Ponyboy woke up the next day. Johnny was lying on the seat above him. He went looking for Neil, hoping to see his face in the morning. He didn't know why but he wanted to see it because it would make him feel envy, jealousy, inferior and for some reason it made him feel closer to Neil. Ponyboy went looking for that sight when he saw…NEIL WASN'T THERE!
"NEIL?" Ponyboy cried out. The church echoed "eil…eil…" He was loud enough to awaken Johnny, who rubbed his eyes and yawned before sheepishly asking "What?"
"I can't find Neil." This got Johnny alarmed a bit and made him get up. He then came past a written message in the dirt. "Went for supplies, N.C."
Ponyboy and Johnny went outside to get water from the pump after being relieved from the message. They felt sore and groggy and went in search for water to keep themselves refreshed. The water from the tap was like liquid ice and it tasted strange, but it was water and that was good enough. The two boys splashed the liquid on their faces and wiped the water off on Johnny's jacket.
The two then heard someone coming up to the house through the dead leaves toward the back of the church, and ducked inside the door. Then the shadow of a boy fell through the door. Johnny and Ponyboy looked through the door and saw Neil standing at the top with a tray of supplies. The two sped up the flight of stairs so fast they nearly fell off.
"Hey, Neil," Johnny gasped. "Fancy meeting you up here," Ponyboy added, "What'd you get?"
"Come on inside and I'll show you. You guys are meant to stay inside, remember?"
We went in. Johnny dusted off a table with his hands before Neil put the tray down.
"Now, I got $10 when I got here and found the $60 in your pocket, Ponyboy (A/N $60 in 1965 is as much as $720), so I got some decent stuff, only in small though, Here's some spinach leaves, almonds, milk, matches, a container, milo, frozen grapes, plastic cups and plates, yoghurt, bread, peanut butter, biscuits, eggs, bacon and a roast chicken."
"By god, buy the whole supermarket, won't ya? We're only here for three days!" Johnny said.
"Well we had a lot of money and this is what we normally eat. And besides, there is only three of us-three teenage boys. Most of this is protein and we'll lose weight if we don't eat stuff like this," Neil defended himself, "Even if we don't finish it all, you guys can take the rest home. I'm going to make breakfasts. Who wants bacon and eggs?"
"Me please," Johnny and Ponyboy said at the same time. Neil smiled and got the carton of eggs, bacon, plates, a container, matches and bread before walking out. Ponyboy decided to unpack the rest of the cart.
"A paperback copy of Gone With The Wind? How did he know I always wanted one?"
"Last night you said it was your favourite movie after us two saw it, remember? It'd probably help kill time if you read it out loud," Johnny replied to him.
Ponyboy reluctantly put the book down. He wanted to read it right then and there but thought the better of it so he continued to unpack. Ponyboy then got his hands on a bottle of…
"Peroxide?" Suddenly, Ponyboy realized something.
"Johnny, you're not going to…"
"Neil and I were talking yesterday about how we'd have to cut our hair and bleach yours. They have pictures of us in the paper. We can't look the same!"
"Oh, no!" Ponyboy's hands threw into the air. His hair was his pride. It was long, silky, tuff-it labelled him as a Greaser They may not have cool clothing like Neil or mustang like the Socs but at least they had good hair.
"Even if we do get caught, the judge will make us have a haircut. It's his way of breaking us. I'll cut mine too and was the grease out but I can't dye it. I'm too dark skinned to look naturally blonde."
Ponyboy grabbed some almonds and sat down on a seat as Johnny got out his switchblade and sawed a collection of his friends hair. Ponyboy gasped in pain and backed away.
"Sorry, man," Johnny said, continuing to go on despite Ponyboy's continuing gasps of pain. This time he groaned louder as Johnny continued cutting harder.
"Don't pull so hard!" Ponyboy cursed. "Sorry, man," Johnny repeated.
"Can I see it now?" Ponyboy asked.
"I gotta bleach it first."
