Steve: The Final Point Lost

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone in here

*WHOO!!! SECOND CHAPTER TODAY!!!*

            When Ponyboy went under and hadn't resurfaced yet, I got scared, to tell you the truth. I didn't want to go home and face Soda saying that his kid brother drowned because I picked a twig too thin. Not to mention picturing what Darry would do to me. And I guess I was a little worried. Just a little tiny bit. I let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding when I saw his head pop up and surface. I watched as Randy and Cherry pulled him to safety back on my side of the little stream. Without thinking, I handed him my jacket. He looked as if he were about to freeze to death. Our peace with each other lasted all of five minutes. As soon as he'd been warmed up in the tent, my anger flared again. The next few days weren't exactly paradise either. We fought at every possible chance and needless to say, we failed.

            On our last night there, the gym teacher (I guess Pony's track coach) pulled us both aside during dinner. He gave us this crap about our grades being in jeopardy or something like that. We had to pass the last assignment in order to pass the quarter with a C. My old man would hit the roof. I guess it was partly my fault, but it was partly his too. Teams were supposed to work together and I think by then, I realized how much un-like a team we were. But still, how was it my fault that he kept on yellin' at me when he was the one that mixed up the trees? He exploded at me. And was I going to take any of that shit? Of course not. But our argument couldn't go very far. The whistle sounded, signaling lights out. With my luck, I didn't sleep easy.

*Dream*

            It was any other ordinary day. I woke-up at the Curtis house and Johnny and Dally came floating through the door. Wait a minute. FLOATING?! JOHNNY AND DALLY!??!? I jumped up from the couch, "Hey guys!" I shouted. They quieted me down, "Shhh…this is a dream, but still the Curtis' are sleeping."

            "Wh-what are you doing here?"

            "Steve, listen. We're ghosts of our former selves. We were sent here to warn you about something." Johnny told me.

            "What is it?" 

            "Something bad is going to happen when you wake-up. Something's going to happen to you and Ponyboy." Dally told me.

            "Yeah, he tells us you're not getting along too well." Johnny piped up. I sent them a confused look, "Have you been talking to Pony?"

            "Yeah, all the time." They both said.

            "How come he never told me or any of the gang?"

            "He didn't realize that he was talking to us. He sat in the lot one morning and was just talking, addressing us. We missed that. We thought y'all would still come by and visit us. When you wake-up, something will happen, I'm telling you."

            "What's going to happen?"

            "We can't tell you," Dally sighed, "Look, Pony needs you more than you think."

            "Pony? Ponyboy Curtis? Nah…we hate each other enough to start a war now."

            "So we've heard. You guys need to pull together and work together to get yourselves out of this mess or you'll end up like us." I heard myself gasp. Did he mean dead? As if reading my thoughts, Dally nodded. Johnny sighed, "We missed you all. We told Pony something that he needs to bring back to the guys. Try and get him to tell you first. Don't doubt what he says. It's true. You've seen it yourself."

            "We miss you so much," I whispered.

            "We have to go, Steve. Remember, be careful and work together…" they drifted away and faded.

            I woke with a start. I looked over and saw Pony tossing and turning, working up a sweat. 'It was just a dream,' I told myself and went back to sleep. Of course, I didn't sleep well because of that dream. When the morning whistle blew, I got up groggily. I was happy that it was the last time that I had to hear that whistle at the early hours of the morning. Pony and I stared at each other strangely and I couldn't help wondering if he had a dream like mine too. I didn't have time to ask though. After breakfast, the teachers gave us our English themes back. I looked down at mine and surprisingly, I got an A. I had written about family troubles. The trouble my mom and I were having with my semi-abusive father. I looked over to Ponyboy. He seemed relatively happy with his grade, but when I looked at the length of that theme, I was surprised. It was almost like a novel.

            "Ok! Each group gets a compass and each group is given a different set of directions and a camera. Record on camera everything you do to find your way back here. Make it back here by lunchtime, which is about 2 hours from now. Then, we'll get ready to go back down the flatlands of Tulsa. Ponyboy and Steve! Take these and follow the directions up to the peak then back down again, taking 2 separate routes." He threw us the compass and handed us the camera. I stood there numbly. What the hell were these teachers thinking? They were actually trusting Ponyboy and I with these expensive tools and they were going to let us wander off on our own. Okay, so we had directions. Big fucking whoop.

            Pony looked about as disgusted as I felt. We rolled our eyes at each other and started walking towards the peak. Each of us had a pack filled with one bag of trail mix each and a walkie-talkie in case we get lost. We walked in silence. I'm not sure if it was because we were too tired to care or if it was that dream. Something told me that he'd had it too. But I didn't believe it. Johnny and Dallas are dead. They can't come back to life because ghosts aren't real. Are they? I shook my head and kept on walking. We were actually making good progress considering that we just had to walk in a straight line. That is, until we reached our first fork.

            "I say we go that way since its southeast." Pony suggested. I was confused, "But the map says to go northwest." I turned the camera on.

            "Yeah, but Coach told me that if we do it backwards, we'll have more of a chance of getting our grades raised to a B." he babbled.

            "True, but I did good on my English theme which counts for a lot too," I protested.

            "So did I but if I don't get an A, Darry might kill me."

            "Fine, fine. But it's your fault if you get us lost," I grumbled.

            "It's a team thing, Steve. If you don't wanna do it…"

            "LOOK! We're just wasting time standing around and arguing. Let's just go." He didn't say anything and we started in the direction he was telling me. I held the compass and told him the directions. After awhile, we still hadn't reached the red flag that was supposed to be our marker. I wondered if the compass was broken and shook it around for awhile until I was satisfied. Ponyboy was looked at the map, confused. He turned it around a few times and looked at me. At the same exact time, I realized something. I was holding the compass completely wrong. I'd been telling him the wrong directions. Ponyboy looked at me with fear in his eyes, "Steve, I was holding the map wrong…" WHAT?!?! So was he telling me that we were COMPLETELY lost!??!

            "WHAT?!" I exploded.

            "Sorry…We can still get back. We just need to adjust the compass…"

            "Uh, Ponyboy?" I asked.

            "Yeah?" he was busy trying to figure it out.

            "I…I, uh, I was kinda holding the compass wrong." Now it was his turn to explode,

            "WHAT?!?!?! So now we're in the middle of nowhere?!"

            "Hey, don't blame me for your own stupidity!!" I yelled at him. He was turning purplish. Whether it was from the cold or from anger, I couldn't tell you.

            "You held a compass in the wrong direction!!!"

            "You held a map upside down or sideways or whatever!!!" We yelled at each other for awhile. Finally, I pushed him and he shoved me back. We didn't get any farther because we heard a loud rumbling. We both instantly shut up and looked towards the rumble. A mountain load of snow was rushing towards us and before we could think, it knocked us over like bowling pins. I saw our camera, compass, and map going flying away. I also saw Ponyboy flying in a different direction. But before I could even yell, I was engulfed in the snow…

*Finally…the good part. I never thought I'd get to it!*