Well, here we are. The last chapter for the movie. Don't fret this isn't the total end, as you can see. There is another chapter to go right along with it. It the ending for all of the mishaps, and blah blah blah dénouement. And *breathes* okay...here we go Chapter Fifteen.
The boys all sat in the living room, their eyes avoiding the horrifying device that lay in front of them. Suddenly, Steve stands up, no one spares him a second glance, until he picks it up, stomps over to door, and bolts like a bat out of hell.
"STEVE!" Everyone yells. They too stand up and run out. They follow the blonde headed Greaser through the non busy street, occasionally having to shove people out of there way. "Whoops!" A rural bystander yells. "Sorry!" They say. They keep running to catch up with the greasy monkey, but suddenly he stops. They run up to him and stop as well. They look around and realize they are at Fernheld Lake.
"Steve," TwoBit pants. "What the hell. You know I'm not a runner."
Steve doesn't answer, but instead glares at him.
"Whoa! What's up?"
Ponyboy looks closely at Steve, and realizing what he's going to do screams, "No! Steve, you can't!"
Sodapop looks confused. Can't what? Soda looks at Steve tiredly, "Alright Steve. Can we have the laptop back?"
Surprisingly Steve switches his glare from TwoBit to Soda. "No." He says simply.
Soda raises an eyebrow, No? He thinks and crosses his arms, Well this should be fun.
Darry, coming to the same realization of Ponyboy, says, "Come on Steve. Give it back, we need to finish it."
"No! This is just a load of bullshit!" Steve says.
"Can you please tell me what you're talking about?" Soda says, exasperated. He is upset and tired out of his mind. He doesn't need Steve's shit on top of it now.
"Don't you see Soda!" Ponyboy points. "He's going to dump the thing into the water!"
Soda's eyes widen, "What?"
"I say we let him do it." Dally shrugs.
"What?!" Pony, Soda, Johnny, and Darry shout.
"He's right, it has to be bullshit. Why the fuck are we believing this shit? It can't be real! Time travel does not exist!"
"Tell that to the futuristic computer in your hand!" Soda yells.
Ponyboy shakes his head, "We can't do this now! Especially now! We're almost done-"
"Wasting our time." Steve finishes, "We can't believe a word these people say. This is just some sick joke or something."
"Who would make a joke like that?" Darry asks, and Steve fell silent.
Johnny looks worried, "We can't just throw it away. Who know what could happen?"
"Nothing will happen." TwoBit mutters, kicking a empty can of Coke on the dusty terrain. "It can't be real. Things like that don't happen to people like us."
"Maybe it could," Johnny says. "Maybe-"
"Oh here we go again. Talking about that fucking God again!" Dallas says, "This is just fucking rich."
"Well what else could it be besides help?" Ponyboy asks.
"I don't know, but I know for sure that this," Dally points to the device, "-fucked me up. Big time."
"Same here." TwoBit says, "My brain just can't handle shit like this anymore..."
"Which is the reason why we should throw it away!" Steve says, and pulls his arms back to make the throw, but Sodapop grabs the laptop back.
"No!" Sodapop yells.
"What the hell, Soda! Let it fucking go!" Steve shouts.
"Never!" And continues to hold onto it. Soda pulling it in the direction of land, and Steve pulling it in the direction of the lake.
"Guys," Sodpop grunts, "I could use a bit of help."
Ponyboy comes up grabs onto the device and pulls, but Dallas quickly moves forward and pulls on Steve's side. Darry comes up and starts to pull along with Johnny. TwoBit runs up and pulls. The guys on Soda's side have more people, but luck is on the side of Steve today, (or should I say gravity?) because they are luckily on a slope that goes down to the lake, and that helps pull them down.
"Let it go Steve!" Sodapop yells.
Steve grunts, "No, Soda! You let go!"
"We can't! We have to finish it!" Ponyboy yells back.
"For Christ's sake!" Dally shouts, "It's fucking bullshit! Just let the damn thing drown!"
"NO!" They all scream.
"Jesus Christ..." Dallas mutters, but keeps his grip.
