I stopped by the Curtis' house the next morning to pick up Ponyboy on the way to school. As well as grab some breakfast since I hadn't bothered to grab anything at home. I wanted to be out of the house before my father woke up and I had stayed in my room for most of the night after my father came home. Even though I had decided to go home, I still didn't want to see my father. Especially after finding out that he was hurting my mom.

That was another thing that I missed about Mr. Curtis, he always told us to never hit a girl. He said that if we wanted to be real men, we would never hit or physically harm a lady. Ladies were to be treated with respect whether they deserved it or not. Which was something my father obviously didn't understand if he was hurting my mother.

"Hey Steve," Ponyboy greeted me. From the looks of things, Soda and Darry had already left for work. "Soda left about ten minutes ago. Said to tell you that he'll be getting off at three today in case you wanted to do something."

I helped myself to some toast and a slice of cake. "Okay, maybe I'll see if he wants to go to the Dingo or something."

"Yeah," Ponyboy mumbled taking a good look at me. "You look like you didn't sleep at all last night. Was everything alright?"

I sighed. "No, everything was not alright."

"Hey, you don't have to tell me," Ponyboy said. "I just noticed that you looked tired."

"Kid, promise me that you will never hit a girl as long as you live," I said.

Ponyboy replied, "I promise. Besides, why would I risk the chance of Darry beating the tar out of me if I did?"

"Do you want to know why I couldn't sleep last night?" I asked.

"I said you didn't have to tell me," Ponyboy reminded me.

I continued anyway. "I couldn't sleep because I was too busy listening for signs that my father was hitting my mother. Pony, she has bruises on her arms from him hurting her."

"Are you going to report it?" Pony asked.

"I told my mom that I was going to tell the counsilor at school," I answered. "My mom doesn't want me to, but I can't let him treat her like that. Verbally abusing me is one thing, but physically hurting a lady is another. Especially when that lady is my mother."

Ponyboy was looking at me and shaking his head. "I agree that you need to tell someone. Why is your mom putting up with it? Why doesn't she leave him?"

"I think she's in denial. Besides, she can't afford to leave him. She doesn't even want me to tell my counsilor what is happening because she's afraid of what could happen if my father ends up in jail," I explained.

"Both of you could stay here," Pony said. "You already know that you're welcome here any time, Steve."

"Thanks, but I don't think my mom would want to live in someone else's house. Especially one that is constantly full of teenage boys making noise," I said as I opened the front door. "We should get going going. I know Darry won't be happy if you're late to class."

We drove to school in silence; I was trying to think of how I was going to tell my counsilor about what my father was doing when I hadn't actually seen him hit my mother, and I could tell Ponyboy was lost in one of his many day dreams while gazing out the window. As we got closer to the school, we had to listen to the socs screm stuff at us. I glared at them while Pony tried to slouch down in his seat so he couldn't be seen. This happens almost everyday and sometimes when we get to school, the socs try to start a fight, which is what happened today.

"Well, if it isn't two greasers," a soc said when Pony and I got out of my car. He had a several other socs with him, more than Pony and I could handle even though we can usually hold our own in a fight.

"Why can't you guys just leave us alone?" Ponyboy asked and I noticed that his voice was shaking slightly. "We don't go around bothering you."

Another soc who I recognized from my geometry class replied, "Oh, but you do bother us. See, if there were no greasers in the world things would be better for everyone."

"Is that so?" I asked, putting an elbow on Ponyboy's shoulder as he slouched at gave the socs an even stare. For someone that doesn't like fights, the kid knows how to look tough.

"Yeah, so we're going to do something about it," the first soc said and before Pony or I could respond, the socs grabbed us and started beating us.

I started fighting back, along with Ponyboy who was struggling against some soc who was twice his size. I could already tell that Ponyboy was going to have a black eye and several bruises and I probably wasn't going to look much better with the beating I was getting. Somehow, I managed to give one of the socs a bloody nose which resulted in recieving a hard kick in the shin.

"What's going on here? Break it up," A teacher yelled. The socs literally dropped Pony and me on the hard concrete and gave the teacher the most innocent look they could make. "You all know the rule about fighting on school property."

"But, they started it," A soc said, pointing at Ponyboy and me. "We only fought back in self-defense."

"We did not," Ponyboy said and I covered his mouth.

"Might as well give up, Pony," I whispered to him. "You know the teacher is going to believe those guys. After all, they're socs and we're greasers."

Ponyboy mumbled something about that being unfair as the two of us stood up.

"You boys can go to class," The teacher told the socs before looking at Ponyboy and me. "Now, I need the two of you to come with me."

Ponyboy followed behind me and I knew that if he were a dog, his tail would be between his legs. I tried to act like nothing was wrong as I followed the teacher straight into the principal's office. Ten minutes later, we were heading back to Pony's house.

"Darry is going to kill me," Ponyboy sighed. "I can't believe we got suspended for the rest of the week and the socs didn't get in trouble at all. They were fighting, too. And they're the ones who started it."

"Trust me, they won't get away with it," I said. "Two-Bit was arriving at the school as the teacher broke up the fight, he'll find a way to get eve for us."

"Nice of him to show up after a fight," Ponyboy grumbled.

"Hey, at least he's not suspended, he can fill us in on what's going on," I told him as I sat down on the couch, wincing from the various bruises I had received. Pony sat on the chair and put his head in his hands. We didn't say much for the next few hours and barely looked up when Darry walked in the door at around lunch time.

"What are you doing here?" Ponyboy asked Darry.

"The school called me at work. Said you started a fight and that you're suspended for the rest of the week," Darry said glancing at me.

"The socs started the fight," Pony mumbled.

Darry sighed impatiently, "I kind of figured that. But now I have to figure out what to do with you while you're suspended. I can't exactly let you off easy after all, you were fighting, too."

Ponyboy hung his head and I started to get up. "Maybe I should head home."

"No, you can stay," Darry told me. "You can Ponyboy clean out the garage and the basement today. We have a lot of our parents' stuff that we haven't gone through yet, I think this is a good time to do that."

"But, Darry shouldn't that be something that the three of us should do?" Ponyboy asked.

Darry shook his head. "If you see anything Soda or I would like to have, set it aside. But, I think you and Steve can handle going through everything. It's not like you have anywhere to go since I'm grounding you for the next two weeks."

"Um, Darry this isn't my home," I said softly.

"It is until the state figures out what to do with you," Darry said.

"What?" I asked.

"Your neighbors heard arguing at your house and called the cops to investigate, sounds like your father could be in jail for a while," Darry told me.

"Is my mother okay?" I asked quietly.

"From what the principal at the school told me, she's shaken up but should be okay. He said it would probably be best for you to stay here until they figure out what to do," Darry replied. "I wouldn't have let them just place you in a foster home anyway, most people know you spend most days here so it only made sense to offer to let you stay until things get situated."

"I don't want to end up in a boys home," I said putting my own head in my hands.

"Maybe you won't," Poyboy spoke up. "You'll be eighteen in a couple of months; maybe they'll let you stay with us until then."

Darry sighed, "Well, I have to go back to work and I expect to see a good portion of the garage or basement done when I get back."

Darry left and Ponyboy and I remained where we were for several minutes before getting up and slowly walking outside to the garage.