Disclaimer: S.E. Hinton owns The Outsiders, we do not. We also do not own "Ordinary Day" by Vanessa Carlton.


Just a day,
Just an ordinary day,
Just trying to get by

March 1967

Pushing his homework aside, Pony reached for the newspaper Darry had left on the kitchen table and flipped it back to the weather forecast. He'd heard people talking about snow coming up and he smiled to himself to see that it was forecasted to fall by morning.

"Pony, you done yet?"

He looked at Darry and nodded, slamming his books closed and attempting to run out of the kitchen.

"Not so fast, little buddy. I'm going to check your math."

With an annoyed sigh, Pony handed over his math book and worksheet and ran for the phone. He quickly dialed Ellie's number and waited and waited. No one was picking up, and he slammed the phone back down. He wasn't discouraged, though. He knew it would be better to surprise her.

"Pony, you missed a few," Darry called from the kitchen.

"Yeah, yeah," he said, heading back.

XXX

The dream was getting pretty bad, and she suddenly jolted awake. She lay still for several seconds trying to pinpoint what it was that woke her in the first place. The dream had fizzled away and no one was moving around. Danny wasn't crying. She looked at her alarm clock and saw that it was rounding on three in the morning. Danny wouldn't be up for another hour or so if he didn't sleep through the night. A gentle tapping noise came from her bedroom window and she realized. Her breath caught in her throat. The only one that had ever come tapping on her window in the middle of the night was Dallas.

Rolling out of bed, she crept to the window and brushed the curtains aside. Pony was looking in and smiled a little. She knew it couldn't have been Dally, but it still let her down.

Unlocking the window, she slid it open and was greeted by a blast of cold air and snowflakes.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey."

"Hey," he said again.

"What are you doing here? It's the middle of the night."

"Sorry." His eyes were gleaming. He moved aside slightly and motioned to the world outside. "But it's snowing."

"So?" Ellie asked, stifling a yawn.

His face drooped a little, and he looked at her with a pitiful look.

"You remember, don't you?" he urged. "We used to do this."

She looked past him and watched the snow flakes falling. She hated to be cold, but she loved the snow.

"We did this once," she corrected. But she did remember, and she couldn't hide the nostalgic smile that crept across her lips. It was ages ago; they couldn't have been 10 years old when it happened. Just like this night, Pony had snuck out of his house and come to hers. He tapped on her window, waking her up so they could go out and play in the snow before it was disturbed by everyday life. They had played for what seemed like hours, and Mr. Curtis had trekked out into the cold to find them.

"Awfully cold to be playing out in the middle of the night," he had said.

Ellie froze with a snowball in her hand, and Pony stood stock still just across from her. They were in big trouble this time. Mr. Curtis' heavy boots crunched through the fresh snow until he was right between them. He looked at Pony and then he looked at her. Ellie swallowed hard, wondering if it were possible for him to really be that mad. He stood there, giving them disapproving glances and then he stooped down, and formed a snowball between his gloved hands.

"I won't tell Mom if you won't," he said, cracking his famous grin.

Ellie smiled at the memory and nodded at Pony. "Lemme go get my coat. I'll meet you out front."

He smiled wide before she shut the window and crept around her room in the dark, throwing on warm clothes. She carefully pulled the door open and stood in the threshold for several seconds, waiting to hear if Danny was going to start up or if her mom or Jimmy stirred. Nothing.

She threw on her coat, wrapped her scarf around her neck and borrowed her mother's gloves. She slid her feet into her shoes and opened the front door with as much caution as she had opened her bedroom door. The brisk wind took her breath away, but the promise of fun in the snow was too much to pass up, cold or not.

"Wanna go to the lot?" He asked.

"As good a place as any," she said, following his lead. It was funny how he was different than he had been at that moment. If she hadn't known any better, she never would have guessed anything had been wrong. He was himself again, and somehow it made her feel like she was her old self again, too.

They walked silently together. She wasn't really thinking about anything, but she couldn't help but wonder what was on his mind. She had hardly talked to him in weeks, and the few times they did, it ended up in a fight. When they came in view of the lot, though, Ellie bad memories invaded her thoughts. She saw Dally there, crumpling after a chorus of gunfire. Pony started to run ahead, but Ellie felt her feet freeze to the ground. Standing there solidified the feeling that he wasn't there and wasn't going to be there anytime soon.

"Hey," he called out, cracking the silence. "Come on!"

It was an innocent request. He was standing there, watching her with a smile that threatened to fade. She bent over and made a snowball. Stealing a glance, she saw the grin on his face widen as he made his own. Ellie threw hers when he wasn't looking and hit him on his shoulder.

"Hey!" he said with a laugh. Ellie shrieked when he cocked his arm, taking aim. She dashed away but felt his snowball hit her in the back.

