Disclaimer: I don't own the Outsiders. The genius S.E. Hinton does.
A/N: Thanks for the reviews. It looks like some people are curious about what Darry might say or do, so let's find out.

Darry's POV

I came home from work and found Twobit and Pony watching TV. Pony looked like he was lost in his thoughts, but that's not unusual for him.
"Hey, guys. How was your day?" I asked.
"Difficult." Pony answered.
"Why? What happened?" I said as I sat down next to Pony.
Twobit quickly explained what had happened at school with the socs.
"It was so embarrassing, Darry. I never bother them, but they pick on me for something I can't control. All day long kids were staring at me and talking about me." Pony said.
I couldn't imagine how Pony must feel. He loved school, but kids were making it difficult for him to adjust again and be a normal student. I really didn't know what to do about this except talk to Pony and help him deal with it. It made me furious that these socs had teased my little brother like that, but what could I do about it? We didn't even know their names.
"I don't want to go back to school." Pony said.
"Come on, Pony. You love school. You have to go eventually, and if you stay away any longer, it will just get worse." I said.
We heard the screen door open and shut as Soda and Steve came in from the DX.
"Hey, Twobit, what happened to you and Pony earlier? I thought you were going to the DX at lunch." Steve said.
Soda and Steve listened as Pony explained the situation to them.
"Stupid socs." Steve said.
"Don't they have anything better to do?" Soda said.
"I would have given them something better to do, but Pony wanted me to stay out of it." Twobit said.
"Why?" Steve asked.
"Fighting has never solved our problems before. Why would it now?" Pony said.
That made me really proud of him. He was right. Fighting never solved anything, and I was sure he also hadn't wanted Twobit to get hurt defending him.
"Besides, if Twobit fought for me, I would get teased even more for not doing it myself. They will probably have something to say about how I ran out of the cafeteria too." Pony said.
"There are other ways to defend yourself besides fighting." I said.
"Yeah, you can talk back to them and walk away or just pretend they aren't there. That would probably drive them crazy because most greasers do fight them over things like this, but that's exactly what they want. They want to make you angry enough to fight." Soda said.
Soda was right about that even though ignoring a bully was something our parents told us to do in elementary school. It could work on socs since they wanted to get attention. Of course, it could also make things worse if they decided to just get rougher. I didn't want Pony fighting at school anyway, and I'm sure Soda knew that. That must have been why he was trying to think of other ways of handling this.
"They're probably just a bunch of cowards anyway." Steve said.
"Getting on their nerves by not fighting like they want you to might be enough to make them back off. Their main goals are to get attention and get you in trouble since the greaser would always take the blame no matter what the soc does." Soda said.
He was doing a good job giving advice, but I was trying to think of something to tell Pony too.
"I guess I just have to stand up for myself." Pony said.
"You're better than them, little buddy. They are not worth worrying about. Those socs just tease you because they know they would never be able to handle what you went through. They think it's one big joke." I said.

Pony had to go to the hospital a little later that day to get chemo. When we got home, he was sick and tired as usual. I hated to think that we were actually getting used to this, but we were. I guess we had to if life was going to be normal at all. It was going to be great when Pony was finally done with treatment, but he still had a long way to go.

Pony's POV

I did not sleep well at all that night. I tried to because I wanted to go to school the next day, but it was no use. I just kept getting sick and throwing up. The mouth sores had gotten a lot better, but they were still there. I didn't want to bother Soda, so instead of going back and forth every time I got sick, I just stayed in the bathroom. Of course, I should have known that he would realize I wasn't next to him and get up anyway. That's exactly what he did at about 4:00 a.m.
"Hey, Pony. You okay?" Soda asked.
"I'm fine. Go back to bed, Soda. You have work tomorrow." I said.
As soon as those words were out of my mouth, I threw up yet again. He was really going to believe I was fine now, wasn't he? Soda ignored what I said and sat down next to me as I leaned against the wall.
"If you're fine, why are you spending the night in the bathroom?" He asked.
I didn't answer. Instead I put my head on his shoulder and closed my eyes. I drifted off to sleep. I was so tired, but my stomach wouldn't settle long enough for me to get any rest. I woke up about a half hour later, and Soda was looking at me worriedly.
"I'm sorry, Soda. I didn't mean to fall asleep and keep you in here." I said. "It's okay, little buddy." He answered.
"I feel horrible, and I really didn't want to get up. I was only in here in the first place because I didn't want to bother you, but that didn't work too well." I said.
Soda smiled a little.
"Haven't you figured it out yet, Pony? If you wake me up in the middle of the night because you're sick, it doesn't bother me. I want you to tell me. You don't have to spend the whole night in here alone. I want to be here for you." He said.
I smiled a little too. That was just like Soda.
"I feel a little better now, and I need something to drink." I said.
My mouth was really dry, and some water might help.
"Sure. How about some chocolate milk?" Soda joked.
"I'm not quite ready for that yet." I said grinning.
I loved how Soda could still make me smile even when I felt lousy. We went to the kitchen, and I got some water. It was about twenty minutes before five, so Darry would be up in a little bit. I definitely wasn't going to school. Even if I wanted to, there was no way he would let me. The water made me feel better, so I went back to bed to see about finally getting some sleep.

A/N Review please! Gosh, I need to find a place to end this, so I can do the epilogue. Thanks a bunch to everyone who has reviewed. Help me make it to 300! I was asked in a review if anyone I know has cancer. The answer to that is yes. None have leukemia, but several of my friends and family have had cancer. My cousin had lymphoma, which is similar to leukemia. He's the youngest in my family to have it. The rest are older, and they had more common ones, like breast or colon cancer.