I spent the rest of my shift in the garage working on the car. After my father's little visit, I didn't feel like seeing anyone and I was becoming so angry and irritated that my father came that I probably would have yelled at a customer or something. So, I stayed in the garage where I could work alone and not be bothered too much. Only George poked his head in on occassion to see how I was doing. But aside from that, he left me alone.

"Steve, you can clock out now," George said at the end of my shift. He stood just inside the garage wiping sweat off of his forehead. "Are you going home?"

I shrugged as I passed him. "I don't know, I might go to Soda's for awhile."

George knew that I stayed at Soda's a lot, but he didn't know that I had been staying there more than usual lately. As far as he knew, I still stayed at home and slept in my own bed on most nights.

"Well, have a good night," George told me. "I'll see you and Soda on Saturday."

"Bye George," I mumbled as I went to clock out. A few minutes later I was driving my car towards Soda's house. I was almost there when I made a last minute decision to turn the car and go to my house. Parking on the street in front of my house, I just sat in the car and looked at the house. I could see my father watching the television and my mother folding the laundry. Part of me wanted to go in and join them but another part of me was too angry to get out of the car so I reastarted the engine and drove to Soda's house.

"Pony, you got a C?" I walked in just in time to hear Darry question Pony about some grade.

"I tried Darry, you know I studied hard for that math test. You even helped me," Ponyboy said in his own defense.

Darry sighed and closed his eyes. "I know I helped you but I just don't understand why you got a C. You're a smart kid, Pony but when it comes to some things, you act stupid."

"Leave him alone, Darry," Normally, it would have been Soda saying that but this time the words came out of my mouth. "That particular teacher is tough. He can't help it if the test was hard."

Darry looked at me and for a second I thought he was going to punch me like he did when I said he was all brawn and no brain. Instead he gave me a warning look before turning his attention back to Ponyboy. "I want you to ask if you can take the test over."

"Darry, I can't do that. That test is final. The teacher even said so," Ponyboy replied. "Besides, it's not like one C will hurt my average."

"Pony, if you start letting your grades slide, you won't get into a good college," Darry argued and for the first time since I walked into the house I noticed that Soda wasn't in the room. But I could see the door to the room that he and Pony shared was closed.

"What if I don't want to go to college, Darry?" Ponyboy challenged.

"You guys, don't you think you're both taking this a little too far?" I asked. "One little C on a test isn't going to ruin his chances of getting into college and there's still a year or two before a decision needs to be made about college, anyway. Pony's only a freshman, at this point the teachers aren't too interested with discussing college and career options with the students."

"Why are you sticking up for him?" Darry asked me.

"Yeah," Ponyboy said while looking at me.

I thought for a minute. It was unusual for me to willingly stick up for the kid. After all, we didn't always get along and most of the time, I agreed with Darry about Ponyboy not using his head. "Because if I wanted to hear this stuff, I could have stayed at my place had my father holler at me. Darry, Pony is not a failure because of one C. You don't want him to start feeling like I do, do you? You don't want him to start resenting you, do you?"

"That's the last thing I want," Darry said, sitting down on the couch. "But ,I don't Pony to miss out on college like I did, either and they're really picky when it comes to grades."

"Darry, he's already asked me if I think you're like my father," I told him.

"Steve!" Pony yelled angrily which was rare for him.

"I told him no and I meant it, but that doesn't mean he won't feel resentment and hurt just like I do. I actually drove to my house before I came here and I couldn't bring myself to go inside because of the anger that I felt." I told them. "Besides, Soda's in the bedroom, how do you think he feels hearing the two of you argue like that?"

"We promised him we wouldn't fight anymore," Ponyboy said to Darry.

"We promised each other that we wouldn't fight anymore," Darry sighed. Then he looked up at me. "I never thought I'd hear you stick up for Pony."

I shrugged. "Hey, I didn't want to hear you two argue and I know that Soda doesn't like hearing it either. Besides, if it makes you feel any better, Pony told me that he got the highest grade in his class on that test. Most of the other students went home with an F."

Darry looked at Ponyboy. "Is that true?"

Ponyboy nodded. "It was a really hard test, Darry. I tried to get all the answers right, but it was hard."

"I'm going to see Soda," I said leaving the room to go talk with Soda for a while.