Decisions
The air was just right, not too cold and not too hot. Jennie Cade sat in the bleachers at the school and watched as the runners made their way around the wide track. Track meets didn't appeal to her in any way, but since Pony was running in them, she figured she could sit around and cheer him on. If no one was there that Jennie knew, she wouldn't be sitting there. But Pony was one of her best friends. She had to.
Ponyboy was clearly the best runner there. He was ahead of everyone by a long shot. He looked at Jennie, who was on the very last row of the bleachers, and he smiled to her as Jennie gave him a thumbs-up. Jennie was the only one cheering him on. The rest of the team was Socs from all over. And their parents weren't about to stop cheering their child on for another greaser.
Pony was on the other side of the track now, and a Soc was gaining on him. Jennie could have sworn that the Soc was talking. Jennie watched as Pony turned his head once quickly, and she wasn't sure if he had said something. A few more Socs were coming up on Pony now, and Jennie frowned. She didn't feel right for some reason.
Pony was a good deal ahead of the Socs, although they were coming up really fast. He wasn't sure where they had come from since a moment ago, they were eating his dust. They were running as fast as they could, but Pony was better than all of them combined and he didn't even have to try to stay far ahead of them. But then they were all following one step behind. They were getting too close for comfort. "Greaser!" One hissed.
Pony thought maybe he could just run a little faster. The end line was really close. He just had to do a good sprint and then he would win. But the Socs had formed sort of a box around him, and the next thing he knew, he was on the ground with his knees all scraped up and his arm was bleeding. He couldn't move. Ponyboy just lay there on the track, coughing, and trying to breathe normal, for the fall had knocked the wind out of him. He heard some shouts from the crowd and however long later, a few people had crowded around him. "Pony, you okay?" It was Jennie's voice, but she sounded so far away.
Pony rolled over with a moan. "I'm fine…" he choked out, and tried to push himself up off the ground. "…cheaters…"
"I'm scheduling a rematch. Those boys will not be running in it, I can assure you that." It was his coach, Mr. Morris, who was speaking now. Pony was feeling better now, but his knees were throbbing and his upper arm hurt like heck…although now nobody seemed far away. A few people helped him up and he wobbled on his feet for a minute, but he felt better than before. "You going to be alright, son?"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine." His lungs were still painfully gasping for air.
Jennie waited for Pony outside the boys' locker room. Pony was the only one in there since coach told him to go in before he dismissed the others. When Pony emerged five or six minutes later, Jennie smiled to him. "You did real good out there, Pony."
Pony shook his head and they started walking out of the school. The walk home was quiet until Pony spoke up, "I'm going to go to that Foreign Exchange thing."
Jennie nodded. "So am I."
Pony was taken by surprise. Jennie didn't want to go the last time they'd talked about it. "You are?"
"Yeah," Jennie looked at the ground, holding one strap of her backpack.
"Why?"
"Well, Soda talked to me a little before we left the DX." Jennie kicked a rock and it landed in the grass that was off to the side. "He said some stuff that made a lot of sense."
"Soda's that way, I guess. So now you're going; that's tuff. Maybe we'll be close when we go to school there." Pony said.
"Yeah,"
"There's going to be five of us. Make sure you stock-up on stamps or we'll have to deal with some very unhappy people who won't be getting letters every day…when we get back."
Jennie laughed.
"You coming home with me?" Pony asked as he and Jennie passed the corner of the street Jennie lived on.
"Yeah, I want to do homework with you. And we can fill out those slips together." Jennie said.
Pony nodded and pushed the door open. "We can start those right away, and then ask Darry anything we don't know."
"Okay," Jennie followed him into the house. They threw their backpacks where they normally did—in Pony and Soda's room, on the bed—and then kicked their shoes off in the corner before sitting on the couch in the living room.
"First page—basic information." Ponyboy said.
"Name, Ponyboy Michael Curtis."
"Jenafer Lynn Cade,"
"Age, fourteen,"
"Me, too," Jennie was only three months younger than Ponyboy.
"Height…five-six, maybe?" Pony guessed, hoping he was close.
"Five feet two inches…I know that for a fact." Jennie said, and she smiled.
