Steve: Searching and Finding

Disclaimer: I don't own them

*Thanks to all who reviewed: Blatty (I love your short story!), Miss L, Chase M. Dakota, Maverick Girl, BuzzBuzz16, Ruth (Is my fanfic good interesting or bad interesting?), Tally38 (awww…thanks!), miki, and Lil Chaos Angel (I hope you didn't go crazy!!). *

*Burnin' Church Gal: WHERE ARE YOU?!?!?!?!? You haven't updated either! Oh well…I hope you're okay!*

            "Oh my god my head…" I groaned once I came to, "Pony, are you okay?" I asked, but when I looked up, I saw no one. All there was in front of me was a mass of white snow. After a few moments of sitting and doing nothing, I decided to get up and maybe start looking for the kid. After all, Soda would be pretty upset if I came home without his brother. Yeah, he'd definitely kill me.

            "Come on, Steve. You know you'd be kind of sad that the kid was gone," I told myself out loud since there was no one else to talk to. The silence had become deafening, almost earsplitting and I didn't like it one bit. I quickly retrieved my backpack and searched for something to eat. By this time, I was starving.

            As I ate, I thought of where Ponyboy could possibly be. I felt like I was forgetting something from before, but I couldn't exactly place what. Suddenly, the thought hit me like a sack of potatoes, "Avalanche!" I cried out, jumping up. Of course, no one heard me otherwise I wouldn't have ended up in the trouble that I did later on. But anyway, images of Ponyboy being swept away by the avalanche took over my mind and I remembered the direction that he went in. Sighing, I ended my little lunch (or dinner…or breakfast for that matter) break and started looking for him.

            As the sun started to set, I started to worry. True, I had never liked the kid because he was a little tagalong jerk. But at the same time, he didn't deserve to die! I wanted to keep looking, but I was going to collapse if I didn't stop. Finally, in the pitch blackness of things, I sat down on the snow and tried to figure out how to sleep. I'm not sure how I managed, but in the end, I did.

            "Oh…where the hell am I?" I groaned as my eyes adjusted to the bright morning light. As the events of the previous day came flooding into my mind, I regretted wishing I knew. Sighing, I got up and began my search, once again, for Ponyboy.

            "Come on, you have to be here somewhere." I muttered to myself. It was getting quiet and I can't stand quiet, especially since I grew-up around noise. I remembered this one time when Soda and I were wrestling in the Curtis house and Darry wasn't home yet. The TV was roaring and the radio was blasting. We were wrestling and we'd knocked down the lamp and the phone, by accident of course. Darry came home and had a fit…

*Flasback*

            "I bet I could beat you in everything else!" Soda cried as I won the 12th round of poker that day.

            "Yeah, right. You only wish!" I jokingly sneered back at him. Soda glared at me and I glared back, but soon we broke into grins.

            "Well what do you wanna do about it?" Soda asked me finally.

            "Do about what?" I had already forgotten the situation at hand.

            "Our disagreement."

            "Well…I say we do what we always do." I stood up and went across from him.

            "You're on. This time, you're going down Randle."

            "You only wish, Curtis."

We circled each other for a few minutes before we pounced onto each other and twisted the other's arms and legs rolling into lamps and tables and couches. We probably got more bruises from hitting things than from each other.

            "WHAT THE HELL?!?!?!" A door slammed. I quickly stood up and helped Soda up. Darry was home and judging from the way he looked and the way the room looked, we were in a little bit of trouble. Just a little.

            "Uh…um…hi?" Soda tried, squeaking like a mouse.

            "What did you do?" Darry hovered over him like a shadow.

            "Uh…sorry."

            "Sodapop Curtis! You didn't answer my question!"

            "We were trying to see who was better at wrestling."

            "What did I tell you about wrestling into lamps and such?"

            "Don't do that?"

            "That's right."

            "We'll clean it up," I cut in quickly. Darry looked from my pleading face to Soda's pleading face and finally sighed in exasperation, "Fine. Clean it up and do it quickly. If I hear any more breaking noises, you're really in for it." With that, he retreated into his room, muttering about how Soda had too much time on his hands. As soon as he was gone, Soda and I turned to each other and grinned.

            "Let's do this." I told him happily. We quickly picked up all the pieces from the lamp and I picked up the phone receiver and we tried to attach it to the wall again. Of course, with the two of us together, you can never have a nice and quiet clean-up. We used the broomstick and swung it around, accidentally knocking the TV over. Soda caught it in time, sending us into a fit of giggles, like little girls.

            "So when you put…" Ponyboy walked into the house, his study buddy from school behind him, "Uh…what are you guys doing?" Soda jumped up from the ground, TV in his arms, "Hey Ponyboy! Who's this?"

            "This? This is Katy McIntyre, from school. She's my study buddy. Katy, this is my older brother Soda and his best friend Steve." Pony introduced us. Katy said a shy hello to us, but she kept her eyes on Soda. Figures.

            "Hey everyone!" Two-Bit called, slamming the door behind him, as usual.

            "Hey."

            "Hi! Who's this pretty little lady?" Two-Bit smiled flirtatiously at Katy. She blushed and giggled, "Hi. My name's Katy."

            "Oh, I know you!"

            "You do?"

            "Yeah! You're that girl in me n' Pony's gym class!"

            "Oh yeah, I am aren't I?" she blushed.

After she left, we all turned on Pony, "New girl?"

            "No, study buddy." He blushed.

            "She's some looker, ain't she?" Two-Bit teased.

            "Shut up! She's my study buddy, I told you!"

            "Yeah…right…"

*End Flahsback*

            I wished that those days were back. Everything was so simple. I hated Ponyboy, but tolerated him. We all teased Pony for his lack thereof a girl and why he wasn't interested in them, and Soda and I always cleaned our messes up. None of this stupid school trip stuff. And definitely, no being lost. That wasn't in the plan, yet it somehow managed to squeeze itself in.

            The next few days were basically the same. Every morning, I'd set off on my search for Ponyboy, but I'd never get very far because I didn't want to wander too far away. I didn't have a compass and I only had a certain amount of food. After three days, I was about to give up on finding Ponyboy and getting out alive. But one day, I was walking and I trip on a clump of snow. Digging my foot out of it, I discovered the top of a backpack. Pony's backpack.

*I know it's short and I know I haven't been updating. I'M SORRY!!!! It's just that the play (and I'm a lead) is coming up and I also have big tests and state tests to study for. These actually count and they go onto my high school transcript. All my teachers next year in high school will see the bad grades if I don't study. Sooooo…I can't update as much! Sorry! Just thought I'd let y'all know! I'll try my best though. Thanks for sticking with this!*