Chapter 6 - Looking Back
A/N - Still don't own the Outsider's and the great characters/situations. Wish I did, but that's not likely to happen. Thanks for reading! Sorry it's been a few weeks, but better late than never.
Johnny's P.O.V.
I never really knew how long a day could drag on when there is nothing to do. I mean nothing. It's a good thing none of us had a watch - we probably would have been looking at the time every minute. At least we had the deck of cards and the book. I really liked the book. It made me think. I could just picture Dally as one of those Southern gentlemen. Like them, he was fearless. He was cool, especially under pressure. And, he was cocky - just like those Southern gentlemen who thought they would win the civil war hands down. When I first told Pony, he laughed at me, but I think I got through to him when I explained.
Stephi was drawing farther and farther away from us. She spent much of her time in the back corner, with her legs drawn into her chest. She still wasn't sleeping. Her eyes were red with large, dark circles underneath, and her face was pale. She only spoke when we asked her questions, and sometimes, not even then. She only ate when we really pushed her. She was lost in her own world and we couldn't get through to her. She didn't even seem to hear us most of the time. Pony and I were growing more worried every day. We began to sleep in shifts, but by morning we both usually fell asleep - we felt more secure knowing that someone was awake with her for most of the night. We usually slept in the corner with her, huddled together for warmth. Dally sure was right about it being cold out here.
We stayed away from the front of the church, to stay hidden from the road. We hung out at the back, just playing cards and reading our book. Pony usually read aloud to me - he was able to read quicker and steadier. I sometimes stumbled over the words when I read. I could read enough to get by, but still had trouble with many words. All throughout school, teachers just passed me on to the next grade - none of them every really tried to help. I wasn't a troublemaker in class or anything, but I think they just wanted to get rid of me.
I woke up early one morning and noticed that Pony wasn't in the church. The sun wasn't even up yet. I turned to Stephi. "Good morning, Steph." She was shivering. "Are you cold?"
She didn't answer. I stood up and took off my jeans jacket and draped it over her shoulders. "I'm gonna go look for Pony. I'll be right back."
I found him just outside the back door, watching the horizon. I turned my head the direction he was looking and saw the most beautiful sunrise. I had never seen a sunrise before. I was amazed and spoke my thoughts aloud, startling Ponyboy.
He told me a poem that he'd read before. It was exactly what I meant when I said I wished the sun and sky could stay all silver and gold. I didn't quite get the whole meaning of the poem just then, but really liked what it said. I remembered it.
We went inside and made some baloney sandwiches. Boy, was I sick of baloney. Pony took a sandwich over to Stephi.
"Hey Steph, I brought you a sandwich," he said, sitting down beside her. She didn't even move, like she didn't hear him. He put his arm around her shoulder. "Come on, sweetie, you really need to eat something." He looked back towards me. I caught his eye and knew we were both thinking the same thing.
"Pony," I said, with concern, "look at her. She's as white as a ghost. She's lost weight and she needs sleep. If she doesn't snap out of this soon, we're gonna have to get her some help. She really needs a doctor. She shouldn't be here. She needs to be at home."
At the mention of home, Stephi snapped out of her trance and looked up at Pony. "Oh, Ponyboy, I want to go home. I just want to go home. I want Soda and Darry." Then she began to cry. She threw her arms around Pony and held on tight as sobs racked her body. All he could do was just hold her and try to reassure her.
"We'll be home soon," he whispered to her, not knowing if he was telling her the truth or not. I went over and sat with them. Stephi cried for nearly half and hour and finally fell into an exhausted sleep. Relieved, Pony carefully laid her on the floor and let her sleep. We sat in silence for several minutes, then quietly moved to the other side of the church to play cards.
Pony smoked at least two packs while we were playing, and wouldn't eat anything. He finally told me he felt a little tired, and went over to the corner where Stephi was sleeping to lay down. I picked up the book and tried to read, when I heard a noise outside the church. I glanced over to Pony and Stephi. He must not have heard the noise, because he didn't more. Maybe I was just imagining things. It was easy for your imagination to run away out here. Then, I heard a twig snap. Okay, now it was real.
