Change can be good

Summary: Ponyboy goes off to college with a scholarship but what happens in College?

Disclaimer: I don't own the outsiders. I only own Malvina(Mally), Jason, Jamie, and Maddie. I also own Katie, Kayla, Sam, and Nancy.

Chapter 14:

Pony POV:

I woke up to the sound of laughter, and cartoons and the smell of breakfast. I walked out of my room into the living room to find Two-Bit, Mally, and Mason watching Mickey Mouse.

"Morning Daddy." Mally said.

"Morning baby girl." I said walking into the kitchen where Kayla and Darry were making breakfast.

"Need any help?" I asked as I poured myself a cup of chocolate milk, I never could give that up.

"Sure, why not." Kayla said as I went over and started to cut some vegetables.

"Still haven't up the chocolate milk, I see." Darry joked.

"Nope, I'll never be able to give up something so sweet for something as bitter as coffee." I joked back. An hour later everyone had gotten up and breakfast was ready.

"Hey Two-Bit, bring the kids in here for breakfast!" Sam yelled at her husband.

"What's for bweakfast Mommy?" Mason asked as he sat on Sylvia's knees, who was sitting on Dally's lap.

"Eggs, bacon, and veggies." Sylvia said.

"And chocolate cake." Kayla added as she brought a cake to the table.

"Chocwate cake?" Mally asked as she sat on my lap. "Fow bweakfast?"

"What? Your daddy never fed you chocolate cake for breakfast." Soda asked Mally, shocked.

"Nope." She shook her head.

"It's not like I didn't want to, I just never had time to make a cake between classes and work." I defended.

"Oh, well now that you're in Tulsa you can follow the Curtis tradition." Soda said as he placed a piece of cake on her plate.

"Soda, let her have some real breakfast first." I told him.

"Man, you're becoming more and more like superman everyday, kid." Steve said as he took a bite of his own cake.

"Is that a bad thing?" Darry asked.

"No, that's not what I meant. I just meant that he's really grown up since the last time we saw him." Steve recovered, and we all laughed.

A moment there was a knock at the door so I went to open it. Standing before me was a social worker, an older couple(they looked to be in their 50s), and two police officers.

"Ponyboy Curtis?" The social worker asked.

"Yes that's me. How may I help you?" I asked.

"We're here about the case of sole custody for your daughter Malvina Curtis." He said again.

"What about it. It doesn't start until this Thursday."

"Yes, but in a case like this, where no parent nor guardian has been granted sole custody or shared custody of the child before the upcoming case, the child is to be taken with us. This couple right here, Mr. and Mrs. Richardson will take care of your daughter from today until the last day of the trail."

"What? Why? Why can't she stay with me?" I asked, not understanding why they had to taken Mally away.

"It's just the law. The child is to stay with us until she's assigned a legal guardian."

"But I'm her legal guardian." I said.

"There is no legal contract signed confirming that fact." The social worker said.

"Daddy?" Mally asked as she came to stand beside me.

"I'll be there in a second baby girl, just go back to Uncle Soda and send Uncle Darry here, k?" I told her, but before she could go the social worker grabbed her arm, stopping her. I saw her tense up and I wanted to tell him to get his paws off her arm, but I knew that if I did it'd be used against me in court.

"Are you Malvina Curtis?" He asked. she nodded her head yes slowly, tears welling up in her eyes. I peeled his hand off of her arm and took her in my arms.

"Could you go pack a bag of your clothes and toys for us sweetheart?" Mrs. Richardson asked.

"Why?" Mally asked me.

"You don't have to do that baby girl, just go back to breakfast ok?" I told her and put her down. She ran off towards the kitchen right away, and a minute later swear I heard her soft cries.

"You're not taking her away from me." I told them.

"Mr. Curtis, if you don't behave here, this will be used against you in court, and there is a good chance that you won't be granted sole custody of your daughter." One of the police officers spoke up.

"Pony everything ok here? What's going on?" Darry asked coming up behind me.

"Can you go into Mally's room and pack a bag of her clothes, toys and her pills, please." I told him through gritted teeth, glaring at the social worker.

"You sure?" Darry asked realizing what was going on. Darry always knew what was going on when it came to socials services.

"Ya."

"You've made the right choice Mr. Curtis, and don't worry Malvina will be in good hands." Mr. Richardson spoke.

"She better be cause you don't want me and my friends coming after you." I said, glaring at him.

Five minutes later Darry emerged carrying one of Mally's bags in one hand, and Mally in the other. He put the bag down on the ground and he gave Mally to me.

"Daddy why do I have to go?" Mally asked. "Don't you want me?"

"Of course I want you, baby girl. It's just… if I don't let these nice people take you for a little while I might not get to have you. Ok?" I tried to explain. And she nodded her head, as tears came to her eyes.

"Now you be a good girl for these nice people, and I'll see you on the weekend, ok?" again she just nodded.

"Let's go pumpkin." Mrs. Richardson said, putting her arms out as if to say, hand her over.

"Bye bye Daddy." Mally said as they took her to their car and drove off. I stood there staring after them until they were out of sight, with Darry's hand on my shoulder. After they were out of sight I brushed Darry's hand off and walked to my room, suddenly I wasn't hungry.

Darry POV:

Ponyboy brushed my hand off his shoulder and went to his room. I didn't know why they took Mally away, but it didn't really matter. What mattered was that she was gone for the whole week, and Ponyboy was as miserable as he was when Mom and Dad died. I closed the front door and walked into the kitchen. For the first time in a long time, tears threatened to roll down my face.

"What's wrong Superman, where's Ponyboy? Or even Mally for that matter." Kayla asked.

"Socials services came and took Mally away until the end of the trial, Ponyboy's in his room." I explained.

"WHAT?" Katie and Kayla said at the same time.

"Why'd they take her away?" Soda asked.

"Dunno."

"Oh man, this has got to be the worst birthday EVER!" Steve stated.

"What do we do?" Johnny asked.

"I don't know if there's anything we can do. If he tries to get her back before the trial, it could cost him in court." I said picking at the cake on my plate.

"Why don't we just leave Pony alone. I'm sure he doesn't want us messing around right now." Sylvia said as she got up and left with Mason and Dally. Everyone except me and Soda followed.

"Aren't you guys coming?" Two-Bit asked.

"We'll just clean this up, and let him know that we're leaving. We'll meet ya at the house." Soda said, reading my mind.

"K." they said and left.

Soda POV:

We cleaned up the kitchen and then went into Pony's room. We'd never actually been in it before. The walls were covered with pictures of the family and the gang. There were even a few pictures of mom and dad.

"Hey Ponyboy. How ya doing?" I asked. he was lying on his bed.

"Not so good. I thought that this'd be simple you know. Just go down to the court, fight for Mally, win and go home. But they have to make it complicated and take her away." He said.

"You're going to get her back Pony. We'll help." Darry said.

"Thanks."

"No problem. What's family for?" I laughed, trying to lighten the mood.

"We'll see ya later, we thought you'd want some time to yourself." Darry said and we stood up and left.

Thanx for the reviews! I won't be updating until this weekend cause I have exams all week, but I promise an update on the weekend. Please R&R