"Well quit cutting and start bleaching before I look like I have cancer," Ponyboy demanded.
About an hour later, Ponyboy and Neil were sitting outside by the fire eating their breakfast-soft poached eggs on top of crispy bacon that sat on a piece of toast. Ponyboy had to dry the bleach in the sun for 15 minutes anyway. Just then, Johnny joined the two, holding a cracked mirror in his hands.
"What do you think?" Johnny said as he held the mirror before his friend.
Ponyboy observed his hair. He didn't seem to be too pleased about it. It looked goofy and short to him and had no grease. The colour was too light. Maybe with some grease it might be good.
"So much for making me look tuff," Ponyboy said as he flicked his cigarette away. Johnny took his breakfast and sat down.
"All right, go ahead," he said as he handed Ponyboy the pocket knife. Neil handed Johnny his breakfast as Ponyboy got to work. It was technically a repeat of what Ponyboy had gone through which made Ponyboy smile.

Neil was cleaning up all the stuff from breakfast when he came to verandah. He brushed himself off when he heard Johnny talk.
"Hey, I'm sorry I cut off your hair, Ponyboy."
"It ain't that," Ponyboy's voice struggled. The words barely came out. Was he crying? Neil put his ear against the window.
"It's just…I don't know, I'm fucked up," Ponyboy said. There was a pause. I could picture Johnny putting his arm over his friend.
"Yeah, I know. Things happen pretty fast," Johnny said.
"Remember how we was star-gazing last night?" Ponyboy said. I could hear his sobs multiplying. "Last night, we were walking Cherry and Marcie home from the movies." Who's Cherry? "It was last night we were in the parking lot looking up at the stars."
"STOP IT, MAN! JUST SHUT UP ABOUT LAST NIGHT!" I heard Johnny yell. He was clearly traumatized by it, far more than Ponyboy and I were.
"JOHNNY!" Ponyboy cried. Johnny replied, where it became apparent he, too, was crying.
"He couldn't have been more than 17 or 18 years old. I killed him. How would you like to live with that, huh? I didn't mean too. He was drowning you, I didn't know what to do!" On the last sentence, his tears seemed to quieten down his town.
"There sure is a lot of blood in people," Johnny mumbled.
"What are we going to do?" Ponyboy sobbed. Johnny's anger returned.
"Oh man. It's all my fault for bringing a 13 year old boy with me. You ought to go on home. I mean, YOU CAN'T GET INTO ANY TROUBLE! YOU DIDN'T KILL HIM!"
Ponyboy tried being angry but his tears stopped that. "NO! I'M 14! I'VE BEEN 14 FOR A MONTH AND I'M IN JUST AS MUCH PAIN AS YOU ARE! I'll stop crying in a minute. I can't help it."
"I didn't mean it like that, Ponyboy," Johnny said, softening his anger, "Don't cry!" Nel peered through the window to see the two hugging each other. Neil never had a friendship like that before…
Ponyboy continued sobbing. "It'll be alright, we'll be fine," Johnny comforted.

Neil wore his school sport shoes and a short shirt. He had a really tan, lanky body. He hated it. Even though he was skinny, his butt really stood out in his shorts. Ponyboy and Johnny came running out of the church wearing tops from Neil's collection. Just then, Ponyboy stopped dead in his tracks-his eyes were opened and his mouth formed an "o."
"What?" Johnny asked.
Ponyboy remained silent. Johnny then figured Ponyboy was checking Neil out when he was stretching. Johnny sighed and hit Ponyboy on the arm.
"Earth to Ponyboy, we're meant to be giving him sport lessons," Johnny said.
"Yeah, sure," he said.
Ponyboy and Johnny ran down to Neil. Neil greeted them with one of his smiles.
"So, what are we doing today, Mr-Sport Experts?" Neil greeted. Ponyboy and Johnny laughed.
"Well, tomorrow we'll start on Handball and Football but today we got to start with the one most important part of sport-strength and agility," Ponyboy said like a lecturer.