I slowly got up and moved towards the small window by the back door. The window was boarded over, but had a few cracks that we could see out. I made my way towards the crack to see if there was anything out back. I peeked out the crack and saw Dally coming around the back corner of the church. I had never been so happy to see someone in my life.
I ran out the door and met him, a big grin on my face. He grinned too, and reached over to ruffle my hair. "Hey, Johnnycake, how ya been?" "Dally, it's great to see ya? How are ya? How're things at home? What's going on with the cops? And the guys?" I had more questions, but Dally stopped me.
"Slow down, pally. I'll explain it all. Where're Pony and Stephi?"
"They're inside sleeping. Pony's gonna be so happy to see ya. Let's go get him." I was so excited to hear news from home, I was almost jumping up and down. We walked in and Dally went straight to Pony. He turned to me, pointed to his hair, then Pony and smirked. I had almost forgotten about Pony's blonde hair - I was used to it now.
Dally nudged Pony with his toe to wake him up. Pony rolled over and, when he saw it was Dally, jumped up, as excited as I was.
"Hey, Ponyboy!" Dally grinned. "And Sleeping Beauty," he said as he started to reach out his foot to nudge Stephi.
I ran over and almost tackled him. "No, Dally. Let her sleep. It's the first time she's slept since we've been here."
"Okay, okay," he said as we all three walked over to the other side of the church.
Pony began with the questions, most of them the same as mine. Dally stopped him, too and offered to take us to get something to eat and explain it all there. We jumped at the chance for real food. Dally explained how he had convinced the cops that we were headed south to Texas to hide out. They wouldn't be looking for us here.
"Ain't you guys been eatin' anything?" Dally asked.
I was stunned at the question. "Yeah. What made ya think we weren't?"
He shook his head. "Well, you're both pale and look like you've lost weight. And look at Stephi. I hate to say it, but she ain't lookin' so good. What's going on with her?"
"She hasn't slept at all 'til now and she's barely eaten a thing," I answered. "We've been awfully worried. We were thinking about takin' her to a doctor or something, but she finally fell asleep a little while ago. I think she's in shock and very homesick."
Just then, Dally remembered he had a letter for Ponyboy. He tossed it to him, joking with him about who the letter was from. It was from Sodapop, and Pony read through it silently, a grin on his face - no doubt thinking about home and his brothers.
"Come on," Dally beckoned. "Ya'll want something to eat or not? What about Stephi?"
Pony and I jumped up quickly. "I don't know, though," Pony looked over to Stephi. "We really shouldn't wake her."
"Well," Dally started, "I think there's some paper out in the car. We could leave her a note."
Pony looked uncertain. I knew he wanted to stay with Steph, but I also knew he wanted real food and news from home. "Pony," I said, "it'll be okay. She probably ain't even gonna wake up. She's awful tired."
"Okay, I guess you're right." Dally got some paper and Pony wrote her a note.
Stephi,
Dally came to check up on us. We are going into town to get something to eat. You were sleeping so peacefully, I couldn't bear to wake you up. Please don't worry - Dally knows what he's doing and he wouldn't take us out if it wasn't safe. We'll be back real quick and bring you a bite to eat.
Love, Pony
We got into the car and Dally tore off down the road. I love driving fast just as much as the next guy, but it made me a little sick. He pulled into a Dairy Queen and Pony and I stuffed ourselves with barbeque and ice cream. I had never tasted anything so wonderful.
Dally finally got into the news from home. It was all out Soc against greaser. Two-bit had been jumped a few days ago, but was okay. There was going to be a rumple tomorrow night at the vacant lot. They even had a spy - Cherry Valance.
Pony boy was surprised at this news, but I kind of understood. She seemed like a nice enough girl, and Dally said she thought everything was kind of her fault anyway. Pony and Dally began talking about when the Curtis family spent time out in the country. I wasn't really listening. I was thinking about home. I'm sure my parents didn't care too much that I wasn't around, but maybe they did. I know Darry and Soda had to be worried out of their minds about Pony and Stephi. It wasn't fair for them to be stuck out here with me. They didn't do anything. It was me. Suddenly, I knew what I had to do. I had to go back. I broke into their conversation. "We're goin' back and turn ourselves in."
