Saturday seemed to drag. Everyone was working and I was just waiting for the rumble to start. I wondered around the house trying once again to kill time. I ended up reading most of the day. I drew a bit in my new sketch book as well. Mom tried to get me to gather my school stuff together to make sure I had everything for Monday since I'll be starting a new grade. I was excited, but I would be lying if I wasn't a little nervous about the change.
Finally the boys all came home from work. Darry and Soda both got ready for the rumble, or the party that Mom and Dad thought we were all going too. "It's the big party tonight isn't it Pony?" Dad asked me as we both sat in the living room waiting for dinner. I nodded, but now that we were getting closer to the fight I was getting nervous. I didn't know what to expect. I think Dad could tell because he said "Come here Ponyboy" and he set down his newspaper and sat up in his recliner. I walked over to him and he pulled me into his lap.
He whispered into my ear. "I know there's no party tonight Pony." I looked at him shocked. How did he know the truth? Was he not going to let me go anymore? He must have seen my shocked expression because he just let out a chuckle "Do you really think I don't know what goes on in these neighborhoods? That having three boys of my own and four more that basically live here I don't keep track of what the word on the street is?" I couldn't believe it. Did Darry and Soda know that Dad knew they were lying to him?
"Look Ponyboy you're going to be fine. It's a fair fight. I know. I already made sure when I heard about it. I know you can defend yourself and from what I hear you have a mean right hook. You'll be ok. Stay real close to your brothers or to the rest of the boys. I know Darry and Soda will watch out for you. I've already talked to Darry and made sure he wont let you get into a situation you can't get out of. Keep your arms up and your head out of the clouds and you'll be just fine" he then ruffled my hair. "I can't wait to hear all about it when you get back." So Darry knew that Dad knew. Did Mom know too? Dad seemed to know the question on my mind "Your mother probably suspects there's something more going on, but she wouldn't like it knowing there was a planned fight going on. Especially that your brothers were taking you. I'm sure she'll know once you are all black and blue when you come home tonight, but we will just have to deal with the consequences then. If she asks I didn't know" He gave a wink and I let out a giggle at that.
"Oh you think that's funny do you?" he then started tickling me all over. Mom called for dinner and he stood up still holding me and then flipped me upside down so he was holding me by my feet and I was dangling there. I was still laughing as I felt the blood rush to my head. I saw Sodapop come into the room and Dad call to him "Pepsi-Cola! Help! I need to teach this kid a lesson!" and then as quick as lightning Soda ran over to us and continued tickling me as I was upside down. There was nothing I could do from this position to stop it. Mom and Darry walked in to see what all the noise was about and joined in on the fun.
Eventually Dad flipped me right side up and dropped me on the couch. I was breathless and lightheaded from the rush and laughing. Soda fell on top of me and was also flushed from the fun. Once everyone had caught their breath and stopped giggling we headed to the table to eat.
After dinner the guys all started showing up at the house. Everyone seemed all jazzed up and the energy was electrifying. I wasn't so nervous now that everyone was here and knowing that Dad believed in me and that he wasn't all too worried about it had eased my nerves. Finally it was time to leave. Mom told us to have fun and NO DRINKING. She looked at Two-Bit as she said that. He just laughed and said he couldn't make any promises. Dad grabbed my arm as I walked by and whispered into my ear "remember. Head out of the clouds. Arms up. Let 'em have it" and then he ruffled my hair and told me to have fun. I saw him give Darry a look as we left.
We walked up to the lot where the the fight was happening. The gang all laughing and jumping around. Two-Bit and Soda tried to do some handstands but they didn't have it quite down yet. Once we got to the lot it looked like Tim and his whole gang was already there. Darry and Dally went over to talk to Tim and I stayed back with everyone else. Soda and Steve were jumping around throwing punches at each other already to get psyched up. Two-Bit said he needed to go get his stash and wondered away. Johnny and I were just taking everything in and then he turned to me and asked "you ready Ponyboy?" I nodded yes but then asked "how many of these have you been to? What's it like?" Johnny just shrugged. "I've been to a few. They don't happen all too often. I mean that's the point. They are supposed to stop the fighting but they never do. Basically the Socs will show up and then two people will throw the first punch and then we all start fighting. It ends when one side starts to run away. That's usually not us. The Socs can't take a punch like we can."
