The world seemed to be just a big giant blob around me as my eyes tried to focus. My head was pounding, don't know why, but it felt as though a car just ran over top of me. I sat up, feeling a bit woozy and nauseated. As everything came back to me I couldn't help but blink several times, where the hell am I? Well, better question, who am I again?

Silly thing to ask myself but I was dead serious. I looked at myself, I knew what I look like, I just can't think of my stupid name.

"Pony?"

Was that my name? Sounds cheesy if you ask me but it does ring a bell…

"Ponyboy?"

That's it, Ponyboy. That's who I am, now if only I knew where I was…

"Ponyboy, are you okay?"

I turned my head to see a boy around my age or so. He had black hair that fell in front of his face and big brown eyes that were hiding beneath his hair. The more I looked at him the more I felt the need to gag, he looked awful! Not in a, "you're ugly" kind of way but more of a, "where did you come from, a riot?" He had bandages on his neck and arm, other scratches and bruises pecked from underneath his jean jacket. He looked familiar…a little too familiar.

"Don't say you have gone deaf on me, Pony." He said worriedly.

"I ain't gone deaf," I snapped, " I just…who are you?"

His expression turned from worried into a deer in the headlights, his eyes were wide and his face turned pale as a sheet of paper, "Stop," he shuddered, "stop playing games, Pony."

"I'm not playing games!" I retorted, "I don't know who you are!"

"I'm Johnny Cade, remember?"

My mind suddenly clicked back together and everything seemed to be making sense.

"Johnny," I muttered, "Johnny Cade…sorry man I just forgot and…"

"It's cool," Johnny said a little too quickly, "how did you forget all of a sudden?"

"I…I don't know."

I ran my hand through the rough floors of the house; millions of questions ran through my brain all at once, but the biggest question was where am I? The house was completely dilapidated and reeked of beer and cigarettes. Even though I tried to remember this place, I couldn't, it was new to me. The room was tiny, stained walled, and almost to the point of empty; next to me were two sleeping bags as well as a first aid kit and some dish rags. The windows were covered with thick curtains but luckily the ceiling fans light was turned on, illuminating an eerie glow.

"Where are we?" I asked curiously, turning my head in every direction.

"Tim Shepard's house." Tim Shepard, sounds familiar. Tim, wasn't he some sort of JD? Didn't he hang out with Dallas Winston, I think… black haired, mean glare? As I rendered Tim's name through my brain like a fax machine, his name became familiar and familiar, then it clicked.

"Oh," was the only thing I managed out before I slumped back into the sleeping bag. "How long have I been unconscious?"

I began to remember what happened; my brother holding a knife up to Johnny, my kicking Randy, Dally pissed off, and then BOOM unconscious!

"For about three hours, or so that's what Dally told me." He said with a sigh.

"How about you, how are those cuts healing?"

"Fine," He said sternly. "Dal said the one on my neck is deeper than they thought but it will luckily heal as long as I don't get it infected. And the one on my arm is doing fine already. Dal was pretty pissed as you when I was able to wake up." Johnny said, managing a weak laugh.

"Speaking of Dallas," I muttered, "where is he anyway?"

"Went to grab some stuff from Buck's real quick, just left around fifteen minutes ago," Johnny replied, "we should better get back to bed before Dally caves our skulls in."

We said our good-nights and I slowly drifted back into darkness…


"This is bad," my other self said as opened my eyes to be greeted by darkness once more. "this is bad, bad, BAD!"

I didn't know what he meant at first until and I came close range towards and face-planted into an invisible force field of sorts. It could have been glass, it could have been a mirror; I wasn't quite sure.

"What's going on?" I asked worriedly.

"It's two more days until we forget everything, and you don't know what's going on?" He snapped with his jaw clenched tight. "Two more days before we never cross paths again! And I know it's not working out for you but I almost got everyone to remember, Steve was easy but Darry. Ugh, he has a thick skull, man."

"Sodapop is hard over here, same with Dar. Soda's been drunk and nearly killed Johnny and I several hours ago!" I growled, " I don't know what to do…"

"You need to stop him before he drinking again…" My other-self muttered.

"But how? When?"

"Soon," he says confidently. "He drinks a lot on Thursdays and Monday nights at Michael's"

"Michael's?"

"Yeah, it's like Buck's only nicer. It's a block down from the house; you know it when you see it." He frowned, "But what about me and Darry?"

"You just need to reason with him. Make him sit down, do it when his is not in a mood, tell him everything you know, just talk to him without actually raising your blood pressure."

"Sounds hard…"

"Tell me about it," I groaned, thinking of the many times where I had to reason with Darry, "just do it, it's better than nothing."

"Alright," my other-self sighed, "if only I could control this stupid memory loss…it's getting bad now."

"Getting worse?" I gulped, "But…but all I had to do was remember Johnny and everything went just fine!"

