Chapter five

One weekday morning, after my bruises and cuts were healed, I woke up and Soda and Darry had already left for work. Ponyboy was still sleeping so I was quiet not to wake him. I ate breakfast and unsuccessfully tried to find something to watch on television, but that didn't appease me. I wanted to be doing something so I decided to head out of the house.

I left a note for Ponyboy on the dining room table, put on my shoes and headed to the DX station to visit Sodapop. It was a great day for a walk. The temperature was in the high seventies and the sun shone bright in the late morning sky. I cut through the vacant lot and looked at Johnny's house. It didn't seem like anyone was there so Johnny was probably still in bed too.

When I reached the station both Soda and Steve were in the garage with their heads tucked under an open hood. "What are you two doing?"

Soda looked around the hood. "Hey there Scout! Where's Ponyboy?"

I walked around and leaned on the side of the car. "He is still in bed and I was bored so I thought I would come and see what you two were working on."

"Steve here is just busy replacing a few belts in this ole' rust bucket."

I leaned in to see if I knew what any parts in the engine were. "Care if I watch?"

Steve looked up from the engine with a big line of grease down his cheek. "Nah, it's ok. Just stay out of my way though." Steve looked at the engine and then thought about who he was speaking to. "Oh, and don't ask too many questions."

I agreed and looked into the engine. Watching Steve or Soda work on cars always amazed me. When they looked under the hood of a car they knew what they saw. Just by looking or listening to an engine they knew which piece of the engine needed to be repaired or replaced. To me the a car engine was a puzzle I just couldn't comprehend, that amazed me. I spent an hour watching Steve repair the car and asked very few questions, so I didn't annoy him.

"That oughtta do it." Steve announced and stretched his back. "Scout jump in there and turn the key?"

"Sure!" I grinned. I loved it when Steve trusted me. "You just want me to turn the engine on and leave it on?"

"I'll tell you when to turn it off." Steve said and I climbed into the car and grabbed the key in the ignition. "Crank it!" I turned the key and fired up the engine. A few seconds later Steve told me to kill it and thanked me for helping him out. I climbed out of the car as he let the hood slam shut. "Go tell Soda I am gonna wash up."

I walked outside into the sun where Soda was just beginning to pump gasoline to a customer. I walked over between the pumps as the driver stepped out of the car.

"Well lookie here!" James' mom Delores climbed out of her car. She appeared to be on her way to work because she had her cafeteria uniform on and her hair in her hairnet. "If it isn't the girl who broke my boy's heart and ruined his life."

I wish I knew if she was being serious or sarcastic. "It's nice to see you again Delores."

"Yeah I bet it is." She snorted and looked at Sodapop. "How you doing gorgeous?"

Soda smiled. "I'm doing good." I could tell she stopped here a lot, but I don't think she realized the gas station attendant was my brother.

"Hey prince charming I'm gonna need a few packs of Marlboros."

Soda leaned against the car and looked at me. "Sissy run in there and get those, would ya?"

"Sure." I turned to fetch the cigarettes and heard Delores ask. "Sissy? So you're one of Scout's brothers huh?" I looked back over my shoulder and realized Soda had his tough defenses up. I didn't hear what he said to her because I stepped into the station where Steve was studying Sodapop's look.

"What's up with Soda?"

I turned to look at my brother trying to figure out how Steve knew something was bothering him. "That's James' mom."

"Really?" Steve laughed. "Dingy Delores is James' mom? No wonder that kid is messed up. You know that woman comes in here almost every day Soda is working and she is always wearing that stupid hair net." I grabbed the pack of cigarettes she had requested and Steve continued to laugh. "I think that woman has a huge crush on your brother."

I shook my head in agreement and went back outside. "Here you go Delores."

"You know he aint that bad of a kid." Delores said as I squinted in the sun to see her. "He don't come from a great family and I aint never been a very good mom to him. You could consider giving him a second chance."

I looked over at Sodapop and he put the nozzle back in to it's resting spot in the pump. "She aint interested. Scout has a future in front of her. My brother and I are going to help her go to college and she doesn't need a boyfriend to mess things up for her."

Delores curled her lip at Soda and paid him. "Whatever you say good looking." She turned toward me, "See you around kid." With that the woman climbed back into her car and pulled away.

I looked over at my brother in his DX cap and shirt tails hanging loose. "You really think I am going to be able to get to college Soda?" I wished I could, but always thought if Darry couldn't even do it how would I?

My brother flashed his smile at me. "I know so! Everyone in the gang has talked about helping us put you and Pony through college if we need it."

"Are you serious?"

"Heck yah I'm serious." Soda adjusted the cap on his head and put a toothpick into his mouth. He looked at Steve who was walking out to meet up with us. "Steve and I take money from our paychecks and put it in a jar for you two."

I looked over at Steve to confirm that he would do something like that. "Yeah! But I expect you to pay me back every penny with interest when you get a good job."

"Well how much do you two have saved up?"

Soda laughed because he knew he was better at spending money than saving it. "About twenty dollars."

I had to laugh. "Twenty dollars huh? We got a long way to go!" Soda and Steve laughed because they knew how much money it was going to take to put Ponyboy and I through college, and we weren't even thinking of Darry. I figured if anyone should be able to go to school it should be him. He had given up the most for all of us. "You know what the worst part is? I won't even be sixteen until the start of my senior year so I won't be able to get a job until then."

Soda threw his arm around me and looked up at the warm sun as if he was soaking in the good life. "Don't you worry about it. I'll take care of you now so you can take care of me later, deal?"

I threw my arm up and around his shoulder. "Deal!"

"Come on I'll buy you a bottle of Pepsi." We walked back into the station and Soda bought me a drink. I stayed until lunchtime when Soda drove me home.