"Okay, so how do we start?" Neil asked.
"You, um…stretch, first!" Ponyboy said.
"That's what I was just doing," Neil said.
"You were stretching your arms. You need to stretch your back and stuff and do it with proper stretches," Ponyboy said. Johnny looked at his friend strangely.
"First, get on your back and pull your right leg to the left. Come on," Ponyboy said. Neil got down on his back and pulled his right leg over. "Now, stay like that for thirty seconds." Neil did as he was told as Johnny whispered to Ponyboy.
"Pony, I know you don't care about him stretching, you just wanna check out his ass," Johnny said.
"Johnny, shut up. This is what I had to do in my football club," Ponyboy said.
"Wasn't your football coach a paedophile?" Johnny asked. Ponyboy's eye opened as Johnny smiled. He decided to ignore Johnny.
"Okay, now pull your left leg to the right," Ponyboy said. Neil did as he was told.
"So you're technically a paedophile," Johnny sneered in a whisper. Ponyboy hit his friends chest.
"Shut up!" Johnny started laughing but Ponyboy angrily ignored him. Neil then jumped back onto his feet.
"Any more stretches?" Neil asked.
"Ummm…yeah," Ponyboy said, "You have to do your legs. Pull your feet up to your butt." Neil did as he was told.
"There's paedophilia again," Johnny said. Ponyboy turned around, fully angry. "Johnny, stop it!" Johnny just laughed. "Johnny!" Johnny then realised Ponyboy's anger and fell silent. Ponyboy turned around to see Neil done.
"And with your right leg now," Ponboy said. Neil did it. When he was done, Ponyboy said, "And try doing the splits."
"What?" Johnny and Neil said at the same time.
"I had to do that as well. It's a good stretch. You don't have to do it fully." Johnny was about to pull a paedophile joke but he remembered and decided to shut up. Neil did the splits. For a guy, he actually went pretty well. He didn't go all the way but he was male so…you know.
After that, the three boys found themselves at a little trunk that was sticking out of the ground. There was a huge band around it. It was elastic and really wide.
"Here's some band I found in the church," Johnny said, "Before my mum became an alcoholic, she bought me a band like this and what I'd do was put it around my foot-" Johnny did exactly that "and then, I'd start putting my knee in the air."
With the band around his ankle, Johnny then bent his knee and lifted into the air. "Just keep on doing that." "For how long?" "I don't know. Until the sunset!" "That's five hours, Johnny" Ponyboy said. "Yeah, well it takes a while for your legs to get good. It took me five days not five hours," Johnny said. "Fine, I will do this for five hours straight!" Neil said in sarcasm.
Johnny and Ponyboy laughed. They walked back to the house as Neil started doing what Johnny told him. Neil and Ponyboy then sat on the veranda.

For the rest of the day, Neil continued doing that while Johnny and Ponyboy sat on the veranda, talked and read Gone With The Wind. The only time they took a break was when they had to make lunch and Neil insisted on making it as a salad with almonds, cheese, kitchen and carrot.
The sun went down and before the boys knew it, they were fast asleep. Ponyboy and Johnny were both wearing clothes from Neil's bag. Neil was wearing a white top and his read tracksuits. An owl was perched on a piece of wood in the roof.
And already restless Ponyboy was awoken when he heard a tapping and a scratching. He looked up. From outside, a racoon tapped on the wood. He tapped Johnny.
"Johnny, there's a monster outside."
There was a pause. "It'll be okay, Ponyboy," Johnny whispered. Ponyboy then turned and he saw Neil. Neil screwed his face and contorted his body. He then moaned-a moan that told him he was afraid. He was having a nightmare!
Ponyboy wanted to comfort him. This somehow distressed him. So Ponyboy put his arm right underneath Neil's stomach. It didn't help that much as Neil started squirming again. Almost instinctively, Ponyboy wrapped his other arm around Neil's waist and pulled him in. And with that, the two fell asleep without any nightmares.

CUTE!