aching and shaking. (The Outsiders story)

chapter four

"rise and shine" pony shook me a little as his face was still covered in ashes. "go and shower before anyone else" he smiled as he propped himself up on an elbow, and i smiled along with him. a rule in the house was that when i get to the bathroom, i get to be by myself alone. usually the boys all shared it at once, but since i'm the only girl in the household i got it all to myself.

"alright" i swung my legs over the bed and rubbed my eyes. i grabbed some clean clothes out of ponys drawers and headed out of his room.

i hurried and got to the bathroom, stripped down and turned on the cold water. it felt good as it trickled down my face, but not that good on my blisters. it was a change to be washing shorter hair. i scrubbed off all of the grub and shut off the shower. darry hated when i take long showers because everyone has to go in there, i didn't blame him.

i dried off quickly and slipped on the new clothes that didn't stick to my body anymore and did my hair. i used a tiny dab of the grease to make it stay, but not to much so my little baby hairs would stick out here and there.

i had a plain maroon t-shirt on with my black leather jacket that dally got, i should say stole, for me my last birthday. i also wore some jeans along with it.

i opened the door and see pony waiting anxious on the couch to get in. i just smiled a little and gradually moved out of the way and sunk into a chair while i waited for him to get out, as well as for the rest of the gang to arrive.

~

i sat in the kitchen with pony because he was the first one done getting ready. he was frying eggs on the stove. pony greased his hair today, which he tried to get it to look how it used to be. i liked it when it was all messy and not slicked.

"anybody home?" two-bit shouted as he opened the door.

"yeah in here, just don't slam the door" pony yelled back as i heard the screen door slam. two-bit came around the corner, picked up pony with the frying pan in his hand, flinging around the eggs that were in it.

"ponyboy curtis!" two-bit yelled excitedly as steve walked in too.

"what are you doin?" pony asked frustrated as the other two boys were hugging him. pony started to mumble something while he was picking up the food on the floor.

"look at the blonde haired monkey!" two-bit and steve laughed in ponys face. i missed two-bits laugh, it always made me smile. "and look at little shorty!" two-bit went on as he looked at my hair. pony walked over angered with my coffee and set it down carefully. me and darry were the only people who drank coffee in the house, and pony thought it was disgusting.

"hi two-bit." i smiled, got up and gave him a little hug.

"hey kiddo" he replied and i went over to steve and gave him one too.

"i would've never thought it would be you two if it weren't for the paper" steve pulled out the newspaper from the front of his jeans. "hey tell me (y/n) and ponyboy, what's it like being a hero huh?" steve looked at both me and pony while i was sipping my cup.

"what?" pony threw down a wet cloth as steve handed him the paper. i got up from the chair and walked over to go and see what was going on.

"maybe like uh, like uh, bigshot or something?" steve kept going on as i had to stand on my tiptoes to see over pony's shoulder. steve and two-bit kept talking about something as i was examining all of our pictures in the paper.

"they're charging johnny with manslaughter?" i grabbed the paper from ponys hand to make sure i read it that right.

"well i get it if he..." pony took the paper back from my hand as he trailed off at the end.