Dally swore. "Damn it Johnny. What the hell?"
Quietly, I repeated myself. Dally looked at me with disbelief in his eyes. Afraid I had upset him, I stumbled into an explanation - about how it was self-defense, that it wasn't fair for Pony and Stephi, or Darry and Soda. "Dally, Stephi's sick and I couldn't take it if something happened to her. Plus, I don't aim to stay in that church all my life."
I looked at Dally, my eyes pleading with him to agree with me. I needed his reassurance. I needed to know that this was the right thing to do.
"You sure about this, Johnny? Greasers get more trouble than anyone else."
I swallowed hard. "Yeah, I'm sure. It's not right for Darry and Soda and the guys to worry. It's not fair for - well, my parents. I don't guess that my parent's are worried about me or anything?"
"The boys are worried," Dally answered. It wasn't the answer I wanted to hear. I asked again.
Dally snapped. He ranted at me about his parents not caring. He couldn't believe that it mattered to me. I turned to look at the dashboard. It did matter. My parents really didn't care about me. I had known this deep down for sometime, but this made it real to me. Dally took off towards the church. He was mad at me. I felt even worse. The last thing I wanted to do was to make Dally mad. He was in a rage and ranting at me. He asked why I hadn't just turned myself in five days ago, and saved us all the trouble.
"I don't know, Dally. I was scared. I still am."
Dally was puzzled. This answer didn't help. He looked over at me out the corner of his eyes - they were blazing. I must have looked as rotten as I felt, cause he told me then he wasn't mad at me. He just didn't want me to get hurt, he didn't want me to go to jail and end up like him. I was amazed. I had never heard Dally talk like this. I asked him if he would rather have me hiding out for the rest of my life. Whatever he answered, I would stick with it. He didn't have time to answer. Dally slammed on the brakes. "Oh Glory," he muttered. The church was on fire.
"Oh my god, Stephi!" Pony yelled as he jumped out of the car. I quickly followed. Dally called out to be careful. There was a crowd in front of the church, mostly little kids. Pony ran to them, searching wildly for Stephi. He got to the nearest grown up.
"Have you seen a blonde girl, a little older than me?" he asked at the same time I asked, "What's going on here?"
"No, I haven't seen anyone else," the big guy answered. "We were having a school picnic up here and next thing we know, the place is in flames. Good thing it's worthless." He shouted at the kids to stand back.
"My sister was in that church," Pony said to him. He turned to me, frantic. "I bet we started it - we must have dropped a cigarette. Where is she Johnny?"
"Calm down, Pony. She's probably out back," I tried to assure him. My voice faltered. "Let's go see." I couldn't believe we left her in there. How could I have thought it was okay to leave her here alone?
At the same time a lady came running up. "Jerry, some of the kids are missing."
"They're probably around here somewhere. You can't tell with all the excitement. Did you check out back?" Jerry asked.
"I just came from the back, there's no one there. I thought they were climbing."
We all froze as we faintly heard someone yelling. It sounded like it was coming from the church.
Pony turned white. "Stephi, I'm coming! Hang on!" he yelled. He beat me to the front of the church, but couldn't get through the door - it was in flames. I followed him to the window and watched as he threw a big rock through it and began to climb in. All I could think was that we started it. We started it and left Stephi in there alone.
I followed Pony into the church, and the smoke took my breath away. I choked and gagged. My eyes teared up. It didn't matter, though, we had to find Stephi. I was scared. I knew that I couldn't take the time to be scared. Not now.
We pushed open the door to the back room and found Stephi with four or five kids that were huddled in the corner. She was trying to calm the one that was screaming his head off. "Shut up," I yelled. "We're gonna get you out of here." Stephi looked up and saw us. Relief flooded her face. I grinned. Now that we found Stephi, I really wasn't scared. It kind of surprised me. I grabbed a kid and headed for the window.