I walked into the house and could smell the grilled cheese sandwich Ponyboy was making himself. "Hey Pony! Leave the pan on the stove." I handed Ponyboy the bottle of Pepsi that Soda had bought him and prepared a grilled cheese sandwich for myself. "Have you been awake long?"

"Not too long. I stayed up late drawing and working on some poems." Ponyboy put his sandwich on a plate and stepped out of the way so I could drop mine into the hot pan.

"What was the poem about?"

Ponyboy shrugged a little and sat at the kitchen table. "I really didn't get it done. I tried to write something about dad…but…I don't know."

I looked over at my brother. "Maybe it's just too soon to be able to put it all into words."

"Yeah, maybe."

I finished grilling my sandwich and joined Pony at the table. I told him about running into Delores at the DX, watching Steve work on a car and helping Soda pump gas for the morning. After that we sat in silence and ate. I don't know why, but silence rarely bothered us. Now if Sodapop were at the table he would need to be babbling all through lunch, but not Pony and I. We loved silence and just being together without anything going on. Maybe it's a twin thing? I stared out the window over Pony's shoulder and noticed a bit of commotion across the street near the back yard.

Pony noticed my stare and we watched together. "Looks like someone is moving in."

"Yeah. Wanna go check it out?"

"Why not? We aint got much else to do."

Ponyboy and I finished our sandwiches and headed down the hall and out the back door. We sat on the concrete steps at the back of the house and watched the small moving van unload and a teenage girl carry stuff away from an open car trunk.

"Doesn't look like there are many people moving in." Ponyboy said and lit up a cigarette.

I looked over at him disappointed. "Jeepers Pony! Can't you sit for one minute and not have a cigarette?" Pony's smoking habit annoyed me and it was getting out of hand. Some days he was smoking almost every cigarette in the pack!

I stood up from the step to move away from the smoke as the girl from next door came out to her car again. She glanced over at us and then walked up to our chain link fence.

"Hey there!" She spoke with a very thick southern drawl. "Ya'll live in this here house?"

"Yeah." I looked down at my brother to silently ask him if he wanted to walk over to the fence with me. He shrugged on shoulder, which meant yes and we walked over. I studied the girl as we walked across the yard. I noticed her long black hair in a high ponytail, her short blue jean shorts and her button up shirt tied in a bow just above her waist. She smelled like flowery perfume and wore plenty of makeup. I greeted her at the fence. "Hi, I'm Scout Curtis and this is my brother Ponyboy."

"Ya'll gotta be pullin' my leg!" She drawled again and flashed a pretty smile. "Those are two of the weirdest names I ever heard!" Her comment was a little annoying, but not unexpected. It was common for people to snicker a little when they first heard our names. More so with Pony's name then mine. His was truly an original.

Pony released some smoke from his lips. "You think are names are weird, we got an older brother named is Sodapop"

"Now I know ya'lls just yanking my chain!" The girl squealed in delight. "My name's Casey Dobbins."

"Casey is a pretty original name." I said hoping to start a conversation.

"Yeah I like it. My pa loves trains so he named me after a famous railroad engineer. My mom didn't have a good time of it when I was born and when she woke up days later she was just furious that my pa had named me with out her approval. She wanted to name me Rebecca, but I think I like Casey better." The girl locked her fingers into the netting of the fence and looked over at Pony. "Ya mind if I come in your yard and get a cigarette from ya?"

"Nah come on over, the gate is over…" Ponyboy never got a chance to tell her where the back gate was because she was already scaling the fence like a monkey. In an instant she pushed herself over the top bar and jumped down onto the lawn. Ponyboy handed her the cigarette and she lit its with his lighter.

"So how old are ya'll?" She drawled and took a deep drag on the cigarette.

"Fourteen." Ponyboy answered as he leaned up against the fence next to her.

"Well how old is she?" Casey asked Pony and pointed in my direction.

Pony smiled a little because the girl didn't make the logical connection. "Fourteen! We're twins."

"That is so cool!" Casey smiled and looked at us like we were a phenomenon. "I have never met twins before." Without missing a beat she continued the conversation. "I'm almost sixteen. So ya'll mind if we hang out together? I aint got any brothers or sisters and being new in town I don't know one darn person… well until now. I guess now I know two!"

My quiet brother and I had to laugh at our over zealous neighbor. There was something about her that was very inviting and I could see her getting along well with the gang. I looked back at her. "Sure you can come over whenever you want to."

"Cool!" Casey finished the weed and dropped the butt into the grass. "Listen, it's just me and my mom next door so I better go help her with moving the stuff in. So I'll stop by later, what do ya say?"

I looked over and smiled at her. "Sure… well … do you want some help? Ponyboy and I don't have much else to do."

"That would be cool!" Casey drawled again and I quickly realized that "cool" was a word she preferred to use a lot!

The three of us climbed the fence and walked across the street to the tiny house. Most of the houses in our block we small, ours was an exception.

"So where are you moving from?" I asked.

Casey rolled her eyes. "I aint suppose to say. See we are kind of on the run from my pa. He's got himself a mighty bad temper and my mama just couldn't stay with him no more. Catch my drift?"

"Yeah I get it." I said and thought about my own parents. In almost fourteen years I don't ever remember them fighting any worse then maybe an argument.

"So we moved from our home to my grandma's home. My mom got a real nice job back there, but one night my pa showed up screaming and yelling, well we had to call the cops and skin outta there before he hurt someone. We hid out at hotel for a little while and then ma decided we were movin even further away, so she picked Tulsa. Ma aint got a job here yet so we aint got much stuff!"

I looked at Casey and wondered how she was ever able to talk that fast and that much. I though about what a good pair we could make, with her doing all the talking and me doing all the listening. It sounded like a perfect match.