"Take it easy, Darry." I said. I was weary about him driving in this state. "Let's just hear what Sodapop has to say."
"Do you not want to kill him? Because right now I am considering killing him."
I shifted in my seat uneasily. "I need a cigarette." I grabbed one out of my pocket. What I really wanted was a drink.
When we got to the school Soda and his friends Anna and Jay were sitting on the bench outside the principals office. There were four others, and I figured them to be parents. Soda was bouncing his knees nervously. He stared at the floor.
"Okay, I'm going to let them explain what happened. Where they got drugs. And why they chose to smoke on school property." The Principal nodded for one of them to start talking.
"It was my idea, Mr. Proctor." Anna began. "We just kind of wanted to stimulate our minds and escape for a little while. To see if we could come up with something better."
"It was my stuff. I got it from a guy at the record store." Jay continued. He looked over at Soda and smiled sympathetically. I could already tell this wasn't that kid's first time being caught by his parents with pot. They didn't even look that surprised. I could pick out his parents because he was the perfect combination of the two. "We coaxed Soda into smoking. He really didn't bring it, or ask to smoke. We didn't think we would be caught."
"What were you thinking?" Darry spat.
"Hold on a second." I whispered to him.
"I made them clean out their lockers. None of them had anything in their lockers. Thanks to these children's "heroes" they think they need drugs to stimulate their creative process. The reality is you three are probably the best students we have in the music program here." The Principal said.
Soda buried his face in his hands. I felt bad for him. Darry was probably the angriest he had ever been at him before. I could tell he regretted his decision to smoke.
"So what now? Are they expelled, the cops getting called?" Anna's mother asked. "Do I need a lawyer for my daughter?"
"No, they all have Friday school until the end of the year. I would actually prefer this incident be kept under wraps. Since this is a school focused around the arts, we have enough rumors about our school. They are also not allowed at another open studio for the rest of their time here. They can go home now." The Principal turned to Darry and I. "I know about your situation. I won't report this incident. Everyone makes mistakes, I hope for Sodapop's this is a one time deal."
"Thank you, sir." I said
Darry yanked Soda up by his arm. "This is the most stupid thing you could have ever done."
"I. I'm sorry." Soda stuttered the words out.
BREAK
Darry had screamed at me the whole ride home. I hated it. I hadn't even been in the car for five minutes before he had me bawling like a baby. Now we were home and not much had changed.
Pony had been waiting up for us. I was pissed that they didn't make him go to his room.
"Why Soda? Why did you do it, truthfully?" Darry paced back and forth.
"Everyone around me did it! I got curious." I said. It was the truth.
"Curiosity killed the cat. If everyone started jumping off bridges would you do that too?"
I felt something in me snap. "Shut up, Darry! You are making this way bigger than in has to be. You always do this! I said I felt bad, so just punish me for smoking weed, and SHUT THE HELL UP!" The room fell silent. Pony's face went white, and Darry just look shocked. I think I shocked my self.
"You are in enough trouble as is. You don't ever talk to him like that." Sunny's tone was serious.
I watched him reach for his belt. I had just gotten chewed out for a mistake he made, and he didn't do anything. I never considered myself to be a rat. That moment I wasn't sure if it was the anger or what. Once I opened my mouth I wanted to tell myself to shut up. I had ratted my oldest brother out.
"You still smoke?" Darry's voice was tight. That was scarier than him screaming. "Pot?"
"How did you find out?" Sunny asked.
"I'm sorry, I didn't want to say that."
"It's okay, Sodapop. How did you find out?" He stepped toward me and wrapped his arm around me.
"You bought from one of my friend's brothers."
"What the hell!" Darry said. "Ponyboy, you need to go to bed."
"Are you serious?" Pony stepped out. "You have got to be kidding me. Wake up Darry! I'm not two anymore! This is the most dysfunctional family in Tulsa. You want to why Soda smoked pot? Because he is going through some stupid identity crisis, and because he doesn't know who his real friends are!" My little brother turned to look at. "It's not you, you don't smoke pot, you have no clue what is going in politics, because you don't like them!"
Pony looked back from Darry to Sunny. "What is wrong with you! You say your brothers are the most important things in your life, but then why would you smoke pot, why would you jeopardize your family! Is all the damn booze you drink not buzzing you good enough! What is wrong with all of you people? You are all so messed up it's unreal. I'm not having a bunch of dope heads for brothers, or a dope headed alcohlic. So just knock it off!" Pony bolted out of the house.
