I woke up early the next morning, but it was Sunday! Sundays were my favorite day of the week. Dad and Darry didn't have work and in the afternoon the whole gang and Dad would get together to play football in the lot. I came out of my room and into the kitchen and saw Mom was dressed in her Sunday best. The boys were still asleep in their room and Dad always slept in on his one day off.

"You coming to church with me today baby?" Mom asked as I came into the room.

"Yeah sure" I usually went to church with Mom on Sundays. I didn't mind church and I liked spending time alone with Mom for a bit.

"Ok well go get dressed quick. We need to leave soon." Mom instructed.

I took a bite of my toast and then went to get changed. Mom always made me wear my best clothes to church, but my dress pants were Sodas old ones and they were pretty baggy. With two older brothers I never had a single item of clothing that was my own. I used to get really upset about it, but then I stopped caring when I realized I either could be given new clothes as gifts or books and I will always choose new books. I was greasing my hair when Darry came in the doorway. "Pony get out I need to use the bathroom." Darry demanded.

"One minute I have to finish getting ready" I snapped back. Darry didn't seem to like that answer. He walked right behind me and then pushed me into the hallway and slammed the door shut. He shoved me harder than I'm sure he meant to and I hit the hallway wall. I spun around and immediately started pounding on the door and yelling. "Darry open up you jerk!" I screamed. He didn't acknowledge me at all from inside the bathroom. Soda stuck his head out of their bedroom door to see what was going on.

"Pony, what are you doing?" he asked me with a sleepy voice. His hair was sticking up and his eyes still looked half asleep. "Darry's being a stupid jerk again and pushed me out of the bathroom!" I yelled into the door again.

Just then Darry ripped open the door "Ponyboy shut up!" Darry yelled. "I told you I was getting ready!" I yelled back. "Both of you stop it! I was trying to sleep!" Soda now joined in on the yelling.

Mom rushed into the hallway with a very angry look on her face. "Boys! knock it off right this instant! Your father is trying to sleep so stop screaming in the house!" We didn't point out that she was yelling as she said that. We had just ticked Mom off which was never a good thing. "Soda. Darry. room. now. I don't want to see you until I get home. Ponyboy come on. car now. We are going to be late."

Darry gave me a shove as he walked back to his room and I stuck my tongue out at him behind his back. Soda noticed but luckily Mom didn't see and he didn't say anything about it. He quickly shut their bedroom door. With the door now shut I turned to look at Mom. "But Mom I'm not ready yet! Darry kicked me out!" I whined back at her.

She gave an exasperated sigh "I don't want to hear it. You look fine. Either you're coming or staying, but I'm leaving now" and she turned to leave. I sighed and threw my comb on the bathroom sink and followed her out the door mumbling the whole way. "You're not coming with me if you are going to have an attitude." she said to me as we walked to the car.

I got in the car and stayed quiet the whole drive. We made it just in time for the sermon. I was cooled off by the time we sat for the service and Mom seemed her cheery self again while talking to some of the other church ladies. The pastor talked all about being baptized and on the drive home I asked Mom why none of us were baptized.

"You can get baptized if you want sweetie, but it has to be your choice and something you want to do." she told me. I thought about it the whole drive home. Was that something I wanted to do? I wasn't sure. As we were pulling up into the driveway I finally turned to her and said "I think I'll hold off on the whole baptized thing for the moment. Maybe later." I didn't want to make a big decision like that right now when I was already changing my life quite a bit with the whole school thing. She just nodded her head and said that was fine.

We walked into the house and already Steve and Johnny were over. That wasn't surprising as they were the two who were over the most. Maybe it was because Steve and Soda were best friends and Johnny and I were the closest, but it was probably because they had the two worst home lives of the group and needed to escape.

Everyone was in the living room with the TV playing, but no one was watching. The guys were all playing poker and Dad was reading the paper. I went over to join in on the game when Mom called out "Pony change your clothes first honey." I rolled my eyes but started to head to my room to change.

"How was church today?" Dad asked Mom as I walked away. "It was good as always. A peaceful time after all the yelling of this morning." Mom replied as she gave Darry a glare. Ha! shows him for being mean to me.

Dad set his newspaper down and looked at all us boys and as I was trying to make my escape to go change he called out "what did happen this morning boys?"

Before Darry could open his mouth and somehow blame it all on me, I whirled around on my feet and hurriedly said "Darry pushed me out of the bathroom while I was getting ready for church!" Darry shot daggers at me with his eyes. If looks could kill. He then turned to face Dad "Ponyboy was hogging the bathroom and I had to go so I gently pushed him out when he didn't leave after I asked."

What? My mouth dropped open. How did he make this MY fault? "That's not true and not fair! You demanded I leave and then threw me out!" I started to yell. That was never the way to win battles in our house. Mom HATED when we yelled. Often times whoever yelled first usually got in more trouble. Darry opened his mouth to say something back, but Dad called out first. "Ok enough! I don't want to hear this argument or yelling again. That is not how we settle things in this house. Darry. Pony was getting ready this morning and I'm sure you didn't give him a chance to finish. He's your little brother and you can't just push him around just because you are bigger. You know better than that. Pony your response to being thrown out should not be screaming and throwing a fit because you didn't get your way. You are old enough to not let anger get the better of you and act like that. Now this argument is over. Pony go get changed like your mother asked and then after we eat lunch we can all go play a game of football."

Darry looked down and apologized to my parents, but I just turned on my heals and headed for my room. I can't believe I got in trouble when I did nothing wrong. After changing I stayed in my room and started reading a book. I didn't want to go back out there and see Darry's face. After a little while my door opened up. I looked up from my book to see Dad standing in the doorway. He came in and sat on the edge of my bed.

"Lunch is ready kiddo" he started and I gave him a nod and put my bookmark in my book. But then he continued "you know the way you acted this morning was wrong. You can't just go pounding on doors and screaming just because you are mad and upset. I already had a talk with Darry and even talked to Soda as well while you were gone. You three are brothers and being together is the most important thing in the world. There is nothing more important than your relationship and sticking together. I want you to remember that. I know your brothers tease you and pick on you because you're the youngest, but they both love you and would do anything for you if you needed it. Do you understand that? I don't want to see you all fighting. I get sad when you aren't all getting along. You know how close I was to my brother and I don't want you all to take your relationship for granted."

Uncle Patrick, Dads older brother, died before any of us were born in World War II. Dad always told us stories of how close he and his brother were and how much it killed him when his brother didn't come back. We all knew the stories well, but I couldn't stop myself from saying "Soda and I never fight, but Darry hates me and is always pushing me around and telling me I'm a baby."

"Come on Pony. You know Darry doesn't hate you. He might think you are a baby, but it's just because he is so much older and has already forgotten what it's like to be your age. But when you act like you did this morning you are kind of proving him right." He gave me a look and raised his eyebrow at me. I just crossed my arms and looked down. "Look, Darry has always been the oldest and he has always had more responsibility. He had to start helping out around the house at a much younger age and sometimes he takes that out on you. I know it's not fair and it's not right, but you've gotten to be a kid longer than he has and you're so smart that you'll probably get a full ride scholarship to any college. Really he can see that you'll probably make it out of here which is all he has ever wanted. I know he can be a bully to you, but I think it's just because he is jealous of you. I know in the end he would do anything for you though because he does love you."

My mouth dropped open at what Dad was saying. Darry? Jealous of me? No way. I couldn't believe that. Dad just laughed at my shocked face. "Come on. Lets go eat some lunch before the food is all gone and then beat his team in some football." I gave a smile at that and we walked into the kitchen.