Chapter 3

Darry- 7

Sodapop- 4

Ponyboy- 1 1/2

"What a quaint little antique store!" Mrs. Curtis gushed, stopping by the shop's front door. She and her boys were on a shopping trip to get warmer clothes for winter. They had grown a lot since the past year. Darry's jacket had holes, and Soda's sweater was so small it rided up to his belly button. He had gotten away with it until Darry started teasing him by saying that he looked like Winnie the Pooh.

"I suppose it won't take that long if we just take a quick peek, will it?" Mrs. Curtis asked, seemingly talking more to herself than to her sons.

Sodapop nodded and started giddily jumping up and down, saying, "I wanna get some toys! I wanna get some toys! I wanna get some toys!" Darry thumped him across the head. Soda laughed and almost fell over. Mrs. Curtis nodded to herself while grabbing Ponyboy's hand and ushering her older boys in, telling them to hurry.

Inside, the room was dim, and they were met with the smell of dust and mold. Ponyboy sneezed.

A grumpy-looking old woman that sat at a dusty old desk in the corner of the store snapped in a creaky old voice, "Say 'excuse me', young man!" In response, Ponyboy sneezed again. She huffed and turned away. Mrs. Curtis didn't seem to notice. She was too wrapped up in looking at the various dusty items lying around on equally dusty tablecloths.

A few minutes later, she said, "Darry, please watch your brothers. I'm going upstairs." He nodded.

"Okay. Then can we go?" he asked. Mrs. Curtis chuckled.

"It won't be long now," she replied. Darry was relieved he wouldn't have to deal with another one of Pony's separation tantrums. Those had luckily ebbed away after a few months. After a minute of absolute boredom and Soda running around in search of toys, Darry caught something out of the corner of his eye.

"Soda- look at that!" Darry whispered suddenly. He wasn't sure at all why he was whispering- it was just something that seemed appropriate doing.

"What?" his younger brother responded loudly. Darry pointed at a dog-eared piece of yellowed paper that was tearing drastically at the edges. A huge, green and yellow land mass was drawn carefully across it, with an incredibly detailed compass rose on the side. "Gold in the Land of Opportunity!" the title shouted.

"A treasure map," Darry whispered dramatically. Sodapop's eyes widened.

"A treasure-" CRASH! The boys jumped, then slowly turned around. Ponyboy had plopped down right in the middle of the floor with a now-broken glass vase. Darry groaned, and rushed over to his baby brother.

"Aww, Pony! Why'd you have to go and break that? Mom's gonna kill me!"

"Mommy's gonna kill you!" Soda said dramatically.

"Kill! Kill!" Pony shrieked, and banged a few of the remnants of the vase on the floor. The old woman looked over at the scene, then hurriedly turned away. This worried Darry even more. If she didn't even want to get into it, how would his mother react? She'd put him in charge of his brothers- and now look what he'd done! Mrs. Curtis probably owed more for that vase than they could afford. Darry ran a hand through his hair. Suddenly his stomach began to feel queasy.

"Ish!" Ponyboy declared, and got up on wobbly legs. He stood on his tiptoes to reach the middle shelf of a bookcase. Only this bookcase wasn't filled with books- but dozens of collectible blue willow plates! Slowly, he tentatively pulled one off and grasped it in his little hands.

"No, no, no!" Darry exclaimed. "Not this time!" He quickly took the plate from his brother right before he put it in his mouth. Whew. Darry breathed a sigh of relief.

"Now, Pony, you're comin' with me an' Soda to look at the treasure map now," he stated firmly. "Wait- Soda?"

His brother was gone.

"Aww, Soda!" Darry moaned.

"Aww, Soha!" Ponyboy imitated Darry's voice. Darry wildly looked around for his brother. Nowhere in sight. He wasn't upstairs- he would have heard the stairs creak. And he wasn't outside- wait- was he? Darry hurried over to the door, Ponyboy toddling on his short little legs after him. He threw open the door and called Soda's name. Nothing. Darry grimaced. His mother would be coming down any second now-

"BOO!" someone shouted.

"AAH!" Darry yelled. He put a hand over his forehead. There was Sodapop, grinning impishly from inside a nearby old cabinet.

"Haha, Darry! I scared you! I scared you!" he shouted.

"No you didn't!" Darry exclaimed, relief washing over him. He partly didn't even care.

"Psst!" the old woman whispered. Darry sighed inwardly and turned around to face her. "Boys, that old vase ain't any use to me," she said. It's actually leftover from my no-good husband's sister, Annie. How 'bout you clean up the mess, and we'll forget this whole thing ever happened?" She smiled for a moment, and for a second there she didn't look mean at all- just a little beaten down. Darry grinned.

"Alright."

A/N Super sorry for the longish update! Once again, I'd like to give thanks to all those who have reviewed. You all get one of my imaginary brontosaurus cookies. Also, I'm at a loss of stories to read again, so if any of you have any favorite fanfictions (it can be your own) I'd really like to hear about them! And don't forget to leave a review! ;)