I sat outside my oldest brother's door, listening to him play. I couldn't figure out why I was in a musical rut, and couldn't figure out how to write a song, but Sunny could play music at any given time. I signed and threw my head back. I rolled his Purple Heart around in my hand. Pony had left to go to football practice, before he did he told me that three uniformed soldiers came and gave Sunny a purple heart. He threw it in the trash, and left to go for a "run" and then locked himself in his room and hasn't stopped playing guitar since.

"Is that it?" Darry's voice came from above me. He still had his tool belt on and his work boots. "Pony called to tell me what happened."

I nodded. "I don't understand why he isn't proud of it. I'd feel honored." I said.

"I don't know. Sunny is a strange one. Something bad happened to him over there. I don't know what, but he needs to work it out." Darry banged on the door. "Sunshine, open the damn door!" He demanded and then used both hands to knock on the door.

I grinned; I guess Sunny had rubbed off on Darry too. The music stopped and Sunny opened the door to his room.

"Have you been crying?" Darry asked. "Your eyes are blood shot."

"I'm fine." Sunny grumbled. He grabbed his Pepsi baseball cap off the bedpost. He put it on to shadow his face, so his eyes didn't look blood shot.

I wondered if I was really the only one that noticed that he was stoned.

Darry stepped in and sat down at the desktop. I sat on the bed slightly bouncing up and down. "How do you do that? Where do you come up with all that music and play like that?"

Sunny smiled. "It goes on in my brain, rolls out, down my arm into my hand, to my fingers and then to the guitar."

"Yeah, anyways." Darry interrupted. "Why did you throw that away?" He gestured to the Purple Heart in my hands.

"Because kid brother, that is where it belongs."

Darry rolled his eyes. It drove him crazy when Sunny called him kid brother. "You came home with a stab wound. How can you say you don't deserve it?"

Sunny started fiddling with the stuff on his dresser. "How I got it." He stopped for a second. "What when on, why I got stabbed was a mistake. I'm not proud of it. It's over for me. I don't need a fucking reminder."

"At least let me stick it by Dad's in the basement. Don't just throw it away."

"What ever makes you happy, I just don't want to see it."

I tossed the metal over to Darry. I watched as Sunny finished organizing the stuff on his dresser.

"You aren't changing my mind." Sunny said.

"I was hoping your creativeness, would flow to my brain."

Sunny laughed he sat next to me. "What's going on with you?"

"Being in school really sucks, and I have you three for brothers."

"You aren't dropping out, and what do you mean us three?"

"I'm not smart like you guys. Darry was worshiped for his athleticism. He is smart, and knows how and when to do the right thing. Ponyboy is so smart it's unreal, and he is good at art, sports, and writing. You are practically perfect too. I can't even do simple math, or write a song, and that is what I'm supposed to be good at."

"I'm so far from practically perfect it's. I couldn't do science in high school. You lift up the hood to my truck and I can't tell you a damn thing about what is going on under there. You can tell me it inside and out. My step dad paid to get my on my college football team. Soda, you are really athletic. You just aren't some odd freak about sports like Darry and Pony. Not to mention it Soda, you learned music really fast. I had to take college courses to know what you know."

"Yeah, but why can you just play like that. And I can't." I asked it.

"Because you haven't found your muse yet. Music doesn't come from lack of creativity. It comes from the heat."

"I guess." I said. I knew he was right. "Being creative helps."

"You're just stuck. Don't worry kiddo. It will come." Sunny leaned back in his night stand. "Here give this to your friends. It's the third installment "I Pledge My Allegiance", and it comes out in two days."

"Thanks." I grinned. "They will love this. Will you give me a ride to my open studio?"

I pulled up to the football field. I felt bad because to drop Soda off and beat traffic I was almost forty -five minutes late. I could see the coach. There was Pony running suicides. He had a weight. That he had to drop off at each line, run and then drop pick the weight back up. I bit my lip and got out of the car wondering what he did wrong.

"Keep it going Curtis." His coach screamed.

"What's going on here?" I asked.

His coach smirked at me. "Where is Darry?"

"I'm his legal guardian too. What is going on?" I demanded.

Pony's coach looked like a balding played past his prime coach. His gut stuck out over his pants. He was never with out a whistle and a clipboard. "He started a fight with the quarter back."

"Are where is the quarter back?" I questioned. I looked over an Pony who looked like he was about to keel over, but hell would freeze before he would allow that to actually happen.

"Home."

"Last I heard, it takes two to start a fight."

"Look, the quarter back said a few choice words to Ponyboy, Ponyboy took it too far. This all happened at the Dingo. But I will be damned if one of my players injuries another teammate."

I glared at him. "If that happened out of school property then Darry and I will punish him. You have no right. You have no right keeping Pony here and not the other kid. Ponyboy come on, it's time to go him." I waved to stop running.