Pony grabbed Stephi's arm and pushed her toward the window. "Get out!"
"Not 'til these kids are out, Pony. Help me." She and Pony each grabbed a kid. I reached the window and Dally was there. I handed him the kid. He pulled him out the window then yelled at me, "For Pete's sake, get Stephi and get out of there! That roof's gonna cave any minute. Forget those blasted kids!"
I ignored him and went back for another kid. We got them all out and Dally helped Stephi climb out the window. I pushed Pony towards the window. Just then, I large piece of the roof came down towards me. I screamed and passed out as the weight of it came down onto my back.
A/N - Thanks for reading. Sorry it's taken a while - these middle chapters are hard to write. I hate to repeat the book, but also hate to leave out key parts. I have the end of the story written - if I could just get to it.
DallysGirl4Life - Thanks for continuing to read, and more importantly, for reviewing. It's such good motivation to keep writing.
Anja - Thanks for the lovely review. Sorry about Johnny - unfortunately, I didn't write that part - I'm just following Ms. Hinton's lead there. Glad you liked it.
Two-BitGortez - Thanks for the review, and that's okay that it's not in Spanish. I took my Spanish classes so long ago, that I wouldn't be able to read much of it. Thanks for reading!
Dally's Chick - It was so nice to hear from you - thanks. Bad news, though - I don't see good things ahead for Johnny and Dally - I'm sticking to the book there. Sorry. Things are going to stay interesting, though. Thanks again!
Pony's Girl - Thank you again - I'm so glad you are liking this story.
GirlsDontCri - 1 - Me too, thanks. 2 - Thanks again. 3 - I really liked hearing from Johnny, too. That doesn't happen too often. 4 - Evil Socs - they will kind of disappear later, but there will be new evil baddies. 5 - I'm a favorite - now I'm blushing. Hope you liked this one. There's good stuff coming.
Star Future - Glad you are loving it and glad you found the story. I like the sister stories too. I tired to make it different from all the others I've read, so thanks for the new twist comment. There're more surprises coming later. I have the whole end of the story written, I just have to get through the middle part now.
A/N - Still don't own the Outsider's and the great characters/situations. Wish I did, but that's not likely to happen. Thanks for reading! Sorry it's been a few weeks, but better late than never.
Johnny's P.O.V.
I never really knew how long a day could drag on when there is nothing to do. I mean nothing. It's a good thing none of us had a watch - we probably would have been looking at the time every minute. At least we had the deck of cards and the book. I really liked the book. It made me think. I could just picture Dally as one of those Southern gentlemen. Like them, he was fearless. He was cool, especially under pressure. And, he was cocky - just like those Southern gentlemen who thought they would win the civil war hands down. When I first told Pony, he laughed at me, but I think I got through to him when I explained.
Stephi was drawing farther and farther away from us. She spent much of her time in the back corner, with her legs drawn into her chest. She still wasn't sleeping. Her eyes were red with large, dark circles underneath, and her face was pale. She only spoke when we asked her questions, and sometimes, not even then. She only ate when we really pushed her. She was lost in her own world and we couldn't get through to her. She didn't even seem to hear us most of the time. Pony and I were growing more worried every day. We began to sleep in shifts, but by morning we both usually fell asleep - we felt more secure knowing that someone was awake with her for most of the night. We usually slept in the corner with her, huddled together for warmth. Dally sure was right about it being cold out here.
We stayed away from the front of the church, to stay hidden from the road. We hung out at the back, just playing cards and reading our book. Pony usually read aloud to me - he was able to read quicker and steadier. I sometimes stumbled over the words when I read. I could read enough to get by, but still had trouble with many words. All throughout school, teachers just passed me on to the next grade - none of them every really tried to help. I wasn't a troublemaker in class or anything, but I think they just wanted to get rid of me.
I woke up early one morning and noticed that Pony wasn't in the church. The sun wasn't even up yet. I turned to Stephi. "Good morning, Steph." She was shivering. "Are you cold?"
She didn't answer. I stood up and took off my jeans jacket and draped it over her shoulders. "I'm gonna go look for Pony. I'll be right back."
