I looked in the stands for Two-Bit but didn't see him anywhere. I walked around to the concession booth and got a soda and some food, eating it while I walked around the outside of the arena, half-watching what was going on in the ring and half-searching the stands for Two-Bit. Whenever I heard a lot of noise, I automatically turned in that direction – Two-Bit seems to attract noise like clover attracts bees. But I couldn't find him anywhere.

Finally I ended up over in the place where I had seen him before, where the girls had been waiting their turn to ride. Except that now it was boys waiting to ride, or men, maybe. It was hard to tell. A lot of them had that tough, weathered look that Dallas had possessed, but they might have been only fifteen or sixteen. And they were all dressed like him. I wondered for a second what kind of clothes Dallas had been buried in, and the second I felt sadness welling up in my throat I bit at my lip to stop it. Yeah, that would be tough, breaking into tears in front of a bunch of brawny bull riders. Nice, Scout. Finally, one of them must have noticed that I looked kind of lost.

"You lookin' for somebody, girlie?" he asked, startling me.

"No… well…yeah, kind of. Two-Bit Mathews. He was hanging around here with some girls."

"Oh yeah?" He turned around to the group of guys behind him. "Any of you know a guy named Mathews?"

"Tall… sideburns, reddish hair? Can't shut up to save his life?" I tried my best to describe him accurately.

Some guy moved from the back of the group, laughing, twisting a rope around his hands. "I know Mathews. He was here. Took off with a few of the girls over to the trailer sites. He'd had more'n a few, I'd say."

"Yeah," I said, "That'd be him." Looks like Soda was going to be driving us back. I figured I probably didn't want to know what Two-Bit was doing, so I wandered around looking for Pony or Soda instead. Neither was where I had left them, so, finally, I just climbed up into the stands and watched the bull riders.

I sat in the top row, against the wall. All around me there were groups of guys drinking and hollering, cheering on either the rider or the bull they had bet on, and getting bitter and angry if their chosen one didn't come out on top. Pretty much everyone left me alone for a good hour or so while I watched, wishing I had been allowed to come see Dallas ride, until one particularly drunken fellow decided to start in on me.

"Hey, cutie," he hollered up at me, "Why'ncha come sit down here with us? We could use some female company." The other guys he was with didn't pay attention to him; they clearly had a monetary interest in the ride at hand.

I just ignored him.

"Aw, come on, baby, you come on down here, keep me warm." He had to be kidding. It was about ninety degrees in the arena. He stood up and started up toward me. I looked around frantically for Two-Bit or Soda- hell, I would have even been happy to see Ponyboy- but nobody was around.

He came up and sat on my left. I immediately slid about three feet to my right. Unfortunately, he followed, and when he tried to put his hand on my thigh, I slapped it and yelled in his face, trying to sound tough when in fact I was terrified.

"Don't put your hands on me!"

This caught the attention of his buddies, and, as they turned around, I saw recognition in one of their faces. He picked up his beer and came up to where I was.

"Hey, Scout," he said. "Wouldn't have expected to see you here."

"Hey, Luke." It was the guy who had found me in the woods.

"You know this kid?" Suddenly Mr. Come-Keep-Me-Warm wasn't so tough anymore. I noticed Luke was at least a foot taller than the jerk, and outweighed him by about fifty pounds.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing, Carter? She's a kid. Get the hell out of here!"

Carter scurried off like the dog he was, tail between his legs. Luke sat down next to me.

"Sorry 'bout the language. You okay?" he asked. "What'd he do to you?"

"Nothing, I'm fine. That guy your friend?"

"Not really a friend. I know him though. He probably wouldn't have done nothin' anyway." Probably. Well, that was reassuring.

"Well, thanks for getting rid of him anyway. I guess you saved me twice, now." He just chuckled.

"You're not here alone, are you?"

"No, actually I'm here with my two brothers, and a friend, and they all seem to be missing. Actually they all took off with girls."

"Well, that's just typical of guys, huh?" he said. "So can I keep you company, then?"

"I guess so," I said. "Wouldn't you rather be with your friends?"

"I told you," he said, "They're not my friends. Just guys I know from here."

"You come here a lot, then?" I asked.

"Yeah. I used to ride but I had to stop because I got hurt."

"Yeah, same thing happened to my brother. He's still crazy about horses, though."

"You're kidding. Darry?" I was puzzled for a minute until I remembered he had told me in the hospital that he'd played football with Darry.

I laughed. "No way. Darry's way too serious for anything like that. My other brother, Soda."

As if by magic, Soda suddenly appeared at the bottom of the stands, scanning the crowd. When he saw me he smiled but frowned a bit when he saw a strange older man sitting next to me. He came up to us.

"Hey," he said, giving me an "everything okay here?" kind of look.

"Hey Soda," I said. "Remember Luke, the guy that found me when I was lost in the woods?"

Soda's expression relaxed, and he nodded. "Oh yeah. Right. Thanks again for that. Things just wouldn't be the same around here without Scout to do all our cooking and cleaning," Soda joked. I slapped his stomach and he indulged me by pretending to double over.