Sodapop must have been listening because he threw his arms over my shoulder "yeah Pony. They are real easy because those Socs are cry babies. They don't know what it's like to have it hard and turn tail the second they feel a punch" Steve then chimed in "It helps that we have Sodapop here. You're brother is crazy" He had a glint in his eye of respect for his best friend. Soda turned to him "You think I'm crazy do ya?" and then he jumped on Steve and they started wrestling is out. Darry walked over then "knock it off you two. Save it for the Socs." Soda and Steve laughed and stood up still messing with each other.
Darry crouched down in front of me "ok Ponyboy. Remember what I taught you yesterday. Arms up like this. Stay close to me or Soda. We will be watching out, but we also have our own fights so don't go too far got it?" I just rolled my eyes "yeah I got it" Darry just nodded and then we heard cars screeching to a stop. Out got a bunch of Socs and all us Greasers lined up. Some guy from Tim's gang stepped forward and so did some Soc. Darry crossed his arms. I wonder if he was mad that he wasn't the one stepping forward. They stared each other down and then just like that Tim's guy threw a punch. That was it. All hell broke loose after that.
A Soc stepped up to me and I got my arms up just as he threw a punch at me. It hit my arms and I stumbled back. I caught myself and then threw a punch back connecting with his cheek. That seemed to make him really mad. He jumped out and tackled me to the ground. I was able to hook my legs around and get out from under him and throw another punch. He kicked me in the stomach and I lost my breath for a second. There was no time to catch it though as he threw another punch that I took in my arm. I looked around for someone to help, but everyone was busy. Then out of nowhere Curly Sheppard jumped on the guys back and started slugging him. The guy went limp and Curly stood up and turned to me.
"Hey little Curtis how's it going?" I just rolled my eyes at the name. At least it wasn't baby Curtis anymore. This was a slight improvement. He hosted me up and then a big Soc walked up to us. Curly and I looked at each other seeming to read each others minds. I went with a right hook and Curly went with a punch to the stomach. The guy didn't expect us to be so in sync and let out a huff. He pulled himself together quickly though and took down Curly who was closer. I then jumped in to help and we were all throwing punches and kicking each other. Finally Curly and I seemed to have the upper hand. We were going at it, when one of his buddies came over and knocked me over.
I hadn't seen this guy coming and I slammed into the ground. I saw stars for a second and looked up just in time to roll out of the way as his foot came down trying to smash my face in. All of a sudden Darry was there growling in the guys ear about picking on someone his own size. The guy didn't look back at me as I sat up to take in my surroundings and look for the gang. Darry was going to town on that guy. The Soc wasn't getting a single hit in. Soda seemed to be making his way over to us with Steve always close by. Johnny and Dally were teaming up on a guy together. Curly was no where to be seen. At first Two-Bit wasn't either, but then on the outskirts I saw him with a beer in hand chugging it. He then seemed to catch my eye because he threw the bottle behind him, gave me a wink, and then jumped and tackled a Soc to the ground.
I don't know how long I was sitting on the ground taking it all in, but Soda had finally made his way over to me. He reached down and pulled me to my feet. He looked me over and asked "you doing ok honey?" I just nodded back. He gave a smile "I saw you and and the Shepard kid take that guy down. Good work!" before I could say anything back he turned around and swore "Gotta go help Steve. keep up the good work" and he ran off to get some Soc off of Steve.
I tried to see where I should go next. I saw a smaller soc and figured that would be a better match up. As I walked up to him, I bumped into Curly again. He gave a wicked grin and then took off for I swear the biggest guy there. I rolled my eyes but figured I should probably help him out instead. We both ran at this guy and with the force of both of us were able to knock him down. We started kicking and punching him and then Curly got behind him and was choking him out. All of a sudden Curly's eyes got wide and he screamed "Ponyboy watch out!" I looked at him confused. Watch out for what? and then in that moment I felt someone hit me in the back of the head.
I fell over and then looked up to see the smaller Soc I had originally planned on going for. He tried to kick me since I was down, but I grabbed his foot and he tripped and fell to the ground. I jumped on him and started throwing punches. Next thing I knew I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up and saw Johnny smiling down at me. "Ponyboy it's over! We won! You can stop now" I looked around and sure enough the Socs were all getting up and running back to their fancy cars. The Greasers were all cheering and hollering. I got off the guy and he stood up and stumbled off.
