Chapter 3

"I'm telling you Soda, you should of seen him last night, he was out to kill someone. He went around asking everyone he ran into if they knew anything about Johnny getting jumped by four Socs in a blue mustang. I haven't seen him like this in a long time. Two-Bit and I were doing all we could to keep him from pummeling someone, Soc or Greaser it didn't matter which."

"I don't have a good feeling about this Steve. We can't be getting involved right now with Social Services breathing down our necks about Sara. I promised Darry that we would ALL stay out of trouble. If we have a rumble we won't be able to be in on it." Soda said handing Steve a pair of pliers to fix the radio on the car that they were working on.

"You gotta be there, Sodapop, we need you and Darry. We need every man that we can get. I mean Johnny won't be able to fight and probably not Ponyboy either. So we will already be two men down." Steve tried to talk Sodapop into it.

"Nope, sorry, not this time. Not when my family is in jeopardy of being torn apart." Soda was now holding the radio so that Steve could rewire it. The boys reinstalled the radio and Soda was reaching for a Philips screwdriver when he heard George honking his horn.

"Shoot, Steve, I didn't notice how late it was. I'll be right back." Soda tossed Steve the screwdriver and was starting to head out to the curb when he was watching Joe driving in to the parking lot. "Hey, Joe." Soda yelled out and waved while heading out to the bus.

"Hi, Sodapop." Joe said jumping out of his truck.

"Thanks for coming in a little early for me today Joe. I appreciate it."

"Yeah, so don't I. I need the extra hours. My little boy has a birthday coming up and he wants a new Radio Flyer tricycle." Joe said smiling.

"Don't remind me." Soda said a little disgruntle. Soda knew that his family needed the money too, more so now than ever.

"What, that car you just bought off of eating up all your extra money?" Joe asked knowing how hard him and Steve have been working to get that thing up and running.

"Something like that." Soda said approaching the bus.

"Hi ya, Sodapop. How's it going today?" George asked while opening the door of the bus.

"Not bad, you?" Soda was watching Sara move up from her seat to the front of the bus.

"Fine, fine." George flashed Sara a smiled as she passed by. "Have a good night, Sara. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Bye George." Sara said dragging her book bag down the stairs.

"Sara, pick up your bag. You're going to ruin it dragging it like that." Soda scolded Sara while she was slumping down the stairs towards him.

"Kids will be kids." George shouted down to Sodapop smirking.

"That's for sure. Have a good night George." Soda immediately grabbed her bag before she put a hole in the thing. "Since when do you treat your things like this?" Sodapop asked Sara with a disappointed look on his face.

"What's the big deal, Soda? School is almost over anyways." Sara said with some attitude in her voice and body language.

"You're being a little sassy here, little lady, and I don't like it one bit. Would you be talking to Darry like this, if he was here?" Soda was looking directly at her wanting an answer.

"I am not being sassy! But isn't it the truth? School is almost over for the year." Sara responded.

"Who says you will be getting another one for the next school year?" Soda was just trying to make a point to Sara that just because the school year was almost over doesn't mean that she would be getting a new book bag for next school year. Sara didn't have a response for Soda, and just shrugged her shoulders. "That's what I thought." Soda shook his head a little not sure what had gotten into his sister today.

Sara wanted to change the subject off of her and onto something else. "Soda, how are we getting home today?" Sara had heard Darry remind the boys this morning that they were not to be walking alone and that they needed to call for a ride.

"Steve, why?" Soda and Sara were almost to the garage when Soda held out his arm in front of Sara so to stop her from entering the bay.

"What's that for?" Sara didn't understand why Soda was holding her back.

"Hush!" Soda shot Sara a warning look, but drew his attention back to the garage. "Steve, can you stop for a minute and run me and Sara home?" Soda was yelling into the bay door.

"Yup, I'll be right there. Just go and let Joe and Frank know that I am taking you home. I'll meet you in the car." Steve said while opening a box with new parts in it.

"Sara, go get in Steve's car." Soda didn't want any witnesses seeing her entering the garage so sending her to the car was the best option. Sara stood there hesitating some, so Soda moved closer and grabbed her elbow and started escorting her to the car.

"Soda, what is going on? You're acting funny." Sara could sense that something was going on, but didn't quit know what that might be.

"Nothing, just do as I told you." Soda opened the door to the back seat and Sara climbed on in without giving him anymore lip. Once she was seated Soda tossed in her book bag. "Stay here." He shut the door with a little more force than he really needed to, but her attitude was getting to him some. As he turned to head to the break room to punch out and tell Joe and Frank that him and Steve were leaving, he passed Steve on the way to the car. "I'll be right back." Soda jogged into the break room and punched out. "Joe, Steve is taking his 15 minute break. He's bringing me and Sara home. He'll be right back. Can you let Frank now?"