I found him just outside the back door, watching the horizon. I turned my head the direction he was looking and saw the most beautiful sunrise. I had never seen a sunrise before. I was amazed and spoke my thoughts aloud, startling Ponyboy.
He told me a poem that he'd read before. It was exactly what I meant when I said I wished the sun and sky could stay all silver and gold. I didn't quite get the whole meaning of the poem just then, but really liked what it said. I remembered it.
We went inside and made some baloney sandwiches. Boy, was I sick of baloney. Pony took a sandwich over to Stephi.
"Hey Steph, I brought you a sandwich," he said, sitting down beside her. She didn't even move, like she didn't hear him. He put his arm around her shoulder. "Come on, sweetie, you really need to eat something." He looked back towards me. I caught his eye and knew we were both thinking the same thing.
"Pony," I said, with concern, "look at her. She's as white as a ghost. She's lost weight and she needs sleep. If she doesn't snap out of this soon, we're gonna have to get her some help. She really needs a doctor. She shouldn't be here. She needs to be at home."
At the mention of home, Stephi snapped out of her trance and looked up at Pony. "Oh, Ponyboy, I want to go home. I just want to go home. I want Soda and Darry." Then she began to cry. She threw her arms around Pony and held on tight as sobs racked her body. All he could do was just hold her and try to reassure her.
"We'll be home soon," he whispered to her, not knowing if he was telling her the truth or not. I went over and sat with them. Stephi cried for nearly half and hour and finally fell into an exhausted sleep. Relieved, Pony carefully laid her on the floor and let her sleep. We sat in silence for several minutes, then quietly moved to the other side of the church to play cards.
Pony smoked at least two packs while we were playing, and wouldn't eat anything. He finally told me he felt a little tired, and went over to the corner where Stephi was sleeping to lay down. I picked up the book and tried to read, when I heard a noise outside the church. I glanced over to Pony and Stephi. He must not have heard the noise, because he didn't more. Maybe I was just imagining things. It was easy for your imagination to run away out here. Then, I heard a twig snap. Okay, now it was real.
I slowly got up and moved towards the small window by the back door. The window was boarded over, but had a few cracks that we could see out. I made my way towards the crack to see if there was anything out back. I peeked out the crack and saw Dally coming around the back corner of the church. I had never been so happy to see someone in my life.
I ran out the door and met him, a big grin on my face. He grinned too, and reached over to ruffle my hair. "Hey, Johnnycake, how ya been?" "Dally, it's great to see ya? How are ya? How're things at home? What's going on with the cops? And the guys?" I had more questions, but Dally stopped me.
"Slow down, pally. I'll explain it all. Where're Pony and Stephi?"
"They're inside sleeping. Pony's gonna be so happy to see ya. Let's go get him." I was so excited to hear news from home, I was almost jumping up and down. We walked in and Dally went straight to Pony. He turned to me, pointed to his hair, then Pony and smirked. I had almost forgotten about Pony's blonde hair - I was used to it now.
Dally nudged Pony with his toe to wake him up. Pony rolled over and, when he saw it was Dally, jumped up, as excited as I was.
"Hey, Ponyboy!" Dally grinned. "And Sleeping Beauty," he said as he started to reach out his foot to nudge Stephi.
I ran over and almost tackled him. "No, Dally. Let her sleep. It's the first time she's slept since we've been here."
"Okay, okay," he said as we all three walked over to the other side of the church.
Pony began with the questions, most of them the same as mine. Dally stopped him, too and offered to take us to get something to eat and explain it all there. We jumped at the chance for real food. Dally explained how he had convinced the cops that we were headed south to Texas to hide out. They wouldn't be looking for us here.
"Ain't you guys been eatin' anything?" Dally asked.
I was stunned at the question. "Yeah. What made ya think we weren't?"
He shook his head. "Well, you're both pale and look like you've lost weight. And look at Stephi. I hate to say it, but she ain't lookin' so good. What's going on with her?"
"She hasn't slept at all 'til now and she's barely eaten a thing," I answered. "We've been awfully worried. We were thinking about takin' her to a doctor or something, but she finally fell asleep a little while ago. I think she's in shock and very homesick."
