In Vietnam

Graduation

Ponyboy's POV

After the first week, the five weeks that followed went by quickly. We went to the range to practice shooting at the end of every week. We had to work a lot more, and we went into classrooms to learn the geography and topography of Vietnam. There's lots of jungle areas in Vietnam, and there's a lot of rain. When monsoon season begins, it's not going to be pretty.

Darry, Soda, the gang, and I became closer than ever before. We've gone through a lot of shit in the past year, and we're going to go through even more in Vietnam.

The day before graduation, we finished our last run on the Wall. This time, we went two at a time, and I was paired with Soda. We were the last ones to run through. The time that we had to get was under five minutes.

When Hutch blew the whistle, Soda and I sprinted up the wall and dropped to the ground when we got over. Then, we ran through the slippery tunnel, using each other for balance. We crawled through the mud under the wire and quickly swam through the mud pit. I helped Soda out and we continued on. We went through the second slippery tunnel and made it through without a problem. Next, we had to conquer the pull-up bar. In the middle, I got a few muscle cramps, but Soda made sure I got them done. Then it was his turn. I helped encourage him when he started getting muscle cramps, and he made it. We sprinted to the rings and swung as hard as we could throughout the whole obstacle. When we finished, we jumped down and sprinted up and over the wall.

Once we were done, I took a deep breath and looked at Soda. He looked back at me and grinned. Then we started walking back to everyone, while ghost boy showed General Hutch the stopwatch. He looked very impressed.

He looked at us and said, "Ponyboy and Sodapop Curtis have finished with a time of 1 minute and 30 seconds."

Everyone started applauding, and Darry came over to us. He pulled both of us into a brief hug. Afterward, Steve, Two-Bit, Johnny, Dally, and Randy came to congratulate us. After showering and changing, we went to the mesh hall and had an actual dinner that consisted of steak.

On graduation day, we got prepared. It was the last day before we would go off to fight in the jungle land of Vietnam, and we would get our unit lists. I'm scared that I'm going to get separated from Darry and Soda.

At the graduation ceremony, General Hutch called everyone up to get their awards, and a few people get an extra award. When I got called up, I was expecting to shake their hands and go back to my seat.

When Hutch called, "Ponyboy Curtis," I was surprised when I received an extra award.

When he handed me the award, he said, "I would like to give Ponyboy Curtis an extra award, because of all the hard work and leadership he put into these past six weeks. He never let anyone down once, and that's why he deserves this award."

While I was walking back to my seat, I could see both Darry and Soda smiling out of the corner of my eye. I smiled to myself, too. Once I sat back down, everyone else was called up.

When the graduation ceremony ended, the gang met me close to the stage. All of them congratulated me on my award. While everyone was talking, Two-Bit asked, "When are we going to get our unit lists?"

General Hutch overheard Two-Bit and said, "You'll be getting them right after all the family members leave."

Right after that, a woman over the loudspeaker said, "Two minutes to say goodbye to all family members."

Two-Bit said goodbye to his mom and sister, and then we said goodbye. After, we waited to get the lists.

When it was finally time for the moment of truth, I unfolded the paper.

"Unit One: Darry, Soda, Tom, James, Alexander, Francis, Wayne, Walter, George, and Samuel. Unit Two: Ponyboy, Steve, Matthew, John, Dave, Kevin, Randy, Chris, Ryan, and Liam. Unit Three: Two-Bit, Johnny, Don, Roger, Tim, Ben, Mark, Alan, Rob, and Simon. Unit Four: Dally, Owen, Ian, Tristan, Patrick, Michael, Cameron, Anderson, Cliff, and Tyler."

I felt like crying. The one thing I feared most is coming true; I'm being separated from my brothers. I looked up from the paper directly at Soda and Darry. My eyes were filling up with tears. Soda and I made eye contact, and I couldn't help myself. I walked right over to him and hugged the shit outta him. I let a few tears drop, and then I hugged Darry. We soon felt Soda join the hug. Then, we collected ourselves together.

Soda looked at me and said, "You better write to us at least once a week."

"You bet I will. And you do the same."

"Of course."

That night, was the last "normal" night of my life. The next year would be the longest year of my life.

At 2200, it was lights out. And in the morning, we would board the plane that would take us to Vietnam.