If it wasn't for the fact that the Curtis's were the first people to really treat me as a friend after I moved here, I wouldn't be here babysitting them. When I came from New York, I had nothing but the skin on my back and a pack of cigarettes. I was trying to make it to my cousin's place but estimated the time I had been on the train wrong and ended up here. It wasn't a bad place, everything was calmer than it was in New York, but I wasn't prepared for it.

"Hey look, a new kid" Someone yelled from behind me, they didn't seem nice. At the time I didn't know Tulsa had places to stay away from, and I didn't know that I was on the Greaser-Soc boundary lines. I tried to stay cool and look like I had a place to go, but they saw right through me.

"Hey kid, where 'ya goin'?" I was thirteen at the time, I could tell by the voiced behind me that they were at least three years older. Not that I couldn't take a sixteen year old, but there were multiple ones and I've been running without a blade for the past four days. I knew it was risky business, but I didn't have the time to lift one, I was so busy trying to get away that I had forgotten to arm myself.

"HEY KID! I'm talking to you!" I got angry then, I didn't have to talk to anyone I didn't have to. Didn't they know if I stayed in New York, I would have been a gang leader? Well, I suppose not. I was in a completely new place, nobody knew me. Then it hit me, I didn't have to be the Dallas Winston from New York, the gang pet going on leader, I could be anyone I wanted to be. I turned around, ready to fight. Maybe I would be Dallas Winston, professional fighter. I didn't have to say anything before two of them had grabbed me by the shoulder and put me up against a wall. They were huge, at least twice my size. I suppose they had more to eat out in the country where they farmed or whatever.

"Let go of me!" I yelled, but another one of them had already hit me across the face. I tried to yell out, but one he had stuffed something in my mouth, it tasted like sweat and toe fungus. I tried to spit it out, nobody was going to make me eat a sweaty gym sock!

"I love new kids," the one with the sweat sock said, a grin forming on his face "They're always more fun to mess with." The other two laughed in agreement. Laughter was a sign of weakness, it relaxed your muscles and dulled your senses. I wiggled my way free and kicked one of them in the shins, forcing him to the ground.

"Aw, shit. Grab him!" another one yelled as I ran away. I felt a blow to my head and fell to the ground, one of them had taken a rock off the ground and threw it at me with great accuracy. Before I could get up, another had gotten to me with a blade. He pressed it under my chin, but I knew he wasn't going to cut it deep enough to have me bleed out. People hardly ever killed someone just because they could, especially if they were a stranger. It brought to much danger of getting caught, going to jail, ruining their life. No, they just wanted to beat me up for a laugh, not for a kill. When I smiled at him, he smiled back an evil grin.

"What a pretty face, why don't we fix that?" he said, moving the blade to the corner of my mouth. If I stopped smiling, the side of my mouth would be cut open, but if I continued to smile I think my mouth would break. In New York, you hardly ever smiled. I only smiled when the few times I got home I got to see my sister, Laura. She was six years old right now and had just lost her first tooth. I never talked about her, talking about love and relationships was weak, and it was something another gang could use against me if I ever got in serious trouble with them.

The cut in my cheek hurt, but I had dealt with worse. I did what I could not to show any emotion, the other two were catching up. One of them, I think it was the one that I kicked in the shin, was dragging behind slowly. I wasn't being contained on every part of my body, only my upper body. I kicked my leg out and tripped one of them. He fell down, hitting his face pretty hard. The one that wasn't on top of me rolled him over, from what I could see, he broke his nose and his face was bleeding pretty bad. The guy on top of me glanced over at him, freezing for a moment. Now is my moment. I did my best to lift my arm up and grabbed onto the Soc's blade. I had cut my hand in the process, but did happen to gain a blade and force the boy off of me. I didn't hesitate, I pocketed the blade and ran as fast as I could in the other direction. After running for eight or nine blocks I turned around, feeling as if I had finally shook them off of me. A body as hard as a rock ran into me, knocking me down.

"Hey man, oh god, what happened to you?" The voice said. He was older than me, but not by much. I looked up, a boy with dirty brown hair and stone cold blue eyes hovered over me. There was a boy a few years younger than him with brown hair, looking frightened. He was covering the face of the youngest boy, who looked about seven or eight years old, maybe younger.

