I've been incredibly lazy, I know. I should have updated much sooner, but anyways here's the next chapter. From now on I'm going to try to reply to all my reviews either by email or posting it with the next chapter. I've decided to have Soda talk to Pony before showing the rest of the gang because I don't think he would do something like that without asking first. And yes Darry will read it.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything from The Outsiders


Soda's POV:

I kept reading till I finished the composition, even though some parts made me feel sick to my stomach, and it was killing me to sit still for so long.

I was not going to let reading this drag on any longer than it had to. Just thinking about it made me so mad I wanted to hurl the thing at the wall.

Besides I wanted to talk to Pony about it, and I would never here the end of it if someone came up here to find me reading.

When I was finally done it was 5:48PM. I was shocked, I had read that pretty fast, for me at least. I had just basically spent a whole day reading. I couldn't believe it, I hadn't read that much in a whole day ever.

But I guess it wasn't really like reading for me. Normally books are just filled with words, and none of it means much to me, but this is about my brothers, and friends, heck its about me.

It's a lot easier to read something I cared about. My mind drifted back to the theme. The part about the church and afterwards especially.

It reminded me of how everything can change in an instant. One minute our parents were alive and Darry was getting ready to go to college and everything, the next our parents were dead, Darry was stuck taking care of me and Pony, and our world was crashing down around us.

The thought kind of scared me. What would happen to us in a couple of years, we had already lost so much.

Johnny's letter was also kind of shocking, but I completely agreed with him. Pony was gold and I hoped that he could stay that way.

How Johnny was glad even though he was dying that he gave his life for a couple of kids kind of made me sad. I wondered if I could do the same thing. I wish that Ponyboy showed me the letter though. But it was kind of personal.

The sudden slam of the door startled me out of my daze.

"Hello," called out Two-bit cheerfully, "Anybody home?"

"Of course he is you dolt where else would he be it's his day off," grumbled Steve from downstairs. I hurried to shove the composition under a bunch of other papers and raced downstairs before they could come up.

"Hey there Soda I was beginning to think you were out with some girl," Two-bit joked, grinning.

"Oh, sure," I replied sarcastically, "I'll be out partying this early. The sun hasn't even gone down yet."

"It's never to early to go to a party," said Two-bit in a fake serious voice with his eyes wide like he was in shock.

"What were you doing anyway? You're normally bouncing all over the place by the time we get here and it's your day off." questioned Steve.

"Oh I wasn't doing anything, just lazing around," I replied, waving him off. "I'd better get dinner started, if I don't have work and I'm still late making dinner Darry's going to be blowing steam.

"That's what we came for." Two-bit said cheerily as he reached into the fridge for some beer.

"Don't go getting drunk before even having dinner," I warned, "Darry's irritated enough from you guys free-loading off of us without dealing with you drunk."

"I'm hurt," said Two-bit collapsing dramatically to the ground, before hopping back up again grinning. The gang knows that we would never kick any of them out.

I began taking random ingredients out of the fridge and cabinets.

"Umm… Soda what are you planning on making," asked Steve.

I shrugged, "Whatever I feel fits this beautiful day," I said throwing my arms out grandly and hitting Steve on his nose.

"Geesh, pay attention to where you put your arms Soda!" cried Steve as he rubbed his nose.

"Hey, do you guys know where Pony is? It's pretty late for him," I said ignoring Steve's grumbles.

"He's still at track practice, coach is working them hard because of the big meet coming up this weekend." said Two-bit.

"But it's almost six, school gets out at three," I protested.

"What can I say that coach is crazy," interjected Steve, still looking annoyed about his nose.

It would have probably turned into a wrestling match if I wasn't in the middle of cooking dinner and everyone wasn't starving.

We kept playfully bantering with each other until dinner time. Pony had come in and immediately went up to take a shower and Darry came in about five minutes after him. My mind went back to Pony's composition, I would really have to talk to him about that tonight.

I hope you liked it. This was the first time I included actual dialog, and I want to know how you guys thought I did with Two-bit and Steve. I hoped I kept them in character. I'm thinking of updating this every 1 or 2 weeks, but no promises. I do promise that this story will be finished at some point even if it seems to take forever. I know that it seemed a little rushed but I'm going to add more of Soda's thoughts on the theme in the next chapter.

I'm starting a new story about the Harry Potter series, during the Marauder Era. I hope you'll take a look at it and review.