-Just to let you guys know if you haven't heard. There is going to be An Outsider special edition DVD coming out this year. It has the deleted scenes, which are the scenes in the book that they didn't show in the movie. S.E. once said that they had recorded everything in the book. Which I'm glad of, cause of lot of movies I've seen have skipped a lot of things. There are more things with the DVD, but I can't remember. It's a two disc. Also I read about the That Was Then, This Is Now movie. And from what I've read. It sounded like it was MESSED UP! And I heard S.E. Hinton really didn't have to do much with the flick. First mistake. Why am I still talking?

Chapter 17: The Unexpected Tragedy

A couple months later….

"Okay. There's one," whispered Steve.

He and Soda were hiding behind store. A soc car had just pulled up next to it. About four socs got out and walked inside the store.

"Okay, go."

Soda ran from behind the store and stuck a potato in the smoke pipe of the car. Soda then rushed back over to Steve before anyone noticed what he was doing.

"Is it in there tight?" asked Steve.

"Yup."

They waited for a while. Both Soda and Steve had a wide grin. They had planned this yesterday. Soda had thought of it. Steve thought they could have done better. But he really wanted to get the socs real bad.

The socs came out of the grocery store. Steve and Soda held their breath. This was going to be rich. The socs climbed in their car carrying candy bars and coke bottles. When one of them started up the car, the potato exploded and messed up the pipe. The socs heard the potato exploding and jumped out of the car. Looking and cursing. Soda and Steve were hiding out of sight laughing their heads off.

Steve gave Soda ride home and Soda ran into the house. Still a grin on his face. Darry was sitting on the couch. He noticed Soda's grin.

"What happened?"

"Steve and I played a trick on some socs."

"I don't even want to hear about it," said Darry smiling.

"Where's Mom and Dad?" asked Soda.

"They went to visit some friends. Pony's in the back studying."

"All that studying. It's no wonder he was put up a grade."

"Well it sure made Mom happy."

Soda and Darry watched TV and Ponyboy came up soon. All three of them were watching television. Darry looked at the clock.
"It's late. They should have been back by now."

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. Ponyboy was sitting on the floor, so he went to look in the window to see who it was. He pulled back the curtain and then looked at his older brothers.

"The fuzz are here!"

Darry and Soda looked at each other with surprised faces.

"Did you do anything?" asked Darry.

"No. Nothing that would involve the fuzz. Did you do anything?"

Darry gave him one of his looks.

"Okay. Stupid question."

Darry got up and answered the door. Ponyboy sat down next to Soda on the couch.

"May I help you?" asked Darry.

"May I come in?"

Darry let the policeman in. He took off his hat and stood there for a while.

"Boys. I have some bad news. Your parents were involved in an accident."

The Curtis brothers looked at the policeman.

"You're kidding!" yelled Soda. His eyes were wide.

"Are they alright?" asked Darry.

The cop was silent. Darry then expected the worst.

"They didn't make it."

Ponyboy's eyes were wide. Tears began streaming down his eyes. Soda covered his face with his hands and he was making squeaky type of noises.

"Thank you for telling us," said Darry in a quiet voice and the cop left.

He sat down next to his brothers and put his arm around them. But instead of telling them it would be alright. He just stared straight ahead.

At the funeral…..

There were a good number of people there. Steve, Two-Bit, Johnny and even Dally showed up later on. Dally came because he like Mrs. Curtis. She kept him out of trouble a lot.

"Do you know where they are?" asked Johnny referring to Darry, Sodapop and Ponyboy.

"Probably in the front. We should stay back here. We aren't the best looking in the place," said Steve.

Soda and Ponyboy were crying. But Darry was once again staring straight ahead. And Soda thought that nothing could break him down.

Two months later……

"How you feeling?" asked Steve as Soda walked down the porch of his house.

"A little better," said Soda. He wasn't quite as happy-go-lucky, but he had enough to fool anyone that wasn't a close friend. So he didn't fool Steve.

Soda had on his DX shirt. It was the first day at his new job. Ever since the tragedy, Darry had to get two jobs, and Soda had to get a job too. He was doing any better in school though. Because of the tragedy, the social workers were going to separate them all. But Darry was old enough to be Soda and Pony's legal guardian. So as long as they behaved, they would get to stay together. This brought a lot of pressure on Darry.

"Hey, Steve."

"Yeah, buddy."

"Thanks for getting me this job. We really needed it."

"Hey. That's what best friends are for."

"That's true. I owe you one."

"Uh-uh. I owed you one."

Soda stopped and looked at Steve.

"Huh?"

"Remember when you talked me into not running away. Ever since then. I wanted to pay you back with something."

Soda smiled.

"Well. Looks like you're out of debt."

-I know this wasn't a lot of detail. But I'm tired right now.