"I was jumped unarmed" I answered "but I lost them, finally." The boy with blue eyes helped me up to my feet and dusted me off.

"I'm Darrel Curtis, but you can call me Darry. Do you have a place to stay?"

"Nah, I'm new. Jumped off the train today" The then young Soda tugged at Darry's shirt.

"These are my brothers, Sodapop and Ponyboy" But that wasn't what Soda wanted. Soda wanted to get out of there, to run away and get away from the scary boy who was bleeding.

"Hi" I mumbled. Darry put his hand on my back, leading me along the sidewalk, his brothers following.

"Darry, where are you bringing him?" Ponyboy asked, back when he had a lisp. Darry didn't turn around to face him, just kept on walking.

"I'm bringing him to mom and dad. They can make him better" Soda gulped a little bit.

"Are you sure about that? Wouldn't they get mad?" Darry got slightly angry.

"Soda, would dad get angry if we found someone who was hurt and left them alone?" He got quiet, I assumed the answer was yes.

The Curtis house was only a few blocks away, it wasn't too well kept. Like, it needed painting and the grass probably hadn't been cut in a few weeks, but it was nicer than any place in New York I had been to. Except maybe the time my mom was in labor, she brought me to this toy store to pick out something to give the new baby. She went into labor before we could buy the teddy bear I had picked out and were rushed to the hospital. That was the first time I had ever stolen anything, but thats besides the point. We were in a nice part of town, so the taxi driver took us to the nice hospital. The room she was put in was so great, everyone was nice and the floors and walls were clean. It didn't smell of smoke or dirt, or anything else that New York had smelled like.

Darry had brought me into the kitchen and told Soda to go find his parents. They were very nice about it. Mrs. Curtis cleaned the cut on my face and gave me ice for the bruise that was starting to form under my eye. Mr. Curtis insisted that I stay for dinner, which was very delicious. After that, when the boys had been told to go do their homework, Mr. Curtis talked to me, asked me where I had come from. I told him, to a certain amount. He told me to stay the night, gave me a bed on the couch. After that I had started coming over after the boys came home from school and became part of the gang. The Curtis's had helped me and now I had to help them.

XxxxX

Soda had ended up falling asleep with Ponyboy and neither of them had gotten up for the next few hours. Two-Bit had found a mickey movie on the television and was enjoying himself quite a bit. Steve had started talking trash about how childish Two-Bit is and it developed into a fight. Johnny had taken some of the bread Two-Bit's mom made and munched on it before eventually falling asleep. The kid hadn't slept well lately, a nervous wreck. He was really concerned for Ponyboy, he was concerned for everyone and it was taking a toll on him.

"Good morning" Soda said, sleepily, walking into the living room.

"Look who's out of bed!" Steve said, running towards him, nearly knocking him down.

"Careful Steve. He's still sick!"

"Aw, calm down Dal," Soda said, walking over to the couch and falling down on it. I walked over to feel his forehead, he was still warm but it was better than before. I suppose sleep really helped in his case. Johnny had woken up, a tiny piece of bread still in his hand and yawned.

"Morning, Soda!"

"Morning yourself!" he replied, cheery as ever. Two-Bit got up and headed toward the kitchen.

"You want anything?" he yelled at us. Johnny wanted a glass of water, Soda wanted chocolate milk, I wanted a beer, and Steve wanted a different television channel. He came out a few minutes later, balancing two glasses, a cup of beer, and a loaf of breath while maintaining a middle finger for Steve, who growled a little bit. "Be right back" he said, running back into the kitchen after setting everything down. Ponyboy came out with him, looking a bit dazed and confused. Two-Bit had a sandwich and a root beer in his hands for Pony.

"How are you feeling?" Johnny asked, taking a bite of his bread hunk.

"I'm uhh...sorry, I'm...I'm um. I'm tired. Dizzy." I stood up and grabbed him, making sure he didn't fall over. He was still pale, with eyes sunk into his head and he was starting to wobble. Johnny was as white as a sheet, seeing that Ponyboy was indeed not okay. I led him down to the couch and handed him the root beer.

"Here, drink something. You hungry?" I ask him. He shook his head, as if food was the worst thing that could happen to him.

"Pony, you need to eat" Two-Bit said, looking at him "It will give you strength" He let out a low moan.

"It hurts" he whined. Closing his eyes, trying to block us out.