Curly came over to me as I stood next to Johnny taking in the scene around me "I told you to watch out. I ain't never calling you Ponyboy again. Clearly you respond better to little Curtis. Maybe even Baby Curtis would be better" I rolled my eyes and socked him in the arm for good measure. "You do have a good right swing Ponyboy. I'm impressed. See you at school on Monday?" He questioned. "Yeah gonna be your new classmate" I responded. He gave a sly smile "well this will be fun then" and then he ran off to go find Tim and his gang.
"That kid is going to get you in a lot of trouble Ponyboy" Johnny said as we walked over to our gang. They weren't hard to find as they were the most lively of the bunch that's for sure. I just shrugged "I don't plan on messing up my schooling because of Curly Shepard" Johnny just nodded as we met up with everyone. Dally had some split knuckles and a cut on his face. Steve had his arm wrapped around his stomach but otherwise seemed fine. Soda had a split lip but seemed drunk off the fight. Two-Bit was just drunk. He had a black eye, maybe would have two, but he didn't seem in any pain and with how much he reeked of alcohol I wasn't surprised. Johnny seemed a bit beat up, but wasn't acting like it phased him in the slightest. He got it worse at home. Darry didn't seem to have a scratch on him.
Darry again bent down in front of me and started looking me over. He was twisted my head around trying to get a good look at my face and then was about to pull up my shirt to check my stomach but I pushed him away "I'm fine Darry!" I yelled at him. He really looked me over trying to read my eyes for a sign of a lie, but I didn't really feel all that bad. But maybe that was just the adrenaline running because I knew I had taken a few hits.
He finally seemed to sense I was telling the truth and stood up and said "You got some bruises on your face and a split lip. They are going to start hurting when you come down from the adrenaline high." I couldn't believe he was calling me out on my injuries in front of everyone when they looked just as well off as me. Well maybe not all of them, but everyone was at least a little banged up. You couldn't not be after a fight like this. It's not like I was crying or anything. Why was he calling me out?
Darry seemed to sense what I was thinking and added "but you did really good kiddo! I'm impressed. I saw your punches and you really held your own." Soda threw his arm over my shoulder "of course he did great! He's a Curtis after all! We all can take and throw a punch!" I grinned up at him and we all laughed and celebrated our win some more.
Darry went and talked to Tim one more time and then we all started walking home. As we started walking the adrenaline started to wear off and I was starting to feel all my bruises. I was getting tired and it was hard to walk. Darry must have noticed that I was slowing down because he reached back and picked me up and put me on his shoulders. To save me embarrassment he called out "To Ponyboys first rumble and a good win at that!" the whole gang let out a whoop and a cheer. I couldn't help but smile at that.
As we got closer to that house I whispered in Darry's ear "what are we going to tell Mom?" He seemed to stiffen at that and then just said "hopefully she's already asleep and we can get cleaned up before she sees us." I wasn't so sure we would get that lucky.
But I was wrong. The lights were on when we got to the house and the guys all took off to their own places. Darry put me down and I held my breath as we walked in. Luckily it was just Dad sitting in his recliner watching TV. He looked at us as we walked in and after deciding that we didn't look too bad asked "how did it go?" We sat down on the couch and all jumped into an explanation of what happened and how it went. Both Darry and Soda praised me in the storytelling. I said a few things, but was really feeling tired after the whole ordeal.
Dad seemed to notice that I was starting to doze and stood up to crouch in front of me. "Ponyboy you can't go to sleep yet. I need you to go get cleaned up first. I want to take a good look at you and then you can go to bed ok?" I just nodded and he helped me to my feet. We all made our way to the bathroom and Soda and I sat on the edge of the tub while Darry sat on the toilet seat. Dad handed out wash cloths and started bandaging us all up. Mostly me really, but the other two stayed while he went to work. He sprayed some stuff on my cuts that made them sting for a second and cleaned off my face. Finally he was done with all us boys and Soda and Darry left to their room. Dad helped me stand back up and told me how proud he was of me. That I didn't seem too hurt and he knew I had really held my own. I felt so happy knowing he thought I was just as tough as my brothers.
The second I laid down in my bed I was out like a light. I was pretty sure I would be sore in the morning and we still never came up with a story to tell Mom, but that was tomorrows problem.