"I didn't know you smoked Johnnycake," Darry said one Saturday afternoon, glancing meaningfully at the cigarette in Johnny's hand. Johnny followed his gaze.

"Yeah," he said simply, as if it was no big deal. "Started a couple of weeks ago."

"Do you like it?" Pony asked curiously, looking at Johnny with newly established respect. "What's it taste like? Does it make you feel funny?"

"It's alright," Johnny answered, feeling slightly intimidated by all the attention he was getting. "It made me cough to start with, but it's ok now. And it sort of tastes like paper and bonfires."

"You've tasted a bonfire?" Soda asked, raising his eyebrows. Johnny shrugged his shoulders and blushed slightly.

"Cool," Pony whispered, looking awe struck. "Can I try some?"

"NO!" Darry and Soda both snapped at the same time.

"Over my dead body," Darry continued, grabbing Pony by the tops of his arms and yanking him towards him. "What have I always told you about smoking?" He gave him a slight shake. "Come on, what have I always told you!?"

"Er...." Pony looked perplexed, his head bobbling around on top of his shoulders like one of those little nodding dogs. "I dunno Darry, stop shaking me, I feel sick!"

"It kills you. It makes your lungs go all rotten and black. I saw a picture once at school. It was disgusting. And it makes your teeth go yellow," Soda informed him, mainly to draw attention away from the fact Darry was about to strangle him. Ponyboy turned back round to face Dary.

"It makes you lungs go all rotten and..." he began, repeating exactly what Soda had just told him.

"Yeah yeah, I know," Darry interrupted him, rolling his eyes in exasperation. "It also gives you heart disease and lung cancer. And it'll stunt your growth."

"What's that mean?"

"That you'll be little for ever," Soda said, a small hint of satisfaction in his voice. This seemed to have much more effect on Pony than the fact it could kill him.

"So I'd never grow up?" he asked.

"Well you would, you'd just be smaller than everyone else," Darry explained, pulling Pony onto his lap. Pony lent his head against Darry's broad chest, and thought about this for a while.

"Your parents know you smoke Johnny?" Darry asked, rocking Pony gently.

Johnny shook his head. "They wouldn't care even if they did."

"Would you care?" Pony whispered to Darry a few minutes later, once Johnny had gone to the kitchen to fix himself a drink.

"Of course I'd care, baby," Darry whispered back, hugging Pony tightly to him. "I'm always gonna care. No matter what you do, I'm gonna care."

Pony nodded. "Why don't Johnny's mommy and daddy care?"

Darry shrugged. "I don't know. I guess some people just aren't very good at caring. Maybe know one cared about them when they were little or maybe they just don't understand what being a parent means. Who knows?"

"Did our mommy and daddy care about us?"

"Yep, they cared a whole lot. You been missing them lately?" Pony nodded again.

"This girl at school asked me what it was like not having a daddy anymore, and I told her I don't need no daddy because I got you. But then after I'd said it I felt really bad, like the time I told Soda I wished he was dead then he nearly got hit by that bus."

"Is that what's been bothering you?"

"Uh huh. Do you think daddy's mad at me because I said I didn't need him anymore?"

"No of course he's not mad at you. Just because you said you don't need him doesn't mean you forgotten him. It just means your getting used to they way things are now. And that's a good thing, both him and mom would be pleased about that wouldn't they? They'd hate for us to be unhappy right?"

"Yeah. Maybe you could be my second daddy, that why I haven't forgotten him because he's still my first daddy but because he's gone up in Heaven's bucket, I got you as well. That sound ok?"

"Yep, that sounds just fine to me. You feel better now?" Pony nodded. "And you're not gonna be asking Johnny for cigarettes?" Pony shook his head. "Alright then. I know, how about you go draw me a nice picture?"

"Ok," Pony said happily, jumping off Darry's lap and starting to hunt around for his pens. Darry smiled sadly, wishing he was still seven and that a cuddle could sort out all his problems to.

Forty minutes later, Pony was back on Darry lap, waving a piece of paper under his nose.

"I didn't do a picture," he was saying. "I did a list."

Darry took the paper from him and began to read out loud Pony's list.

"Wot I want to b wen I grow up, by Ponyboy Curtis. 1) Not dead 2)Tall 3)Happy 4)Lik Darry 5)Batman 6)Famus, you mean famous right Pone?"

"Yeah famous."

"Ok, 7) President 8)clever 9)A train driver 10) Not sunburnt. Not sunburnt?"

"I don't like getting sunburnt."

"Well if you wore sun cream like I told you to..."

"Then I smell like a girl." Darry sighed and shook his head, if Pony was going to be one thing when he grew up, it was argumentative.