A/N: Thanks again to everyone who left a review! Wow… can't think of anything to say; that's a rarity!
X X X X
"Hi," said Soda, wishing that, for just once, Jonathan could come in late to work and he wouldn't always look like the bad guy. "My brother wouldn't sign it. You'll have to find someone else."
Jonathan humphed and spun around in his chair, stretching his arms over his head. "I wouldn't have high regard for him if he did sign it," he said. "It's completely unethical."
Sodapop blinked. "I thought you wanted me to do it," he said.
"That idiot Falkens wanted you to do it. I told him it was stupid… you don't play around with people like that. I know I only have this job because you ended up in here. I'm sure there are plenty of asthmatics around here… we can just wait until someone has an attack by themselves."
Now that it was said like that, Soda thought it made sense. Having an asthma attack was both unpleasant and dangerous; to have one on purpose was a bit ridiculous. Once again, Soda found himself in a position where he had to rethink what he was doing. He realized he was so desperate he was willing to do just about anything to get a normal life. Desperate was not something he wanted to be.
X X X X
Pony had been left at home to recover from the accident. Darry had said he would have preferred either himself or Soda to skip work to look after him, but Ponyboy had convinced him not to. They needed their incomes.
So Pony was left alone, bored. He had already grown tired of rereading books and he didn't feel like watching TV. He was too sore to do much more than that, though; he had spent most of last night and this morning lying on his right side, and though he really needed to change positions, it hurt.
Finally deciding to try drawing for a while, Pony pushed himself up with his right arm, trying to avoid using his stomach muscles as they only put pressure on his broken ribs and bruises. He got up slowly and hobbled over to the messy pile of bags that were still lying on the other side of the room, intending on looking for a notepad of some sort and a pen. He couldn't remember which bag he had put them in, and he could barely remember which bag belonged to which brother; all of them had gradually been covered over by Soda's clothes, sheer laziness preventing him from putting his belongings away properly. Squatting down on the ground, Pony grabbed at the first bag he found and opened it, looking at the contents.
The bag was filled with money. Not filled exactly, but it was still more cash than Pony had ever seen in one place in his lifetime. It was probably at least a couple of hundred dollars.
Heart racing, Pony zipped the bag shut. One of his brothers was hiding hundreds of dollars from the other two. But who was it, and why? And worst of all, how did they get their hands on it? Everything from drug dealing to gambling to prostitution ran through Pony's mind before he mentally slapped himself. Neither of his brothers would do any of that stuff; they weren't bad people. But then, how did they get the money?
X X X X
A/N: Okay I know that was unacceptably short, but I'm going out for a while and my spirit is telling me I need to post. I'll write more when I get back, I promise! For the mean time, review? If you believe that was too short to warrant a reward, I can understand, but please review the next chapter at least. I'd really appreciate it, and remember, reviews make me motivated! Any correct guesses as to what will happen next, including how Pony'll deal with his suspicions gets a free virtual icecream.
