One day after his DX shift, Soda and Pony get jumped on their way home. The officers' classist mindsets nearly lead to the death of Ponyboy and Darry has quite the bone to pick with them.

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A/N: I apologize for keep torturing the Curtis brothers i can't help it- I was supposed to make this all one chapter but I got tired and I'm splitting it into two 3

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It had been a good day. It hadn't been too busy at the DX, but busy enough so that Sodapop didn't fall asleep at the cash register. Unfortunately, he wasn't assigned to work in the garage today and Steve had to go into school, but his boss was easy on him and just had him stay in the storefront. Not to mention, a few nice girls had stopped by, and the one with pretty golden hair and green eyes that caught his eye had given him her number, so that sure brightened his day.

He was just about to be switched out for the evening shift when the doorbell jingled, signaling a customer coming in. Soda rolled his eyes and stood up from where he was resting his chin on his hand on the counter and shut the magazine he was glossing over. His bored expression turned into a grin when he saw his little brother walk to the counter instead of some hot-headed customer annoyed about the gas prices.

"Hey, Pony!" Soda exclaimed, reaching over the counter to ruffle his brother's hair. Ponyboy giggled and swatted his older brother's hand away.

"Hi, Soda," Pony smiled.

"I'm almost done here. The next shift should be coming in soon," Soda told him, turning around to look at the clock hanging on the wall behind the register.

"'Kay," Pony answered him, grabbing a bottle of Pepsi from the mini fridge and popping the cap. He dug a nickel out of his pocket and slid it onto the counter. Soda muttered a thanks and put it into the register.

"So, how was school?" Sodapop asked as he rang Pony up for the pepsi.

"It was fine. Not much homework, thank God. Just gotta finish up some reading for English."

Soda smiled and nodded. He was so proud of his little brother and how smart he was. He kept up with his work well, and even though Darry may not always be pleased with the grades he brings home, Sodapop knows better than anyone how much he tries because he's the one who's kept up at night by Pony working at their desk in their bedroom late into the night. Plus, it's better than he could ever do, so he wasn't in any spot to judge Ponyboy's work ethic.

"You're free to leave, Curtis," The evening manager called out as he walked in from the back entrance. "Graham told me he'd be a few minutes late the other day. I'll cover it until then."

"Oh, okay. Thanks!" Sodapop said, wasting no time to walk out from around the counter and get out of there. He took Pony by the shoulder who was still sipping on his pepsi, towards the back room so he could clock out and grab his coat, and they left.

"Darry's gonna be late tonight, right?" Pony asked, once they were out of there.

"Yeah, I think so. Said it was because of the rain the other day, so they gotta work overtime." Soda answered.

"Guess that means dinner's on us, huh?" Pony told him, looking up at Soda.

"Uh, no," Soda laughed out incredulously, thinking back to the last few times Ponyboy cooked dinner for the family. "I'll cook and you can shake in some salt. I don't want to end up with no salmon-vanilla."

Ponyboy barked out a laugh. "You mean salmonella?"

"Yeah, yeah, tomato, tomato," (that's supposed to be saying tomato in two different ways. I didn't make him say tomato twice for no reason lmao) Soda said, shoving Pony lightly and laughed. Ponyboy rolled his eyes and laughed as well.

"Maybe we can order a pizza or something-" Sodapop began, before he was cut off by a loud honk of a horn from behind them. They both whipped their heads around to see a red Corvair car trailing them, two well-dressed teenage boys in the drivers and passengers seat, with at least three more of them in the back, all wearing vicious smiles. Socs.

Soda and Pony's smiles dropped as soon as they saw just a glance of red, looking morbidly similar to the color of blood in the moment, knowing nobody they knew that they were friendly with had a red car, nevermind a Corvair. Sodapop grabbed Pony's arm and dragged him along a little faster, not waiting a second to see what these guys would do to them.

"You have a blade, Soda?" Pony muttered, not looking up at him so that he could keep a natural demeanor for the socs.

"No," Soda whispered back, the fear settling in for the first time. If the socs in the car decided to jump them, they were royally screwed. Then, an idea dawned on him. "Give me your bottle," Sodapop whispered, leaning down a bit without stopping their stride down the sidewalk. Pony nodded and discreetly handed Soda his empty pepsi bottle without questioning. For the first time he's grateful for his brother's gentle nature that doesn't make him prone to throwing garbage just about anywhere when he doesn't need it anymore.

"Don't pay no mind to them, just keep walking." Soda whispered again before standing up straight, holding the glass bottle so that it would be unseen by the socs who were still trailing them in their car for the time being. They could hear them jeering at them from the unrolled windows and the car suddenly went a little faster, rolling up to Ponyboy and Soda and keeping pace with their walking speed.