"Sure. Have a good night." Soda waved to Joe and jogged back out to Steve and Sara.

"All set." Soda said getting in. Steve drove Sodapop and Sara home and the two walked up into the house together. Sara tossed her bag down and headed right back to her room. Sodapop was relieved for this; maybe she would straighten out her attitude a little. After grabbing a Pepsi out of the refrigerator he went over to the phone and picked it up and dialed a number. "Hi, can I speak to Sandy please? Oh, she's not. Can you tell her the Sodapop called? Thanks." Soda hung up the phone a little disappointed that Sandy wasn't home, but there were plenty of things that he could be focusing on right now anyhow. First, was trying to figure something out for dinner.

Meanwhile in her room, Sara was going nuts. She needed to find that card, she couldn't even remember the last time that she had seen it. She started with her bed, tearing it apart. She threw all the pillows and blankets on the floor. Then she took the sheets off, and still nothing. She started going into panic mood. The last time she remembered she put it under her bed to sleep on it, but that had to be nights ago she thought. Next she got down on the floor moving everything that she had just thrown on the floor further into the middle of the room. She looked under the bed and all that was under there was some candy bar wrappers, some dirty socks, cob webs and dust, but no card. She slowly stood up and looked at the mess around her, "Where did it go?" Sara was scanning her room when her eyes finally landed on her bookcase. She remembered seeing Darry organizing it the other day. Even though she remembers Darry telling her that if she doesn't start taking care of her books and toys than he would throw them out, and Sara knew that his threat was for real. But Sara just couldn't resist it anymore; she needed to find that card, for she had finally decided what to do with it. She kicked some of the blankets out of the way and moved to her bookcase. She frantically started tearing the books off the shelves. She was holding them by the binders and shaking them to see if it would fall out, but no such luck. She had every book that she owned on the floor and still no card, next was her dresser. She didn't remember putting it in there but maybe Darry or Soda had picked up some clothes or something and accidently took the card. Sara was leaping over things to get to the dresser; she opened the first drawer, underwear, socks, and undershirts. While she moved things around and was digging, clothing started flying out but she didn't pay any attention to them, her mind was focused primarily on that stupid card. Sara half closed the top drawer when she moved onto the second drawer of pajamas. She had just gotten the drawer open when she heard her name being called in a way that only meant trouble for her.

"Sara Marie Curtis!" Sara knew the sound of all of her brother's voices and she didn't even have to turn to see which one was hollering her name from the doorway, instead she slowly started to close the pajama drawer. "What on earth have you done in here?" Sodapop was trying not to step on anything as he was moving across the floor to get to Sara.

"I'm looking for something." Sara still hadn't turned around to look at Soda yet, for she could tell by his tone that he wasn't happy with her, she didn't need to see it on his face to tell her this.

"You best be getting this cleaned up before Darry gets home. He will go through the roof. You got 45 minutes, little lady." Soda started to turn around and walk out when he heard Sara respond with.

"I don't care." This stopped Soda and he whirled around.

"What has gotten into you today, Sara? You're being so bratty."

"I'm not!" Sara stomped her foot at Soda.

"Yes, you are. You have had this attitude ever since you got off the bus and it better stop now. Because I am telling you if you don't get rid of it before Darry comes home, you'll be sorry." Sara just let out a huff.

"I don't want to talk about it right now." Sara wanted to explain to Sodapop what was bothering her, but she just couldn't.

"Fine then, but clean this mess up, now." Soda moved back out of her room and was heading down the hall when the boys were barreling in through the door. He first heard Dallas and then Two-Bit and finally Ponyboy and Johnny. He hadn't seen Johnny since this morning and was wondering how he was doing. He looked like he was moving around better so that was good.

"Hey Sodapop." Pony was the first to greet Soda.

"Hi Pon. How was your day?"

"Edgy. Did you hear about the rumble set for Friday night?" Pony asked.

"Yeah, Steve told me when he got to work. Did the Socs bother you at school today?" Since Sodapop had dropped out he was always afraid of not being able to protect Pony while he was there, but knew that Steve and Two-Bit kept a good eye on him.

"No more than usually." Pony said dipping his head down. It was a lot harder for Ponyboy then it ever was for Soda for Pony was in a lot of the advanced courses with mostly Socs so he had to deal with them almost all day long. Soda walked closer to Pony and lifted his chin up. "Listen, we need to stay out of trouble for a while, I need you to just hang in there. If someone is bothering you tell me and I will mention something to Steve, got it?" Pony pushed Soda's hand away.

"It's not that bad." He mumbled.