Johnny looks at the gang upsettingly, he then looks at the familiar sign. As usual it says, Fernheld Lake. But there was something that Johnny just couldn't put his finger on that made this place feel weird. The entire place around the lake is completely empty, which is weird. He looks closer at the sign, and sees the worn out Shut Down sign. Oh yeah the fuzz had this place shut down. But why again? Something was in the water...wait there were eels. Oh yeah. A dumb Greaser wanted to pull a prank on some Socs, so he infested the place with eels...don't know where he got them. Wait...EELS! He quickly looks to Steve, Dally, and TwoBit, and worry appears on his face as he realizes that they were slowly but surely sliding down the ridge to the water. Filled with eels!
Shit.
"Guys!" Johnny hollers, "You have to come up! There are eels in the water!"
Dallas looks up with a confused expression, "Huh?"
"Haha, nice joke there Johnny," TwoBit laughs, instantly getting the 'joke'. "Almost got me there."
"It's not a joke!" Johnny yells. Johnny looks to Ponyboy, "There are eels in the water, Pone! That's why this place is shut down!" He jerks a finger to the sign.
Ponyboy looks to the sign. His eyes go wide almost comically, and Johnny would have laughed if the situation isn't so serious.
Pony frantically taps at Sodapop from behind, "Soda, we need to stop! They're sliding down to the water!"
"So what, Ponyboy?" Soda grunts, "They can swim."
"There are eels in the water!" Ponyboy yells.
Soda looks at him from the corner of his eye, "I thought you and Johnny wanted to keep this thing."
"We do!" They both yell.
"Then quit making stories!" Sodapop shouts, "I ain't about to lose any more family..." He mutters so quietly no one heard him.
The two of them groan in annoyance and they turn to Darry. "Darry!" Ponyboy yells, "We gotta stop this! They are about to fall into a lake of eels!"
"What?! Are you pulling my leg Ponyboy Curtis?" Darry grunts, pulling even harder. "And wasn't that your story, Johnny?"
"No!" Ponyboy yells.
"And it's true!" Johnny says, "Look at the sign!" Darry looks at the sign. "Shit." Darry mutters.
Darry looks to Soda, "Soda? Sodapop, we gotta stop!" He yells.
"NO!" He yells.
Darry looks to the others, and fear comes to his face once he sees the are at the middle of the ridge. "Steve! You guys gotta stop this! There are electric eels in that lake!"
"Yeah!" Steve grunts, "Johnny already told us."
"WE'RE BEING SERIOUS!" They exclaim.
Unfortunately, Steve and Dallas are the most stubborn people in the gang, so they won't give up to easily.
"We gotta go help them up!" Johnny says.
"We can't let go," Darry says. "If we do, then they and Soda will go down."
"Oh God." Johnny mutters.
All of a sudden they feel a pull and Soda's side moves forward, and Steve side moves back, deeper down the ridge that TwoBit's heel is touching the water.
"Guys!" Johnny and Pony yell.
"We're fine!" Steve says.
"Yeah we're- OUCH!" TwoBit hollers. "What the fuck was that?! I felt it through my fucking boot!"
"EELS!" Ponyboy and Johnny scream.
"Damnit! Was it that Greaser that did that fucking prank?" Dallas asks. "Yep!" Pony answers.
"OW!" Dallas shouts out. "What the fu-...Shit..."
"Uhh.." TwoBit says, "Stevie? We should probably get out so we don't...you know...get electrified...even more."
Steve looks at him as if he's idiot, "You think?"
"Alright!" Darry says, "Grab my arm!" Steve grabs his arm, who grabs Dally's, who grabs TwoBit's. Slowly they made their way out of the ridge and onto the flat land.
"Where the hell do people even get eels?" Steve asks.
Dally shrugs, "Probably got it from the black market."
"There's a black market in Tulsa?" Soda asks.
"No not in Tulsa, but if you ask the right people you'll know where to find one."
"Huh, good to know." Sodapop and Steve say at the same time. They look at each other and grin, "What are you lookin' at Greaser?"
"Well they're back to normal." Ponyboy says flatly as the two fall into their playful banter. He rolls his eyes at the reckless duo.
"Yep." Johnny shakes his head, "That Soda and Steve."
TwoBit stands still, "Am I the only one to realize that we almost threw away the Mac thingy? And that we almost just died?" TwoBit says flabbergast.
