Chapter 14: On Top of Jay Mountain
Ponyboy stared at his awful reflection in the water. He couldn't believe what he looked like. Short blond hair. Now this makes me look real tough, Ponyboy thought. What a sissy. He wasn't used to seeing Johnny with short hair either. Wouldn't the gang love to see this.
"Come on Ponyboy. You know the first thing a judge does is make you get a hair cut. It's just hair," Johnny said. "It will grow back."
Maybe so, but that didn't mean he had to like it.
Still, Johnny did have a point. Ponyboy always wondered what they were trying to accomplish when they forced guys to get a hair cut. He guessed it was to break them. Nothing else made any sense.
After the two greasers sat outside staring up at the stars. You sure can't see stars like this back home in the city, Johnny thought. They're beautiful. He looked over at Ponyboy.
The kid was completely observed in the night sky. He didn't even acknowledge Johnny when he tapped him on the shoulder or said his name. An entire heard of cattle could storm through, and Ponyboy would just keep looking at the stars. No wonder Darry gets on his case so much, Johnny thought. He's completely oblivious to everything else around him. Johnny had to laugh. That at least got Ponyboy's attention. He wondered what was so funny, and gave Johnny a questioning look.
He was thinking that he was glad Johnny was with him. No one else understood how he could star at the sky all the time, watching the sunsets and stars. Johnny seemed to understand, and maybe Sodapop.
The sudden thought of his brother made Ponyboy homesick. He wished his brother was here to tell him everything was going to be ok. Johnny see the tears begin to fall decided to try and cheer his friend up.
"You know the market I went to today doesn't have very good security," he said trying to grasp Ponyboy's attention. "I bet Two-Bit could have lifted half the stuff in that place."
For a while it brought a smile to the kid's face. He sure was cracking up last night, he thought. Then the thought of last night made the chain of events that occurred reappear in his mind. Ponyboy shivered.
"It will be ok Pony," Johnny hugged him.
He felt it was his fault for dragging him along in the first place. Johnny then remembered that his best friend had been fourteen now for a month. At that age he new the score. Ponyboy was a hood, a JD, a greaser the same as Johnny. That's how the law saw it, even if there was a two year age difference.
Sodapop couldn't help but to laugh as he patched up Darry's wounds. Dallas lay on the floor across from them. Both greasers had some terrifying tempers.
When they had tried to confront Dally on where Ponyboy and Johnny were, Darry had accused him of lying about knowing absolutely nothing about it. Dally didn't like being accused and Darry didn't like being lied to, especially when it came to his baby brother.
Both got a little too angry, and began to lunge for one another at once. The rest of the gang had backed off immediately not wanting to be caught in the middle. The word on the street was you didn't mess with Darry if you knew what was good for you, and you didn't dare mess with Dally if you had any value at steak. Apparently such a rep meant nothing to the two guys during that heat of the moment. That was why Sodapop was finding it so funny.
Darry had a number of bruises, some cuts, and a black eye. He mainly needed some rest and an ice pack.
Dallas on the other had a busted lip, some minor cuts near his temple, a dislocated shoulder, and a broken nose that had bled over the bandage. Sodapop thought Dally looked like a character out of a horror movie Darry had caught Ponyboy watching one night when he got off early because of an unexpected thunder storm.
He smiled at the memory. Ponyboy had absolutely flipped when Darry had walked in during one of the scariest moment in the movie. Ponyboy had screamed like his life was ending which caused Darry to almost have a heart attack. In the end Darry had turned off the movie and grounded Ponyboy for the weekend. It was still two weeks before Ponyboy had even dared be alone.
To pass the time, Ponyboy and Johnny spent their days sleeping, playing cards, smoking, and reading. That was where it got interesting.
The boys tried to read mostly in the afternoon when the sun was out to give off both warmth and light. At first Ponyboy thought it was a good idea if he held the book with one hand so that he would be able to sign the words to Johnny with the other.
However, that didn't last too long. Ponyboy kept dropping the book, and sometimes would even loose the page he was on. He can be really clumsy some times, Johnny thought.
Aside from that, many of the words in the book required the use of booth the boy's hands. Ponyboy would put the book down to use both of his hands, and then pick it back up again to continue reading. It worked for a while until the task of doing such got so tedious.
After that Johnny tried reading the book. This situation worked better even though many of the words were difficult, and he would have to ask Ponyboy for help.
One of the words was gallant. "G-aa-lll-aa-n-t," Johnny tried to sound out the word. Ponyboy smiled in return to show Johnny that he did a good job.
All the teachers in school just assumed that because Johnny was a greaser that he was dumb and lazy. The truth was that Johnny had trouble reading. He kept it a secret. Ponyboy was the only person Johnny had ever confessed to, but Darry also probably knew.
He had walked in from work one night to find Ponyboy and Johnny spread out on the floor with all their school stuff. Johnny hadn't seen him walk in because he was trying hard to read and understand the text in the history book. Ponyboy had, and had nudged Johnny to let him know that the two of them were no longer alone.
Johnny would have been ok if Darry knew. Darry always helped the two boys with Math and Science, but Sodapop and Steve were coming in behind him. They could sometimes take the teasing thing a little too far.
A few days later when Darry had a chance for once to be alone in the house with Ponyboy, he had asked him if Johnny was having any reading problems in school. Ponyboy had just shrugged, and they had left it at that.
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