The Outsiders {Spanking}

The Calm

A/N: To anyone who has read 'That Was Then This Is Now', remember that all those events happen a year after the Outsiders. I won't say what events to avoid spoilers but if you know you know ;)

Ponyboy's POV

These last few days have been more than a little strange. The soc stayed on their side of town, and we haven't heard anything from the cops about me shooting that boy. The Shepard's were also laying low, not wanting to stir the pot with us because Darry did win the fight. Our two gangs were back to coexisting, with only a little more tension than usual.

Dally was somehow let back into the gang, Darry said they talked it out, but I could guess what really happened. He's been pretty chill though, making sure not to do anything rash. He said he was on some probation thing, poor guy seems bored out of his mind.

Soda has been pretty good too. He'll go to work and then either go to Steve's or back home. He was still serving his week long punishment so that's probably why.

Everyone else was a little tense all the time. We would walk in groups even in daylight, just waiting for the calm to end and the storm to begin.

I was currently sitting on the porch, going through one of my favorite books, Gone With The Wind. Darry surprised me by picking up a pack of colored sticky notes. I could rarely find them in the stores, but when I do I like to go through my books and tab them up. I've been itching to write my thoughts in the pages too, though I can't get myself to actually mark the book yet.

"Sup dude." My head jerked up and saw Curly Shepard walking through the gate and onto the porch.

"Hey." I smiled at him. We haven't got to properly hangout since he's gotten back. I bet he had a thousand stories from reformatory school that I'm dying to hear about.

Curly sat next to me, narrowing his eyes and he looked at my color coated book. "Book report?" He asked with disgust lingering in his voice.

"Yeah." I lied, not in the mood to be made fun of. "Whatcha doing here?" I changed the subject.

"Wanted to see if ya wanted to hang." Curly shrugged and pulled a cigarette pack out of his jacket pocket. He put one in his mouth and offered me one. I shrugged and took it, and let Curly light it with his old zippo lighter.

"Sure." I shrugged again. It was a school night, but I'd finished all my homework so I'd probably be allowed to go out. "Where ya wanna go?"

Curly smirked and then blew perfect rings. "There's a small party tonight, down at Charlie's Bar." He looked at me with devilish eyes. "Wanna come?"

Charlie's Bar was on the other side of town, closer to the city. The Shepards like to hang around there a lot but I kinda avoid it. The town was in my school district, so I knew some of the kids from there, but a lot of them were routy, a lot like the Shepard's. Worse in some ways even.

Charlie's Bar wasn't as bad as Buck Merrill's, and technically I was never told not to go to it. But I'm sure they wouldn't let a fourteen and fifteen year old kid in anyways."How'd we get in?" I asked, slightly considering going.

"Charlie owes me one, don't ask why, but he'll let us in." Curly raised his eyebrows at me and took another blow. "So you coming or what?"

I knew I probably shouldn't, but it kinda sounded fun. "Does Tim know you're going?" Tim would rat to Darry before I would even reach the bar.

"Nope." Curly said, popping the p. "Not that he'd care or anything, but still I didn't mention it."

"I don't know, I'd better not." I shrugged. A lot of thugs hug around that part of town. I didn't want to cause any more trouble.