"Sodapop, clear your social calendar for Friday night, man. We've arranged the rumble for 7:00 at the field. We're gonna' whip those Soc's for what they did to Johnny." Dallas said flopping down on the couch.

"Can't, not this time Dally." Soda didn't want to be the one having to give Dally the bad news.

"What?" Both Ponyboy and Dallas said at the same time.

"What the hell, man? They jumped Johnny." Dallas was now sitting up a little straighter.

"We can't get caught in any trouble, Dally. You'll have to go it without us." Sodapop tried to explain.

"It's not weapons or anything, Soda. We need to be there." Ponyboy was trying to gang up on Soda to get him to change his mind.

"It's ok, Pony." Johnny was speaking up. "You guys shouldn't be fighting just because of me." Johnny was feeling bad that a rumble was going to happen just because of him. He was never a big fan of rumbles and fighting but would join in to show his loyalties to the gang and to other greasers.

"No! It's not ok Johnny!" Dallas growled towards the kid.

"What did Darry say about this?" Two-Bit was now joining into the conversation.

"He doesn't know yet." Sodapop answered.

"Well, there you go then. I am sure once he hears about it, you'll all be there." Dallas seemed to be a little bit more as ease than a second ago.

"Don't get your hopes up." Soda knew Darry well enough to know what he was going to say about this. "Plus, Pony, you can't fight you have States on Saturday. There is no way you can take that kind of chance. So you can just forget it." Soda had decided on making American Chop Suey for dinner and he needed to get started with it so he headed back to the kitchen leaving the boys to continue to talk about the rumble. As Soda was puttering around getting the water boiling and getting the hamburger cooking he decided that he should check on Sara again. As he moved to the back of the house he couldn't hear much coming from room, not even her music, which was odd. Once he got to her doorway he was not impressed with the sight he was looking at. Her room literally looked like a tornado had just come through. It was worse than the first time he came to check on her. There was still books, blankets, clothes, and now toys completely covering her floor, you could no longer even see bare floor. "Sara?" His voice raised a he pronounced her name. "I thought I told you to clean this room up? It looks even worse than when I was in here before." Soda couldn't even make it any further than the doorway. "Sara, do you hear me?" Soda was trying to peak around the door to the closet to see where she was. He couldn't see her but when he called her name for the third time she finally answered. "Sara, answer me!"

"I'm in the closet." Soda pushed things to the side with his feet to get over to the closet. There he found Sara down on her knees with her head leaning against the doorframe of the closet with a lost look on her face.

"Sara, I can't believe you and this mess! There is no way you are going to get it picked up now before Darry gets here."

"I can't find it, Soda. I need to find it! I just gotta find it." Sara's voice was in between a whine and a cry.

"There is no way you're going to find anything now in this mess. Stand up and get picking up this mess." Sodapop started to move back to check on the hamburger and his boiling water when he heard a sob escape from Sara. Even though he wasn't happy with his little sister he still hated it when she cried, so he stopped. "What are you looking for anyways?" Soda thought he might as well asked just in case he knew what she was looking for.

"I can't tell you." Sara slowly said.

"Well then how do you expect any help?" Soda questioned her.

"I didn't ask for your help." Sara said a little sharply to Soda.

Sodapop just sighed he had no energy to continue this with her. "Fine, Sara. I can't win with you today. You better just get this cleaned up."

Soda moved back to the kitchen to finish up with dinner. As he was draining the water from the pasta he heard Darry pulling the truck into the driveway. He wondered how he was going to deal with Sara and that mess. Soda would bet money on it that she hadn't made a dent in there. Soda was tossing the pasta into the sauce and hamburger when he heard the door slam and the boys saying hi. "Who's staying for dinner?" Soda yelled into the living room.

"Not me. I am going home." Soda heard Two-Bit yell back and say good bye to everyone and then the door slam.

"Johnny? Dally?" Soda hollered in.

"Yeah, we are staying." Dally answered for himself and Johnny. Soda heard Darry checking in with Johnny and his injuries. "Ponyboy, come set the table." Soda yelled for some help. Sodapop heard footsteps coming into the kitchen by knew that they were to heavy to be Pony's so when Soda looked over his shoulder he saw Darry coming in with his lunchbox.

"Hey Sodapop." Darry peaked around Soda to see what he was cooking. "Smells good." Darry emptied out his thermos and was washing up for dinner. Soda knew that he better bring it up now to get it out of the way.

"Dar, can you go talk with Sara?"

"Why?What's going on?" Darry was putting the dish towel down.

"She's in a mood. She's being all bratty and sassy and she won't talk to me about it."