Both of them could hear their nasty and hurtful comments, but they pretended to pay no mind anyway. In a different situation, when there was only one or two of 'em, Soda wouldn't hesitate to unload every curse and insult that he knew of. Hell, he'd fight them if it came to it. A little fistfight never hurt anyone, not in this town anyway. But it wasn't one of those situations. There was a carload of them, probably with weapons, trailing him and his little brother. If he triggered them, it'd put them both in jeopardy.

Looking back, Sodapop doesn't really understand why he couldn't have just kept walking. Although all he did was turn his head enough so that he could meet one of the soc's eyes and give him a dirty look, he didn't know that was enough to set them off.

Suddenly the car sped up and cut them off, driving up on the sidewalk so that the car was half on it and half off. Ponyboy let out a surprised gasp as Soda yanked him back by his arm, surprised as well.

"Can't ignore us now, grease," The one who was driving the Corvair spoke up after he got out of the car as well as everyone else. All five of them sauntered over, their faces drawn with malicious scowls and malevolent smiles. They were all tall and well-built, the shortest one being up to Soda's height. Instinctively, Soda pushed Pony behind him and one of the socs who came from the back seat mocked the action with an 'awwe'.

"Protecting your kid brother, huh?" The same one said. He had dark brown hair, dark, beady eyes, and a food stain in the corner of his mouth that Soda needed to restrain himself from saying something about or else they'd knock his lights out so fast he wouldn't even see the fists flying. Unfortunately, Pony didn't hold back.

"At least I have a family that loves me," Even though he muttered under his breath, everyone heard him loud and clear and Sodapop pinched his arm, although he really wanted to laugh and pat his back for that one.

'Damn it, Darry's right. He really does need to use his head.'

"What did you say, kid?" He growled, stepping forward, the rest doing the same.

"Look asshole, just leave us alone. You jumping us would start a rumble, you know that, right?" Sodapop tried to reason, but knowing they probably weren't going to back down. He gripped the bottle that was still in his hand tighter, prepared to bash it over the head of whoever attacked first and beat it out of there with Pony.

The soc just gave them an off putting smirk, and one behind him spoke up.

"Enough with the casualties. Get them."

And just like that, they attacked. As promised, the first soc that went after Soda was greeted with a glass bottle to the head, opening many little cuts and painting his curly blonde hair red in seconds. He socked another soc in the face and prepared to turn to grab his brother and run, until his arm was yanked back, stopping him from running and he was knocked on the back of the head rather hard. It threw him off more than he'd like to admit, but it made his ears ring and vision a bit blurry for the tiniest second.

Through this blurry vision, he saw two of the socs manhandling his little brother, trying to pull his arms free from their grip, successfully punching one of their faces hard enough to send them stumbling back a bit. But they quickly overpowered him again and pulled out a blade. This made Sodapop see red, and with a strength he didn't know he had, he forcefully pulled himself away from the guys who were holding him. He elbowed one of the guys in the nose, hearing the satisfying crack come from it and the shout that followed. In response to this, another soc got in front of him, seemingly ready to grab Sodapop and throw him down, but before he could do so Soda kicked him in the stomach, making the soc double over in pain. He ignored the hands that continued to grab at his shoulders, arms, and clothing, and made a beeline for the soc that was restraining his brother. He knew better than to immediately go after the soc with the blade, because God forbid he cut, or stabbed, either him or Ponyboy in retaliation. He tackled the one that was holding his brother, which just so happened to be the dirty, beady eyes soc, and grabbed him by the neck, shocking him so that he would let go of Pony and wouldn't bring him down when Soda pummeled him.

Meanwhile, Ponyboy didn't hesitate to begin to rain his punches on any soc he could get his hands on first. Although he was smaller than all of them, he was fast and still pretty strong, so the punches definitely made an effect. But suddenly, a hard punch to the chest knocked the wind out of him and he was knocked down, and the four socs he was facing got on top of him quickly pinning him down. He tried yelling out to Soda, but the one on top of him punched him in the face a few times, cutting him off. The other three held his limbs down, although at one point he got one of his legs free and kicked the one by his feet in the nose. It just so happened to be the one that already had his nose punched in by Sodapop in the beginning, so he yelled out extra loud at that one. Loud enough to catch the attention of bystanders.

Finally, Soda got the upper hand in his one-on-one fight with the brown haired soc and knocked him pretty hard on the head a few times, throwing him out of commission. He got up, fists curled and at his side, and his heart sank when he realized all of the other socs were on top of his brother. How stupid could he be? He should have known all of the other socs would go after him when he realized that it was only him and the brown haired soc fighting on the ground.

"GET OFF HIM, YOU BITCHES!" Soda shouted at them, and a blind rage he started pounding on the ones he could get his hands on first.

Unfortunately, what he didn't know is that the one on top of Ponyboy was the one with the blade. The force of the impact from Soda threw the guy off and the hand holding it flew underneath him to catch his balance. Unfortunately Ponyboy was still under him.

This sent the blade plunging into his abdomen.

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A/N: Sorry not sorry for the cliffhanger