"Weight," Pony frowned, "good question, I'll be right back." He left the room and disappeared into the bathroom. He came back a few seconds later. "One hundred and eighteen pounds exactly."
Jennie shrugged. "I'm not sure."
"You can go weigh yourself. The scale is under the sink."
Jennie excused herself and when she came back, she said, "Almost one hundred pounds."
Pony was looking at her. "Go eat some cake, girl!"
"I'm not hungry." Jennie smiled.
"Alright…eye color: gray-green, I guess."
"Yeah, I think so. What color are my eyes?" Jennie asked.
"Same as Johnny: black."
"You can't have black eyes, I don't think. I'll say dark brown."
"Okay, hair color: reddish-brownish…that's not on here."
"Say 'auburn'; it's the same thing. I'm going to say my hair is black."
"Date of birth: September sixth, nineteen fifty-three." Pony said, writing it down.
"December thirteenth, nineteen fifty-three." Jennie said.
It took them almost an hour to fill out anything and everything that they knew, and that still wasn't all of it. They couldn't answer any medical things that asked for phone numbers of physicians or anything. They could answer about any allergies and things, but a lot of the medical stuff was hard to answer by their selves, so they waited until Darry got home. Jennie didn't really have a doctor, so hers was easier than Pony's.
"Dallas!" Soda called after his older friend.
Dally kept walking, ignoring Sodapop.
"Dally, just wait and hear me out!"
"Shut up, Curtis, unless you want a black eye!"
"Dal, please…for Jennie's sake, listen to me." Soda pleaded.
Dally merely walked faster. "I have nothing to say to her, or about her."
"Dallas, listen you yourself! What did Jennie do that was so horrible? She said she didn't want to go…"
"No, let her go."
"Oh, I am. I convinced her to go a few hours ago, and when I called home, she and Pony were filling out slips. She's going." Soda said in a matter-of-fact voice.
Dally was quiet and he stopped dead. "Well, I'll just go over and tell her not to. The girl's so guilty, she'll listen to me."
"You will not. What's your problem? This is a big reward for her hard work…hers and Pony's. Why should she not go just because you say so? Why don't you want her to have fun?" Soda asked, his voice stubborn. He wanted an answer. But Dallas also was stubborn, and he wasn't about to say anything more, so there was no point in even arguing anymore—no one was going to get an answer.
"I don't have to talk to you."
"Dallas…"
"Oh, for Pete's sake, Soda, what'd you run into?" Jennie asked when Soda walked into the house with a black eye.
"Dallas' fist," Soda said with a grin as he pulled some ice from the icebox and pressed it to his left eye.
"Dally!" Jennie and Pony exclaimed in unison.
"Well, why'd he do it?" Pony asked.
"I pushed all the wrong buttons, I guess, and he…"
"Oh, gosh, it's my fault!" Jennie burst out. "Isn't it? You tried to reason with him about what happened at the DX during lunch today! Didn't you?"
"Yeah, but it wasn't your fault, Jen. I wanted to know, too." Soda sat on the couch by the only girl in the gang. He put his arm around Jennie.
"Maybe I should just stay if everyone's going to fight about it." Jennie said, getting off the couch to call her English teacher. "I'll just call Mr. Syme and tell him it's not the best time for me to go, but Pony can still go if he wants to."
Soda got off the couch. "No, no, no, Kitten," Soda started, using an old nickname the gang had given to Jennie; a nickname they hardly used anymore, "just forget Dallas. You know him; he'll be mad about it for a few hours and then he'll forget it even happened…after he's done screaming and yelling. When you come back, I'm sure he'll be done with his tantrum."
"Fine, but nobody better fight anymore. I don't want anyone getting black eyes." Jennie picked up the phone. "I'll call Mr. Syme and tell him that I'm going."
"You do that, Jen," Soda grinned and walked back to the living room.
"Hello, Mr. Syme? It's Jennie Cade," She said, "I just wanted to say that you can count me and Pony in on that trip."
"That's great, Jennie."
"When are we leaving?"
"We'll leave for Oklahoma City next week on Thursday by bus, and we should arrive in Japan a few hours later. The airplane ride is longer than the bus ride."
Jennie thanked him, said good-bye, and hung up.
Maybe this vacation would be good after all.
Maybe…