"If she won't talk to you about it, what makes you think she'll talk to me?" Darry let out a chuckle but started moving towards Sara's room. As Darry was rounding the corner from the kitchen to the hall he thought he heard Sodapop say something.

"Just wait and see, that's what." Soda knew that Darry's blood pressure was going to skyrocket when he saw that mess in her room, especially after spending time Saturday afternoon fixing her bookcase and Sodapop was 100 percent correct for not 20 seconds later he heard Darry hollering to Sara.

"Sara Marie, what the heck is this mess?" The house probably heard Darry yelling at Sara he was that loud. "I just spent time on Saturday organizing that bookcase. Don't you remember me telling you that if you couldn't keep this room picked up that I was going to throw the stuff away? What on all mighty possessed you to do this?" Darry was standing with his hands on his hips glaring at Sara and the mess she had created.

"I needed to find something, Darry. I'll pick it up."

"Damn straight you'll pick it up. What are you looking for?" Darry just was shaking his head at the sight he was looking at. He had never seen such a mess before, caused by one little girl. Sara was kind of just shuffling things around hoping that she had overlooked it somewhere. "Sara, I asked you what are you looking for?" Darry repeated himself for the second time. Sara knew that Darry wouldn't like her answer but she couldn't tell him just yet.

"I can't tell you." She said softly, keeping her head down so that she didn't need to look at Darry's sour expression.

"That's not any kind of an answer."

"Darry, Sara, dinner's ready" Soda hollered down to them. Darry held out his hand to help Sara out of the mess around her, he didn't need her stepping on something and breaking a bone. Sara hesitantly took a hold and let Darry pull her to where there was actually bare floor showing.

"Go wash up, and when dinner is over, you're coming right back her and getting started on this mess. You are not coming out of this room until everything is picked up, do you understand me? And little lady, if you ever do this again, I'll skin your bottom, got it?" Darry was pissed, but was going to give her a chance to fix it.

"I got it." Sara pouted off to the bathroom and started washing her hands, while the rest of the crew was joining Sodapop in the kitchen. As Darry was sitting down the first topic of conversation was started by Dally.

"Darry, have you heard about the news?" Dallas was leaning up against the counter poking his fork at the chop suey .

"What news?" Darry was passing Sara a plate of food before taking his seat.

"There is going to be a rumble this Friday night." Dallas said actually smiling.

"Now, why did you go and do something stupid like that?" Darry couldn't believe what he was hearing.

"For jumping Johnny on our turf, that's why." Dallas was starting to get irritated.

"Dally, we can't be there." Darry stated bluntly.

"What do you mean? It's for Johnny, Man." Dallas was eye balling Darry.

"I mean that Social Services is riding my butt on keeping these three out of trouble, so that means no rumble for us." Darry needed to be carefully on how he worded this with Sara and Ponyboy present at the table.

"What's a rumble?" Sara spoke up. She had heard the boys say this word before but wasn't sure what it meant.

"A rumble is when we go and kick some Soc ass; beat the tar out of them for making Johnny look like this." Dallas answered for the group.

"Dallas, watch the language, and hand over 10 cents." Sodapop was holding out his hand for the 10 cents for the cuss jar. Dally just pushed Sodapop's hand out of the way.

"Go to hell. Darry, you're turning soft, man. Since when do you not stand up for your own kind? If I didn't know better, I would think that you're turning into a Soc yourself there Darry." Dallas slid his plate down onto the counter and stormed out towards the living room where they all heard the screen door slam shut behind him.

"Come on, Dar. We need to fight in that rumble on Friday." Ponyboy was looking over at Darry who was sipping his milk.

"No, Pony. And even if Social Services weren't riding my butt, the answer would still be no. Are you forgetting that on Saturday you will be running in States? You think I am that stupid to let you go fight in a rumble. Golly, Pony." Darry said reaching for a piece of bread.

"I'll be fine, Dar. It's not like it is weapons or anything." Pony turned to Soda to try to get his support. "Tell him, Soda. Tell him it'll be fine." Pony pleaded with Soda.

"Not this time, Pon. Sorry." Soda said while he was loading his plate up with seconds.

"I don't get it." Sara said pushing her food around. "We don't like it that people did this to Johnny, so why would you go do it back to them?" Sara was trying the follow the conversation but was getting confused.

"We aren't" Darry said harshly.

"It's not fair." Pony whined.

"Well, that's the way it is going to be. I don't want any of you going anywhere near that rumble Friday night, you got it?" Darry gave out his clear warning to them all.

"Got it, Dar." Soda said in between bites, but Pony still hadn't answered.

"Got it, Ponyboy?" Darry pressed again.

"Yes, Darry." Pony said getting up and putting his dish into the sink and walking off towards the porch to have a smoke.