Cherry's POV

Ponyboy had been acting really odd lately. He missed three days of school and said he was sick. I didn't believe him, though.

I had cheerleading after school that day, so on my way home I stopped by the Curtis household. I pulled up in the street in front of their house and walked through the gate. I heard yelling coming from inside, and it seemed to be coming from the same person.

"Ponyboy, we've been through this before! Sure, this day is special, but you don't see the rest of us acting any differently. You missed three days of school, and today should have been the only day!" Darry yelled.

I didn't hear any reply, but after a moment Darry yelled again.

"So what if you were sick? How do I know if you were even really sick? Ponyboy, one day is one thing, but three days? That's unbelievable! Your teachers called me at work to tell me that you weren't at school! Who gave you permission to skip?"

A new voice replied to him.

"Darry, he was puking his guts out for three days! If he had gone to school, he could have gotten everybody else sick and then you would have really heard it from the school! It was a coincidental thing that he was sick the three days before the anniversary of Mom and Dad's death!" Sodapop screamed.

The house got real quiet after that. I figured that was my que to knock. I rapped gently on the door and within a minute the door was swung open. Ponyboy's tear-stained face scared me. He had told me that Darry and he were getting along better.

"Ponyboy, what happened?" I exclaimed. "You look awful!"

"I'm fine," he said.

"No, you're not! Why didn't you tell me that today was the anniversary of your parents' death?"

"Because I didn't want anyone to know, that's why!" he sobbed. "I'll be fine in a minute." He sat down on the step and wiped his eyes on his shirt. "Why does Darry have to be like that?" he asked suddenly. "I mean, I really was sick. It just worked out in my favor that I was sick the days leading up to today. He won't even take me to the cemetery. We've been getting along great lately, but when it gets closer to days like today, everything goes downhill."

I thought for a minute before I answered him. "Ponyboy, maybe taking out his anger on you and Sodapop is his way of coping with the grief. True, it's not a good way to deal with the grief, but everyone deals with things like that their own way."

"Why does he have to take his anger out on me and Soda though? We haven't done anything to set him off lately. If he should be yelling at anybody it should be Two-bit."

Something did strike me as odd, though. I realized that Ponyboy had said that Darry knew he was sick. But Darry had just been yelling at Ponyboy for missing school without permission. I didn't ask him, though.

"Why didn't you skip today as well, Ponyboy?" I asked.

"I had already missed too much school and Darry would have killed me if I only went to school one day this week. He said that because I was sick for 3 days, it made up for going today. Cherry?" he asked.

"Yes, Pony?"

"Can you finish your story, or do you need to go home?"

"I can start wrapping it up, but I'll probably have to go home before I completely finish."

He nodded in agreement and sat with his head in his hands.

"Dad got sent back overseas when the twins were five years old. Right after he left, mom got real sick. She went to the doctor and found out that she was pregnant again, but it had gone unnoticed and she was under so much stress raising three children on her own that it was probably the baby's way of letting her know she was pregnant.

"We were all happy, and Mom called Dad as soon as she could. He told her he would try to come home in time for the delivery, but he couldn't make any promises. The baby was born, and Dad still wasn't home. He came home when the baby was six months old."

I paused, looking at Pony's face, trying to read it. It was unfathomable, though. I looked at my watch, and realized that I should have been home ten minutes ago.

"Ponyboy, I have to go. Mom will get worried if I'm not home in time for dinner. I'll just tell her that cheerleading practice ran a little over and there was an accident that held traffic up."

"Bye Cherry," he said softly.

I got into my car and drove off, back to the land of Socs.

Ponyboy POV

I was still trying to cool off while Cherry told me her story. I figured that maybe if she told me some more of her hard times that maybe mine wouldn't look so bad and I could feel sorry for her instead of myself.

Cherry stopped and said she had to leave for supper. That meant that I had to go back inside the house and listen to Darry yell some more.

I watched Cherry drive off and then walked inside the house. Darry and Soda were quietly eating supper, and Two-bit was passed out on the couch again.

"Ponyboy," Soda started.

"Save it, Soda." I walked back to our room and shut the door. My homework had piled up over the three days I had missed, and the polished wood of the desk was no longer visible amongst the papers, books and pencils.

Soda and Darry began arguing about something, but I tuned them out. I had a slight headache, and I didn't want to hear them. I waited for them to clear out of the kitchen so that I could grab a handful of aspirins. Yet, something that they said caught my attention.

"Darry, he's not looking real good," Soda piped up. "Have you noticed how pale he is? He's never been this pale before, not even after he got back from Windrixville and then got sick after Johnny and Dallas died. Maybe something's wrong that he's not letting us know about."

"Soda, if he was really truly sick then he'd let us know so we could help him," Darry replied, but he didn't sound so sure.

"Darry, sometimes you are completely oblivious to what our little brother needs!" Soda exclaimed. "Something's spooking him, or he's sick or something, but something's not right here!"

"I'm completely fine!" I said loud enough for them to hear me.

The door swung open and Darry and Soda saw me sitting at the desk.

"Ponyboy, we thought you were asleep!" Darry exclaimed. "What are you doing up?"

"I was doing homework before you two interrupted me with your talk about me being sick. I'm fine! Do I look sick to you?"

Darry walked over and squatted down to my level. He looked at me in the eye and then put his hand on my forehead. The look on his face changed immediately. He turned to Soda and whispered in his ear. Then he picked me up and carried me to the truck. Before we got to the front door, I had passed out.

I want to round this story out at 10 chapters, so I had to add something to extend it more. You'll get to hear the rest of Cherry's story in the next chapter. Reviews help, so tell me what you think!