Chapter 10

Pony and I walked to the park with our hands in our pockets and our shoulders slouched. It felt good to just walk. We shot the breeze about everything— girls, cars, movies— everything except my parents or my future in foster care. By the time we reached the fountain in the middle of the park, I was feeling pretty good, almost happy.

Happy, that is, until I saw the red Thunderbird convertible pull up to the curb at the far side of the playground.

I looked at Ponyboy. His eyes were on the car too as four guys got out. They were Socs, each one of them wearing khaki pants and a button-down shirt, their hair short and neat without a trace of grease in it.

"Think they see us?" Pony whispered.

"Yeah, they're walking this way."

"Should we run? Back to my house?"

"No," I said. I wasn't scared of them. I knew I should have been— they outnumbered us two to one, but I just wasn't scared. "I'm not going to run again."

The biggest Soc walked out in front. He was wearing a green and white striped Madras shirt that was tight over the muscles of his chest and arms. Unfortunately for him, his rich-kid pretty-boy look was ruined by his sheer physical ugliness. He had a hooked nose that reminded me of a vampire from a bad movie I saw at the drive-in once.

"What's a couple of runty greasers doing hanging around alone?" Vampire-Nose sneered. "You know it's dangerous. You two pipsqueaks might get beat-up or something." Behind him, two of his friends laughed and smacked each other on the back playfully.

"Hey man, we ain't looking for a fight," Pony said. He sounded like he was on the verge of panic.

"Neither are we, Grease!" said Vampire-Nose. "No, we don't want to fight. We just want to teach you a lesson that we own this town and you greasers are worth about as much as the shit I took this morning. Get 'em!"

They lunged at us. Ponyboy was a little closer, so they had him in an instant. The other three boys pulled him to the ground roughly while the ugly leader went for me. He aimed a few punches at my face, but I dodged out of the way. I still wasn't scared. Well, I was scared for Ponyboy. They were hurting him and I couldn't tell how bad. But the whole thing was just so… stupid. So meaningless. I couldn't really get worked up about it.

I heard Pony cry out in pain and I knew I had to do something. I curled my right hand into a fist and aimed a punch at the boy's hooked nose, twisting my whole body into the blow to give it as much power as I possibly could. I felt a crunch under my knuckles as they made contact. His nose was broken. Visibly broken. It now curved to the side. Blood streamed down his chin, dripping onto his Madras shirt. With blood all over his mouth, he would have looked even more like a vampire, if not for the utterly terrified look in his eyes.

A second later he stumbled and fell, clutching his face and making really terribly gurgling noises. One of the boys working over Ponyboy noticed and shouted, "Jesus! Look at Ryan!"

I took a step toward him and said in a calm and even voice, "Get your hands off my friend unless you want a nose to match Ryan's."

"Shit, this ain't worth it," one of the boys said. All three of them left off Ponyboy and helped pull their bleeding companion to his feet. I stood with my fists clenched watching them pile into the T-Bird and peel out.

When they were definitely gone, I dropped to my knees beside Pony. He was lying so still with his eyes closed. I thought he might really be hurt bad. His face was white as a sheet and blood oozed from a busted lip.

"Ponyboy," I said touching his chin gently. He didn't move. "Pony! Come on Pony!" I grabbed him by the collar of his t-shirt and shook him a little. I was too scared at that point to be gentle with him. After a long second, his face pulled tight into a grimace.

"Pony, can you hear me?" I asked feverishly.

"Yeah Johnny, I hear ya," he grunted. His eyes were open and he lifted a shaking hand to press his swollen lip testing its tenderness.

"Are ya okay?" I asked him. He sat up a little, propping himself up on his elbows.

"Yeah. I think they only hit me a couple times. Are you okay? Wait, where'd they go? What happened?"

He was sounding pretty frantic, so I gripped his shoulder trying to calm him. "Take it easy Pony," I said. "They all took off after I broke that big guy's nose."

"You broke his nose?!"

"You bet I did." I held up my right hand to show the smears of Soc blood on my knuckles.

"Aww man!" Pony groaned, throwing his head back in misery. "Johnny Cade finally does something heroic and I'm down for the count. I woulda loved to see you let him have it."

"It wasn't heroic," I protested. "I wasn't being brave. I was just sick of it. You know? We have enough problems without the Soc's working us over for no reason at all. Maybe he won't be so keen on messing with us again if he thinks he'll get his lights knocked out."

"Or he'll want to get back at us for making him even uglier," Pony pondered.

"Yeah that's possible. But if he tries anything, I'll bend his nose the other way."

"Glory, Johnnycake! You spend a couple days in the slammer and you come back sounding like Dallas Winston."

Was that true? I had stayed as cool as a cucumber while being jumped by Socs. Maybe I was turning cold like Dally. Maybe that happens to everyone who sees too much of the bad side of the world.

"Come on Pony," I sighed. "Darry'll want to put some peroxide on that lip," I said and helped pull him to his feet.

"Does it look tough?" he asked, pinching at his split lip.

"Yeah kid. Real tough."