The next day, at school, I was sitting in Two-Bit's car eating lunch with Ben when Pony, Steve, and Two-Bit came over from the high school. They hopped in, Pony shoving me into the middle of the back seat, and Two-Bit started the car, which was strange. Usually we all just ate in the car, we didn't actually go anywhere.

"How much lunch time you two got left?" Two-Bit asked over his shoulder.

"Half-hour," I said. "Where we goin'?"

"Get some smokes," Steve said. That was fine with me, I had nothing better to do anyway. Two-Bit drove us over to a little grocery store near the school where lots of greasers are always hanging around, and we all hopped out. Ben had a little money, so we both headed straight for the candy. We took forever to decide what we wanted, which didn't seem to bother anyone, because Two-Bit and Steve were talking to some girls they knew and Pony went outside to smoke.

Ben and I were just paying when I heard Two-Bit call over to Steve in a more serious voice than I was used to hearing from him. I looked out past where he stood and saw a car full of Socs pulling up outside right where Ponyboy was standing. Great, I thought, this is exactly the kind of trouble Darry just got through telling us to stay out of. I swear, we don't look for it; it finds us. I moved toward the front of the store, where Two-Bit and Steve were standing, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Two-Bit's hand go to his back pocket. Right, his new best friend. I don't know how he even saw me, because he was staring so intently out the window, but he yelled at me over his shoulder,

"Scout, you come out this door after us, and you won't be leaving your house again 'til you're twenty-five." That sure made me feel tough. The girls he had been talking to looked over at me with a sorry expression. It's pretty embarrassing to have a babysitter when you're twelve. He said nothing to Ben, however, who followed them right out the doorway and stood surveying the scene with them from the steps, though they all waited to see what was happening before actually going over to where Pony stood.

I was surprised at what I saw. Pony stepped away from the hood of Two-Bit's car, smashed off the end of his bottle and, reminding me of the calm, cool manner in which Tim Shepard operates, walked over toward the Socs and, with no visible trace of fear, said something.

Steve and Two-Bit reminded me of cats, the way they stood on the doorstep: perfectly still and intently focused, but ready to pounce at any moment.

It turned out they didn't have to. Whatever Pony had said to them had convinced those Socs he wasn't worth their time and effort. They slunk away, got into their car, and left. Two-Bit took his hand out of his back pocket and lumbered over to Ponyboy, shaking his head at him. While Two-Bit was talking to him, I saw Pony lean down and pick up the smashed pieces of glass off the ground, which sort of made me change my mind about ever thinking that anything about Pony was in any way similar to Tim Shepard.

Two-Bit was laughing to himself when I got out to the car.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"Your brother," he said.

"Don't you think that was maybe a bit much, Two-Bit, the way you yelled at me in there?" I asked, somewhat annoyed. "I'm not five."

"Nope. I got in trouble with Darry once for lettin' my guard down with you two, and I learned my lesson. I lucked out he didn't beat the tar outta me then. It ever happens again, I'll be a dead man, for sure. I ain't makin' that mistake again."

I couldn't blame him for thinking that, I supposed. He was probably right.

The car ride back to school was quiet. I wondered whether or not Two-Bit would tell Darry about what had happened, and how Pony had handled himself. I could see, a little bit, how this kind of situation was at the root of a lot of the arguing Pony and Darry were doing lately. Pony hadn't looked for trouble; it had found him. And he had handled it well, probably as well as Darry himself would have. (Although even the dumbest Socs probably had enough common sense not to pick on Darry in the first place.) So while Darry would probably be proud of Ponyboy for how he handled himself, what would more likely get expressed was Darry's disappointment (or fear, I realized) that Pony had ever been in the situation in the first place. I realized that Darry was fighting an impossible battle with circumstance, trying to keep us safe in an inherently unpredictable, and, sometimes unsafe, environment.

I was sure Darry would somehow find out- even if Two-Bit didn't tell him outright, then Steve would probably tell Soda and Soda would tell him. I think Two-Bit was just trying to figure out which method of delivery would spare him the most of Darry's certain agitation. Which also wasn't really fair, since none of it had been Two-Bit's fault, either.

I made it to my next class only a minute or two late, and the teacher gave me a break and didn't make me go get a tardy slip. Darry was always on our case, come report card time, about how many tardys we had. Pony always had a lot more than I did, because he would duck out to smoke between classes and then lose track of time, but I still had my fair share, just from getting tied up talking to friends in the hallways, and ignoring the bells and stuff. I didn't see what the big deal was about it, as long as our grades were good, until he told me that Social Services can use poor school attendance as a reason to challenge his guardianship. Since then, I tried to make more of an effort to be on time.

