Hey ho, thanks reviewers, I wasn't going to update because honestly I didn't know what they fought about. But I think I came up with something. "Smile because it happened" I always thought if Ponyboy made Darry pissed enough, or scared enough that something would happen to Pony, he might take a whack at him. I don't know about a series of one-shots, but maybe Darry will decide this will be the punishment he uses from now on. I dunno. And I guess Pony couldn't really make Soda belt him, but it might be interesting to see how to see how far it could be pushed. Muuuu haaa haaa! More reviews are welcome. And I still don't own any of these characters but the girls. --WW

The next morning, I was finishing my homework at the kitchen table while Darry made breakfast. It was hard to get comfortable. The night before, we'd had pizza on the living room couch, so sitting still hadn't been so hard. And speaking of hard, were the kitchen chairs always this hard?

"Ponyboy, quit fidgeting," Darry said.

"Can't help it," I mumbled.

Soda sat next to me, his hair wet from his shower, and reached over me to get a piece of toast. "Ants in your pants?" he asked.

I shot him a look and he grinned at me. Bastard. I shifted position and tucked one leg under my still-sore backside, to see if that would help. Not really. How was I supposed to sit still in school?

"Darry."

"Hm?"

"I don't think I can go to school today."

Darry set a plate of bacon and eggs in front of me and put a hand on my forehead. "You don't feel warm."

"I'm not," I said, then mumbled, "not there."

He looked completely puzzled, then Sodapop burst out laughing.

"Good Lord, Pony, you'd think you're the only kid who ever got his butt blistered?" he asked. "Don't be such a baby."

"How would you know?" I snapped. "You didn't."

"Well, no, not by Darry, but sure I did."

"Really." He was full of it. "By who?"

Soda looked at me like I was stupid. "Dad."

"Dad?" My father was a gentle giant. He didn't even yell all that much.

"Dad," Soda confirmed.

"Our dad."

"Yes."

"Darrel Curtis Senior, our father."

"Yes," Soda said impatiently. "Did you wake up deaf and stupid?"

I still couldn't believe it. "When? I don't remember that."

"Then you weren't home."

I shook my head. I swear Soda waited on purpose until I had my mouth full of food before he said casually, "He took a strap to me once. I'd say Darry let you off easy."

I choked. "He did not."

Soda snorted. "Yeah, he did."

I couldn't imagine. "For what?"

"I made Mom cry."

Oh. I take it back. That I can imagine.

"I wanted to go somewhere with Steve, and she wouldn't let me, and I told her I hated her and called her a name," Soda said. "She started to cry. I didn't see Dad – I didn't even know he was there until he dragged me into our room and flipped me over. He took off his belt and let me have it. I hollered my head off."

I just stared at him.

"And then he made me brush my teeth with soap, because I'd called Mom such a filthy name." His face flushed. "Boy, I'd give a lot to take that back now."

I looked at Darry, who was calmly eating his eggs. "That true?"

Darry shrugged. "I didn't see it, but he paddled me a couple of times, so yeah, I suppose it's true."

I was stunned. "How come I didn't know that? How come he never hit me?"

"You're the baby," Soda said. "You were the good one. So sweet and sensitive." He rolled his eyes. "Maybe me and Darry were badder than you." He chuckled and stuck out his leg, poking his toe at my backside. "Besides, I'd say now you joined the club."

Swell.

Darry looked at me seriously. "I meant what I said yesterday. I don't want to make a habit of this. So don't give me a reason to. If the only way to get you to behave is to spank some sense into you, I will."

I didn't answer. My stomach clenched at the thought.

Darry stood up and began clearing the table. "And Pony?"

"What?"

"Make things right with Johnny."

Of course, Darry didn't let me stay home, and an hour later I was sitting in Chemistry, concentrating more on not squirming in my chair than on the chemistry lesson. Johnny hadn't been waiting on the corner for me, not that I really expected him to.

A folded piece of paper sailed over my shoulder and landed in the middle of my notebook. I made sure the teacher was turned around before I opened it.

Angie said the cops came! What happened?

I turned around and looked at Melanie, the reason for this whole sorry mess, even though she didn't know it. "Later," I mouthed at her.

"Mr. Curtis?"

I snapped my head back to the front.

"You and Miss Dabner have something you want to say to the class?"

"No," I mumbled. I could feel my ears turning red.

Melanie was a Soc girl, but she didn't look down her nose at us like most of them did. When we did experiments, Mel was my partner, because the teacher pairs us up in ABC order. She was real nice and she always talked to me like she was interested in what I had to say. I liked her. I liked her a whole lot. I was fixing to ask her out, and I told Johnny that, and he laughed. He told me she'd never go out with a greaser like me and she only talked to me in the first place to annoy the Soc boys. It made me mad because he might be right, and I cuffed him without thinking about it too much. He came back at me. Sometimes, his reflexes were too quick, from being hit all the time at home. And then neither one of us would quit, even though we were fighting about nothing at all, because we're both stubborn and stupid.

I walked out of class with Melanie, who was looking at me anxiously. "Did you get arrested? What happened?"

Maybe Johnny was right, but damn if she didn't seem to like me. "No, I wasn't arrested. But they called my brother."

"Was he awfully mad?" she asked.

For a brief, ridiculous second, I thought about telling her. I wondered how much sympathy I might get. I even wondered if I could get her to look. Then I thought about how it felt when I was bent in half howling for mercy, and I just shrugged and walked her to her next class.

Three periods later, I finally ran into Johnny on the way to lunch. I jogged down the hall to catch up with him. "Hey."

He ignored me for a minute, then said softly, "Hey."

We walked along for a minute and I finally said, "Darry whipped my ass."

Johnny snorted, then realized I was speaking literally. "Man," he said.

"I deserved it," I admitted. "Soda was pretty pissed too."

Melanie and her friend Angie walked by us. Angie pretty well ignored us, but Mel said, "Hey Pony, Hi Johnny."

"Hey," we answered.

"She's a pretty girl," Johnny said after a minute. "Maybe she'd say yes."

And then I knew we were made up.