Stay Gold (The Outsiders FanFiction)

Chapter 3: The Playground

My eyes flashed open as soon as I heard the screen door fly open.

"Good morning, Ponyb-" Steve started to shout, until Two-Bit hit his shoulder and pointed at me.

"Shut up, Steve. She is asleep, you meathead!" Two-Bit stated.

"It's alright guys," I said as I sat up. "I was going to wake up to make the gang breakfast anyways." I explained.

Steve and Two-Bit kept asking what I was cooking for breakfast. I didn't mention a single thing.

"What don't you two go wake up the others." They nodded and took off.

When it was finished I surprised them with eggs, toast, and enough pancakes everyone could have one. There wasn't much to cook with.

"This is good." Steve said.

"Where did you learn to cook this well, Munch?" Ponyboy asked.

"Thanks, and in the girls home, they made us cook and clean."

"Good thing they did, because Darry is terrible at cooking." Sodapop said, giving Darry a teasing look.

Sodapop excused himself to go get ready for work, Ponyboy said he was going to read Gone With The Wind, Steve and Two-Bit went into the living room to watch Mickey, and Darry stayed in the kitchen with me. I moved to the sink to start washing the dishes as Darry would hand them to me.

"Darry?" I said looking up at him.

"Yeah, Munch?"

"Can you tell me a little bit about my daddy?"

"Well your daddy," he paused and sighed, "He was wild and he got in trouble with the fuz-"

"No, not what he was like!" I looked back down at the dish and acted like I was interested in washing it. "About how he...um...how he-"

"Died. He died. Well, I'll start with Johnny Cade was Ponyboy's best friend-" He started to say.

"What about Johnny?" Ponyboy interrupted. He was standing in the doorway of the kitchen, staring at me with his book in his hand.

"Nothing, Ponyboy. Here why don't you go get some milk from the store." Darry said tossing money to Pony.

"Okay, see you in a bit." Ponyboy said looking confused.

Pony left the room and I said, "What was that about?"

"Like I was saying before, Johnny was Pony's best friend. One night Pony and I got in an argument, because Pony didn't come home in time. I got real angry, and shoved him. I didn't mean to." He was getting really defensive.

"I understand. I shoved a girl at my girls home in New York, I instantly regretted it." I said.

"Anyways, he ran to the lot where Johnny was. They went to the park when some drunk Socs showed up. Bob, a Soc, was drowning Ponyboy in the fountain, and Johnny couldn't take it so he stabbed him." I kept nodding to let him know I was still listening. By this time, we had all of the dishes washed, dried, and put away, and we had moved to sitting at the table.

"Johnny and Ponyboy went to your dad for advice. Your daddy gave them a place to go. It was some old, abandoned church in the country. They went alone, and a week after they left your dad went to visit them. That's when Johnny decided to turn himself in. The church caught on fire, and your daddy, Johnny, and Ponyboy were saving some kids who were trapped inside." I was almost in tears by now.

"My daddy died in a fire, for saving children?" I said trying to hold in my tears.

"No, there is more to it than that. When they got all of the kids out, a piece of the ceiling fell on Johnny and broke his back. He was real bad off, and died at the hospital. Johnny was the only thing your daddy loved and cared about. Dally ran to a store and robbed it. He ran to the park and called me to get the gang to come help him escape the fuzz. By the time we got there he was shot and dead. The last thing he said was Pony's name."