_____________________

After school I went to open gym, as usual, with Ben and Anna. Ben was getting pretty good, and if he kept practicing until the fall I thought he had a pretty good chance of making the junior high team, and maybe even the freshman team. Sometimes they pulled a few eighth graders up to play on the high school team if there was a shortage of raw talent in the freshman class. Once he got to high school, I was sure he would play football like Kevin, but the junior high didn't have a football team, so basketball was tiding him over, for now.

I went over to the water fountain to get a drink and was leaning against the wall, watching Ben and some of the other boys playing, when Anna came over.

"You're staring at him, Scout," she said. "Don't be so obvious."

"I wasn't staring." But, actually, I had been. I was noticing how Ben didn't look like a scrawny little kid anymore. He was becoming more muscular, more defined. He had always been a tough kid, but that had been more due to his scrappiness and agility than any sort of actual strength. But, just as I was, he was changing. I wondered if it was weird for Kevin to see him grow up, too, or if that was just something that was weird for Darry because I'm the opposite sex.

I hadn't noticed how late it was getting, and was surprised to see Kevin and Ponyboy over at the gym doors. Pony was always really eager to get home and shower after running, and could get super-grouchy when we made him wait, so I grabbed my stuff and corralled Ben and Anna over, hoping that Pony wouldn't already be in a bad mood by the time Darry got home.

Kevin dropped off Anna first, then brought us all back home. Pony usually went immediately to the shower, while I figured out what we were doing about dinner, then I would shower when he was done, and he'd start cooking. The system worked pretty well as long as I got out of the shower before Darry got home; if I didn't, he and Pony had usually already found something to argue about, and were fully involved in it by the time I was dressed and able to run any sort of interference. Unfortunately, that night it was the latter.

The bickering had started the minute Darry had come in, while I was just hopping out of the shower. There was a brief lull during dinner, and afterward they wasted no time in picking up right where they had left off. I just shut myself into my room. Soda had barely said a word at dinner and had hardly eaten anything, and I could tell that the arguing was grating away at his nerves. Darry was on Pony's case about some homework on which he was procrastinating because it wasn't due right away. I had actually managed to tune everything out for a while so that I could no longer hear the content of the conversation, until I heard Ponyboy dragging Soda into it.

"Well, it's not that easy, is it, Soda?" he yelled.

Oh come on, Ponyboy, I thought. Leave him out of your stupid fighting. Can't you see what it's doing to him? He's miserable enough already. I expected Soda to come up with some sort of calm, diplomatic answer like he usually did, just trying to put an end to the argument. Instead, to my surprise, I heard him yelling back.

"Don't…oh you guys… why can't you?" Footsteps, and I heard the front door slam.

I jumped up from my chair, ready to go out and lay into Pony and Darry for trying to drag Soda into their idiotic fights when he was already completely miserable as it was, but I got up so fast that I knocked my glass of water all over the homework I had been doing. I looked frantically around for something to mop it up, finally grabbing a shirt out of my dirty clothes pile and dabbing away at it, as best I could. I didn't want to have to do the whole thing over. By the time I got into the kitchen, I had already heard the door slam again and everyone was gone. There was a letter on the kitchen table and I looked at it. It was Soda's writing, addressed to Sandy, and had been stamped "Return to Sender."

Poor Soda, I thought. And what is Sandy's problem, anyway, she can't even give him the simple courtesy of opening a letter he wrote her? Now I was sure I hated her.

I figured I would find the three of them out in the front yard or on the porch, but they were nowhere to be found. And I wasn't allowed to go out looking, either, not without the full wrath of Darry coming down on me, especially since Ponyboy had already got him all warmed up. After Tim's visit Darry'd surely kill me if I went out wandering the neighborhood all alone. I looked down the street in both directions, but there was no sign of them.

So I just sat down on the front steps and waited.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sorry, I know that was kinda short.

That final scene with the three brothers is one of my favorite in the book, so I wanted to keep it pure and Scout-free. ;-) She'll just wait at home, and see what happens...

At this point I have taken my story of Scout from before the book, beginning on the night when the Curtis parents died, all the way through the events of the book. I have tried really hard to remain within the framework of the original, for which I have the utmost respect- not changing any of the events, just adding another perspective on them and maybe adding another dimension to the characters. I hope I have done it justice.

The story doesn't end here. But from now on, I'm on my own! Thanks for reviewing!

P.S. All you Tim fans, I'm doing the best I can to satisfy your cravings. But sometimes he's just not around! If you haven't read my Tim one-shot already, Calling his Bluff, maybe that will tide you over. Just a warning, the language is a little harsh!