Ellie packed together another snowball, keeping Pony in her sights the whole time. He was laughing, and it was making her laugh that much harder. The whole world seemed to disappear right there in the middle of the night in their very own snow globe.

They kept at it, throwing flaky artillery until Ellie took one to the cheek. She gasped as the snowball smacked her in the face. The icy ball scraping across her already frozen skin hurt. She cupped her cheek, and Pony ran over to her.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Ellie pulled her hand away and smiled.

"I'm fine. I think I've had enough snowballs, though."

"Sure."

She lay down in the snow, which was barely two inches deep, and spread her arms. It didn't seem to snow enough in Tulsa, and when it did, no one seemed to really enjoy it. Pony lay beside her, fingertip-to-fingertip. They made snow angels and then lay silent again. Ellie closed her eyes against the flakes and soaked in the quiet, snow filled night. Nothing ever seemed as perfect and still as when the snow fell. She wished it could always be that way.

"That night your dad caught us out here in the snow was so much fun."

It was so much more than that, though, she realized. It had been so innocent, they had been so innocent.

"I miss him."

Ellie opened her eyes and turned her head to look at him. He was staring right up at the sky, his eyes fluttering every time a snowflake landed on his lashes.

"I miss him, too," she said. It had taken her a long time to warm up to him, but Mr. Curtis was the closest thing she ever had to real dad growing up.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"For what?"

He turned his head and looked at her. "For being such a jerk lately."

"I'm sorry, too," she said. "I've been more of a jerk than anyone."

"I just … I feel like I'm stuck. Everywhere I turn, there's a wall or something. I was hardly getting along with Darry … " he said, his voice trailing off.

"It just takes time," she said, wondering why she couldn't take her own advice. "To heal, you know?"

"I think we're okay now."

"I really hope so," Ellie told him. "I can't stand the thought of losing you guys."

Chills were running up and down her spine, and she was trying to hide the way she started shaking from the cold. She couldn't mask it in her voice, though.

"You cold?" he asked, sitting up and ending the conversation. She sat up slowly and wondered if he had wanted it that way.

"Yeah," she said. He stood up and held his hands out for her and pulled her to her feet.

"I'll walk you home."

XXX

They sat together on her bed, talking quietly in her silent house. He could feel the way she was still shivering, her shoulder knocking against his every so often. The sound of a baby crying made them both freeze, and she sighed and tilted her head back. Pony listened for anything else, but there was no movement.

"Guess I'm getting him again tonight," she said.

She tossed the blanket from her shoulders and left the room. He listened as the cries softened a bit, and she passed by her room toward the kitchen. Pony knew she'd been doing a lot of the work for the new baby, but he never really thought about the fact that she had to get up in the middle of the night to take care of him.

She came back in and shut the door behind her, holding a weeping baby in one arm and a bottle in the other.

"Hold this," she said, handing him the bottle.

He took it and she got herself settled on the bed again, blanket around her shoulders and her back resting against the wall. She positioned Danny and reached for the bottle. Pony watched as the tiny person eagerly took the bottle.

"There you go," Ellie said, her voice soft and comforting.

"Does he do this every night?" he asked, mesmerized. He had never held a baby, and had only seen a few in his life

Ellie looked at him, and he first noticed how tired she looked.

"Yeah. Sometimes Mom actually gets him, but a lot of time she just lets him cry. Then Jimmy yells, and I end up getting him," she said, focusing back on Danny's face. "It ain't exactly what I signed on for, but he's an okay kid. It ain't his fault."

"Why doesn't your mom do it?"

She sighed and shrugged.

"I don't know. She tells me she can't do it. Sometimes she doesn't even want to be near him. It's like she's all messed up or something."

"Is this why you don't go to school so much?"

The question seemed to catch her off-guard. She looked at him with tired eyes and shrugged again.

"Sometimes," she said.

"Are you going to drop out?" he asked.

She shifted as though she were uncomfortable and through a couple of strangled starts, she finally said, "I'm failing out. I had to go talk to Mr. Burwell, and he said that I would have to go every day the rest of the year and the whole summer to make up everything I've missed."

"Man," he said. He thought he was doing pretty lousy. He tried to give her a little encouragement. "I'm flunking English."

"You sound like you're bragging about it," she said, her mouth twisted in a half smile.

"I'm not really. I'm flunking but Mr. Syme gave me an assignment to make up for it. I have to write a semester theme and if he likes it, he'll pass me. Maybe if you asked him he'd-"

"I'm not just flunking English, though. I'm flunking everything," she said.

Even though Pony didn't have much motivation for school lately, he at least had Darry breathing down his neck checking his math and everything else he could. Ellie was taking care of her baby brother. No one was checking her math problems.

