Author's Note: Thank you all for reveiwing. This chapter brings the gang to Dally. Sodapop, Darry, and Ponyboy all come in first!

Disclaimer-I do not own The Outsiders, IT'S NOT MINE!

Chapter Four

Curtis Boys

"Can we please play football!" Pony pleaded with his older brother Darry. Darry glanced up from his math homework.

"Pony, I'm trying to work here!"

"It's Friday, Darry, please! You have all of the weekend to do your homework!" Pony protested. He held the football over Darry's math book. He smiled at him and fluttered his eyelashes.

"Pony, those eyes may work with mom and dad, but not with me!"

Drat, Pony thought, huge eyes and fluttering lashes should always work! He changed his tactic, "Come on, everyone can play! Soda asked Steve and Steve said he'd play. I can get Johnny to play and I'm sure that Two-Bit wouldn't mind…"

Darry slammed his math book shut, "Fine…LET'S GO!" he yelled, grabbing the football from Pony and running out of the room.

---

Sodapop Curtis jumped up and down on the couch, waiting, but not patiently, for Pony to talk Darry into playing football. He jumped up and down, shuffling a deck of cards as he did.

"Soda, please stop jumping," Mrs. Curtis said exasperatedly. Soda flopped down on the couch and continued to shuffle the deck.

Darry came barreling through the living room with Pony chasing after.

"Darrel! You slow it down!" Mrs. Curtis yelled. Darry slowed down and Soda jumped him. Mrs. Curtis shook her head and glanced at her husband who merely smiled. "What did I ever do to deserve three rambunctious boys?" she asked him.

---

Ponyboy, Darry, and Sodapop all ran towards the vacant lot. Pony was far ahead of all of them and suddenly he stopped running. Darry stopped and Soda ran into him. "Why'd you stop?" Soda asked them, his voice muffled by Darry's shoulder. Soda stepped away, rubbing his nose. "I don't think my nose will ever be the same."

No one answered him so Soda walked around to see what the problem was.

A boy was sleeping on the car seats. A fire had burned down to the last smoldering ashes. The kid's coat had fallen off and he was shaking. Soda walked over to him slowly, wondering if he should wake him up.

"I'll go get mom!" Pony volunteered. "She'll know what to do!"

Darry whirled around to say they didn't need her, but Pony was already sprinting off towards the house.

Soda knelt down by the seats and Darry walked over, "Should we wake him up?" Soda asked.

"I dunno…" Darry could remember finding Tim Shepherd asleep in an alley once. He had just kept walking because all of the Shepherd gang was asleep. Soda gently shook the boy, but he didn't wake.

"He's still alive, right?" Soda asked.

"Yeah, see?" Darry pointed to the boy's rising and falling chest. "He's breathing."

"Well, that's good news," Soda admitted and looked up to see his mother walking with Ponyboy.

Mrs. Curtis sat down by the seats and shook the boy gently.

---

Dally opened his eyes, wondering if it was a cop coming to see if he was alive. He saw three boys and an adult woman. He felt confused for a moment, but then he decided that this was their lot and they wanted him off. He sat up.

"Are you all right?" one of the boys asked him.

Dally shrugged his shoulders. The youngest one was holding out his coat to him. Dally took it and slid it on.

"We saw you and wondered if you were all right." The lady told him. "Would you like to come with us to have some breakfast and you can take a shower?"

Dally had to admit that sounded pretty good so he stood up and jammed his fists into his pockets. She offered him her hand, but Dally didn't take it.

"I'm Ponyboy!" the youngest boy blurted out.

He raised his eyebrows, but didn't say a thing. The middle boy, Dally guessed, because he was shorter than the other, spoke up. "My name's Sodapop…Sodapop Curtis."

What was this? A family of weirdoes? Dally shrugged again.

"I'm Darrel, but my friends call me Darry."

Finally, a somewhat normal name! Dally just kept walking, he didn't care. It was on his list of things to do, and he thought he was doing pretty well.

"What's your name?" the lady asked him, leading him up some stairs.

"Dallas Winston, but my friends call me Dally."

She smiled and showed him to the shower, he didn't say a word, just walked in and started the water.

---

"We don't even know who he is!" Darry protested to his mother who was handing the bowl of pancake batter to Sodapop. She picked up the bundle of clothes that she'd selected to give to Dally. They hadn't been worn yet and Soda was grateful that he wouldn't have to wear it, he liked his old clothes, they were comfy.

"Darry!" His mother scolded, "It doesn't matter! He needs our help, so like it or hate it, he'll stay with us until we can get a hold of his parents." She exited the kitchen witht he clothes.

"What, do you think he's a robber or an ax-murder?" Ponyboy asked, pouring glasses of orange juice for everyone.

"No, but..." he sighed and flipped the bacon.

"Soda..." Pony's voice sounded strange. "What have you done...to those PANCAKES!"

"What's wrong with them?" Soda asked in confusion. He stared at the pancakes, they looked fine to him.

"What's right with them?" Pony countered, "They're...they're...GREEN!"

"Green?" Darry choked. He turned around to see a bottle of food-dye next to the batter bowl. The bowl was covered in a green liquid batter.

"Yeah!" Soda argued, "they're's nothing wrong with them!"

"Great," Darry muttered under his breath. "Now it doesn't matter if he's an ax-murder, Soda'll kill him anyway."