Ponyboy POV

Hey guys! I've just realized that I never acknowledged a couple things, so just to let y'all know something or two, I'm gonna let you guys in on a few things!

- I (sadly) DO NOT own The Outsiders by the lovely one and only S. E. Hinton.

- I try to even out the POV's told. But sometimes, I just have to make things work and skip someone once or twice. But I make up for it.

- Sorry for any typo's or grammar mistakes.

- If you guys haven't noticed, I update a lot and that's only because I upload short and quick chapters, but many at a time.

- I will sometimes nickname/shorten character names; like instead of Two-Bit I'll put Two, Ponyboy I'll out Pone or Pony and so on. {I put this one because someone brought it up and was confused about it}

- I do also have an instagram: mlp_malory and a tumblr: staygold_fandom.

- Thank you all honestly for all the positive feedback, reviews, suggestions and recommendations for this story and my other ones. It means a lot to me, really. ^-^

~Stay Gold

staygold-fandom (Malory)

Steve hugged me. Yeah I know we're all good and stuff, but I never thought he would end up hugging me anytime soon. The only person Steve's ever hugged was Darry and Soda. Maybe Two-Bit and Johnny at some times, but I'm pretty sure he never even considered hugging me. And to my surprise, I couldn't resist and I ended up hugging him back.

"What's going on Steve? Is something wrong?" Steve let go of me and stood up with his jacket in hand.

"No… nothing's wrong. Everything's fine, you're fine, I'm fine, Darry and Soda are fine and so is Two-Bit," I looked up at Steve and the next thing I knew he was walking out the door. But before he left completely, I heard him fainly say to himself, "The only people who aren't gonna be fine are the socs and that's for sure." And with that Steve left.

He must be getting them back for what they did to Soda. I thought. I stood up and wiped my sweaty palms on my jeans and thought about what to do. I walked over to mine and Soda's room, opened the door slightly and stared at the mess I had made earlier today. Misewell get started on this I guess… and I walked in the room, leaving the door open as to not to worry Darry about where I was and what I was doing.

I started by making the bed. Then I worked on getting the bookshelf up and off of the ground and back against the wall instead of against the floor. After I got the bookshelf steady and stable, I noticed it start to get chilly in my room. Oh yeah, I thought looking at the shattered window beside the bed. I broke that, whoops. I put on one of Soda's hoodies and before I continued, I changed from my jeans I got into earlier back into my pajama pants along with some new socks. I picked up the books and papers that were scattered across the ground and either put them back on the shelves, or threw them away.

After I got down with that, I sighed and put my hands on my hips, studying the cleanliness I had just got done working on. I smiled with glee, turned around, then frowned. Why did I have to shove everything off of the desk? I trudged my way over to my desk, then started to pick up the things that belonged on the desk, and put them back in their rightful places.

When I finally got done with everything, I noticed how clean I made the room. This room is going to be destroyed when Soda gets in here. I saw that it was getting dark outside, so I picked up a book and walked back out to the living room where Darry was sitting in the armchair reading the newspaper and Soda was coming out of the bathroom, sniffing and rubbing his still watery eyes. He avoided me and Pony and went to the bedroom.

"Pony, did you clean the room?" Soda called out.

"Yeah, but it's gonna get chilly in there because of the window," Soda closed the door gently, and Darry and I soon heard the sound of the bed springs squeaking. "He's going to bed already?" I asked. But Darry didn't answer, he was staring at me with an angry look on his face.

"What about the window?" I gulped.

"It's broken…" Darry put the newspaper down so he could look at me.

"How bad and why?" I opened my book to where I last left off and hid my face in it as I answered Darry quietly, scared that he was gonna yell at me again.

"When I was throwing a "fit," I threw a baseball at it and it shattered… nothing a new glass plane can't fix it…" I looked at Darry over my book and he was shaking his head while picking up the newspaper again.

"Jeez Ponyboy… I'll fix it when I get home from work the next time I go. May have to take off to watch Two-Bit tomorrow," I sighed a sigh of relief that Darry surprisingly wasn't mad at me and actually began to read before Darry spoke up again. "Hey Pone, you know where Steve ran off to?"

I nodded my head. "He left a while ago before I went to clean the room. Said something about how he wants me to stay here and how it's for best," I heard Darry put the newspaper down and I could feel him looking at me. "Said something about how the socs aren't gonna be fine. Probably just went to go get them back after what they did to poor Sodapop."

Darry stood up and I looked at him to see a worried look on his face. He nodded worriedly and walked over to the bathroom door, knocked and spoke up. "Two-Bit? Hey Two, you almost done?"

Two-Bit was heard from the inside the bathroom. "Yeah Dar, hold on just a sec and I'll be out there." Two-Bit sounded terrible, honestly. After a moment or two, Two-Bit strolled out of the bathroom wearing what he was wearing earlier.

"Hold, go to my room for a minute okay?" Two-Bit walked to Darry's room as Darry made his way over to me.

"Need something Dar?" He kneeled down to my level and put his hands on my shoulders.

"You listen to what Steve said Pony. Do not! Leave this house without one of us okay?" I nodded eagerly with worry as Darry walked away.

After Darry went to his room, I started coughing just like Two-Bit had earlier. Man, must be dusty… I should dust. God knows how long it's been since someone has.