Chapter 4
Ponyboy sighed for the seventh time in five minutes. He was bored out of his mind, not to mention tired and lonely, but they were only to be expected.
"Pony, you wanna finish your lunch? You ain't touched a thing," a fair haired boy named Harris asked. Harris was one of the five boys in Pony's room. "In fact, I don't 'member you eating much else yesterday either."
"Sorry," Pony mumbled, he was daydreaming again. They had actually gotten a lot worse now that he was here. Pony found himself mostly thinking of his brothers, the gang, and, believe it or not, the very "home" he lived in.
"Don't be," Harris commanded with a grin. The grin faltered and the boy paused, obviously debating something. "I never asked 'cause I thought it might send you over the bridge..." He looked around. "If you don't mind me asking, why'd the state send you here?"
Pony looked down. He knew this question would be asked eventually. "My brother...hit me." He looked up to see Harris's face, which showed no surprise. "I ran away 'cause me and my brother didn't get along that good. The state found out I ran away and why, so now I'm here. I know why my brother hit me and tried to explain it to the state, but they wouldn't listen." He purposely left out his parents, Johnny, and Dallas.
Harris nodded, then stopped abruptly. "Wait. You know why your brother hit you?"
Ponyboy swallowed hard. "Yeah. I was bein' stupid."
"S'alright, man," Harris smirked. "We all get like that."
Pony gave a small smile. "Thanks. Hey, I'm gunna go to the library. See yah." He stood up with his full tray of food and headed toward the exit.
He reached the library and began searching through the stacks and shelves of books. He picked up a red book with golden trim and yellowish pages. The title read "Lord of the Flies".
"Sounds lame," Pony thought after reading the summary. He put it on top of an already high pile.
"Didn't know they let greasers in here," a cool voice said loudly. Snickers ensued.
"Hey, Grease." The voice reminded Ponyboy so much of Bob that he shuddered as an arm slung around his shoulders. "Get caught for steeling a television?" More chuckles followed.
"What are you in here for? Daddy didn't pay you allowence so you called the state?" Pony spat, slinking away from the boy.
"Why you-"
"Boys," a woman in a long blue skirt came down the aisle, "that's enough. Mr. Hathaway, I thought I told you that you and your friends are banned from the library? So leave this boy and get out." She pointed toward the door.
"Bet he can't even read," a tow-headed boy mumbled.
"Out," the librarian ordered.
A few grumbles were mouthed, but the boys reluctantly left.
"Mr...?" the librarian asked, turning her attention to Ponyboy.
"Curtis," he finished. "Er- Ponyboy Curtis."
Here it comes, the look that says "Boy, you better not be pulling my leg, or so help me GOD-"
"That's a unique name, isn't is?" she commented with little shock. "Mr. Curtis, I suggest you stay away from Mr. Hathaway, he's nothing but a load of trouble."
Ponyboy nodded. "No problem, ma'am. And...thanks." He walked out of the library with his hands in his pockets, thinking he should have went to his room and slept.
R-R-I-I-N-N-G-G!
"Never mind," Pony mumbled, turning around and heading toward his classroom.
"Curtis," a voice called.
Sodapop turned around to come face to face with Adam Sanders and Greg Sole, two boys who roomed with Pony. Adam had bright blonde hair and sea green eyes, which seemed tired. His face was sharp and acne filled. Greg was heavy set with dark hair and ice blue eyes, his too, seemed tired.
"What's up, guys?"
Greg looked like he was forced to be there. He stuffed his hands into his pockets and averted his eyes from Soda's. "We were wondering...how do you, you know, stop Ponyboy's-er- nightmares?"
"We ain't getting much sleep and neither is he," Adam piped up.
The Curtis boy frowned slightly. "I don't think you can stop his nightmares. If I could, " Soda continued to think out loud, "I'll sneak into the dorm, then it could stop them alittle." He smiled. "I'm sure you wouldn't mind a few more hours of sleep, huh?"
Adam smiled back. "Could we ever. No idea how you ever did it."
They walked through the hallway. The headmaster had forced Sodapop back into classes. Right now he had English.
"I'll see what I can do, guys, no promises, though," Soda said, walking off.
