Stronger with You

Back to School

Johnny
August 10, 1965

"Guys we're gonna be late! Let's get goin!" Pony yelled from beside me. We were the only two actually ready for the first day of school.

I was going to drop out. I'm awful lousy when it comes to school, but Ponyboy had told he would tutor me.

Peyton ran in, her face was red and she was gasping for air, "sorry, Soda was tickling me." She was wearing a pair of jeans, white chucks, a white shirt, and one of Soda's red flannel shirts over the white one. Her hair was in a ponytail with a red bandanna wrapped around her head.

Soda snuck up behind her with a large grin on his face, "Gotcha!" He shouted grabbing her sides.

I watched the two laugh together, watched how they loved each other. Part of me longed for that, but I don't think there's anyone meant for me out there.

"I'm ready!" Maya shouted walking into the living room from the kitchen, she wore a pair of jeans with a tight white shirt tucked in, black chucks laced tightly to her feet. Dal's ring was on her necklace.

"Are we ready now?" Pony asked impatiently. He always got tense when it came to school.

"Two-Bit lets go!" Maya yelled, Two-Bit made his way out of the kitchen.

"I had to finish my beer! I'm ready." Two-Bit laughed, his grin was wide. None of us could comprehend why he loved school so much.

Peyton and Soda shared a kiss before she joined us outside in the porch.

"Can you believe summer is over. It feels like yesterday we were walking on the last day of school." Peyton sighed, she was holding the straps of her backpack tightly.

"Personally, I'm excited." Two-Bit walked backwards to face all of us, "Ole Stevie and I have three of the same classes!"

"Where is Steve?" Maya asked looking around.

"Oh he rode with Evie," Peyton said, kicking a rock, "he's pretty serious about her."

"I like Evie alright. She ain't that bad. She must be out of her mind to like Steve though." Two-Bit laughed, then launched into some wild story about a blonde he had a thing with.

Pony and I walked behind the rest of them. This was normally how it went, we walked behind the gang listening to their conversations.

"You ready for school, Johnny?" Pony asked, we were far enough behind that they couldn't hear our conversation, not that they would be listening anyways.

"Yeah, we only have two classes together and that makes me a little nervous," I say. Pony was put into most of the smart classes, while I was put in normal ones.

"The first one is first period while the second class is last. That means I can help you with all your work during last period, since it's a study hall." Pony smiled, "This year will be a good one."

I only nodded in response. School made me all sorts of nervous.

Pony and I were freshman, Peyton was a sophomore, Two-Bit and Steve were juniors, while Maya was a senior.

We all had study hall together at the end of the day, thats where they put most greasers for last periods.

"Okay, since we all have last period together we don't need a meeting spot, but if Darry or Soda is giving us a ride, they'll meet us in the south parking lot." Maya looked at all of us as she spoke, "Pony, Johnny, Steve and Two-Bit, y'all have first lunch together while Peyton and I have second, so then we won't be together. If there's an emergency we all have each others schedules, walk by the class we're in and do the whistle. Everyone got it?" We al nodded in agreement.

School could be a very dangerous place for us Greasers. No one knew when the Socs could pull something, even some teachers hated us or were scared of us.

Pony and I's first class was Health with Mr. Williams, he was the football coach so all period we sat there listening to him talk about his star players.

Our next hour was Algebra I, Pony went to the smart class and I went to the normal one was Mrs. Hackley, an older teacher. She gave us our books, told us what we would be doing then gave us the rest of the hour to ourselves.

I sat in the back of all my classes hoping to go unnoticed. Even though most of the Socs were in the smart classes, the rare ones were in normal ones. The bell rang, I waited for a second until I was the last one to leave the room.

I hurried to my locker to put my math book away before I headed to my English class.

"Watch it, greaser." Someone snapped shoving their shoulder into my back pushing my against the lockers.

I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling my body start to shake. I wished more than anything someone in the gang would show up, but I knew they were at different parts of the school and wouldn't be coming down this hall. I also knew that I didn't head to English soon I would be late.

So I took a deep breath and hurried to my next class. I got there as soon as the second bell rang, the only open seat was one right in the front of the class. Reluctantly, I sat down.

"Good morning students. Im Mrs. Andrews. This is my first year teaching and I can not wait for our year together." Mrs. Andrews was short, with a yellow dress. She had brown hair with light blue eyes. She looked nice enough.

"This year we will read Lord of the Flies, which is newer but I think it really needs to be taught. The author won a Nobel Prize. We will also be reading Romeo and Juliet, which isn't my favorite, but I am required to teach." Mrs Andrews gave us all a small smile, then keep talking to us about the year.

The bell rang, I waited a minute as usual then got up to leave the classroom.

"Johnny, wait a minute will you?" I turned around so Mrs. Andrews started talking again, "You just looked a little nervous today so I wanted to let you know that if you ever need anything, I'll be here for you."

"T-thank you, Mrs. Andrews." I smiled at her bashfully, then turned to head to my next class.

At the end of the day, we all started walking home.

"Maybe this year won't be so bad." I said to Pony, with a small grin.

"This is our year, Johnnycakes." Pony grinned at me.

****

Pony had been right. Freshman year was definitely a good one. It made me thankful for my gang, my family. Maya had graduated, we all passed and were going to move on to the next grade. Even through our struggles with the Socs, we made it through and would live to see many more years.

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i'm sad to say, only five more chapters until stronger with you is over.