Chapter # 10: The Ride Home

When the bell rang that afternoon, Ponyboy ran to catch a ride. Two-Bit had threatened to leave with out him if he had to wait to long. Ponyboy had forgotten his Math book the day fore, and he had to go back for his Science notes the day before that. Two-Bit was fed up. He didn't like to wait. He wanted to get as far away from school as possible, and as quickly as he could.

"I'm here!" Ponyboy shouted as he dashed out to the parking lot from the back f the school building.

Two-Bit and Steve looked up to see a sprinting Ponyboy leap from the curb, barley missing getting run over by the girl on the bicycle.

"Watch out, Greaser!" she yelled.

A wide grin spread across Steve's face. Ponyboy had never liked this grin. It never meant anything good for him.

"Our little Pony is growing up, Two-Bit," Steve said as he pretended to wipe tears from his eyes. "He's starting to get attention from girls now."

"Blond girls," Two-Bit responded.

"Blond Soc girls," Steve said. "They grow up so fast," Steve pouted. "Wait till Soda here's about this!"

Ponyboy shoved him aside. He opened the car door to find Johnny fast asleep in the backseat.

"Move him over and get in," Steve snapped. "You're gonna make me late for work."

Ponyboy did as he was told without saying a word. He wondered why Johnny was sleeping so much lately. He had fallen asleep three times in class yesterday, and had refused to wake up when Ponyboy nudged him.

In their English class, Mrs. Parker sprayed students with cold water if they went to sleep. That woke Johnny up.

Ponyboy didn't even want to think about what would happen if he fell asleep in class. The Soc who sat next to his would probably tie his shoe laces together. His teacher would probably smack his hand with a ruler. They might even call Darry, and then he'd be in big trouble for sure.

Sodapop had teased him about snoring once. "At least I know you're sleeping good," he had said. "It's a small price to pay to know that you won't start screaming from a nightmare even time soon."

Ponyboy had never had the heart to set Soda straight. He was the one who was snoring all the time. Darry had even come into the room in the middle of the night once to try to get him to stop.

"Hey Pony, what ya thinking about?" Two-Bit asked, interrupting Pony's thoughts.

"What?" Ponyboy was startled. "Oh, nothing," Ponyboy said.

"For a guy who thinks about nothing, you sure zone out a lot," Steve commented. "What gives, kid?"

"I was just thinking about my new teacher, Mr. Lawman. I got transferred to a new class today."

"So that's why you weren't there today," as a light bulb came on somewhere inside Two-Bit's head. "You really left us in a bind. Now Steve and I can't cheat of your paper."

"You weren't in that class," Pony protested.

"Oh, right. I guess I forgot," Two-Bit said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

"What's up?" Ponyboy asked, though he really wasn't sure if he wanted to know.

"Guess what little Pony, Two-Bit, Johnny, and I are all transferring into your class tomorrow," Steve smirked. "It's some new education program thing."

"Now we can cheat of your paper again," said Two-Bit.

"Or you could try to do it yourself, and quit being such a lazy bum," Johnny yawned as he stretched from just waking up.

Two-Bit acted as if he had just been insulted. "Now what would be the fun in that?"

Nothing good can come of this," Ponyboy thought.

AN: Please leave a review. It's always appreciated. You can even tell me what you guess is going to happen.