After meeting with Principal Rogers, the school day was over so I quickly went back to my classroom to grab my backpack and notebooks and then met Mom at the car. As I jumped into the old station wagon, Mom turned to look at me again. "Pony..." she started. I knew she wanted to discuss this idea of me skipping grades some more, but I just wanted to be happy and excited about it. I didn't really have any friends in my grade anyways, so getting to high school where Soda and my real friends were, like Johnny, faster seemed like a great idea!
"Mom, can we talk about it later? Let me have a chance to take a look at the work. I know I can do it all. I want to go to high school in the fall. At least let me try!" She studied my face, but then nodded knowing that I had already made my decision on the matter. "Ok fine. We need to discuss it with your father anyways. This is a very big decision, but I do want you to know how incredibly proud I am of you! I know you're smart enough for this, I just want to make sure it's the right decision is all." she gave me a smile and then pulled me in for a hug and tried to give me a kiss on the cheek. I pushed her back quickly "Mom, not in the school parking lot!" I wined and looked around as my face got red. "Ok, ok, you're right. Sorry. Lets get on home before all those boys destroy my house." she let out a laugh but I knew that she was being serious. The high school was let out 30 minutes before the middle school and the gang could do some serious damage in the 30 minutes it took Mom to pick me up.
We pulled up to the house and just from stepping out of the car, could already hear the chaos coming from inside. There was music, some yelling, and right at that moment there was a crash followed by more yelling. Mom let out a sigh "those boys couldn't be quiet if their lives depended on it." she turned to look at me and gave me a smile "lets go see what trouble they've caused." We walked up the porch steps and opened the door to the mayhem inside.
The furniture was all moved out of the way and Dally and Steve were wrestling on the floor with Two-Bit standing above them narrating the action like he was a boxing commentator. Soda was holding the pieces to the lamp they had clearly just broken with Johnny picking up the lamp shade off the ground. When the door closed behind Mom and I all the boys snapped their heads in our direction and Soda dropped the lamp pieces and opened his arms wide. "Mom!" he called out as he ran over and wrapped her in a big hug. "Welcome home! You look more beautiful than when I left this morning. Age has nothing on you. They'll be putting you on the cover of a magazine with that beautiful face" and then he flashed his movie star smile at her. Nobody could charm like Soda could, but nobody else had raised Soda and Mom was immune to him at this point.
"Sodapop Patrick Curtis" she said sternly. "What on earth is going on here?"
Soda quickly dropped the act and put his hands up "ok it's not what it looks like."
"It looks like you started a boxing ring in my living room and broke the lamp."
"Ok so it's exactly what it looks like." Soda flashed another smile. That must have gotten Mom because she let out a laugh. Mom could be strict, but she had a good humor as well. "Dallas, Steve, get up." both boys jumped up on command.
"Ok so here's what we are going to do. You all are going to pick up this living room and fix the lamp so we have have light in the house tonight. I'm going to go make dinner. I'm assuming you are all staying?" Everyone nodded. "Ok. well then turn down that music and get to work." and then she walked out of the room into the kitchen.
Two-Bit walked over to turn the radio down and everyone went to work pushing the couches back where they should be. Steve walked over to help Johnny with the lamp. I'm not sure how they are going to put that one back together, but Steve is pretty good at fixing cars. Maybe he can fix a lamp too? Wouldn't put it past him. Soda turned to me and grinned "how was the last day before break Pony?"
"It was mostly boring, but then I got some pretty big news!" I was grinning back at him. I was so excited to tell them all that I would be in high school with them next year! But just at that moment Mom came back around from the kitchen and called out to me "Ponyboy you're on table setting tonight. Come in here and start setting the table up for everyone."
"Yeah, yeah ok." I turned back to Soda and he flashed me another smile "guess you'll just have to announce the big news over dinner!" I nodded and picked up my backpack and headed to the kitchen to set the table. When the whole gang stayed over for dinner it was always a bigger process. We had a small dinning room table that had 6 seats so I had to go and collect the desk chair from my room and the one from Darry and Sodas shared room and somehow fit them around the table. That only made for 8 seats, but there were 9 of us. When everyone was here I usually ended up sitting on Dads lap. It was always a tight squeeze when we were all here, but it made for a more fun dinner that's for sure so I didn't really mind.
I had just finished setting the table when Mom started setting the food down. Whenever the gang was all over it was always a more simple meal, so we were having spaghetti and meatballs with some bread and green beans. Mom was pretty dead set on having some sort of vegetable on the table even though none of us ever ate it. She stepped back to admire her work and then went into the living room to call the guys. I followed her into the room and as we entered the front door opened again and Dad and Darry walked in.
