I do not own The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton does :)
This chapter is written from Ethan's perspective :)
The boy who I met today, Ponyboy, was real nice…and cocky, if that's the word.
Unfortunately after he left, I had to wait three hours before Ashleigh and Lonnie got back from their date. I was happy to see Ashleigh, not so much Lonnie though.
Ashleigh got out of the car and lifted me up and kissed me on my forehead. She's 25 years old, but claims that she's old enough to be a mommy. I don't think she'd be very good at looking after a baby, mainly because she's always out with Lonnie. It doesn't bother me though; I can take care of myself, even if I do look like a little kid.
Ashleigh already has a husband: his name's Leo and he is technically my foster dad. She wouldn't have been able to foster me if she wasn't married, which I think is stupid, but I guess I can't complain.
Leo and Ashleigh don't date, but they decided not to get divorced simply because it was too complicated. At least I can stay with Ashleigh and not be stuck at the home.
I hated the boys' home so much; everybody there deserved to be there, except for me and little Daniel of course.
Thankfully, there was a boy there called Nicholas and he was the tallest and oldest boy there, and he was nice to me and scared the other boys off.
Nicholas always called me 'Little man', so I guess that's why I like the nickname so much.
When I lived with April however, I never saw Nicholas, Daniel, or any of the other boys again. I had to move schools too, and everybody was mean to me.
I told April about the kids at school, but she just told me to 'grow a pair', whatever that means.
April was tall and pale, with long black hair and she had dark brown, almost black, eyes. She didn't want me; the only reason she had agreed to foster me was because she got paid.
I told my social worker, Paulina, about how April mistreated me, and thankfully she got me moved.
Mr and Mrs Farm were nice people, and I really grew to like them. The only problem was their son: Tony.
Tony was a year younger than me, but considering I'm short for my age, he towered over me. He was only eight, but he could punch like a twenty year old, not like I know how one punches.
He got me into trouble too; he'd do something bad and then blame it on me!
Mr and Mrs Farm basically worshipped Tony, so of course they always believed him. They punished me when 'I'd been bad', however they were always nice to me afterwards. They told me there was a difference between punishing and just plain hitting, and I'm glad they taught me that, even if it did hurt a lot sometimes.
However, they punished me when I didn't need punishing; it was Tony who needed punishing, and I wished that I could have gotten through to them about how evil Tony was, but they would never believe me and told me in much lighter words to stop being jealous.
It was because of their ignorance that I ended up being moved again.
Tony had taken an interest to the bookshelf which stood in the living room. Mr and Mrs Farm were outside in the garden, leaving me and Tony inside.
"Hey shorty, I bet that you can't get that book up there." He snickered, pointing to the top of the bookshelf.
"Of course not, even an idiot could figure that out, Bony." I replied snidely. Tony's face turned red; he hated being called Bony.
I only called him Bony because Tony was very skinny, however Mrs Farm told me that it was a naughty word. I didn't know what naughty word sounded like 'Bony', but I made sure that I didn't say it around her or Mr Farm.
"Don't talk back." He ordered, stomping towards me.
I backed away, but Tony got closer to me. I was scared; Tony liked to hurt me when his parents weren't in the room.
He grabbed my arm and pinched it hard. I squealed and knocked into the bookshelf, making the big book on the top shelf fall down onto the floor.
"You're in trouble." Tony sang, skipping off to go and find his parents.
"No!" I shouted and jumped on his back.
Tony easily got me off and pinched me again, but this time his back was facing towards the bookshelf. I clawed his hand off my arm and pushed him. It was quite light, but Tony still stumbled backwards.
He tripped and fell back into the bookshelf, and the whole thing came tumbling down, taking Tony with it.
I screamed and ran to find Mr and Mrs Farm. They instantly came running inside and Mrs Farm went to phone an ambulance while Mr Farm worked on lifting the bookshelf off of Tony.
Tony was unconscious, but thankfully he was still breathing.
When Tony got out of hospital four days later, I was taken back to a different boys' home, all because Tony said that the whole thing was my fault. I told them my version of the story, but the bruises had faded by then, leaving me without evidence.
I hated this boys' home; nobody understood me. Though they were a lot nicer than the boys from the other boys' home (except for Nicholas), they all treated me like I was three instead of eight, and I hated it a lot. The workers there did too, and it was horrible feeling unequal to everybody around me.
Six months down the line, Ashleigh and Leo fostered me. As soon as I was taken to my new home, Leo left to stay with his mom.
Though I wasn't meant to, I liked sleeping with Ashleigh because I felt safe. I can't sleep in her bed if Lonnie's staying over, which is awful, but when he's gone I climb into her bed immediately and she cuddles me.
I don't tell her about what Lonnie does to me. Nobody knows the full story, not even my new friend, Ponyboy.
All's Ponyboy knows is that Lonnie hits me, which he does, but it's the things he says. He likes to burn me too, sometimes with cigarettes and cigars, other times it'll just be from a lighter.
When Ashleigh goes out, she tells him that he can invite a few friends over, and it's even worse then.
They all shout stuff at me, they all burn me, and they all hit me. And it's horrible.
My new social worker, Harold, doesn't know about it either; Lonnie told me that if I told anyone then he'd kill me and then kill Ashleigh, and it would all be my fault.
Sometimes I wondered through all of this if my daddy was telling God to go easy on me, that I was just a little boy. But not even daddy can stop some of the stuff that goes on, and I guess God can't either.
My real mom told me that daddy died from a tumor before I was born, whatever that means. She told me that he was the only man she ever loved, and she wasn't sure if she'd be able to love another man again.
I used to love sitting beside mom, listening to the stories she told me about my daddy. He was a soldier in World War 2, and if I was lucky she'd get out a box of photographs and show me him in his uniform. Then she'd show me pictures of them at their wedding, but we wouldn't be able to carry on because she'd always start crying.
One thing that everybody who I've lived with has said though: they have all said, "I love you." Even April said it, but only once.
Mom used to say "I love you" all the time to me, whatever that means.
So here you get a glimpse of Ethan's life, I hoped you enjoyed it! Anyway, poor Ethan doesn't know the meaning of love :( Please review; it'd mean the world to me :) If you are enjoying it, I'll be updating it soon (hopefully tonight), as well as One Marvellous Adventure :D