Beginning Anew: Broken Homes

Chapter 2: My Bags Are Packed

Ponyboy's Point of View

My bags were packed and me and Soda were ready to go. Two weeks ago I wouldn't have believed it if someone told me that my brother Darry was going to college and my other brother, Soda, and I were going to live with our grandparents whom our parents never liked to speak of. I just would've thought the person telling me was nuts, but it was the cold, hard truth.

I was proud of Darry, sure, but that didn't change the fact that he was sending Sodapop and I away just so that he could get an education. I had thought that we would always stay together as a family and as a gang, but Sodapop and I wouldn't see Darry for two years. We wouldn't see our friends Steve and Two-Bit. We wouldn't see the familiar people and places and more importantly we wouldn't see Tulsa, Oklahoma, or even the southwest. We were living all the way up in a small town outside of Allentown, Pennsylvania.

I had helped a sobbing Sodapop pack shirts, jeans, magazines, cigarette's and hair grease into a plastic Tasty Freeze bag. It was all we had, really. You get used to having nothing as a greaser, nothing but long hair, a reputation for being a hood and the one worthwhile thing that a greaser had; a gang of friends...

I knew that Sodapop was still in love with Tulsa but I myself was glad; we were going to live in the country! In the country, there are just people; no soc's, no greasers, just people. I once heard this real classy greaser by the name of JC telling a member of his gang, "I grew up in a family of soc's, and ya know what? My old man became a drunk because he was so pathetic that he couldn't handle his boring life, so we had to move. My old man took off and my mom had to get a lousy job just to pay the rent and ya know what else? I'm damn glad we moved because otherwise I would've never grown up. I think that the only way you really grow up is by walking ten miles in the other guys shoes. I walked in the other guys shoes for the past fourteen years..."

I had heard a lot about the wisdom of the hoodlum JC before (mainly from Steve who buddies around with ol' JC a lot) but before, I had thought that so called 'wisdom' was a bunch of bull, until I met JC. He had this dreamy look to his wicked eyes. Those eyes scared the shit out of me if you wanna know the truth. The left one was a smokey gray and the right one was blazing blue, like Dally's. That's probably what scared me the most. JC had been Dally's cousin, and they were everything, and nothing, alike.

But was JC right? Did you really not appreciate what you had until you lost it? It had to be a yes. Because right then was the first time I was going to miss the whole, 'grease vs. soc' thing. How little did I know. I had no clue, that where soc's go, greasers are sure to follow.

But, right then I was living in my little fantasy of happiness, imagining myself reading Gone With The Wind under a weeping willow. That would be nice, no, that would be great. That would be tuff. I was just too damn happy to even notice how racked up looking Sodapop was and I kind of felt bad and quit jumping on the bed.

"Sorry you feel so bad about this Soda," I told him in a hushed voice, "But I'm so sick of this grease, soc thing, ya know?"

He nodded his head solemnly and looked up at me, right into my eyes and right through my soul. I noticed how glassy his eyes were and I was sure he was about to cry; "Ya know what, Ponyboy?" he beagn, still looking into my eyes, "I'm kind of glad we're going and getting away from all of this crap, but we're going to live with Soc's! We can't change; how could we? And if we don't change, we're dead-soc meat for sure..."

I nodded my head with understanding, knowing that he was right even though I didn't want to admit it. "Well, ya know what?" I said, hotly throwing some hair grease into the bag, "Those social dorks will just hafta deal with us Oklahoma greasers, whether they wanna or not!" Sodapop laughed and threw a pillow at me which of course began a pillow fight; it only ended when Steve and Two-Bit hauled Soda and me off of each other, suppressing their laughs. It was just like the old days, in a way...

CinderBrat: Thanks for reviewing, I won't mention things that people already know from now on; sorry it took me forever to update; I've had writers block...