It turned out that the weather was good and Darry was still at work when Two-Bit came to get me on Saturday. Soda had gone to work at the DX. Things between him and Steve had been strained for the past two weeks since the incident at the football game, but I guess Steve had fed Soda some sort of bull about how his dad had roughed him up earlier that night and he had gotten trashed and was lashing out at me and Pony because of that. I know that Soda felt real bad about how Steve's dad beat on him all the time, but I had some trouble understanding how that made it OK to pick on your best friend's siblings. But Soda couldn't really hold a grudge against anybody, so I guess he was back on track with Steve. As for me, I had never liked him to begin with and now I just continued to do everything in my power to avoid him. As for Pony, time would tell. Regardless of Steve's dislike for us, Pony was always trying to tag along with Soda when Steve was around. I thought he was crazy for putting himself through that, but I suppose that's nothing out of the ordinary; I thought Pony was crazy a whole lot of the time. Not that I didn't care about him – I just didn't get him a lot of the time. He and Darry had the same problem.

"You ready?" Two-Bit demanded as he barged through the door. I was glad that Pony was in a mood and had holed up in his bedroom – if he heard that Two-Bit was driving Ben and I to the movies he would have insisted that we bring him too. Pony lived for the movies. But he had argued with me earlier about whether or not having dishes duty also required you to put the dishes away and had stormed off, without putting them away, might I add. He didn't come out when he heard Two-Bit.

I had already asked Darry if Ben and I could go and he had agreed. I know he was really wary of letting me go anywhere, but I think the combination of having Two-Bit there and us being in a public place calmed him down. I pointed out that I had hardly left the house to go anywhere fun since our parents died and I guess that guilt trip worked a little bit, too. Darry trusted Two-Bit; he came across as very flighty and scattered but was deceptively dangerous in a fight. He was way stronger and more agile than he appeared, and he almost always concealed a weapon, somewhere. People who made the mistake of really upsetting him usually lived to regret it later.

"I just have to get Ben," I said. Ben was an integral part of the plan. As well as Two-Bit and I got along, for us to be taking off alone together to see a movie on a Saturday afternoon definitely would have been weird. Darry would have known for sure that I was up to something. But Ben and I seeing a movie was not at all out of the ordinary, and we would obviously need a driver, so our story was believable. My only worry was that somebody would see me downtown and word would get back to Darry that I had not been where I said I was. Two-Bit said I was being paranoid, but I was still a little wary of the whole situation, not knowing how Darry would react to me having taken the money from Uncle Pat in the first place.

It turned out I didn't have to get Ben, he was coming around the back corner of the house at the same time that I was and we nearly knocked each other over.

"Jesus Christ, Ben," I said. "Watch where you're going!"

"ME?" he said, "you ran into me."

"I did not."

Two-Bit interrupted. "Awright, you two, no time for a lover's quarrel, here. We've got some shopping to do. Let's get the hell out of here 'fore Darry gets back."

He was right; if Darry got back he would probably make us take Ponyboy along too. We piled into Two-Bit's car and headed downtown. His car was always an adventure. You just never knew what parts might just fall off, on the inside as well as the outside. Every time one part broke, Steve and Soda would go down to the junkyard, find a similar part from another car, and piece it back on. Things on the dashboard were taped together and the dials on the radio had long since disappeared. The tuner was now operated by turning a clothespin that was attached to the rod where the dial used to be. I don't even know what kind of car it really was, it had so many pieces of other cars attached. Two-Bit loved it though, and it certainly served its purpose of getting him (and me, in this case) where he wanted to go. His driving could get a little frightening at times as well- Two-Bit, like Soda, viewed most traffic signs and signals as suggestions rather than hard-and-fast rules, but he generally managed to make it from origin to destination with minimal damage to both car and passengers.

We pulled up a block or so from Froug's, a department store where I figured just by wandering around I would be able to find something suitable for each brother. I was relieved that Two-Bit had no plans to come in with us – he told us that he was heading down to the diner down the street to get a pepsi and check out the girls who worked there. I was sure if he came in with us he would find it necessary to steal something, and the last thing I needed was him getting caught with me along for the ride. Darry's head would explode, at him for being an idiot, and at me for lying about where I was going.

