Title- The Tale of Ronnie

Chapter Title- Sick

Disclaimer- I do not own The Outsider

Reviewers-

XAmberX- The quiet ones are always smart, with the exception of me.

Punk4ever- Die evil fourth graders…

BlackLightningDX- Sucks for you… I don't start until September 7th. Why do they insist on starting in the middle of a week?

Note- I'm kind of tired, but I had this idea so I had to type it out. Thank god my laptop decided to work today. Where would I be if it didn't? Ah, yes, I would be writing this down on paper and I can't read my own hand writing. That's a bad thing. I found out my mom is having surgery Friday which makes me her little servant for about a whole week. Doesn't that sound fun?

"Scared," he replied. I hated his one word answers. I never learned a lot from them. So, he was scared. What was he scared of?

"Are you scared of talking? Or, are you scared if being wrong?" I was going to find out. Even if took me all night, I was going to find out.

"I don't know," he answered looking at the bed.

"You have to know, or else, you would talk," I told him. Maybe if I got him to talk, he wouldn't be bullied around as much. I wouldn't have to watch him as much. Not that I hate watching him, it just gets annoying. We were called in for dinner. Mom was looking very tired and was only picking at her plate of plain spaghetti. When I have spaghetti, I eat it with a lot of of sauce. Nate doesn't like too much sauce.

"Hi mom," I said. I sat across from her. She barely looked up at me. Her face was pale.

"You look really sick, right Nate?" I asked. I looked at him. I begged for him to just say 'yeah', maybe it would make mom feel better.

"Uh-huh," he said and stared down at his plate. His cheeks turned bright red. Mom attempted to smile but held her head. She looked really bad. This was the worst I have seen her. Dad ruffled Nate's hair. He sunk lower in his chair and was trying not to smile. He was really embarrassed. All he said was 'uh-huh', but it was enough to embarrass him.

After dinner mom went back into the bedroom. Dad couldn't take off from work so he called up Miss Mathews to see if she would come in early. She was going to bring us to school on her way to school and pick us up.

"Nate, I'm proud of you," I said as I slipped under the covers. I could see him grinning.

"It wasn't too bad, was it?" I asked.

"No, but I don't like it," he answered.

"Good night," I told him.

"Good night," he echoed.

"C'mon Ronnie," I heard my dad say. Why was he still here?

"You need to be up before I go to work," he said and shook me gently. I opened my eyes and sat up. Oh yeah, I remember now. He was waking us up and getting our breakfast ready before he went to work. We would be home for about a half an hour alone before Miss Mathews came. Well, we wouldn't be alone, but mom was asleep.

Dad gave me an extra big piece of cake that he made. I like dad's better, the icing is sweeter. When he makes my chocolate milk, it's chocolatier. He adds extra chocolate syrup to it. We got dressed before he left. I looked out the window and waved to Uncle Darry as they drove away.

Miss Mathews came in and picked us up. I let mom know where we were going. She wouldn't remember when she completely woke up, but I felt better telling her. We weren't early, we were almost late. Miss Mathews is a more responsible driver than her brother. I said good-bye and walked over to the tree where Nate was supposed to give that guy his homework.

I saw the guy and marched over to him. Nate was following closer behind. I punched him.

"Never, ever make my brother do your homework," I said. I grabbed Nate's hand and walked towards the building.

After school, Miss Mathews came to pick us up.

"Do you know what is wrong with my mom?" I asked her. She thought about it for a while.

"I don't know; do you have a lot of homework?" she asked. I shook my head. When we got home I finished it quickly and went outside to play with Chocolate.

Dad came outside to tell me to say good-bye to Miss Mathews. I ran inside and gave her a big hug. I really liked her. Nate thought she was okay. Nate didn't talk much today. He just said thanks for what I did. I was really glad that kid didn't beat me up.

"So, Ronnie, when I came home, Miss Mathews said that the principle called. Why would the principle call?" dad asked me. If I played dumb, maybe I wouldn't get in trouble. I shrugged.

"Are you sure you don't know? I called him back; do you know what he said?" I shrugged again.

"He said that you hit a boy, did you know that?" I shrugged again. If it was mom, I would've been in trouble, but it wasn't mom. It was dad, and he would find it funny. I hoped.

"Ronnie," he said.

"Okay, I only did it 'cause he was makin' Nate do his homework. He was in fourth grade!" Nate got red; he didn't want people to know.

"Don't tell mom, please. I know if somebody was bullying Uncle Ponyboy, you would've hit them. Am I right?" Dad nodded.

"Don't tell mom, she's not feeling too well, we can't get her upset," I said. I went into my bedroom and looked for a book to read. I didn't find any good books so I went into the living room to watch television. I walked past my mom getting sick in the bathroom. I walked into the bathroom and pulled her hair out of her face.

"Do you want me to get you anything?" I asked. She shook her head.

"I need to ask dad something, can you get him for me?" I nodded.

"Dad, mom wants you," I told him. A few minutes later, mom and dad both came out of the bathroom. Mom went into her bedroom and dad walked towards me.

"I need to do something; can you stay here and behave?" I nodded. I think I can behave.