"Keep going!" His coach screamed. "Anything these kids do is my business. I am their coach. They are a team and they will act like it. I don't single people out. I screamed at the whole team. But your brother's actions are a lot stronger than words. That is why he is getting punished. Not to mention I caught him with this." He threw my second installment of "I Pledge my Allegiance" "This is football, AMERICAN football. My players won't be a bunch of socialist delinquents."

"Ponyboy Michael Curtis!" I screamed. "Get over here! Now!" Pony listened that time. Me screaming was like Darry deciding to spank them. I turned back to his coach. "You listen to me." I said gravely. "If he does something while under your direct supervision, you can make him run all the laps you want. You can make him run with that weight on his head for all I care. But you will not, I repeat will not punish my brother for something you have no business getting into in the first place. And you sure as hell aren't going to punish him for my actions or my words."

"I'm sorry coach." Pony panted out. He was bent over with his hands on his knees

"It's okay son, I understand." His coach glared at me. "It's not your fault you have some hippie psychopath for a guardian."

Ponyboy shot up. "Don't call him! He severed his time, and he got a Purple Heart. Don't ever call my brother anything other than his name! I'll quit the team."

I smiled, Pony had take his coach by surprise. "I'm sorry." He wasn't sorry though. His team needed my brother. So he apologized.

"Let's go." I said to Pony.

It wasn't until we got in the car that I got a really good look at him. His hair was plastered to his head. His face was blanched. He looked like he was about to puke.

"Are you okay?" I asked.

Pony just nodded. I could tell he was embarrassed. "Why didn't you just let me run?"

"You aren't paying for my mistakes. I didn't even know you were reading my articles."

"They are more like short factual stories." He huffed.

"Are you sure you aren't going to puke? How much did that weight way?"

"Fifty pounds, and no, I'm not sure. That is our punishment, he makes us run suicides until we puke. We have to carry a weight to each line. Darry had to do it once."

"I'm sorry, I should have picked you up first and dropped Soda off last."

"It's okay." He answered.

"What happened anyway? Why did you start a fight with the quarter back?"

Pony starred at his hands. He drew his lips tight. He never reminded me more of Darry than he did now. "Am I getting grounded or something when I get home? I know you hate fighting."

"No, your coach punished you enough. I won't let Darry either."

I watched his face scrunch up. I realized he didn't even think about how Darry would react to him fighting with his team members.

"We won't tell Darry." I said. I didn't like keeping things from Darry.

"The quarter back is Bob's cousin. The guy my friend Johnny killed. He is pretty relentless about how I'm apparently a murder."

"Holy shit. I'm going to kill your coach. Come here." I tried to hug him but Pony just pushed me off.

"Just don't say anything, I want to just go home."

"Alright." I started the truck. "Thanks for sticking up for me."

Pony looked over. "You're my brother."

Darry took on look at Pony when we got through the door, and must have known. It wasn't until Pony had slept through dinner and we were washing dishes when he finally asked. "So, what did he do?"

"Well if I tell you, you can't say one word."

"Sure." Darry said.

"The quarterback is Bob's cousin. He called Pony a murder. Pony started a fight. Not to mention he got caught reading my article." I dried the dish Darry handed over to me.

"You know, I knew going back to school wasn't going to be easy, but I never thought people would be so ruthless to him. That age is hard enough, he shouldn't have to deal with that too." Darry rubbed his temples. "He can't just sock every person who says something to him."

"Believe me I know. But I don't even know what to do, or what to tell him to do. His coach said actions aren't as hurtful as words, but in this case it's words that are doing the damage."

"Pony should also no better than to bring anything with your name on it around Coach too. He served and played football for the army. He was an officer until he got wounded and had to end his career."

"It's not a dirty magazine, it's politics."

Darry laughed. "I'm going to pop my head in. Make sure he is doing his homework."

I picked up my beer and chugged the rest before tossing the bottle in the garbage. "I'll follow."

"Pony?" Darry knocked on the door. He looked back at me skeptically when he didn't answer. He pushed open the door and we found Pony asleep at his desk with his face down in his chemistry book.

I covered my mouth to keep from laughing. "Ponyboy." I shook his arm a little to wake him up. He groaned and rolled his head to the side.

Darry laughed. "Think that is why he is so smart?"

"Yeah, it just goes straight to his brain."

"Maybe you should give sleeping on books a try." Darry said.

I flicked him off. "Come on, baby. It's time to go to bed."

"Don't call me that." Pony mummbled

The phone started ringing. I looked over to Darry. "Which one?"

"I'll get the easy one." He said heading out to get the phone.

"Boy you can be stubborn." I shook him hard enough to wake him. Pony got up and then collapsed on his bed. I grabbed the covers and throew them over him.

"You smell like beer." He mumbled.

"Sunny!" Darry screamed from the other room. He screamed loud enough to make me jump and Pony sit up.

I took off running. "Darry you better be bleeding to be screaming like that!"

He wasn't bleeding. Instead he was heaving his chest; if he would have been a cartoon this would have been the time for his face to get unnaturally red and smoke to come out of his ears. "We need to go down to Soda's school. He just got caught smoking pot at his open studio."