"It will get worse!" He snapped again, "trust me it will, your memories will then be wiped out and replaced sooner than it should! We'll meet again tomorrow, hopefully."

And then he disappeared and I slowly sank within the darkness of my memory, and the last thing I was were more pictures falling from the emptiness around me.

"Don't go…" I whispered.

"Don't leave me…"

"Don't leave me…"

"Don't leave me…"

"Pony?" A voice echoed.

"Don't leave me…"

"Ponyboy…?"

I opened my eyes to find myself face to face which Two-Bit who was hitting my head, hard. Johnny was trying to get Two-bit away but it didn't seem to be working.

"What…?" I groaned as the sunlight from outside beamed right into my eyes right when Two-Bit hopped off of me.

"It's breakfast time!" Two-Bit said loudly and proud. I slowly walked with Two-Bit and Johnny into Tim Shepard's kitchen where Tim Shepard was gawking at today's news. Tim Shepard had long, greasy, blackish- brownish hair that covers most of his neck and tucked back behind his ears. He was tall, around Darry's height but he was eighteen and he was a well-known hoodlum of society, next to Dally and Two-Bit. He also had a long scar from his temple to his chin that he got from a broken pop bottle. His cat like appearance also goes for his eyes as well, which were blue but much darker than Dally's. If I had to say who was the scariest, Dally or Tim, and would probably say both because they are like twins just with different looks.

"How did you guys make him remember?" I said, whispering into Two-Bit's ear as I grabbed a slice of chocolate cake.

"Took a while," Two-Bit laughed, "almost a half-an-hour, would have been much longer if Dally wasn't in such a mood last night."

As I sat next to Johnny and Dally, Tim's eyes moved upward and stared into mine, I couldn't help but flinch at his scary eye contact.

"It's interesting to see ya in the papers kid." Tim said coldly, biting on his cigarette. "But in the 'missing kids' section."

I knew I have been "missing" for two days now but I don't know why people call it "missing". It's called running away just not…running too far away from your house that's all.

"Forget the papers," Dally growled, "we just need Soda and Darry to…whatever you call it, remember."

"I have an idea," I said scraping the extra chocolate off my plate, "we have to see Soda before he gets drunk, tonight, at Michael's."

Dally and Two-Bit almost choked on their drink, "What?" Dally said nearly gaging, "you know we can't get in there, man! Tough security and all."

"Then we'll just dress up like Socs!" this time everyone choked on their drinks. "I'm serious! If we got to make Soda remember that's the best place to be!"

"Does everyone have to go?" Steve asked with an annoyed tone in his voice.

"Well most of us should," I gave a sigh, "or Soda would still not believe me."

"But how are we going to get all this Soc wear?" Johnny asked in curiosity.

"Well, we have to go back to my house. I think Two-Bit and Steve should come with me just in case."

Two-Bit gave a huge grin and Steve looked dumb-founded, probably because I chose him out of all people to come with me. But as we got into Tim's car and headed off Steve finally understood why I chose him.

"It was because I picked the lock on your window!" Steve gasped, his mouth shaped like an 'o'. I slowly nodded as he sat back in the chair of Tim's old car.


The whole drive was around ten minutes until we parked about a block away from the house. We, of course, didn't want to be caught by my parents, or my brothers for that matter. We then snuck our way to the side of my house, where we crouched down beneath the bushes and finally were able to get to my bedroom.

The lights inside where off and the bedroom door was closed, thank God. I jerked the window to see if it was locked of not, it was locked.

"Here," Steve said in a low whisper, "I got this."

He reached in his pocket to pull out a mangled piece of wire that was most likely a paperclip. It sides were partially rusted and it was bent in millions of places. Steve never stole or broke into any person's house beside this one and his own. The reason he carried that paperclip was so he could get into his room when his old man locks him out of the house. Dally originally taught him, but Steve got even better over time. So now he can get into cars if the customer says they accidently locked their keys inside. And he can break into window, like now for example.

"Got it." Steve said.

"Wow, about three minutes, new record." Two-Bit said with a thumb-up.

"Okay," I muttered, "Steve, go over to the next bush and be a look out, stay here Two-Bit and give me a signal if something happens."

They both gave a thumbs-up and I quickly jumped through the window. I was working so quickly and quietly I could have been mistaken for a ninja. I grabbed an empty cardboard box from my closet and stuffed it with everything I could find of use: sweaters, t-shirts, socks, shoes, money, a pair of glasses, anything.

"Red alert!" I heard Two-Bit. My heart pounded so fast that I quickly closed my draws, the closet doors, and jumped out of the window in a flash as Two-Bit slammed the window shut and we both hid underneath the bushes.

"I swore I heard a noice, Laura." Crap. I thought; it's my dad…

Hey, hope you guys like this chapter! It's longer :D And it took me a while so you should all be proud of me, lol jk. I will get the next chapter up and ready soon, Stay Gold!