Pony opened the door to the house and walked in, followed by Darry, Soda and the rest of the guys. He proceeded to take his graduation gown off and throw it on the couch. Darry raised an eyebrow – "What's wrong? You are officially a High School Graduate now."
"Yeah," Pony mumbled.
"So am I" Two-bit said proudly, puffing his chest out. Darry ignored him, and turned to Pony. "Are you still upset that you are not a valedictorian?"
"I was never upset over that," Pony shot back at him, while filling his glass with water and taking a sip. Behind Pony's back Darry pointed his index fingers at him and mouthed facing Soda "he so was." Soda giggled.
"What?" Pony rolled his eyes.
"What is it then?" Darry frowned, following Pony into the kitchen.
"It's nothing," Pony furrowed his eyebrows.
Soda gave him a knowing look, "What's bugging you Pone? C'mon you can tell me." He looked at Pony with those brown eyes. Nobody could take it when Soda looked at them this way.
"Alright," Pony said, and Soda patted a seat next to him on the couch motioning for Pony to sit down. Pony plopped next to Soda – "It's just everyone seems to be doing something tuff for their last Summer before college, and I am just stuck here, bumming around."
"Like what?" Soda raised his eyebrows.
"Ok, so Larry Hawkins is going to this famous resort with his family and he is not even that rich. He's middle class if you ask me," Pony swallowed hard.
"What kind of name is Larry," two-bit made a face, taking a seat on the floor in his graduation gown and cap and turning the TV on.
"What else?" Soda asked, leaning his back against the cushion of the couch.
"Jeremy Simpson got into foreign exchange program and will be spending the Summer in England…" Soda flinched a little at that. "And," Pony sighed, "Taylor Smith and his friends are going on a road trip around the country."
"Shoot, we can go on a road trip," two-bit stepped forward while playing with the tassel of his cap.
"And where are you going to get the dough?" Steve scowled. Pony gave Soda a defeated look, agreeing with Steve for once. Johnny, who was standing quietly in the corner, stepped forward – "what if we go to Vegas first, we can win some money playing poker and spend it on the trip." The room went silent – leave it to little, quiet Johnny to think of something like that.
Dally looked over at Johnny, and there was nothing short of affection in his look. "Yeah, it'd be wild if I hustled in Vegas," he smiled widely.
"You mean it?" Soda stared at Dally, a shadow of excitement flickering in his eyes. Dallas was thoughtful for a moment, "I don't see why not. The kid has a point – we'll be cooped up in here for the whole three months." Pony wrinkled his nose at being called a "kid". Now that he graduated High School he thought he surely was too old for that.
"Road trip," two-bit yelled, and Steve smacked him on the back of his head. "Ouch" two-bit glared at Steve. Soda looked puzzled then spoke up, "I think we can actually pull this off. Darry, what do you say?"
"I say I can't go since I can't take off work and that means you can't go,"
"Oh, c'mon Darry," Soda whined, "I'll be in charge," Soda looked Darry right in the eyes. Darry stifled a laugh, "That's what I am worried about." Soda realized his mistake and recovered on the spot, "Ok, ok," he said, getting up from the couch and walking up to Darry, "you don't trust me, that's fine. Dal will be in charge. He can make sure we don't do anything … um, stupid."
Darry ignored Soda for the moment, and turned to Dally, "are you serious about this?" Dally met Darry's gaze, "I'd like to give it a try. At least Vegas, and if we win some cash we can go to a few cities, nothing crazy."
"Nothing crazy," Darry repeated thoughtfully, "no getting in trouble with the law or…" he paused looking dead serious, "Chasing after broads."
"You worry too much," Dally replied with a smirk. Then he added, "And you can take a break from us always being around, cramping your style and eating your food."
"Wait," Darry looked directly at Dallas, "how are you going to go the casino, you are underage?"
Dally snorted, "That would be absolutely no problem. I can have fake IDs by tonight."
Darry looked around the room, all eyes were on him, he felt the pressure. "Fine, but you better drop me a line from each of the places you go to so I know that you are…," he smiled in spite of himself, "still alive."
"That 'be no problem superman," Steve assured. He actually looked excited. He punched Soda playfully on the shoulder – "so when are we leaving?"
That evening they sat down to decide which cities to visit. The first thing Dally said was that he did not want to go to L.A. because it was "socs' city" – his exact words. Everyone was fine with that, and they picked to go to Vegas, New York, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Miami. The following morning they spent packing, and at noon they started their ride.