"I don't think it's worth it," she said.

He wanted to tell her to try, because he was finally trying, and he knew it felt good to actually care again.

"Are you still going to those parties and stuff?" He wasn't exactly sure what the parties were that she had been going to, but he hoped she wasn't since Soda hadn't been going, and Two-Bit was in jail.

She shook her head. "No. They didn't end up being that much fun."

"Have you heard from Dally?"

She didn't answer right away as she watched Danny, but she was biting her lower lip.

"No," she said. "I haven't really tried."

"How come?" He asked.

"Awhile back I went and saw him in the hospital. He didn't want to see me so bad he threw his lunch tray at me to get me out of the room. After he turned hismelf in I went to his sentencing," she said. "He pled guilty and I … I've never seen his face like that."

"I didn't know you went," he said.

She looked at him and shrugged. "I didn't tell anyone I went. He saw me and I don't think he wanted me there either."

"You'll hear from him," Pony said, trying to be optimistic for her.

"No, I won't."

"Then you oughta write him or something."

She smirked a little.

"What?" he asked.

She leaned across him as best she could while balancing Danny on her lap and reached under her pillow. She pulled out a crinkled envelope. It was addressed to Dally, but it wasn't stamped.

"I already did."

"So why haven't you sent it?"

She shrugged. "I don't think he's dying to hear from me or anything."

"You never know. He might write back once he gets your letter. What'd you write to him?" He glanced at her over the top of the letter, wondering if it was any of his business to be asking that.

"I don't know. Nothing very important. I didn't really know what to say to him.

"I think you should send it. What's the worst that could happen?"

"He could not write me back," she pointed out.

"Which he's doing right now," he replied. "Send it. You'll regret it if you don't."

She smiled. "I guess I already have enough of those, I don't really need another one."

Settling back against the wall, he watched as Danny finished his bottle, and she propped him up on her shoulder to burp him. She patted his back with gentle pats and yawned deeply. Danny let out a tiny burp, and she kept him up against her.

"How are you?" she asked.

Pony shrugged. "Things are okay."

It wasn't really a lie; things were going fine. School had finally given him a break, he and Darry were getting along and everyone else – with the exception of Two-Bit and Dally – was finally getting back on track.

"Oh, I'm late starting out but I'm going back out for track this year," he added. "Darry talked me into it, and I talked to the coaches and they're putting me on as an alternate."

"That's great."

"Yeah, it's nice to do something," he said. What he meant to say was that it was nice to do something normal. It made him feel normal again. He missed Johnny terribly and still had a hard time thinking about him, but it was getting easier to accept that Johnny wasn't there and that he was probably okay wherever he was now. He wanted to put something like that into his theme.

"You think things will ever get back to normal?" she asked.

That was a wallop of a question. Pony thought about it, but then he started to wonder what normal even was. Normal was when his parents were alive. Normal was when the whole gang was together. Normal was life before Johnny died and Dally went berserk. Pony sighed; normal sure had a way of reinventing itself.

"What's normal?" he asked.

She smiled a little and said, "I was afraid you were going to say that."

XXX

Pony shuffled his feet through the snow. The flakes had stopped falling, and he was sure the snow would probably be gone by mid-morning, after the morning traffic and kids walked to school. He looked up at the sky one more time outside of his house, wondering if anybody was looking back. It made him a little sad to think about the number of people that were probably looking back.

He trudged up the porch steps and walked inside, shutting the door quietly behind him. He was surprised to see Darry in the kitchen, and he leaned against the door, ready for a fight to erupt.

"What're you doing up?" Pony asked.

Darry held up the glass of milk in his hand. "I was turning up the heat and getting a drink. I thought you were asleep. Where have you been?"

There weren't any accusations in his voice, just a plain question.

"Sorry, I just went over to Ellie's for a little bit."

He raised his eyebrows. "At three in the morning?"

Pony shrugged. "It's snowing."

Darry frowned at him but didn't say anything. Then he seemed to think of something. "Remember when Dad caught you two playing out there a long time ago?"

He smiled at his brother. "That's kind of why I went over. It seemed important."

Darry shook his head, but there was a smirk on his face. "You better get some sleep."

Pony shrugged out of his jacket and hung it on the hook by the door. "You too."

"Sure, little man."

He snuck back into his room, leaving Darry in the kitchen alone. He struggled to change his clothes in silence and left them in a damp pile on the floor, a little bit of snow still clinging to his shoes.

Sliding under the covers, he buried his face in the pillow, a smile tugging at his lips. It felt like things might be able to finally piece themselves back together.

Just a boy,
Just an ordinary boy,
But he was looking to the sky


A/N: Remember when we used to be awesome at posting? We do, too.