Just then, Dally remembered he had a letter for Ponyboy. He tossed it to him, joking with him about who the letter was from. It was from Sodapop, and Pony read through it silently, a grin on his face - no doubt thinking about home and his brothers.
"Come on," Dally beckoned. "Ya'll want something to eat or not? What about Stephi?"
Pony and I jumped up quickly. "I don't know, though," Pony looked over to Stephi. "We really shouldn't wake her."
"Well," Dally started, "I think there's some paper out in the car. We could leave her a note."
Pony looked uncertain. I knew he wanted to stay with Steph, but I also knew he wanted real food and news from home. "Pony," I said, "it'll be okay. She probably ain't even gonna wake up. She's awful tired."
"Okay, I guess you're right." Dally got some paper and Pony wrote her a note.
Stephi,
Dally came to check up on us. We are going into town to get something to eat. You were sleeping so peacefully, I couldn't bear to wake you up. Please don't worry - Dally knows what he's doing and he wouldn't take us out if it wasn't safe. We'll be back real quick and bring you a bite to eat.
Love, Pony
We got into the car and Dally tore off down the road. I love driving fast just as much as the next guy, but it made me a little sick. He pulled into a Dairy Queen and Pony and I stuffed ourselves with barbeque and ice cream. I had never tasted anything so wonderful.
Dally finally got into the news from home. It was all out Soc against greaser. Two-bit had been jumped a few days ago, but was okay. There was going to be a rumple tomorrow night at the vacant lot. They even had a spy - Cherry Valance.
Pony boy was surprised at this news, but I kind of understood. She seemed like a nice enough girl, and Dally said she thought everything was kind of her fault anyway. Pony and Dally began talking about when the Curtis family spent time out in the country. I wasn't really listening. I was thinking about home. I'm sure my parents didn't care too much that I wasn't around, but maybe they did. I know Darry and Soda had to be worried out of their minds about Pony and Stephi. It wasn't fair for them to be stuck out here with me. They didn't do anything. It was me. Suddenly, I knew what I had to do. I had to go back. I broke into their conversation. "We're goin' back and turn ourselves in."
Dally swore. "Damn it Johnny. What the hell?"
Quietly, I repeated myself. Dally looked at me with disbelief in his eyes. Afraid I had upset him, I stumbled into an explanation - about how it was self-defense, that it wasn't fair for Pony and Stephi, or Darry and Soda. "Dally, Stephi's sick and I couldn't take it if something happened to her. Plus, I don't aim to stay in that church all my life."
I looked at Dally, my eyes pleading with him to agree with me. I needed his reassurance. I needed to know that this was the right thing to do.
"You sure about this, Johnny? Greasers get more trouble than anyone else."
I swallowed hard. "Yeah, I'm sure. It's not right for Darry and Soda and the guys to worry. It's not fair for - well, my parents. I don't guess that my parent's are worried about me or anything?"
"The boys are worried," Dally answered. It wasn't the answer I wanted to hear. I asked again.
Dally snapped. He ranted at me about his parents not caring. He couldn't believe that it mattered to me. I turned to look at the dashboard. It did matter. My parents really didn't care about me. I had known this deep down for sometime, but this made it real to me. Dally took off towards the church. He was mad at me. I felt even worse. The last thing I wanted to do was to make Dally mad. He was in a rage and ranting at me. He asked why I hadn't just turned myself in five days ago, and saved us all the trouble.
"I don't know, Dally. I was scared. I still am."
Dally was puzzled. This answer didn't help. He looked over at me out the corner of his eyes - they were blazing. I must have looked as rotten as I felt, cause he told me then he wasn't mad at me. He just didn't want me to get hurt, he didn't want me to go to jail and end up like him. I was amazed. I had never heard Dally talk like this. I asked him if he would rather have me hiding out for the rest of my life. Whatever he answered, I would stick with it. He didn't have time to answer. Dally slammed on the brakes. "Oh Glory," he muttered. The church was on fire.