He and Pony had been in the boys' home for almost two weeks now. In between the fortnight he probably only slept five hours every night, and poor Pony was getting even less.
Soda sighed as he sat down in his seat. It was only the day before that he saw his baby brother but it was still driving him crazy. It was bad enough he could not see Darry on a daily basis.
"Hello class," Mrs. Riley's voice filled the room. "As you know," she said, not waiting for a greeting back, "we have been studying "The Odyssey" by Homer. Although some of you," she glanced at a group of boys in the back, "haven't paid one bit of attention, all of you will be writing a three page report on the epic adventure."
"I can't even pronounce the name, let alone do a report on it," a boy behind behind Soda.
Soda's mind was elsewhere. it was almost a week since he had sent that letter to Darry, he should be writing back soon.
Steve probably went crazywhen he found out, hr though sadly. Him and Two-Bit are the only ones Darry has left. Sodapop mentally slapped himself. What am I talking about? He still has me and Pony, he's going to get us back.
He thought about how lonely Darry must be despite Two-bit and Steve being there, how he (Soda) and Ponyboy would be stuck in this hellhole, what Steve and Two-Bit did/will do/ are doing to help Darry, and what Darry woud be like when they returned to Tulsa.
"Something on your mind, Mr. Curtis?" Mrs. Riley broke through his thoughts.
"What?" Soda's head shot up. His soft brown eyes met her dancing gray ones. Two-Bit... "Um, no. Er-why do you ask?'
"The bell rang two minutes ago," the teacher said, offering a weak smile.
The Curtis boy looked around and saw only empty seats. "Oh..." he breathed.
"Are you going to tell me what you were thinking? Mrs. Riley asked.
Soda walked towards the door and stopped. "My brother and me don't belong here." With that, he walked off.
Ponyboy stood up. The bell had just rang and it was finally the end of the day. The damn teacher continued droning on and on about polynomials, all the youngest Curtis wanted to do was fall asleep in his bed.
He headed towards the dormrooms to catch some sleep. His roommates were not that fond of him at night, so he tried to avoid sleeping when they did.
"Pony!" Soda's voice echoed through the hallway.
The younger Curtis turned around to face his brother. "Hey, Soda," he greeted, offering a small and tired smile.
"Boy howdy," Soda exclaimed, ruffling Pony's hair. "You look worse than you did the last time I saw you." He smiled and his eyes danced with excitement. "But I got good news. Darry wrote back, I've got the letter right here." Soda patted his jeans pocket. "Any plans for the rest of the day?" he asked as they turned down the dormroom hallway.
"I was just going to go to sleep until supper, but if Darry wrote back, I'll stay up for awhile longer," Pony answered happily.
Soda smiled. "Sounds fun. Mind if I join?"
Pony returned the smile. "Come on."
When they reached the dormroom, they went straight to Pony's bed and sat on it. Soda pulled out the letter and both brothers began to read it.
Sodapop and Ponyboy
I'm still living, though Two-Bit might disagree. It ain't the same without you guys here, you were right Soda, it's quiet. As for them not letting you two share a room, maybe I could tell them the situation, they might listen. Your nightmares are getting worse, Pony? I hope you manage to get enough sleep, but by the sounds of it, guess not. I can't believe they were actually stupid enough to put you back in school, Soda. You haven't hit one of the teachers yet, have you? I told Stever about you back in school and he almost keeled over laughing. Two-Bit and Steve say hi. I booked an appointment for anger management. By the time you guys get this, I'll already have gone to it. Be good, I'll get you both out soon.
Love always,
Darrel Curtis
Both boys smiled in content and hurt. They wanted to be back in Tulsa, back with Darry, Two-Bit, and Steve, back eating chocolate cake for breakfast, back home.
"I miss him," Pony barely whispered.
"I do too, baby," Soda said, hugging his brother.
They laid back onto Pony's bed and went into the all-too-familiar position of Ponyboy curled up beside Sode and the older's arm slung over his brother for protection. Everything was quiet and they boys fell into a deep sleep.
Pony's last thoughts were, I'm home.
So like I said, a filler, but I like the ending a lot better than the last one. Leave a review please and I will attepmt to update faster!
Bittersweet