Dally pats his back, "You learn to live with it, man."
Back to the living room of the Curtis house. The gang stares at the device, hesitatingly.
TwoBit stands up, "I'm ready to give this another go." He says.
Dallas shrugs, "Won't kill me." With everyone staring at him weirdly he says, "What? Too soon? I'm allowed to make the jokes if it's me!"
Steve mumbles a "Sure."
Scene cuts to the courtroom. "They tried to drown me." Ponyboy says. "I could have made it simpler for the fight not to have happened in the first place." Cherry says.
"I think this is the court scene." Sodapop says.
Ponyboy gulps, "Oh God." He whispers.
"Don't worry Pony, we'll be fine." Sodapop says, looking confidently at the screen.
Sometimes Ponyboy wishes he has Soda's faith.
"Sure. Your name is Sherry? But your nickname is Cherry?" The attorney asks. "Yes." "We did it to teach them a lesson." Randy says. The camera switches between people as they are speaking. "Yes, there was an argument, because my boyfriend showed up," Cherry says, "and...well, he was upset that we were with the other boys." Camera shows Ponyboy, "They chased us and caught us." "It was Bob and I." Randy says. "Just to go looking for them." "They threw me in the fountain and tried to drown me." Ponyboy says. "They were going to beat up Johnny Cade." The camera shows everyone in the court, nervous as ever.
Ponyboy taps his foot in anticipation.
"Defendant not guilty." The judge says, "At this time, I will place him in the custody of his older brother, Darrel."
"WHOOOHOOO!" Sodapop whoops.
Darry smiling real wide, "We're okay, Pony."
Ponyboy smiles back, letting out a sigh of relief, "I know."
"This court is adjourned." Scene cuts to the school. Ponyboy catches Cherry and smiles at her. Cherry looks away uncomfortably and Pony's smile falters.
"Hey look Stevie! You can see the exact moment when the light dies in his eyes." TwoBit says.
Steve snorts out his drink.
"Stop it! Both of you!" Darry says.
Ponyboy continues to walk on, but his English teacher calls him over. "Hey, Ponyboy?" "Oh hi, Mr. Simms?" "I gotta talk to you about your grade." He says. "Yeah, I know I'm doing lousy." "Frankly, you're flunking. But, I'll tell you what, taking into consideration the circumstances, you come up with a good semester theme, I'l pass you with a C." "What should it be a research paper?" "Personal expire will do it." He says and walks off.
"What kind of teacher just walks off like that?" Darry asks.
"So he wants you to make a theme about what happened in Windrixville?" Sodapop asks, "Isn't that a bit too soon?"
Ponyboy shrugs.
"Great! My first trip to the zoo!" Ponyboy says, sarcastically. Scene cuts to the Curtis house. "With your brains and grades, man, you could get a scholarship." Darry says.
"Ugh! Not this again!" TwoBit says. "This guy is like 10x more annoying than Darry!"
"Shut it TwoBit!" Darry says.
"And we could put you through college, isn't that right Soda?" Sodapop doesn't answer.
"Uh oh..." TwoBit says.
"What made Soda upset?" Ponyboy asks.
"I'm right here, ya know?" Soda says.
"You're living in a vacuum, Pony, and you're gonna have to cut it out." Darry says. "You don't stop living, because you lose somebody. I thought you knew that already. You don't like the way I'm running things, you can just get out, all right?" Darry says. "You'd like that don't you! You'd like me to get the hell out!" Ponyboy shouts, "But it's not that easy, is it Soda?" Soda stands up suddenly, "Goddamn you guys! Leave me out of this!" And he runs out the door.
"Well," Ponyboy says. "Now we'd done it."
"Am I aloud to say," TwoBit starts. "That the soda...popped."
Que the throwing of boots, sneakers, and converse shoes.
Soda starts running down the street to the lot and Ponyboy and Darry follow him.
"You know maybe if you guys actually start running, you might catch up to him." Dally says.
TwoBit laughs, "Yeah you guys are jogging more than anything."
"Run on! I'll be right behind you!" Darry says. Ponyboy runs over to Soda tackles him. "Goddamn it, Pony. You should have gone out for football instead of track."
"This is what I tell you all the time!" Sodapop says.