"He came to sit with me 'cause some drunk guy was being a jerk," I said. Soda's expression tensed again.

"Some guy was bothering you?" he asked. "Where the hell are Pony and Two-Bit?"

"Same place as you were. Off with girls."

"Pony's off with a girl?" Soda was shocked.

"Yeah, the one who let me ride her horse."

"You're lying." Soda looked at me, trying to decide if I was.

"I'm not, Soda. Her name's Cherry and they know each other from school… and…"

"Yeah, I know who she is," he said. "Ponyboy Curtis, you little devil." He shook his head.

Luke stood up. "Well, seein' as you got a new bodyguard, I'm gonna get goin'. Nice to see you again, Scout. You, too, Soda."

"Seeya, Luke," he said.

"So what was this guy doin' to you?" Soda asked, sitting beside me. Oh, so now, all of a sudden, he wanted to play big brother. Nice timing.

"Forget it, Soda, it wasn't a big deal. He was just trying to put his hand on my leg. I was handling it anyway, before Luke showed up. I slapped him."

"Some guy fucking touched you?" Now Soda was getting mad. He stood up, looking around. "Is he still in here?"

"No, Soda. He's gone. Forget it. Seriously. It's fine."

"It ain't fine."

"Well then, go ahead, let it bother you, but I'm over it. Our bigger problem right now is that we're gonna have to find the other two, 'cause Darry's gonna be pretty unhappy if we don't get home and have supper done before he gets home. He said we had to be home by five."

Soda looked up at the arena clock. "Shit. I guess you're right. C'mon, lets go look for them."

We didn't have to look too far for Ponyboy, because just as we were turning the corner out of the arena, he was turning the corner to come in.

"Hey, loverboy," Soda teased, "I heard you found yourself a nice redhead."

Pony blushed. "Shut up, Soda," he said. "It ain't like that."

"You seen Two-Bit?" Soda asked him. Pony shook his head.

"The bull rider guys said he went with some girls over to the trailers," I told him. "And that he was drunk."

"Well that's no surprise," Soda said, then stopped to think. "You were talking to bull riders?"

"I was looking for Two-Bit, after Pony ditched me. Shoot, I talked to Dally for years, and he was a bull rider." I forgot I wasn't supposed to mention Dally, but Pony completely missed it.

"You've been alone this whole time? Jesus, Scout, don't tell Darry, he'll kill us." Pony practically yelled at me.

"He'll kill the two of you, not me," I pointed out. "I'll just never be allowed to go anywhere with you ever again." I just shook my head at the two of them. What kind of idiot did they think I was? "Don't worry. I'm not gonna tell him nothing," I said.

"Anything, you mean." Pony, the grammar policeman, was back, after a short hiatus.

"So let's just go look for him," I suggested.

"No way I'm takin' you two over there," Soda said. I was starting to get a clearer picture of what might go on over by the trailers. I had been thinking horse trailers, but then it occurred to me that there could be trailers for people, too, where the riders slept, and… Oh, Two-Bit and girls…Right. Got it.

"You two wait here," Soda said. "I'll be back."

Pony and I leaned against the side of the bleachers and waited, and waited, and waited. We had promised Darry that we'd be back by five, and it was five-fifteen. I was worried enough about not being trusted, so I wanted to call.

"Come on, Pony, he's gonna be mad, and worried. At least if we call he won't be worried. He's gonna be mad no matter what."

Pony looked skeptical.

"He won't be mad at us, Pony, it's not like it's our fault; we're stuck here without a ride. Two-Bit has the keys."

"I don't wanna hear him yellin' at me, Scout. You know he will."

"I'll call," I said. "I just want you to know I'm not going to lie to him. He finally let me out of the house, I'm not gonna screw it up by getting caught lying."

"Fine, if you call," he said.

I walked over to the phone booths just inside the entrance, deposited a dime, and dialed home. I wasn't sure if it was long distance or not. I guess I put in enough, though, because it was ringing.

"Hello?"

"Darry? It's me."

"Scout? You were supposed to be back by now. What happened?"

"Well, we haven't left yet. We kind of lost Two-Bit."

"What?"

"We can't find him. Soda went off to look for him."

"He left you alone?" Oh boy, I was thinking, if you only knew.

"No, Pony's with me."

"What, Two-Bit just disappeared?"

"Well, kinda… I guess he went off with some girls."

"You guess? He was supposed to stay with you and Pony."

"Look, Darry, I called because I didn't want you to worry. We'll find…"

Just at that moment some sort of fight broke out at the pay phone two down from the one where I was. There was screaming right behind me and, as I turned around, I saw one burly looking guy knock another one right into Pony, knocking him over.

"Pony," I yelled, looking to see if he was getting up. I tried to cover the receiver. "Pony, get up!" he rolled over and got up, dusting himself off but starting to yell at the guy who had just knocked him over, which was, in my opinion, less than wise. Just then, Soda returned and, even though he didn't see what had happened, he knew enough to grab hold of Pony and walk him away, letting the two who had originally been fighting finish it between themselves.

When I put the receiver back to my ear, Darry was yelling.

