's he got?" he asked being serious. "Appendicitis, he's getting his appendix removed tomorrow." Darry says like he's talking about the weather. "Whoa, just like that? Man, you ok Pony?" he asks. I guess my fear of hospitals will be exposed to Two-bit today. Great.
"Johnny and Dallas are coming over after school is over." Soda says to get my mind off the surgery.
"Dally actually went to school?" I ask. Dallas never goes to school except maybe once a month to stir trouble with the teachers.
"No, he's going to drive him and Johnny up here once Johnny is out of class." He said.
Lizzy came back in and injected something into the I.V bag. "This will knock you right out in about 5 minutes, so are ya feeling any worse?" she asks. "Nope I feel fine now." She puts the back of her hand on my forehead and frowns. "Your still really warm just get some sleep. Darry I need you to sign some stuff." She and Darry walk out of the room and Two-Bit is making kissy faces at them. I start to feel tried but I try to fight of the sleepiness. Soda looks at me and pushes my hair back. "Go to sleep Pony, we'll be here when you wake up." So I close my eyes and fall into a deep sleep.
