Johnnyboy

Chapter 1

"Johnnycakes?" I heard Ponyboy called. We were in the vacant lot by his house together, staring at the stars.

"Yeah?" I called back.

It was like we were only ten. We were playing hide-and-seek again. We did that when we were bored. Ponyboy always called my name to make sure I didn't get lost, or get jumped by some Socs. We all know what happened when I had trouble with the Socs.

"Just makin' sure," Ponyboy laughed.

I was hiding underneath some scrap metal. The city couldn't find places to put their leftover junk from buildings and stuff, so they decided it would be great to put it in a lot by a bunch of homes. Great thinking. It makes a great hiding place, though, so I ain't complaining. Anyway, there was a small hole in one of the scraps I was hiding behind and I could vaguely see Ponyboy looking for me.

"I'm gonna find you, Johnnycakes!" Ponyboy said.

"No you ain't!" I laughed. I think he heard where my voice was coming from because he immediately ran towards the scrap metal and peeked over it.

"There y'are!" he yelled as he tackled me and kissed me.

"Aw dang it, this was a pretty good hiding place, wasn't it?" I said, struggling to get up.

Ponyboy nodded, "It really was."

We both silently got up. I brushed off the dirt off my pants and shirt.

"It's pretty rude to dump all these scraps here, though," Ponyboy said, "I mean, people live here. I'm sure these people livin' across from the lot ain't wanna see all this junk here on their way to and from work."

I nodded. He practically read my thoughts. We were silent for a moment. Ponyboy and I stood there, thinking of something to do. Hide-and-seek gets pretty old when you're only fourteen or sixteen.

"You wanna go back to my house or somethin'?" Ponyboy finally spoke. "I heard Darry was makin' some sorta new chocolate cake. Sounds weird."

I smiled. We all loved chocolate cake in the gang. The Curtis brothers loved it the most, they were crazy for chocolate.

"Yeah, sure," I replied, starting to walk with Ponyboy.

While we were walking, we spotted Steve and Soda walking back from their work. At first, we thought everything was normal. Then I remembered Soda normally drives back with Steve, who then walks home.

"Hey, Ponyboy!" Sodapop called.

"Hey, Soda," Ponyboy called back. "Where's the car? If you wrecked it, Darry's gonna be awful mad."

"Um," Soda stuttered, "Come here. I'll explain."

Ponyboy and I started running towards Sodapop. Steve didn't seem to want to talk, he seemed mad or something. I could see why. A DX Station is pretty far from the Curtis brothers home.

"So, uh, you see..." Sodapop said, "While we were in work, this Soc just randomly ran out of the room for workers only. We tried to stop him, but there was nothing he stole so we let him go. Later, Steve and I were about to go get the car keys, when they were gone. So we were gonna just go break into our own car, we've done it before, but it was literally gone. So, basically, the Soc stole our car."

Ponyboy laughed. "Do you know what the Soc looked like?"

Sodapop shrugged and said, "He had black hair. That's all I know. He was a pretty fast runner, so he got away fast. Must've run away and then back here to get the car."

Ponyboy laughed again. I guess he finds this stuff funny. I don't know, maybe it was. But I felt badly for Steve, he seemed pretty ticked off. We all walked into the Curtis brothers house and I could smell the chocolate cake. It never normally smelled this strong so I knew it was a new recipe.