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

It was late when we got home. My brothers were still ignoring me, so I just got undressed and climbed into bed. I was grateful when Soda eased down next to me and pulled me to his chest; it showed that he at least had the heart to show me that he loved me. He understood that I felt things differently from others; Soda understands everything.

"Listen Pony, I know that they upset you, but that didn't give you a reason to attack all of them," he affirmed, patting my arms.

I sighed; maybe Soda didn't understand everything.

"They poured alcohol all over my jeans, Soda! And then went running downstairs and told everybody that I had an accident – do you know how embarrassing that is?!" I scowled frustratingly, pulling away from him.

Soda just placed his hands on my shoulders and pulled me back, pushing my face into his chest.

"I know it was mean, but don't stoop to their level. Yeah, they were acting childish, but you went that step further and had a temper tantrum like a toddler," he stated gently, rubbing my back.

Groaning in frustration I left the matter there; no matter how hard I tried, Soda would never understand my reasons for that fight. I snuggled down next to him and fell asleep, trying to erase the horrifying visions of Nelson and Cal in the cafeteria, and all of the kids laughing at me.

XXX

The next morning I woke up later than usual; which was strange considering I was usually up first in the morning. When I sat down at the table, Darry put my breakfast in-front of me, again failing to speak to me. He just sat down next to Soda, who smiled at me.

"Why are you ignoring me?" I asked my oldest brother, who was sipping his coffee. "Darry," I said.

Sodapop looked between us, an expression of unease and slight fear evident on his handsome face. He probably thought Darry was either going to lash out at me, or I was going to do something stupid which would result in me getting punished. Either way, it wouldn't end in anything positive.

"Darry," I sighed once more. He just picked up his newspaper and turned the page, again choosing to not speak to me.

Without giving myself time to control my negative thoughts, I snatched Darry's newspaper and tore it in half. If Soda could forgive me, then why couldn't Darry?

I threw the torn pieces of newspaper back at my eldest brother, who was glaring something fierce at me. Soda just sat there, mouth agape, not saying a word.

After a few minutes of silence, I felt myself turning back into the small thirteen-year-old boy who got called a 'tag-along' and was afraid to sleep by himself, not the big snobby greaser who ripped up his six-foot-two muscly brother's newspaper. Darry saw me as a kid, and that's all's I ever would be to him. A kid who he could holler at, laugh at and ignore.

I think Darry saw that I was back to my usual self, because he held either torn piece of paper in his hand and raised his eyebrows.

"…You were ignoring me," I mumbled, trying to sound as tough as possible.

"Yes, yes I was," Darry responded, narrowing his eyes.

I just pouted and got up to go to my room, not wanting to look at my big brother any longer.

"You're grounded," he called.

"I know," I replied, closing the door. Well, I slammed it, but Darry warned me that if I got an attitude then I'd get a punishment worse than a measly grounding, so I opened it again and gently shut it behind me.

There was nothing really to do; I was planning on going out, but now that I was grounded those plans were out of the question. I got dressed and then decided to take a look at the notes that those four socs kept leaving me – I kept them under my bed so nobody would find them.

Crouching down on the floor, I managed to maintain the small box which held my letters. It was always left open since I had lost the lid a long time ago.

When I looked inside the box however, I discovered that most of the letters were gone. Only one remained, but when I opened it, I saw that it wasn't from Nelson, Cody, Danny or Cal. In fact, I recognized the handwriting before I even read it.

It said:

This is real funny. It was bound to happen sooner or later though; nobody likes a tag-along.

Only one person called me a tag-along, and that person was Steve Randle. And he knew; the gang member who disliked me most knew that I was getting picked on!

I felt sick; what if he told somebody? What if he told Soda, or even worse – Darry?

Breathing in and out heavily, I managed to stop the tears from slipping out of my eyes. It was bad enough that Curly knew, but now Steve knew. And I knew that Steve wouldn't be able to keep his big mouth shut for long.

Footsteps quickly tore me out of my trance, and I found myself leaping up and jumping onto my bed. I didn't know why though; I wasn't afraid of either of my brothers…

Soda opened the door and came and sat down next to me. We sat there in silence, not saying anything. I felt uncomfortable; what if Soda was mad at me?

"This new attitude of yours needs to stop," he affirmed, raising his eyebrows at me.

I quickly looked away from him, but I knew that he was still staring at me. I squirmed slightly, letting him know that I was slightly fearful.

"What was that about, huh? I know he ignored you, but tearing up his paper? Seriously?! You're acting like a five-year-old," he stated, but he was speaking gently to me. "Do you want to be treated like a five-year-old?"

"No," I responded, shaking my head. "But isn't Darry a little old for the silent treatment?"

"Don't try and change the subject," he said, firmer this time.

I scowled at him and crossed my arms, pouting like a kid who'd been put in time-out. This made Soda chuckle.

"You can come out of your room if you apologize to Darry," he bargained, already standing up. I knew I didn't have a choice whether to apologize; if Darry wanted an apology then he would get one; he always gets what he wants. Well, not always.

I stood up and followed Soda to the living room, where Darry was sitting on the sofa watching TV. He glanced up at us, but turned away when he saw me. I swallowed and sighed sadly.

"Darry, Pony has something he'd like to say," Soda said, pushing me forward.

Standing in-front of my brother, I swallowed once again before uttering:

"I'm sorry."

Darry just nodded and then turned his attention back to the television. I made a small sound which sounded like a whimper, and then started walking back to my room; it was clear that nobody wanted me here, so why should I waste my time and theirs?