"What hurts?"

"Isn't it obvious. It's his shoulder. It hurts so much that he want's to barf!" Soda said, turing to us as if we were stupid. I walked over to get a bottle of aspirin, but Johnny stopped me.

"Dal, that thins your blood. Makes you bleed." How the heck did he know that and I didn't? Where does someone even learn something like this? "I heard someone talking about it at the hospital the other day." He explained.

"Well what the hell do you want me to do?"

"I don't know, but aspirin will make it worse." I walked to the medicine cabinet and rummaged through it, trying to find some other sort of pain killers. After going through nearly fifty bottles of assorted medications that were half filled I found it: Hydrocodone. It was a painkiller from when Soda broke his arm. I remember when the kid did it, he was at the horse stable place trying to ride Mickey Mouse. He had gotten to a good speed around the trail when Mickey saw a snake or something, spooked the living daylights out of that horse. It stood up on it's hind legs, knocking Soda off, and ran away. Soda was in the middle of the trail with nobody around, it wasn't until Mickey Mouse had come back to the stable that people started to look for him. He was nearly unconscious by the time they found him. They took him to the hospital and put a bright red cast on his arm, and boy did it stand out. He was given the painkillers after they let him go home. I took two out of the container and rushed over to Pony.

"Here, take these" I said, putting them in his hand. He swallowed them gratefully, not even questioning what I was giving him, and put his head on Soda's until the medicine kicked in. He was breathing funny, like he was trying to hold it all together and not cry in front of us. I know it's not a tuff thing to do, but we all understood at the moment. Soda put his hands through Pony's hair and started talking to him calmly.

"It's okay, Pony. You're going to feel all better in a few minutes, just you see wait and see." Ponyboy's face was buried in Soda's shirt, it reminded me of the day that they found me running away from the Soc's at 13, how Soda was hiding Pony's face in his shirt, it was a protection thing.

After waiting nearly a half hour for Ponyboy to feel better, he perked up, his face red and his eyes glassy. He mumbled that he was feeling a bit better, and thanked me for the pills. Johnny still looked scared, Pony was obviously hurt badly and nobody knew how to fix him. Johnny suggested that we bring him to the hospital, he is obviously hurt enough to go. Pony stuggled, he didn't want to go there, he hated hospitals. Both times that we had been there to see his brothers he nearly broke down, thinking that they were going to die or something. I don't blame him for not liking the place, thats where his parents died. It was like me with certain places in New York, I would go there, but only if I absolutely had to. Not because it was a bad place, but because it held so many bad memories.

"Pony, maybe it would be better to go see a doctor about this, it's only given you trouble. A doctor could fix it." Soda tried to coax Pony, but he wasn't having any of it.

"No, I'm not going to the doctor. You didn't go to the doctor when you were at a hospital and delirious! I'm not close to a hospital and just fine, so leave me alone!" He stood up, unsteady at first, and walked away from us. We weren't going to argue with him, not now. That kid had one hot temper, and when he was heated it wasn't a good idea to fight with him. Not that he was strong or intimidating to us, but he could run faster than any of the gang and when he was angry, he ran.

Two-Bit had gotten back to watching his program and Steve had gone back to cracking his knuckles and trying to make up a good story for how he got the stitches in his hand. Johnny and Soda gave each other nervous looks, you could tell that they both agreed that Pony needed a doctors help at this point and that they were scared for him. I felt bad for the kid, but I had seen kids younger than him walk around with a bullet in their leg, they were perfectly fine and never went to see a doctor. The phone rang behind me, making me jump a little bit. The phone at the Curtis household was loud and I was half asleep in thought when it rang.

"Curtis house. This is Dally" I answered.

"Dally? How are Soda and Pony?" It was Darry, he sounded concerned.

"Yeah, they're fine. Whats up?"

"Tell them to get dressed, a social worker is coming over." I told him I would and hung up. Soda would be fine, he was at least making sense, he could pass as just a little warm from the heat, it was Ponyboy I was afraid of. I walked down the hall, in the direction I had seen Ponyboy move, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Have you guys seen Ponyboy?" I asked, walking back into the living room. Everyone shook their head. I looked at the back door that lead out from the kitchen, it was unlocked and open. Ponyboy had ran away, the government was going to be here any minute, and it was all my fault.