Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own "The Outsiders" or any of the Curtis' Gang. Sigh. The real owner of "The Outsiders" is my favorite author, the fabulous S.E. Hinton. I also do not make a profit from the stories that I write here on this site.

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Sodapop's POV

Ponyboy had been improving steadily and was awake. I couldn't wait any longer to ask him about who had jumped him. I wanted to punish these Socs while Pony was still in the hospital so that he wouldn't know I had gotten into a fight.

"I don't remember," he lied to me straight-faced. I didn't believe him at first because he was an amazing lier.

"What car did they drive?" I asked softly.

"I don't know, Soda," he told me, but I just shook my head.

"Yes, I know you do," I tried, but he was persistent that he had no idea. I finally asked the doctor about this and he said that Pony may be suppressing the memories of the jumping, kind of like amnesia. It was his mind's protective barrier, which actually some made sense to me. Still, I wanted to know who jumped my baby brother, and I intended to find out somehow.

X

Tim had connections. And their gang had many connections, but more importantly, they had information. They knew the in's and out's of the Socs. Their addresses, names, appearances, what they drove, they knew it all. They could help me find who jumped my little brother.

"Hello, Curtis," Tim greeted me as he threw his beer can on his house's unkept lawn. That made me sad for a moment, their house was just a house, not a home, but I refused to ponder that thought at the moment. I needed information on Socs, the sentimental tidiness of their house could wait a little while.

"Look, Tim, let's get down to business. You owe Dallas and I'm in his gang. I'd like to cash in those favors now. I need some information on the Socs. You see, they jumped Pony a few days ago, bad. He's in the hospital. I need to figure out who did this to him," I informed him, not bothering with all the details. I wanted to get right down to business.

"Dang, Sodapop, you sure don't beat around the bush. Come inside, have a beer why don't you?" Tim drawls.

"No thanks." I told him evenly. He sighed.

"Fine. I have heard some rumors swirling, you ain't going to like them, so why don't we just call a rumble? I ain't beat any Socs heads in in a whole freaking week. Curly thinks I'm gettin' soft. That's a huge insult to my rep, ya know?" I resist the urge to punch him good right in the mouth.

"A rumble ain't enough. I want to scare these guys as bad as they did my kid brother." I told him. He sighed heavily.

"Fine. I'll tell you, happy? But don't come cryin' to me when you don't like what you hear. Rumor has it that Patrick Reed who works with Steve overheard him make a deal with a group of Socs in a red vehicle." I was nervous at what kind of "deal". Drugs, possibly? What did that have to do with Pony? Did they want money? We didn't have any money.

"What kind of deal?" I squeaked, not sounding tough at all.

"He payed them to jump Ponyboy. Scare him. Make him stay away from you guys whet just go out or something like that. He never meant to hurt him, it was just to scare him into silence, but the Socs took it way too far, of course, free jumping."

By now, I'm way too stunned to speak. So I don't. I just nod curtly and wait until I Tim is out of sight to start crying.

Darry's POV

Soda has been acting really weird lately. I thought that he would perk up when Pony started to get better, but he's still really quiet.

"Soda, what's wrong?" I ask. He just shrugged.

"You can tell me," I told him.

"I found out who jumped Ponyboy," he told me.

"And… Who was it?" I asked impatiently.

"It was Steve."

What? Steve? To say I was loved was the understatement of the century. I was too angry and hurt and upset and confused to even put into words.

"Steve?! Where is he?!" I demanded in a fury. That's when Soda started to cry.

"I can't believe him," he mumbled before he then launched into his whole story about what Tim had told him. I guess I never realized that Steve was so jealousies possibly territorially insecure. He knew that be would never had the bond with Soda that Pony had, and I guess he couldn't handle that.

I just comforted Soda and told him that we would find Steve and straighten this out. But I was really thinking "I'll straighten out his jaw some, that's for sure."

A/N: I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. I hope that you enjoyed it too. Please review.