"Oh my god, Stephi!" Pony yelled as he jumped out of the car. I quickly followed. Dally called out to be careful. There was a crowd in front of the church, mostly little kids. Pony ran to them, searching wildly for Stephi. He got to the nearest grown up.
"Have you seen a blonde girl, a little older than me?" he asked at the same time I asked, "What's going on here?"
"No, I haven't seen anyone else," the big guy answered. "We were having a school picnic up here and next thing we know, the place is in flames. Good thing it's worthless." He shouted at the kids to stand back.
"My sister was in that church," Pony said to him. He turned to me, frantic. "I bet we started it - we must have dropped a cigarette. Where is she Johnny?"
"Calm down, Pony. She's probably out back," I tried to assure him. My voice faltered. "Let's go see." I couldn't believe we left her in there. How could I have thought it was okay to leave her here alone?
At the same time a lady came running up. "Jerry, some of the kids are missing."
"They're probably around here somewhere. You can't tell with all the excitement. Did you check out back?" Jerry asked.
"I just came from the back, there's no one there. I thought they were climbing."
We all froze as we faintly heard someone yelling. It sounded like it was coming from the church.
Pony turned white. "Stephi, I'm coming! Hang on!" he yelled. He beat me to the front of the church, but couldn't get through the door - it was in flames. I followed him to the window and watched as he threw a big rock through it and began to climb in. All I could think was that we started it. We started it and left Stephi in there alone.
I followed Pony into the church, and the smoke took my breath away. I choked and gagged. My eyes teared up. It didn't matter, though, we had to find Stephi. I was scared. I knew that I couldn't take the time to be scared. Not now.
We pushed open the door to the back room and found Stephi with four or five kids that were huddled in the corner. She was trying to calm the one that was screaming his head off. "Shut up," I yelled. "We're gonna get you out of here." Stephi looked up and saw us. Relief flooded her face. I grinned. Now that we found Stephi, I really wasn't scared. It kind of surprised me. I grabbed a kid and headed for the window.
Pony grabbed Stephi's arm and pushed her toward the window. "Get out!"
"Not 'til these kids are out, Pony. Help me." She and Pony each grabbed a kid. I reached the window and Dally was there. I handed him the kid. He pulled him out the window then yelled at me, "For Pete's sake, get Stephi and get out of there! That roof's gonna cave any minute. Forget those blasted kids!"
I ignored him and went back for another kid. We got them all out and Dally helped Stephi climb out the window. I pushed Pony towards the window. Just then, I large piece of the roof came down towards me. I screamed and passed out as the weight of it came down onto my back.
A/N - Thanks for reading. Sorry it's taken a while - these middle chapters are hard to write. I hate to repeat the book, but also hate to leave out key parts. I have the end of the story written - if I could just get to it.
DallysGirl4Life - Thanks for continuing to read, and more importantly, for reviewing. It's such good motivation to keep writing.
Anja - Thanks for the lovely review. Sorry about Johnny - unfortunately, I didn't write that part - I'm just following Ms. Hinton's lead there. Glad you liked it.
Two-BitGortez - Thanks for the review, and that's okay that it's not in Spanish. I took my Spanish classes so long ago, that I wouldn't be able to read much of it. Thanks for reading!
Dally's Chick - It was so nice to hear from you - thanks. Bad news, though - I don't see good things ahead for Johnny and Dally - I'm sticking to the book there. Sorry. Things are going to stay interesting, though. Thanks again!
Pony's Girl - Thank you again - I'm so glad you are liking this story.
GirlsDontCri - 1 - Me too, thanks. 2 - Thanks again. 3 - I really liked hearing from Johnny, too. That doesn't happen too often. 4 - Evil Socs - they will kind of disappear later, but there will be new evil baddies. 5 - I'm a favorite - now I'm blushing. Hope you liked this one. There's good stuff coming.
Star Future - Glad you are loving it and glad you found the story. I like the sister stories too. I tired to make it different from all the others I've read, so thanks for the new twist comment. There're more surprises coming later. I have the whole end of the story written, I just have to get through the middle part now.