"Scout? Scout, what the hell is going on? Is Ponyboy in a fight?" The noise from the fight made it extremely difficult to hear him.

"No. Somebody else is fighting. It's nothing, Darry. Soda just came back; he didn't find him yet."

In the background I could hear Soda yelling at me over the noise of the fight.

"Scout," he yelled. "Hang up the goddamn phone and get the hell over here."

I guess Darry heard him too, because his voice was terse and worried.

"Hang up right now, Scout, and the three of you go out front. I'm coming to get you." He hung up before I could say anything else. I wouldn't have been able to anyway, because Soda was there at my arm pulling me away from the phone. The two fighters were now rolling around in the dirt, a circle forming around them and cheering them on.

"What the hell were you doing?" Soda yelled at me.

"I was calling Darry to tell him where we were so we wouldn't all be in trouble," I said.

"What'd he say?" Soda asked.

"He's coming to get us," I said.

"That's great," Soda snapped at me. "Now we are all gonna be in trouble."

"What, Soda?" I snapped back, "You think it would be better if he had to sit there and worry about us? Haven't we had enough of people being missing lately?"

"I guess that's true," he admitted.

"We're supposed to meet him out front," I told both brothers.

"You two go and I'm gonna give it one more try to find Two-Bit," Soda said. "Pony, see if he's at the car."

"You better get back by the time he gets here, Soda," I said. "He didn't want me or Pony left alone."

"I'll be back," he said.

He was. Pony had found no sign of him at the car, either. Darry pulled up to find the three of us standing by the side of the entrance gate: Pony smoking, Soda talking to somebody he knew, and me drawing circles in the dirt with my feet. I opened the door and jumped into the middle, and Pony convinced Soda to get in the cab so he could sit in the back and finish his cigarette.

"I'm sure I don't have to tell you that I'm not happy," Darry said, trying to stay calm although it was pretty obvious how angry he was.

"Look, Darry," Soda said, "we were ready to go and be home on time, but I don't know how you expected us to get there with Two-Bit going AWOL. He has the keys."

"You were supposed to be staying together," he fairly growled.

"Darry, he found some girls… and beer. You know Two-Bit." Soda continued to plead for leniency.

Darry sighed heavily and I knew that he was doubting his decision to let us go in the first place.

"We're fine, Darry," I said. "The only bad thing that happened was that you had to come get us." I was a little scared for Two-Bit, he was gonna catch holy hell, no doubt. "I had a good time. I got to ride a horse," I added, trying to change the subject.

"Oh yeah?" It seemed to work, a little.

"Yeah, Pony found that Soc girlfriend of the kid that died and got all cozy with her, and she let Scout ride her horse." Soda jumped right on the changing-the-subject bandwagon.

"Really? You're kidding me, Pony and that girl Cherry?"

"No shit, Darry. He spent a lot of time with her."

None of us really talked the rest of the way home. As soon as we got back Soda went in to cook dinner, and Darry looked over the homework Pony and I had done since the last time he checked it, since we were going to have to go back to school the next day. I, for one, wasn't looking forward to it. Pony didn't seem terribly enthusiastic about it either.

"Scout, what is three plus nine?" Darry asked me.

"Twelve, why?"

"Because, twice on this paper, you added it wrong, so even though you did the rest of the problem right, you still got the answer wrong. I wish you would take your time a little more." Pony looked glad to see Darry on my case instead of his, for a change.

"I'll try," I said, though I knew I probably wouldn't.

Soda had taken a while with dinner, and, by the time we finished, it was almost eight. I headed off for a shower before bed and was shocked at the amount of dirt that washed down the drain from my body. I never remembered Dally being that dirty.

Finally, I climbed into bed, under orders from Darry to go to sleep early because, come hell or high water, both Pony and I were going to school tomorrow. I hated to admit it, but I was actually really tired.

"Scout?" Darry was at my door just as I had started to fall asleep.

"Yeah?"

He opened the door and sat on my bed.

"I'm really glad you called tonight to tell me what was going on. I'm sorry I was so mad when I picked you and the boys up. I'm not mad at you, I'm mad at Two-Bit."

"I know," I replied. I was kind of mad at him too. Darry finally let me go somewhere, and he nearly ruined it. "Thanks for trusting me, Darry."

"You deserved it," he said; then added, "you earned it."

"Thanks. And Dar?"

"What?"

"No matter what Two-Bit was doing, we were fine. Really."

"That's not the point, Scout."

"I guess not," I said. My eyes were closing whether I wanted them to or not.

"Night, baby. Sleep tight. Back to school tomorrow!" Darry was annoyingly gleeful about that. I growled, and he laughed.

"'Night, Darry," I said as he left, closing the door.

A/N: Again, if I grossly misrepresented rodeo in any way, I apologize. Thanks to Atmosphere for some help on that. Shout out also to whatcoloristhesky, the true grammar police, for taking me to task about my numerous missing and misplaced commas and quotation marks. And I think SamanthaNicolette and Itaque81 have reviewed every chapter I've ever written. Awesome. Thanks to everyone who reviews, reading them makes my day.

Those of you jonesin' for some Tim Shepard, I promise at least a guest appearance within the next two chapters.