Hey, guess what everybody? It's a brand new chapter from me! Yayyy!

ponyisgoldxxx: Why yes, that is what I'm trying to get to work right now...not exactly sure how, though...but I'll figure it out!

Dontworryaboutit: Wow, I'm glad you like it! Hmmm...A lunchroom full of kids...slight scary image...

AngryPrincess13: Ah yes, the teacher 'tis quite a pain in the rump! Well, oh well–Pony'll make up for it in this chapter!

Chapter 4: Detention with Pony

(Jackie)

"What are you doing here?" I whispered as I slid in the seat beside Ponyboy. As if my question had angered him, his eyebrows furrowed and he muttered something under his breath.

"I'm not even supposed to be here," he exclaimed–well, as much as you possibly could exclaim when you're whispering, "I came in a little late and everybody jumps on me! I swear..."

He then banged his fist (lightly, of course) on the desk he was sitting in. That's what sent me into a fit of laughter. He just looked funny angry, especially since every other time I'd seen him, he was always so quiet and shy. He was now looking at me like I was crazy, and I can't blame him, because if you saw me sitting in the desk shaking silently with my face turning some shade of scarlet, I must have really looked the part.

After about thirty seconds of my non-stop giggling, Ponyboy finally cracked a grin. And as soon as he did, I stopped. I had realized that maybe he thought I was flirting or something...my mother had warned me about that–giving off the wrong "signals".

I wasn't exactly feeling him up, but you have to be careful with guys like him, especially if you didn't know them real well.

"What?" he asked when I stopped laughing so suddenly.

I just shook my head. I kind of felt a little guilty for being so suspicious of his intentions, but I didn't want to get into the same predicament my mother had. It always scared me to think of that. That's probably why I'm so uncomfortable around guys sometimes. Every time I would start to have a good time with one, I'd always think of that and get all tense and nervous. For example, that time Two-Bit put his arm around me, it scared the hell out of me. I mean, I completely freaked out and thought they'd all tricked me or something; trapped me in a house with six guys.

Now, I had it on my mind to keep to myself during the rest of detention, especially since Mrs. Whitman was beginning to give me some looks that could probably be considered as threats. Too bad for me, Ponyboy seemed to have it on his mind to keep up the communication I had begun.

"So, how long are you in here for?" He kept running his right hand through his oiled hair and wiping it on his jeans; I guess it was just a habit.

"Thirty minutes," I said quietly as he shifted in his desk to face me.

Pony

I seriously needed to wash my hands by the time I had to go. I had plowed my hand–the same hand–through the right side of my hair just about a miliion times. I was pretty sure I had rubbed all the grease out of my hair and onto my jeans (which seemed to be suffocatingly tight on this particular day).

"Alright, Mr. Curtis," announced Mrs. Whitman, scaring me out of my reverie, "you can leave."

I began to gather my books slowly, noticing that I had been in here for almost an hour.

'Wasn't Jackie only supposed to be in here for thirty minutes?' I got her attention and pointed to the clock above Mrs. Whitman's head.

"Uh...Mrs. Whitman?"

"Yes?!" The science teacher spoke as if she had just been called on as many times as I'd ran my hand though my hair in the past sixty minutes.

"Isn't I time for me to go?" Jackie spoke rather cautiously.

Mrs. Whitman merely rolled her eyes behind her thick, silver-rimmed spectacles and waved us out of the classroom.

I left and began to make my way home, but then thought better of it and decided to wait a little for Jackie. As I waited, I re-shaped my hair with a comb, using the mirror of some Socy-looking car.

Sure enough, seconds later, a figure of a girl appeared in the mirror. I pretended not to notice her at first, but I saw the look on Jackie's face when she saw me. Her mouth hung open briefly in the shape of an O; then, I guess she realized that I was looking at her because she dropped her eyes to ground and began walking away briskly.

"Hey," I yelled to her, but before the words 'wait up' could even escape my lips, I saw a Soc who just happened to be passing by at that moment stick out his foot which was enough to send Jackie's books flying from her arms, bringing her down with them.

"What the hell, is your problem!" I nearly screamed, not thinking about the consequences of that phrase.

"What is she," the Soc snarled, shoving me back, "is she your girlfriend?"

As much as I fought for it not to, I could feel my face growing hot. My expression didn't falter though...maybe I could play it off as anger.

"So what if she is!"

'Oh god, that didn't really come out right.'

For a while, the Soc just stood there laughing at me and smart ol' me just got too damned frustrated with that, so I hit him.

Yeah, I know what you're thinking: why the hell did you have to go and hit him? Well, my older brother, Darry, always says I don't use my head, so I guess this is an extremely perfect example.

Well, you probably know what happened next: punch, punch, punch, spit in face; all dedicated to me from Mr. Socialite. And to my great despair, Jackie just stood there, apparently in awe at how badly I could get my ass kicked.

After I had wiped that disgusting spit off my face with my sleeve, I looked up at the Soc who was now glaring at Jackie.

"Next time, you'd just better teach your nigger-lovin'-white-trash-greaser boyfriend to keep his words and his greasy hands away from me, you hear?"

He looked down at me, and for a second, I thought he was just going to walk away, and at first he did...but then, just as I began to stand up, he kicked me square in the ribs with his sneakers, landing me right back on the ground.

I stayed there, too, until I was sure he was gone, and even then, I didn't want to get up. I just laid down, with my hands resting over the spot on my side where I'd just been kicked, staring at the sky.

"Ponyboy?"