A pair of arms wrapped around my waist however and pulled me down. I smiled when I saw that it was Darry who had pulled me down onto his knee; perhaps I was now forgiven.

"I forgive you," he smiled, cuddling me. I snuggled into his chest, clinging to him when one of his arms slid off me. I realized later that it was to pull Soda down, but at that moment I was scared that if I let go of him, he wouldn't hold me again.

We all stayed there for a while, the only sound in the living room coming from the television that was softly buzzing. I closed my eyes and exhaled heavily; I didn't have a very pleasant dream last night: it was of Danny and Cody, the two boys who were absent during the cafeteria incident. In my dream, they were hurting me, and it was as if I could actually feel the pain they were inflicting upon me.

XXX

"Excuse me, Ponyboy. Do you think you could help me with this?" Sally Davies asked, pushing a piece of paper into my hands.

I glanced down at the paper and wasn't surprised to see that it was a sheet with a list of words that had to be defined. They were pretty easy words, something that a kid in Sally's grade should have been able to do pretty easy, but Sally wasn't that good at English.

I dig Sally just fine; she isn't lazy and she works hard at all of her subjects, but she just doesn't get things. It's sad really; people like Sally put a lot of studying into exams yet they come out with below average scores, while other people who don't do any studying come out with great scores in exams. I didn't understand the logic behind it; I don't think anybody did.

Sally's quite pretty too; she's got long brunette hair that's always frizzy and always tied back with a blue ribbon. She likes the color blue a lot; she says it reminds her of the sea. She's recently turned sixteen, but she's been held back a grade due to her 'slowness'. It's not Sally's fault; she's just different from the rest of the kids in her grade, like me; I'm quite faster than the other kids in my grade and I'm younger than all of them. Me and Sally understand each other – that's why we get on.

After I had explained what each word meant and Sally had written the definitions down we just sat and talked for a while. She was a soc; I could tell by the long skirt and blouse, as well as the expensive looking sandals. Everything was light blue which didn't surprise me since Sally always wore blue clothes. Some kids teased her for it, but she barely glanced at them.

"Hey, hey, what's goin' on here?!" a familiar voice called, and I looked up to see Danny and Cody walking towards me and Sally. I shivered, but Sally just sighed.

"What do you want, Danny?" she asked, turning to the blond.

Cody was next to Danny, and he was the same as last time: his hair was still red, and the acne was still on his chin. I think the acne was spreading actually. He laughed, taking a seat next to me.

"I don't like my cousin talkin' to filthy white trash like this," Danny scowled, sitting next to Sally.

I gasped; Sally was his cousin?

"Quit talkin' like that, Danny. He's real nice," Sally affirmed, giving me a sympathetic look. Danny just growled at me.

"They make you think that, but they're all evil," he spat. Cody shook me and I tensed, but Sally defended me again.

"Look, just leave us alone alright? He ain't done nothin' to you two," she hollered, drawing attention to all of us.

I don't think the attention was liked by Danny or Cody, because the two of them stood up. Cody leaned down and whispered to me,

"We'll be back, greaser." And then they left.

The rest of lunch was just Sally and I talking, however Cody's words kept echoing in my mind. They'd be back? What were they going to do?

I got up and walked back into the school building with Sally following me. We walked to my next class, and she bid me farewell before rushing off to her English classroom. I sat down and put my head on the desk, not caring that my teacher called my name. She shouted, but again I ignored her.

Since Two-Bit had a date with some blond, I loped on home without company. Well, at least I thought I had no company.

As I was about to cross the road to get to the DX, a hand clamped over my mouth and pulled me into a row of bushes. I tried to scream, but whoever was holding me had their hand clamped over my mouth so forcefully that I could barely breathe.

"I told you we'd be back," a voice whispered in my ear. I realized it was Cody and once again attempted to scream, but Cody dug his fingers into my stomach, signalling me to shut up.

Danny stepped out from a bush a few moments later. He had a lit cigarette in his mouth, and he was smiling like an idiot. He removed the cigarette and held it up, and I suddenly understood what he was going to do.

I started jumping and struggling in Cody's arms, but he kicked me hard in the shin. I bucked and ended up almost falling, but he held me up.

"Don't talk to my cousin again," Danny warned, raising my shirt and pressing the cigarette into my stomach.

Since Cody's hand was no longer covering my mouth, I screamed as if I was being murdered. It wasn't long before the red haired soc forced his hand over my mouth again, but by now adrenaline had kicked in and he struggled trying to keep hold of me.

Danny wasn't fazed by struggling, and repeated the process with his cigarette two more times. I was sobbing and wailing, unable to control my emotions. Cody let go of me and I fell to the ground, curling up in a ball and clutching my burnt stomach.

"If you tell anyone about this, you and my cigarettes will be spending some quality time together," Danny laughed, and he and Cody left.

XXX

Darry's hand rubbed over my stomach, and I felt a sharp pain. But I didn't say anything; I feel a lot of pain nowadays.

Soda's head was on Darry's shoulder, and he was softly snoring. I smiled; it felt as if we were a family who got along well.

The sound of a door slamming ruined that feeling however. In walked Two-Bit, Steve and Johnny. I hadn't seen Johnny for a few days now; his dad had been hitting him a lot lately.

But it wasn't Johnny who I was focusing my attention on; it was Steve who I was focusing on. Or more like his pocket:

A white piece of paper was sticking out of his pocket, and I could recognize the handwriting from the sofa.

It was one of my notes. And Steve had it. He could show someone…

AN: Hope you enjoyed the chapter :) Thank you to everybody who has favorited, followed and reviewed this story; I can't thank you all enough :D