Chapter Seven

Over the next few weeks Casey and I became inseparable, you couldn't see one of us without the other. Darry commented that she and I were so much like Johnny and Ponyboy that he started calling my new friend Caseycakes. Casey was funny like Two-Bit, carefree like Sodapop and thoughtful like Ponyboy, a perfect combination.

She would show up at my house in the morning after breakfast and stay until curfew each night. We spent countless hours talking about useless things like who the prettiest actress was, or would we rather date Batman or Robin. We also shared discussions about sensitive subjects like how much I missed my parents and how her dad used to beat on her mom and sometimes on Casey. I informed her about the difference between the socials and the greasers, even though I didn't understand the feud very well. I told her how I was jumped one night on the way home from the library. Casey was from the country so she had as hard a time understanding the social levels of Tulsa.

One late summer afternoon we were laying around in the living room reading the women's magazines that her mom bought. Ponyboy was not interested in our beauty tips so he headed out to the DX to see Sodapop. Casey wanted to go to, due to her huge crush on Sodapop, but I convinced her to stay at my house and just relax. Besides I didn't have a crush on my brother and watching her drool in his presence was getting old.

When Darry came home from work we went outside to meet him on the porch. "Hey Scout!" Darry climbed out of his truck and up the porch steps. "What are you up to?"

"Nothing. Just girl stuff." I flopped down on the metal bench under the front window and Casey sat on the bench on the side of the porch.

Darry smiled at me, "That's good. You've been behaving right Caseycakes?" He looked in her direction and she began to answer him but the smile drifted from his face.

"What's up Darry?" I asked and looked in the same direction. Darry didn't answer me and he took off running. I jumped up from the bench and watched him disappear into the vacant lot. I turned to Casey, "what's up?"

"I don't know?" Casey said looking in the same direction as Darry had ran. "Let's go find out."

The two of us ran down the street and quickly noticed the gang gathered together along the tree line. I wondered what they were all doing there together and where they had come from. We reached the edge of the crowd and I looked down at Sodapop who was holding Johnny in his arms. I wondered what had happened. Then I remembered when I was jumped and Soda held me. My stomach turned as I looked at Johnny's almost unrecognizable face. I stood there shaking and crying silently as Johnny wept and told the gang what had happened to him. I looked over at Casey, who was doubled over by the tree line vomiting. She had never seen something so horrible, and everyone in the gang agreed with her.

Darry looked over at Dallas. "Dally go get my truck and bring it over here." I watched as Dally took off in a sprint to our house. In less than a minute I heard the truck start up and Dally drove it in reverse to the lot. Darry looked down at Sodapop who still held Johnny tightly in his grasp. "Little buddy, hand him over to me, we ought to get him home and cleaned up." Soda looked up at Darry and shook his head in agreement. Darry hoisted up the beaten boy. "Scout, you and Ponyboy get on home and get the spare bed ready for Johnny. Without question Ponyboy and I ran home before anyone else.

Together we bolted through the door. Ponyboy pulled the sheets back on the bed and then joined me in the bathroom collecting bandages, towels and hydrogen peroxide. We heard the truck pull to a stop and Ponyboy went to hold the front screen door open. Darry carried Johnnycakes into the house as Casey and the gang jumped out of the back of the pickup and ran through the front gate.

I waited in the bedroom as Darry carried Johnny in and laid him in bed. I heard Johnny continually apologizing to Darry for all the trouble he had caused. Darry simply smiled down at Johnny and told him not to worry about it. We were his family and we would take care of him. Darry turned to me. "Scout we are going to need to get him cleaned up."

I stood by Darry's side waiting for direction as Ponyboy tearfully kept watch over his friend. Because I was the girl the boys expected me to be like mom. I tried to remember how she had cared for Johnny some of the times he had been beaten by his father. My hands continued to tremble as I layered towels underneath Johnny's head. Slowly I helped Darry pour the hydrogen peroxide into the large wound on his face. I watched the solution cause the wound to bubble and fizz forcing the dirt out of the wound as Darry dabbed it clean with a towel and Johnny winced a little in pain.

In twenty minutes we had Johnny washed up and bandaged. He swallowed three aspirins and I encouraged him to try to get some sleep. I knew first hand that if he slept he wouldn't feel any pain.

Darry shut the doors to the room and forced everyone out of the house and onto the porch. Dally and Steve paced and fumed. Dally lit up a cigarette by striking his match on the flint around his neck. "Those damn socs are going to wish they never came into this neighborhood…"

Steve punched his fist into his hand. "I'm going to rearrange the face of the next rich bastard I run into."

"Screw that!" Dally shot back. "I'm not waiting for them to show up. I'm going into their neighborhood! I'm gonna find someone's sister and work her over the way those bastards worked over Scout! I'm gonna find someone's little brother who is just minding his own business in his own yard and beat thatr kid the way they beat Johnnycakes."

Steve curled his lip up in anger and drawled heavily. "What are we waitin' for Dally, Let's go! Come on Soda!"

I looked over at Soda who had a defeated look on his face. It reminded me of how he looked the day after mom and dad died. He wasn't fired up like his friends. "No…I 'm gonna stay here and look after Johnny. He needs us."

The comment stalled Dally and Steve's fury just long enough for Darry to start to fume. "You all just hold it and listen!" When Darry yelled he commanded attention and got it, even from Dally. "No one is going to the other side of town to beat on anyone! We aren't that type and we aren't going to start being that type. You all should just plan to stay here." Even though Darry's voice was stern and angered he had a good point and helped the boys to keep a level head. "I want everyone to hear me now! Especially you Ponyboy cause if you aint listening I am gonna skin you good!"

Even though Ponyboy was the one who listened the least he was pissed that Darry would single him out. "Whatcha yelling special at me for?"

"Cause if anyone out here won't be listening it'll be you!" Darry snapped back. "No one who lives in this house goes walking anywhere alone anytime, day or night! I suggest the rest of you follow that rule too. Things aint the same around here as they used to be." No one argued with Darry. We all knew he was right. Being jumped in broad daylight for no apparent reason had never happened in our neighborhood. Darry crossed his arms across his chest demanding attention. "We are going to need to look after Johnnycakes through the night so some of us are going to have to stay up with him for a few days."

Two-Bit spoke up quietly. "Dar I'll watch him tonight."

Dally stepped into the conversation. "I'll watch him half the night too so Two-Bit can get some sleep."

Casey surprised everyone by speaking up. "I'll watch after him tomorrow during the day."

I joined in. "I can watch after him tomorrow night."

Darry was pleased with how well everyone was speaking up. "Good. I'll split tomorrow night with you Sissy."

Two-Bit dared to disagree with Darry. "No Darry, you got a job to go to. You sleep and I'll watch after Johnny the second half of the night."

Darry didn't argue, he understood that half the gang didn't have to work so it made the most sense for Darry, Soda and Steve to help out in the evenings after work.

Ponyboy took the first shift, got a notebook full of paper and climbed onto the foot of the bed and watched after Johnny until he couldn't keep his eyes open anymore. Just like a team Two-Bit was there to send Pony off to bed and take over. Then Dally and Casey and I took the next shifts the following day.

Johnnycakes stayed in bed for three or four days and Ponyboy and I never left the house the whole time. Casey was over just as much too. She seemed to feel really sorry for Johnny and she couldn't stop finding nice things to do for him. As the days passed Casey began to get angrier and angrier as she noticed his parents never asked about him or worried about where he was. Amidst Johnny's vomiting, fevers and yelling out at night he never had his mother to take care of him. I thought if we had taken him home he would have never recovered.