Disclaimer: For the past five chapters, I have not been S.E.Hinton. Nothing, unfortunately, has changed since then. I'm still poor and only own Matt. But one can dream…

Oh, before I begin, I'd just like to apologize. I sincerely didn't know that I had turned anonymous reviews off. I'm really sorry, and if you are not an ffn member and have been unable to review, I invite you to review now. Sorry if this offended anyone, and a very special thank you to Fairlane, who alerted me to this setback.

Chapter Six
A Pomegranate?

When I woke the next morning, I was a nervous wreck. I had to go to school. As if that wasn't a bummer in itself, one of my "old friends" was in almost all of my classes. We had planned it that way at the beginning of the year, but, well, that was before all this happened. I was in trouble now.

I ate breakfast slowly, nervously stirring my cereal around in my bowl. Nate stared at me with his hard eyes, but apparently found nothing. Eventually, he just sighed and told me that I had better start walking if I wanted to get to school on time. That was exactly what I DIDN"T want, but there was no disagreeing with Nate.

Slowly, I ambled out the door.

I walked the two miles to school alone. I couldn't help but notice that I kept on looking over my shoulder to make sure that no one was following me. I felt even worse than I had yesterday, my skin was black, blue, and green, and I ached all over, despite the aspirins I had taken when I woke up. I couldn't let it happen again. I wouldn't let it happen again.

But what could I do to prevent it? The socs had everything I didn't, money, power, and a willingness to rid the world of the greasers.

But we greasers still had something they didn't. Feelings, for one, which, before I was a greaser, I didn't know I had. And a willingness to survive. They weren't gonna get me again. And the willingness to belong. Someday, somehow, I was gonna be happy again.

And I didn't look over my shoulder again. Until I reached the school.

I saw the socs beating up yet another kid. It wasn't fair. Nothing was fair. I wanted to step in, to help the one who was being beaten senseless, but I knew that there was nothing that I could do. If I got beaten up anymore, I would end up in the hospital, and we didn't have enough money for that. Besides, Nate was right. It would be a miracle if I could get through school today without some social worker questioning me.

So I walked on.

School went by slower than ever. It seemed as though I had to watch my back everywhere I went. Everywhere, it seemed as though the socs were following me. I knew that that probably wasn't the case, that I was just hallucinating, but it was still scary. I sat in the back of the classrooms with the other "bums", hidden in the corners. I would never be allowed back in social territory again.

Ponyboy met me outside the school building. "You wanna come do your homework over at my house?" he asked.

I nodded. I had nothing better to do. Nate was out job searching, and he wouldn't be home for another couple of hours at the least.

Boy, was I in for it.

When we reached the house, Two-Bit had beaten us there. Already, the Elvis was blaring on the radio, and Mickey Mouse was on the T.V. Two-Bit was raiding the fridge for beer and chocolate cake while singing at the top of his lungs.

"You do your homework in this much noise?" I asked as Pony set his books down at the kitchen table.

He nodded. "Every day."

Wow. That right there gave me a new respect for him.

Slowly and sloppily, I did my algebra homework. It was hard enough for me already, and the music pounding through my brain didn't help much either.

Exasperated, I shut the book and decided to do my Social Studies homework.

Of all the things I had to pick for my class, of course I HAD to pick psychology. We had already finished doing all the bookwork, studying the functions of the brain and the like, and now we were getting on to the "interesting" stuff. But before we could start understanding other peoples' minds, the teacher said we had to get to know our own. So of course she had given us a questionnaire so that we could get to "know ourselves better."

"Listen to this," I told Ponyboy, then began to read, "If you were a fruit, what kind would you be?"

We both started cracking up.

"I think," piped in Two-Bit seriously, "that I would be a pomegranate."

"A pomegranate?" I asked. Of all the things… I glanced at Ponyboy.

"Don't ask me. Personally, I'm surprised he even knows what a pomegranate IS."

This was just too much.

I shut my book. "Next time," I told Ponyboy, "we do our work at my house."

"Deal."

- - - - -

Okay, kinda stupid, I know, but that's what happens when you mix me, 7-up, an iridium satellite, how-to-make-your-own chainmail, and my love of fresh fruit together. (Please, don't ask. I'm a very strange person with very…unique… interests. Lol) Okay, just to make my Sunday complete, I gotta go find some chocolate. But before I go indulge myself… a very special thanks to the reviewers….

Darkdestiny2000- Yep, Darry and Nate have kinda been through the same thing, so I figured they might act similar. But poor Matty, it seems as though everything's his fault now…Bob, Johnny, Dally… It might take a while for him to get over it. But of course he doesn't want anyone to know that he started it all… Yeah, I'd better stop before I go on rambling too. I tend to do that sometimes. But just for the record, I don't mind if you ramble in reviews for my story. Rambling can be so much fun…

Hahukum Konn- Yeah, and what's more fun than socializing with the greasers.

Steves-girl- here it is!

Fairlane- I do love some good constructive criticism. I'll try to do better with the authors notes and all. As for Bob's death, I do love a good flash back every now and again…

Babygurl33- yeah, poor Steve, the only normal one of the group now…

SodapopCurtisDX- Glad you like. Yeah, Nates really changed. And as for the greasers finding out… you'll just have to wait and see…

Rate and review pleez

Bookworm

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