𝗜 𝗢𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗠𝗘𝗧 𝗔 𝗚𝗜𝗥𝗟 𝗡𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗗 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗔 | ponyboy curtis

chapter one: walking

Alone. Walking alone again. Boy, Darry's sure right. Sometimes I really don't use my head, I thought as I walked right past the emerald green Corvette parked in the spot by the sidewalk. I just hoped that the people who owned it weren't anywhere near the luncheonette. Two-bit told me to go and get sodas, and I said no, but Darry told me off and said Two-bit was older than me and I should do what he says because he would do the same for me. Around this time is when all the socials hang out around town, and Two knew that, but he was probably too boozed-up to remember that anyway. Or maybe he wasn't. You could never tell.

Just my luck, a crew of soc boys was hanging in the front of the jewelry store, just next to the luncheon. I snuck past against the wall and into the place. I ordered the sodas and the waitress brought them quickly. I was hoping they wouldn't so I could wait out the Socs. I found some people I knew from school inside and talked to them for a few minutes, yet the Socs were still outside. I decided to just sneak past them and walk the other way, then I could cross the street and go back around. I slowly went out the door to the left. I started walking faster so that I would be way ahead If they did see me. But, not looking where I was going, I bumped into a soc girl. She was a senior at my school, I'd seen her a few times. She had 3 boyfriends, none of whom cared she was cheating on them. She also had a whole army of shopping friends, It seemed.

The senior girl shrieked. "GREASER!" She yelled. "Go ahead and ruin my whole outfit, why don't you?!" I had spilled the sodas all over her skirt. By now, I was sprinting down the sidewalk towards my house, and the soc boys who had been hanging by the luncheonette were running after me. I sprinted as fast as I could. Good thing I was in track, or I might never be able to outrun them. They stopped and turned back. Phew, I thought. They've given up. But they'd only just begun. They were getting in their car. I started running a little faster. Even I couldn't outrun a car. But I was more ahead of them because they'd turned back to get their Corvette, so maybe the head start was a win. I turned into my neighborhood, but there were still a few more streets to go. Glory, with my luck, you'd never know. Sometimes it's good and sometimes it's bad. In good luck, Sodapop came walking down the sidewalk I was sprinting on. I knocked him over.

"Glory Pony, look where you're going! What're you runnin' from?" I panted, out of breath while the 5 soc boys in their car turned the corner.

"Steve, run back and get the others! We got trouble on our side of town!" Steve sprinted back as fast as he could.

"I got your back little buddy, don't you worry." The car parked by the sidewalk.

"Well, what a dump this place is, ain't it Carl?"

"Surefire, David. Where are we anyway?"

"Inside a big dumpster," David replied. "And look, some raccoons! Let's get 'em!" The rest of the soc boys jumped out of the car and came toward us. We tried putting up quite a fight, But 5 against 2, we were struggling. They had Soda in a headlock and had pinned me to the ground. They were emptying out my pockets like I had something valuable in there for them to take. Kinda funny, honestly. The rest of our gang came running down the sidewalk. Now they were outnumbered. Everyone was throwing whatever they could find at each other. Soda and I then had a chance to get out of the holds they had us in and start throwing rocks and twigs at the socs, too. When a small pebble cracked the Corvette's windshield, the socs got real angry. They got more aggressive. Luckily this was the greaser side of town. More of the people that lived on the street came outside and started in as well. The socs soon were way outnumbered and left.

"You'll pay for this, greasers!" The one called Carl yelled. And they drove away.

"What were those dirty rich kids doing on our side of town?" a greaser called Danny asked.

"I bumped into one of them's girlfriends, spilled pop all over her."

"Nice," he said. "That sure made em real angry. Who pierced the windshield? That was a nice comeback."

"Nobody knows," replied Sodapop. "We was all just throwing things."

"Alright then." Danny left and so did four other greaser boys that lived on this street."

"You really just walked alone again, didn't you Ponyboy?"

"Darry, come off me! You're the one who told me to listen to Two-bit and go get the sodas. There was no one else around!"

"I guess I did."

"For once, out of trouble."

"Lay off him, Dar. He's just a kid."

"Yeah yeah. Cmon, let's just go back." We all walked back to the house, but not before cooling down and smoking a cigarette or two. It always calmed everyone down. Walking along the littered streets calmed everyone down as well. These places were familiar to us. A home though they were dirty and compact.

Back inside, everyone cooled down. It was a real hot day, the second-to-last day of my summer break. The day after tomorrow Me, Johnny, Steve, and Two-bit would be going back to school. To think Two-bit likes school, I don't know how. Not even I do, with all my good grades and all. Darry would bug me about studying and grades more often. Can't wait.