The next morning I woke up to the sounds of my family shuffling around in the kitchen and bathroom. I knew Mom would be in here soon telling me to get up. With Dad, Darry, and now Soda all having work this morning it was a bit louder than usual. I heard them all getting ready and Mom cooking something in the kitchen. I started to get up, but the minute I sat up in bed I let out a string of sneezes. I then realized how much my head was hurting and how stuffed up I was.
I sightly cursed in my head. I really should have worn my jacket. Mom was going to kill me. I can't believe I actually got sick! I was debating getting up and trying to hide that I was sick, or just giving in from the start and laying back down when Mom came into the room to tell me breakfast was ready.
"Come on Ponyboy! Up and at..." She trailed off as she met up eyes. "Oh honey! How are you feeling?" She immediately walked over to my bed and felt my forehead. I must have looked pretty bad if she knew that quickly. Guess that meant I wasn't going to be able to hide it this time. Not that I ever thought I really could pull one over on Mom. She knew all somehow. "You're burning up baby. Lay back down and I'll go get the thermometer and some medicine." She tucked me back in bed and then left the room.
I heard voices outside and knew Mom had told everyone else that I was sick. Dad walked in and sat on the edge of my bed "Sorry you're sick kiddo. I guess I should have made you wear that jacket yesterday." It wasn't his fault that I caught a cold, but I knew Dad would be hearing it from Mom later. She always hated that he never would enforce her rules. She was usually right. "I've got to get to work, so get some rest today and I'll see you when I'm home. Be good for your mother and do what she says." he patted my arm and stood up to leave. "Bye Dad! Love you!" I called out through my stuffed up nose. "Love you too Ponyboy." and with that he headed out for work. I heard him talking to Mom and could tell she was already mad at him.
Soda popped his head in before leaving "you just had to get sick and prove Mom right didn't you?" he teased with a grin on his face. I let out a chuckle which turned into a cough. That brought Mom back into the room. She pushed Soda out telling him to stay away from me because she didn't want two sick kids and he had his new job to start. Soda gave me a wink and then left with Darry and Dad.
"Finally some quiet in this house" Mom said walking towards me with all her supplies. She had a cup of water, the thermometer and a bottle of medicine. The gross kind. I stuck my tongue out at that. "I know it doesn't taste good baby but you have to take it." She set everything down on my desk and started by taking my temperature. While we were waiting for the temperature reading, Mom started her lecture on how she knew this would happen and I should have listened to her. With the thermometer in my mouth I couldn't say anything back and just nodded as she spoke.
Finally she pulled it out. "100.6. Not horrible, but you're definitely sick." She poured out some medicine on a spoon and tried to hand it to me. I wrinkled my noise and wouldn't take it. Have I mentioned I'm pretty stubborn? "Ponyboy you have to take this. It's not a question. Here." she pinched my mouth and shoved the spoon in. I gulped down the medicine and gave a shutter at the tasted. "Yuck!" I whined at her. "I'm sorry but it will make you feel better. Here drink some water." I took the glass and tried to rinse out the taste in my mouth. She took the glass back and stood up. "Ok I want you to get some rest. If you are feeling better in a little bit you can study some more, but you aren't leaving this bed for a few days. Christmas is Friday and I don't want you sick" I just gave her a nod and sunk back down in my bed. Sleep did sound pretty nice right now. I vaguely heard my bedroom lights being shut off and Mom leaving the room and was asleep once again.
Around lunch I woke up again. Mom brought me some soup and took my temperature again. It had gone down a little. She gave me more medicine, but I didn't want to sleep anymore so instead I studied in bed for a bit. I must have fallen asleep again at some point though because I woke up to the sound of the front door opening and Dad and Darry coming home. From the sound of it Soda was already back too.
Dad came into the room "How's it going kiddo? Feeling better?" I sat up and started shuffling all the papers that were all over my bed from when I feel asleep. "Yeah I'm feeling a bit better. Still a little cold and my head hurts." Dad just nodded. "I'll go get you some more medicine and some dinner." and then he walked out.
I heard laughing out in the living room and knew the gang must be over. Johnny came to my doorway "Hey Pony. They say you're sick. How are you feeling?" I can always count on Johnny to care about where I am. "I'm ok. Felt worse this morning, but I don't think Mom will let me out of here for another day at least." Johnny just nodded his head at that. Dad walked back holding another bowl of soup. Guess that's all I was going to be aloud to eat. At least Mom made pretty good soups. "Hey Johnny. Probably best not to be in here. We don't want any of you boys getting sick too." Johnny just looked at him and then nodded "Yeah sure thing Mr. C. See you later Ponyboy. Feel better!" He called out as he walked out of the room.
Dad sat down next to me and kept me company while I ate. He knew it was killing me being excluded from the gang. After I was done eating and took more medicine I started to lay down again. I was still feeling tired. "Rest up kiddo. We want you better for the Christmas activities in a few days!" I nodded and closed my eyes. I noticed that the outside sounds died down. Mom or Dad must have kicked everyone out or at least told them to stay quiet for my sake. With the house being so quiet I fell asleep quickly and was out for the night.