"Yeah, but I'm sticking with track." Ponyboy tells him.
"Where do you think you're going?" Pony asks. "I don't know, man! Sometimes, I just have to get out," Sodapop says. "It's like I'm the middle man in a tug of war of between you guys. I don't know, I can't take sides. Ponyboy...Darry could have put you in a boy's home, and worked his way through college. I'm telling you the truth, Pony. You don't want to be like me, anyway. Cos I'm happy working in a gas station. You'd never be happy doing something like that." Soda looks to Darry, "Darry...You gotta stop yelling at him for every little thing he does, man. He feels things differently than you." Sodapop starts crying, "It's bad enough having to listen to it. But when you start trying to make me take sides... We're all we got left now. If we don't have each other...you end up like Dallas. I don't mean dead either. I mean how he was before. So please," Sodapop pleads. "Don't fight anymore."
Darry clicks the pause button, "Is this how you really feel, little buddy."
Soda looks hesitant, but nods, "Yeah. Like he said, I just feel like the middle man in a endless game of tug-of-war." He mumbles out the rest, and uses his sleeve to wipe his eyes.
"We're sorry, Soda..." Ponyboy says.
"Yeah, don't worry," Darry says softly. "We ain't gonna fight no more."
"Hey Ponyboy," Soda gives Pony a tearful grin, "don't you start crying too. One bawl baby's enough in the family."
"I ain't crying," Ponyboy says, wiping away the "not tears" from his eyes. Sodapop gave him a playful punch in the shoulder.
"No more fights. Okay, Ponyboy?" Darry says.
"Okay." Pony agreed.
Sodapop smiles and wipes a few stray tears that fell on his cheeks. Nothing more needs to be said.
"Let's go home." Sodapop says. "I'm cold." The Curtis boys race home. Scene cuts to Ponyboy's room, and Pony thinking what he's going to write in his composition book.
"Hey we're back at the start." Johnny says.
"Was this all a flashback?" Pony asks.
"We'll see." Darry says simply.
Ponyboy picks up Gone With The Wind and flips it open to be met with a note. Ponyboy opens it. It reads in Johnny's voiceover, "Ponyboy I asked the nurse to give this book to you, so you could finish it. The doctor came in a while ago, but I knew anyway. I kept getting tireder and tireder. Listen, I don't mind dying now. It's worth it, it's worth saving those kids. Their lives are worth much more than mine. They have more to live for. Some of their parents came by to thank me, and I know it was worth it. Tell Dally, it's worth it. I'm going to miss you guys. I've been thinking about it, that poem, the guy that wrote it. He means you are gold when you're a kid. When you're a kid everything is new, dawn. It's just when you get used to everything that it's day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That's gold. Keep that way, it's a good way to be. I want you to tell Dally to look at one. He'll probably think you're crazy but ask for me. I don't think he's ever really seen a sunset. And don't be so bummed over being a Greaser. You still have a lot of time to make yourself be what you want to be. There's still lots of good in the world. Tell Dally I don't think he knows. Your buddy, Johnny." Ponyboy puts the paper back down on the table. Ponyboy grabs his pen, and opens his composition book. "When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house..." Camera shows a bright light, then it shows Ponyboy walking out of the movie house, and the voiceover continues, "...I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home." The screen goes black and shows the golden horizon background, with Stay Gold playing.
"Is that it?" Sodapop asks.
"Yeah," Ponyboy watches the credits scroll down the screen. "Yeah, it's done."
"Wow." Johnny whispers.
"Yeah, wow." TwoBit says.
"I think our lives just changed forever..." Sodapop says.
"We have to make sure it's a good change, though." Darry says, and looks at everyone. "Right?"
"Right," Ponyboy agrees. "We can't let this chance slip through our fingers."
"So what do we do?" TwoBit asks. "How can we act normal when we just saw-"
"Well you better act normal," Dally tells him. "We don't need anyone one of us staying in an asylum for a year."
Soda smiles, "Guys, we just got the opportunity to save our friends and bond together as a family."
"Yeah," Steve agrees grinning along his best friend. "I think we should start living life now."
TwoBit nods, "Alright, but how do we start?"
"I think we just gotta learn from our mistakes," Ponyboy says simply.
;)