Darry was working with Dad now at the roofing business. He had gotten a scholarship for football to college, but it wasn't enough to cover all the costs and if he was playing football, he wouldn't be able to take classes and work to pay for the difference. So he ended up deferring for a year and working with Dad to save up. During the last few months he drove up to campus to work out and practice with the team a few times, but now that football was over, he would work even more here and save up. He thought about going to school winter semester to take classes and work part time since he wouldn't have football practice, but figured it would be better to save even more now and then he could buy a car and afford college next fall. It would be weird having Darry gone, but I know he was excited about school and even more so to play football.
Since Dad was a supervisor at the roofing company he was able to get Darry a job right away. Dad was also good friends with the owner of the company and I knew Darry was a hard worker. Darry never half did anything. He was an all or nothing guy, which is probably way he was the football team captain his senior year. But the owner really liked Darry and had no problems with him staying on for the year until he finally went to college.
"Honey I'm home!" Dad called out. Every day he would call out and grab Mom in a hug and give her a kiss. It used to be embarrassing that they would do that in front of everyone, but now the gang didn't even acknowledge their gross moment anymore. Mom pulled away and swatted at Dad when he tried to grab her again.
"Go clean up you two. Dinners ready everyone. Come have a seat." Mom instructed.
Darry and Dad washed up and then we all gathered around the dinner table. Dad sat at one end with Mom at the other. Soda, Steve, and Dally were on one side and Darry, Johnny, and Two-Bit were on the opposite. I waited for Dad to sit down and then he grabbed me and put me on one of his knees to sit. We started dishing out food and then Mom called out for us to stop and say Grace. We weren't particularly religious in our house, but Mom went to church each Sunday and I often joined her. She always made us say Grace before dinner, but otherwise we didn't do anything super religious in our house.
"Soda, will you please say it? And please say it the correct way Hun." Two-Bit and Steve let out a snicker remembering the last time Soda said Grace and messed up all the words and then started praying that girls would start flooding into town like rivers of water. Mom was not a fan of that one. I think after the lamp incident Soda decided to behave and gave the normal prayer. Once he was done we all dug in.
Mom then spoke up. "Darrel I had an interesting meeting at the school today." Dad looked up and cocked an eyebrow "yeah with who?" He immediately looked at Soda and Steve assuming they got in trouble once again. Soda threw his hands up "it wasn't me! Stevie and I were super good today. Not one lecture or anything."
"That's because you didn't go to school today." Two-Bit mumbled under his breath and then gave a chocked laugh when either Steve or Soda kicked him under the table.
Either Mom and Dad didn't hear, which I doubted because I heard, Two-Bit wasn't the most quiet, or more likely they were choosing to ignore this comment and pretend the boys were in school all day.
"It was actually with Principal Rogers" Mom continued. Everyone looked up and stared at me. Johnny was so surprised he dropped his fork and it clattered on the table.
Soda had a look of pride as he said "Pony! Did you get in trouble today? What did you do?"
"The only bad thing that kid would do is forget to put his name on his homework." Steve teased.
"Our very own Ponyboy! Becoming a hoodlum at the young age of 13! Whatever will we do to save our baby from the streets" Two-Bit pretended to wipe an imaginary tear from his face.
Dally was just staring at me with a twitch in his lip like he wasn't sure if he should be proud or not and Darry looked just shocked and confused.
My face was red with all this attention and Dad turned his head and looked right at me as he spoke "oh is that so?"
Mom continued on "Oh stop it you all. Ponyboy was not in trouble. Quite the opposite actually. He apparently is so advanced for his grade that they are wanting to skip him up a grade after the break. He would finish out the year as an 8th grader and then start high school in the fall."
If people weren't shocked and confused before, they were now. Dad was the first to recover "that's great kid! Wow I'm so proud of you! I always knew you were the smartest of this bunch."
"Hey!" Soda called out. "I like to believe that I'm actually the smartest of us all" Darry let out a booming laugh. "yeah, sure, and I'm the smallest of us all" Everyone burst into laughter and that one.
Then Johnny spoke up "are you really going to be in school with us next year then?"
I looked around the table at all my favorite people and had a big grin on my face "I sure hope so! I have to study and take a test in about a week, but if I pass then yeah I should be there!"
Mom looked at me again "well we still need to make a final decision about this, but Pony is going to at least try and see if he can pass."
"You really think this kid wont pass any test you throw at him?" Dad questioned as he ruffled my hair.
"Whoop, whoop! Our baby is joining us in school!" Two-Bit cheered and then everyone else joined in cheering and laughing. Dad wrapped me into a hug and whispered into my ear "I'm really proud of you kiddo."