The next two days were pretty much the same. Mom kept me on bedrest and brought food to me. Taking care of my every need. I studied when I was awake and slept a lot. She also kept all the boys away from me because she really didn't want this to spread. That was a challenge though. Soda made it his personal mission to sneak in and see me. It started to become a game to him, but when Mom caught him trying to come in from my window she shut his so called rescue mission down. "Sodapop Patrick! Knock it off! Do you want to be sick in bed and miss Christmas?" That one finally hit home with Soda. He LOVED Christmas and would not want to miss that. He stopped trying to sneak in after that, but would still poke his head in my room every time he walked past to check on how I was doing. Darry only stopped by once. But why did he care if his 13 year old brother had a cold? It didn't affect him. He had parents to deal with that. Wasn't his responsibility. He didn't want to get sick and miss work anyways so I didn't blame him. The guys must have been staying away because I didn't hear them much over those days.
Finally on Christmas Eve I was released from my bedroom prison. I didn't have a fever for 24 hours and I wasn't really coughing anymore. I still had a bit of a runny nose, but Mom said I was ok to come out and join civilization again. She did say I wasn't allowed to go outside yet though. It was getting colder by the day. We might even have snow on Christmas morning! But for the time being leaving my bedroom was enough. Unfortunately even though I was free, Dad, Darry, and Soda still had work. They only got Christmas day off. So even though I was free, there still wasn't anything to do until everyone came home.
I started to wonder what the rest of the gang was up to since it was Christmas Eve and everything, but they usually didn't come around the house until later. I don't actually know what they do during the day. Steve was working with Soda I guess. And I'm sure Two-Bit slept in late and then probably lazed around. Dally was always up to something and I think somehow Johnny ended up finding him most days. Sometimes he would come over to hang out here during the day if we didn't have school, but usually he was also absent until the whole gang showed up. Since our house was always the meeting point I didn't really know what everyone else got up to.
While I waited for something exciting to happen I decided I might as well study some more. That test was only a week away. Learning a years worth of school in just a few weeks was a lot to accomplish. I was feeling pretty good about most of it, but I was struggling with the math. I tried asking Mom to help, but math wasn't her strongest subject either. She suggested I get help from Darry later. He was the only one that was good at math. Soda didn't take school seriously so he was never any help. Dad couldn't help much either. He dropped out of high school when he was 16. His parents were more like Steve's family or even Dally's. I don't really know much about his parents, just that they weren't involved much. I technically met them when I was a baby, but I don't remember and we haven't seen them in probably 10 years. That's why Dad was so close to Uncle Patrick. They were part of a tight gang, but when the war happened most of the boys didn't come back. So Dad dropped out of high school and started roofing houses.
Mom on the other hand had a real good close family. She wasn't Soc status, but her family had some money. She had two younger brothers, Michael and Shaynne, who she said she basically raised, and a little sister too, but she ended up dying at only 8 years old. She had always been a sick kid. After that her parents became really strict. Mom said it was out of fear of losing another child, so when she met Dad at a high school party and immediately fell in love with him, her parents weren't too happy about it. She ended up graduating high school all while secretly dating Dad. She had plans to go to college and Dad was even going to move to be close to her when she started. Well shortly after graduating Mom found out she was pregnant with Darry. Her parents kicked her out and she never saw them again. I guess in the end they did lose another child just due to stubbornness really. Dad and Mom quickly got married and were on their own to start a new life.
Mom always says she doesn't regret anything in her life, that having Darry was the best thing that could have ever happened and then when Soda and I came around she knew her life was perfect, but sometimes I think she is sad knowing that her family is out there somewhere and she doesn't know what happened to them. I think she mostly thinks about her brothers. The first boys that she raised.
After struggling through homework for a few hours Soda and Steve finally walked in the door. "Pony you're alive!" Soda shouted seeing me sitting at the kitchen table. He ran over and gave me a hug. "I thought you would never be released from your sentence!" he ruffled my hair and I started laughing. Mom walked in "Soda please. He wasn't in jail he was sick and I wasn't having anyone else get sick too." but she seemed happy that we were together again.
"Well you got out just in time. Christmas is tomorrow! Don't you know that we have lots to do to prep. Cookies to eat, games to play, and we need to set a trap for Santa!" I let out a laugh. "Soda I know Santa isn't real!" Soda put his hand to his chest and gasped "why I never! I wouldn't have believed that you would have been part of the unbelievers Pony! You know those who don't believe don't get presents!" he then started tickling me. I couldn't breath I was laughing so hard. "Say you believe Pony!" Soda called out. "Ok, ok, I believe! I believe!" I said while laughing. Soda stopped tickling me and Darry and Dad walked in the door.
"You believe in what?" Dad asked. "Pony was just letting us know that he does in fact still believe in Santa." Soda teased. Steve was chuckling from the couch and Darry lifted an eyebrow. "Really Pony?" he asked. I opened my mouth to protest but Soda held up his hands and whispered "remember what happens to those who don't believe." I didn't want to get tickled again, my bladder wouldn't handle it so I closed my mouth and shrugged.
"Well a little belief and magic never hurt anyone" Dad said as he walked by. "Glad to see you out of your room Pony." He went over and gave Mom her welcome home kiss. Darry strode past to go get cleaned up after working all day and I called out "Hey Darry!" he turned around to look at me. "Could you help me with this math later?" I asked. He smiled and gave a nod and then headed to his room. I knew Darry would help out. He always liked showing off how smart he was. Made him feel important I think.