𝗜 𝗢𝗡𝗖𝗘 𝗠𝗘𝗧 𝗔 𝗚𝗜𝗥𝗟 𝗡𝗔𝗠𝗘𝗗 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗡𝗔 | ponyboy curtis

chapter four: sister, brother

~~~Sodapop~~~

I've never seen my little brother in such good of a mood since our parents were around. He asked his broad to be his girlfriend. I was real happy for him. I knew he'd get a girl someday. Last night, he was sitting there, touching up the last of his summer work, and I could see him whispering her name over and over again. He was doing it after their first date, too. Trying to fall asleep I kept hearing Pony, at his desk with a small lamp touching up his work whispering, "Marina, Marina, Marina." And he did it in a slightly different voice every time. I told him to finish up and get to bed and he stopped, but I could see him mouthing it. He's crazy like that sometimes.

Y'know, the girl's name actually fits perfectly in that one song from West Side Story. The one where Tony sings about Maria. It goes something like, oh, I once met a girl named Maria, and that again and again with some verses I forget. Except now it's a girl named Marina. I swear he could fall in love with that chick. She's a good girl. But just wait till I tell the rest of the gang he had a girlfriend!

~~~Ponyboy~~~

"Wake up, little buddy, it's 8:30!" I heard Sodapop's voice say.

"What?!" I sprung up.

"Just kidding," he said jokingly, laughing.

"Soda!" I said, punching him playfully. "Glory, you can't scare me like that!" He was still laughing away. I checked the clock. It was 7. The time I usually wake up, since school is so close by.

"I have to get dressed and go with Darry to pick up Marina."

"You're picking her up?"

"Yeah," I said, trying to get my arm through my sweatshirt sleeve. "Her mom starts work early so she can be back by late afternoon."

"Hmm. Well, why don't I drive you?" Soda asked, following me down the hall into the kitchen.

"I don't mind either way," I said, reaching for the top of the fridge to get a box of cheerios. "I just wanna get me and Marina to school." I poured out the cereal and milk into a bowl and sat down and ate it quickly while Soda went to take a shower. I then gingerly put the bowl in the sink. I sat down to read the paper because that was the only thing that was there, and I still had a few minutes before we had to go. Darry came into the kitchen and had his own quick breakfast, then went outside to water the grass because he said he wanted to last night. Marina and Johnny both came in the door just then, and I realized how much they look alike. Same hair and eye shape, and they were both around the same skin color, too, though Marina was a bit lighter, and she didn't have dark eyes like Johnny, hers were a gray color. I'd just remembered that yesterday Johnny told us his dad had a side broad in another place. I wonder- no. That's impossible. What person would move to a place where their ex lived? But maybe Marina's mom didn't know he lived here. No. That couldn't be it. Their alikeness is probably just a coincidence.

"Hi Pony," said Johnny. "You've got one smart girlfriend," he said.

"How did you know she was my girlfriend?" I asked. I hadn't told anyone but Darry and Soda, who'd been at the house when I got back.

"Soda called Two-bit's house and told him, who told Steve, who told Dally and I was with him at Buck's the other night."

"So everyone knows."

"And they can't wait to tease you about it."

"Yippee."

"Should we go?" Marina asked, smiling next to Johnny. She got a kick out of the gang when they teased me.

"Yeah, come on. Dar is outside." Marina and Johnny both went back out the doorway and I grabbed my bag and put on my shoes quickly and went after them. Marina had waited for me on the porch to kiss me hello. She was wearing a dress and Dally's jacket, which I had left last night on the bench.