"Ponyboy! Get back here!" Darry ran after him, but Pony was a lot faster than Darry. "Shit!" Darry came back in. He was shaking. "I can't do this again."
He was referring to the time Pony left, and then the whole ordeal with Johnny went down. "Nothing like that is going to happen again."
Darry threw his hands up in the air. He glared back at Sunny and I. "Yeah, Pony is right you guys are dope heads." He turned his back to us and walked down the hall seconds later the bedroom door slammed shut.
Sunny already had a cigarette in his mouth. He wondered into the kitchen. I head the bottle clank.
"Sunny!" I ran after him. I wasn't surprised to find him in the kitchen. He only had a beer in his hand. I kind of expected him to either have vodka or whiskey. "Stop! Just not now!"
He took his cigarette out of his mouth and ashed it in the sink. His hands were shaking really hard. He held the bottle to me. "Pour it out. Pour them all out."
I took the bottle from his hand, and emptied it in the sink. I grabbed the rest from the refrigerator.
Sunny took a long drag from his cigarette. "You have to get rid of the cranberry juice."
I took the cap off the cranberry juice and sniffed. He had put vodka in it. The rest of us didn't like anything but orange juice or grape juice; so we never touched it to figure out what it really was. He got up, and went under the cabinet. He pulled out a couple more bottles and started to dump them in the sink.
"Sodapop, when I was playing earlier today. I wasn't high. That was years worth of hard work."
"But your eyes were blood shot?"
"Yeah, I was crying." He admitted.
"Oh, I thought." I stopped in mid sentence.
"Yeah I know, you thought it was the weed that made me play like that. You are actually a really good musician Soda, you are better than I am. If you took the time to listen to yourself, you'd realize that. You don't need drugs to be good at something you are already good at."
"I know." I emptied the last of the alcohol.
Sunny reached over he grabbed me by my chin, and looked straight into my eyes. "If you ever talk to Darry like that again. I mean ever in this lifetime. I will make sure you won't sit for a month. That is so disrespectful, and he doesn't deserve that." I could tell just by his tone that he meant it. I also knew I wasn't about to escape punishment for this time either. I might have delayed it, but it wasn't going to be avoided.
"I know." I said again.
BREAK
It had been awhile since I had stepped foot in the park. The last time I was here, Darry and I had gotten in a fight. Now, everything was just worse than before. I wasn't ready to see the fountain, or the jungle gym. I stayed on the other side by the swings. Everything was so different now; I thought with time it would get better, I didn't imagine it would ever get worse.
"What are you doing, greaser!" A deep voice said.
I jumped straight on the bench and whirled around. "I should have known it was you."
Tim tossed me a smoke. "Jesus, kid you about jumped straight out of your skin. That's to calm your nerves." He handed his lighter over too.
I lit the smoke he tossed me. "What are you doing here anyway?"
Tim looked at me like I was stupid. "I should be asking you the same thing. I thought you learned the hard way about not wondering around by yourself. "
I just shrugged; I had nothing to really say about it. Not to mention, I didn't want to say the wrong thing.
Tim looked me up and down, the same way Dally did when he realized I didn't have a coat at Buck's. "Do your brothers know you're here? Look kid, I don't want to be the one your two oldest brother's go after, because I saw you out here and didn't tell them."
I snickered to myself. It was nice to know that even Tim Sheppard didn't want to take his chances with Sunny and Darry. "Then don't tell em'." I said feeling like I was suddenly warped back in time. "Besides, my family has some problems. I don't want to be around them."
Tim let out laugh, but it was scary to see him laugh. "Shit kid, every family has it's issues. Your family seems like a safe haven compared to mine. Go home. Face what ever it is. You don't belong out here."
"What's that supposed to mean? I'm a greaser." I said.
Tim leaned foreword and smacked the back of my head. "For a quite kid, you sure have a mouth to you, and for a smart kid, you sure are stupid. You're not a hood. You might think you are hard kid, but your not. Thinking you are, is going to get you killed faster than Dallas Winston got shot. I heard what happened to your friend Mark. You got it rough kid, but it's nothing you can't work through."
"I'll go when I feel like it." I said taking a step back. I was acting a lot braver than I really was.
"Don't get jumped, kid." Tim said as he walked away.