Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Outsiders, just Teresa Macks and Matthew Block.
Chapter 3 – Sodapop's POV
I woke up to the sound of Ponyboy rustling around. I rubbed my eyes with the back of my hand and my vision cleared a little.
"Ponyboy? What are you doing?" I asked, glancing over at the clock. 10:30 AM. I looked back over at Ponyboy, then suddenly snapped my head back to the clock. "10:30 AM! PONYBOY! Did you turn off the alarm?" I asked, jumping out of bed. "I'm gonna be late for work! Oh man, Mr. Meyer is gonna be so mad!" I threw on a shirt and a pair of jeans before Pony even had time to say anything.
"Sodapop! Slow down! Darry turned off the alarm and called into Mr. Meyer for you. He thought you could use the day off. There's a note on the counter." He said as he walked out. I slumped my shoulders. Darry. Leave it up to Darry to do something like that. I was grateful for the day off, but I knew we couldn't afford it, and now Darry would have to work twice as hard to get the money. I let out a long breath, and plopped back down on the bed, peeling my shirt off over my head.
I got up and wandered into the kitchen, scratching my chest and yawning. Ponyboy looked up from the paper. I wondered why he wasn't at school, then remembered it was summer break.
"You got plans today, Pony?" I asked, taking some eggs out of the pan and grabbing the grape jelly out of the fridge. The chocolate cake was on the table. I sat down across from Ponyboy, reading the ad for the shoe store on the back. Buy one get one free! It exclaimed. In the fine print at the bottom, it said, First item must be over $27, second item must be below $20. I smiled to myself, thinking, What a rip-off. Ponyboy put down the paper, and answered my question.
"Yeah. Me and some kids from school are going to the Dingo later on, and then we're gonna go the movies. You can come if you want." He added courteously. He knew I wouldn't want to come, but he offered anyway.
"Naw. I think I'm gonna go see what Steve's doing today." I thought about what I had just said, then said, "Oh wait. Steve's at work." My shoulders slumped again, and I spooned grape jelly over my eggs, taking a big bite. "I don't…" I swallowed my eggs. "know what I'm doing then. Probably just wandering around, looking for something to do. I'll catch you up if I change my mind." I said, cutting a piece of chocolate cake.
"OK." Ponyboy said, folding up the paper and laying it back on the table. He got up and walked out toward the front door, calling "See ya later!" over his shoulder as he opened the door. It slammed shut behind him, and the house fell silent as I chewed my cake.
"Yeah. See ya later." I said thoughtfully, way too late. I sat for a long time, slowly devouring my breakfast. When I was done, I cleaned up the whole kitchen, grabbing dirty dishes out of the sink and washing them, and then putting them away. I knew we wouldn't eat the eggs once they were cold, so I threw those away, and covered the cake and put it back on the cake plate on the counter.
I slowly walked from room to room, trying to find something to do. I paused at the door of what had been my parent's room. We kept that door closed, and hadn't opened it. We all knew we could make money off the stuff they had in there, and once Darry even mentioned something about an emergency money supply Mom had kept under the dresser, just in case. None of us ever went in there to see if it was true or not. I sighed, brushing away the cobweb that had been built by a little spider on the doorknob. It made me sad to know that we hadn't been in there that long. I decided against going in, and instead went down the hall to the back door. I walked outside, grabbing a pair of Darry's old shoes and slipping into them, tying them as I sat down on the back porch. I sat there for a minute, and then took off down the street. There were a few kids out playing in the yard down the block as I walked by, and it made me remember what it was like when I was little, and Ponyboy was about 3 or 4. I smiled, remembering how he would get so mad if we played a game of tag, because he was always "it", because he couldn't run fast enough.
I kept walking in the general direction of The Dingo, even though I knew I didn't really want to go there. I stared down at my feet, walking slowly. I turned a corner, and suddenly ran into someone. They were knocked to the ground, and I heard an "Oomph. Ow…." I looked down. It was a girl. I bent down.
"Are you OK? Sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going." I helped her stand up. She dusted off her hands on her jeans, and smeared a little bit of blood on them.
"Oh, you're bleeding. Are you sure you're OK?" I asked, looking at her. She had shoulder-length red hair and big blue eyes in a square face. Her lips seemed to be naturally light pink, even without wearing lip stick…or gloss…or whatever girls called it these days. She looked at her hands, holding them out in front of her. Her right hand was scraped up and bleeding a little bit and the other one was just red from landing on a rock.
"Really, I'm fine. Just a little scrape." She said, wiping the blood off on her jeans. She seemed nice to me.
"I'm Sodapop. Sodapop Curtis." I said, nodding at her.
"Hi. I'm Teresa Macks." She said, smiling at me. I smiled back.
"Well, if you're sure you're OK, then I better get going." I said, gesturing down the street.
"Oh…yeah. You should probably…ya know." She said, blushing a little.
"Ok, well I'll see you later then."
"Yeah. OK. Bye Sodapop." She waved.
"See ya around!" I called over my shoulder as I walked away. I headed off to the Dingo to go find Ponyboy and his friends.
Author's notes: I know, this probably isn't all that interesting yet, but it should get better! Please keep up the reviews, I want to know if this is going in the right direction or not. This could get to be a very long story, so I would hope I can at least hold your attention for the first few chapters! Let me know if you're getting bored, and I'll try to make it more interesting. Thanks for all the reviews I already got!