I don't own The Outsiders, the wonderful S. E. Hinton does.

Everyone, I'm happy to update another chapter of The Outsiders :)

Warning: Language (Cursing)

Chapter 12

Ponyboy gazed out the window, a longing look in his unusally-dim green eyes. Darry sighed. It had been over a week, enough was enough.

"Ponyboy, com'on, we're going outside." Darry stood up, Ponyboy shook his head, fearfully.

"No, please, no Darry."

"Ponyboy, it's not going to hurt you; not to mention wallowing up inside the house isn't healthy." Darry's voice seemed calm, but Ponyboy wasn't falling for it. Darry walked over to the door, opening it wide open.

"Com walk with big-brother, Ponyboy." Darry smiled.

Ponyboy shook his head.

"Soda can come with us."

Ponyboy continued to shake.

"No!"

Darry sighed, this wasn't working.

Ponyboy turned his back to Darry, going back to his book. Darry tried to think of another way to get Ponyboy out of the house. Ponyboy couldn't fear life anymore. He had to rise above this weakness he had to become stronger. Easier said than done. Around dinner time Darry was still thinking of a way to get Ponyboy to go outside, while complicating on this, Sodapop was coddling his baby-brother.

"How was your day, Ponyboy" Soda smiled, nuzzling his nose onto Ponyboy's hair, making the younger greaser giggle.

"Today, I filled up this brand-new charger-OOH, Ponyboy, this orange-one was a beauty, like the one in Dukes of Hazard's." Sodapop re-told, Ponyboy was all ear and Darry snapped his fingers, a lightbulb appearing at the top of his head.

"SODA!" He chimed. Soda turned his head.

"Yeah, Darr?"

"Oh, Soda! You're a genius!"

"I am?"

"Sure! Hey, Ponyboy, wanna' see a movie?" Darry hoped Ponyboy's love for movies would atleast get him out of the house, being cooped up too long wasn't entirley healthy.

Ponyboy bit his lip.

"N-no...Not tonight."

"Aw, com'on, your big brothers will go with you!" Darry encouraged. "When was the last time all three of us went to a movie?" It had been ages.

Ponyboy sighed, still unsure.

Soda glanced over at Darry, pulling him into a different room.

"What the hell, Darry?" Soda hissed. Darry was surprised, Sodapop was never like this, Soda sounded really mad. "Poor Ponyboy had enough on his plate without you pestering him to go outside!"

"Soda, if he stays in her any longer, he's going to have a phobia of going outside," Darry remarked. "It's not healthy! And frankly, I'm tired of this, Ponyboy's not a weak person, he just needs a little push."

"We'll do it when he's ready, Darry!"

Darry sighed.

"Well, he better be ready by Sunday, cause he's going to school on Monday."

Steve came over with what he called 'his own personal method' apparently shooting firecrackers at someone to make them run out the door WAS NOT a good idea in the book of over-protective brothers, piratically written by Darry and Sodapop themselves. Johnny tried a more coaxing method of tossing cigarettes out the door for Ponyboy to fetch, but Ponyboy only hollered that he wasn't a dog.

Two-bit's idea of staring at Ponyboy until he left the house only made things awkward and Dallas' idea of keeping the door open all night only froze up the whole house.

"Well, thanks for trying." Darry muttered. It was around ten and Ponyboy had left the living room to go to bed and Sodapop felt drained.

"Guys, we've done everything to have Ponyboy leave the house, I'm scared that he's scared that he's gonna' get jumped by the Socs again." soda felt like crying, his little brother feared the world and there was nothing he could do about it.

Darry's head lifted from it's sour state.

"Not. . . everything."

The gang looked puzzled.

Around One in the morning, Ponyboy twitched, feeling his stomach give off a low growl.

'Need. . . water' his brain comanded, Ponyboy stretched and as he went to enter the kitchen, he face-planed into his door.

"What the-?"

Ponyboy was wide awake now and gasped.

He wasn't in his room, he was outside!

The gang must had carried him and his bed outside while he was sleeping!

"DARRY! SODA! OPEN THE DOOR!" he begged, banging on the door. Sodapop woke up, sleepign in his own room in his own bed and opened the second floor window.

"Sorry, baby. Darry said it was for your own good." Soda sadly remarked.

"ARE YOU CRAZY?! THERE'S SOCS OUT HERE!" Ponyboy cried.

"Would you like a glass of warm milk?" Soda called back, grabbing his own glass and sliding it down the roof, but it landed in the flower bed.

Ponyboy frowned. "SODA!" He cried.

Soda fought ever willpower to not run downstairs and save his baby brother.

"Darry, can't I at least tuck him in?" Soda called from across the hallway into Darry's room.

"No Soda. . . Tell Ponyboy to get back to bed." Darry muttered from under his pillow.

"But he could catch a cold, Darry."

"He's got blankets. This is for his own-"

"Good, I know." Soda interruped. Soda shut his window and tried to go back to bed, ignoring the bangs on the front door, which was obviously locked. Ponyboy sighed, sitting back on his bed on the porch, not noticing a curly haired Greaser walking down his sidewalk.

"Well, well what do we have here?" Curly Sheppard's drunk goofy smile, filled with lust, questioned himself.

UH-OH, what's Curly gonna 'do? Check out Pinkey-Promise. My new story all about Soda, Darry and Ponyboy! I'd love more reviews for that story, and also for this one! OMG! So many reviews! I have you readers to thank for it too! You guys rock!

Please review!

-Kylelover101