I turned my head slightly to see Jackie's tear-stained face not far from mine, as she was kneeling beside my body. She sighed and tried to help me up by the arms, which were just about the only places that weren't hurting at that moment. The only thing she accomplished was getting me into a sitting position, and I did the rest of the work. She kept looking at me with this worried look like a was a little kid or something.

She took the scarf that was tied around her waist and held it up to my nose. I can imagine how hard that must have been, considering that I kept pulling away from her touch.

"Just hold still," she said sounding a little annoyed with my childish antics, "You're bleeding all over the place, and you can't even be mature about it."

She handed me the cloth, then began picking up the books she had dropped.

"You know," her voice was a lot softer now and when she turned back around her almond-shaped/colored eyes met mine, "I'm sorry I didn't help you out...but..."

I could tell she was trying to hold back tears, but they just came anyway.

"That's okay," I managed to say. My own voice sounded kind of warped or something, like I had just woken up or something, "I don't think you would have done any better than me."

She didn't seem to believe me for a second, then she wiped her tears away and muttered a 'See ya.'

"Well," I called after her (I would have jogged after her, but as soon as I tried, I just about collapsed), "Can't I walk ya home?"

She turned back around–again with those eyes–and shrugged. I walked slowly towards her as she waited for me and when I reached her, she took my books from out of my arms.

"Does your side still hurt?"

I nodded, even though the pain had already started to lessen.

I kind of wanted her to do something for that injury too, for some reason......okay, I know why, but that doesn't mean I have to admit it! What am I going to do, wrap my arms arouond the most beautiful black girl...the most beautiful girl I've ever seen, and say "Kiss me, damnit." while a waterfall of blood is washing over my face...well, it worked for Scarlett...sort of.

I never thought I would like a black girl. I mean, I wasn't against black girls or nothing, but like I said, it was just like you weren't supposed to like one like I liked Jackie. I couldn't help it though, she was really pretty and she seemed sort of smart and nice. She was nice in the way that Soda's girlfriend was, though, she seemed to have a little more attitude...or something like that. She wasn't that classical, Marilyn Monroe pretty either. I can't really explain it and it's quite uncomfortable trying to anyway.

"You know, I have no clue why you choose to stick around, especially after what just happened." She said all of this very matter-of-factly. Sure, she seemed almost as shy as Johnny, but she still had that attitude thing.

"Well, maybe I want some company." my voice seemed to have returned back to its natural state.

"Company?"

I nodded and tried to think of something else to say. I noticed her notebooks which were covered with pictures of a bunch of groups.

"Who are they?" I pointed to the objects clutched to her chest and she looked at me like I was crazy.

"What, you don't know?"

"Well," I said, examining the pictures a little more closely. "Ain't that the Belmonts?"

She rolled her eyes and nodded.

"What, you don't like them?" I wasn't too fond of Dion himself, but he was pretty okay in The Belmonts.

She shrugged and smiled slightly.

"They're pretty good, but...way too overrated."

"What about Elvis?"

Once again, she gave me one of those looks.

"Aw, Elvis was pretty cool with the first few singles, but after that," she shook her head disapprovingly, "All hell broke loose. I like doo-wop more anyways."

"Oh...like the Cadillacs and all?"

I'd heard about the Cadillacs, that they were kind of crazy on stage.

"The Cadillacs are great, but The Channels," by now, she had this smile on her face as if she was remembering something, "that Earl Lewis suurrre is one hell of a looker."

I'd heard of Earl Lewis...now I was itching to see exactly what he looked like.

"Which one's that?"

She pointed to a photograph in the very center...he wasn't all that great, or at least I didn't think so.

We reached my house a little too quick for my liking, and just as I suspected, my eldest brother came rushing out as if there was a fire after him.

"Ponyboy Mich–Jesus Christ, what happened to your face!"

I rolled my eyes as everyone rushed over to get a peek at my face.

"Damn, you look worse than my aunt Lenny," began Two-Bit, but he couldn't finish his statement because he had started to laugh so hard by then.

"It has been almost two hours since school let out, you know that?" Darry was now pacing the front yard angrily, "And that doesn't look like it took no two hours."

"Well, I had detention," I said, slapping Two-Bit's wandering hand away from the bruise on my cheek.

"DETENTION!"

Everyone jumped at Darry's booming voice.

"Ponyboy, what the hell! First you get your face knocked in, then you get detention! I can't believe you! You're grounded...for a month–"

"Uh, it was my fault!"

Everyone now turned to Jackie, who seemed to have disappeared in all of the confusion.

"I...I got lost and asked Pony where to go...then a teacher saw us...and she thought we were skipping."

Wow, I thought absent-mindedly, She sure thought well under pressure.

"Then, when we left detention, some guy just comes and called me...well, you can guess, and Ponyboy was just trying to defend me and..."

"Well," said Darry, sounding awfully nice for what he was saying, "Ponyboy should have used his head and known that–"

"Yeah, I know, but..." suddenly, her hands flew to her face and she let out a couple of sobs, "I just don't want him to get into trouble because of me and–and–and"

Darry sighed and put his hand on her shoulder, "It's okay, he's not in trouble."

She nodded, her hands still covering her face.

She looked up at him and I could see tear stains on her cheeks...but they were the same ones that had formed there earlier.

Darry yelled for Two-Bit, Steve, and Soda to go back inside and for me to follow. I stopped for a second to wave to Jackie and she waved back with a grin on her face and winked.

"See ya, tomorrow, Ponyboy..."

Alrighty, that's about it! Hope you guys enjoyed it...(Hey has anyone gone on the site yet???)...Read and review and tell all your friends about it!