*TWO-BIT'S POV*

At that moment, Soda and Steve walked into the house.

"Hey Darry!" shouted Soda. "You won't believe-" he stopped as he noticed the atmosphere in the room.

"What's happened now?" asked Steve.

"Two-bit told me about what happened yesterday."

Steve looked at me, surprised.

"What happened yesterday?" asked Soda curiously.

"Ponyboy didn't go to school and nobody knows where he went. He came come coughing pretty bad," I said for the seemingly hundredth time.

"And he's got a fever of 101.7!" exploded Darry.

Soda raised his eyebrows, concerned. "I'm going to check on him."

"Don't wake him up!" said Darry, to Soda's retreating back.

*DARRY'S POV* I wasn't angry. I was too worried to be angry. But I did want to know where my kid brother had been for the whole day.

"Darry! Come here!" came my other brother's. I panicked, rushing over to the bedroom. Had something else gone wrong? Two-bit and Steve followed, more slowly.

"What?" I asked, the moment I went in. Soda, like I had ten minutes ago, was sitting on the bed next to Pony, who was still fast asleep. Soda wordlessly pointed to Pony's knees.

Coming closer, I saw that they were scraped pretty badly, and some dirt was still trapped in them.

"That's gonna need cleaning," I said, shaking my head. How did Ponyboy fall down so often?

We all fell silent as Ponyboy stirred, moving around a little in his sleep. Soda put the back of his hand to his forehead.

"He's awfully hot."

I turned to Two-bit and Steve. "You two sure you don't know anything else?"

"Hey man, I told you everything!" said Two-bit, trying to sound insulted.

Steve shook his head. "I don't know anything. Just that Pony didn't come to school."

"Wake him up," I said to Soda. "I'm going to clean those scrapes before they get infected."

I went out of the room to get a clean cloth and some alcohol. When I got back Soda was coaxing Ponyboy to sit up. I didn't ask him anything because he looked too sick to answer anything, but instead wordlessly started cleaning out the dirt in his knees.

"Ouch!" yelped Pony, finally waking up and trying to pull his knees away from my reach.

"Sorry little buddy, but this is gonna hurt a little. Maybe you should just try not to fall down so much, huh?" I said softly. He sighed, shrugging.

"How do you feel?"

"My chest hurts. And so does my head," he groaned. I looked at him worriedly, and quickly finished cleaning him up.

"Lie down and get some sleep," I commanded, my parental instinct picking up. He complied with no argument and was soon fast asleep again.

"If his temperature gets any higher we're taking him to the hospital first thing tomorrow morning." I said. "I'm gonna go call his Coach."

"But-" Two-bit broke in.

I interrupted. "His Coach could know something we don't."

Soda sighed. "I'm gonna get dinner ready."

*SODA'S POV*

I went into the kitchen and absent mindedly took out some pancake mix. My mind was on Ponyboy. I could hear Darry in the next room, talking to Pony's track Coach.

"Hello?" pause.

"This is Darrel Curtis. Can you put Mr. Markin (A/N I don't know what Ponyboy's coach is called so I just put in the name of the track coach at my school- sorry!) on the phone?" pause.

"Yes, this is Ponyboy's legal guardian." Pause.

"You didn't see him at school or track yesterday?" pause.

"Yes. I'll tell him. Thank you." Pause.

"Bye."

So the coach didn't know anything about it either. I finished making the pancakes and left them to cool a little.

*STEVE'S POV*

So the kid was sick. Big deal. Why does everything seem to revolve around him? I knew Soda was worried, because his pancakes actually turned out right. I usually try not to eat at the Curtis house when I know Sodapop Curtis is cooking.

Darry was worried about Ponyboy too. What was there to be worried about? People get sick all the time. And they play hooky all the time too. Nothing new.