"Meet me back here in an hour," he said, and took off in the opposite direction. Ben and I headed into the store. I figured I'd save Pony for last, since he was the easiest. Soda was harder, and Darry… what could I possibly get Darry? Ben and I had been thinking about it all week.

"Let's just go to the sports section and look around," he suggested. I agreed and followed him but I wanted to get him something more than just a new football or something like that. I wanted to get him something that was meaningful, that showed him that I got who he really was, that he was not just a big old football star. Sure, he would have used a new football, but I wanted it to be more than that. After looking around the sports section I wandered into the men's department and looked around. I cracked up when I saw the case with cufflinks and gaudy men's jewelry. The next time I would probably see Darry in a suit would either be his wedding or somebody else's funeral. He needed cufflinks like he needed a hole in the head.

What did catch my eye in the case was the watches. I knew that Darry's old watch had gotten broken a year or so ago during a particularly rough game of football with the boys, and remembered Dad saying he would think about buying him another one when he felt Darry was acting responsibly enough to take care of it a little better. It had never been replaced. I felt like me getting the watch for him would carry a message. It would say that I recognized that Darry had become far more responsible than Dad could have ever imagined, and that he would have been proud. Darry obviously deserved far more than a watch for what he had taken on. I got the best one I could with the money I had, and it was obvious that this watch was for a man, not a boy. I hoped he would get the symbolism.

Next it was on to Soda. After some browsing Ben and I decided on a radio. The one at the DX had been broken for a while and Soda complained nonstop about how much slower the time went by at work with no music. This one was small enough that he could take it back and forth with him each day and not worry about it getting ruined by the other guys at the station, like the last one had. I almost didn't buy it, because it felt like I was buying something for Steve to enjoy too, and I had no interest in getting him a gift, but in the end I knew it would make Soda happy so I went ahead with it.

Pony was easy. I went to the book section and picked up a few by his favorite authors, ones that I didn't recognize the covers from seeing them laying around on the floor or piled up on his desk. I also found a really nice bound blank notebook that he could draw and write in instead of doodling on every paper in the house and then throwing them all over the floor. His room was a pretty serious fire hazard, what with all his papers all over the place, and it was a good thing he wasn't allowed to smoke in there or else he would surely burn the place down. Lastly I went over to the art supplies and got him a nice drawing pad and a box of pastels.

We were running late to meet Two-Bit by the time we got to the register but I knew he would be late anyway so I wasn't too worried. All together it came to eighty-seven dollars, and I figured I would just give what was left to Darry to use for bills and stuff. I didn't want to spend it just because I had it- and I didn't think Uncle Pat would mind if I gave the leftover to Darry.

I grabbed the bag and we headed out just in time to see Two-Bit coming toward us in the other direction.

"So what'd you get?" He asked, trying to peek in the bag.

"No way, Two-Bit. You can't keep a secret to save your life, and I already have you keeping one about where I am right now. You can find out on Christmas, same as them."

"Aw, come on Scooter, I won't tell."

"Forget it, Two-Bit. There's no way in hell I'm telling you."

He looked at me funny. I have to admit, with my parents gone I'd been a little freer with the swearing than I used to be. I still came nowhere near matching the language the guys all used, but it seemed to be a little bit shocking to all of them when I would let one slip out. I guess they just weren't used to hearing it from me. We had all usually watched our language around the house – it's not like we never swore, but we saved it for deserving occasions. Dad could be pretty loose with the language when he was trying to fix something and it wasn't going well… He'd be down in the basement and we'd hear a muffled curse through the floorboards and raise our eyebrows at each other.

"Darrel!" My Mom would call down.

"Sorry, Bethie," he'd call back up. "Sorry kids. Just this darned bolt is stuck. Darry, can you come down here and help me with this?" I smiled at the memory. I think it was the first time I had thought of them without tears coming to my eyes.

"Let's go," Two-Bit brought me back to reality. We hopped in and headed home.