The Outsiders - Three Brothers

Forgary

Two weeks went by with no problems from either Ponyboy or Sodapop.  Soda was still skating by in school. He'd healed up after the weekend and stayed out of trouble with his teachers. And Ponyboy picked up tutoring some of his classmates for money since Darry forbade him from continuing his forgary business.

It was all fine at first, not many kids had come asking for a signature except for a handful of failed tests. "Sorry, I got found out. I can't." Is what he'd tell the kids. "You're safe for what I've already done. None of the staff know." He promised after a few kids panicked. "It was my brother. He isn't gonna tell the principal or teachers."

But after two weeks, progress reports were being sent home and many kids were looking for fake signatures. And the Soc kids were willing to pay Ponyboy a quarter for a forged signature. He'd already promised six Socs in his class he would, many kids knew if they were going to get bad marks or not. And he'd been planning to buy something nice with the money he'd make.

"I'm sorry, I can't."

"But you told us last month you would!"

"Come on Ponyboy. Look - I'll make it fifty cents!" One of the boys said during study hall.

Ponyboy chewed on his thumbnail, "I would! I know I said I would. But my brother found me out and he said to stop."  It was a lot harder to convince the kids this time, bad report cards were a bigger deal than a single flunked test.

"You can't just back out now. After you promised. We get it if you can't continue on. But you gave us your word."

"Fine! But I'm putting my ass," literally, "on the line for this. So everyone has to make it fifty cents."

"No problem man," they all coughed up the money and Ponyboy got to work. He excused himself to the bathroom and hid in a bathroom stall as he did the fake signatures. Each kid had provided the progress reports and an old signed paper for him to go off of. It took a while, some parents had really nice handwriting so he had to take his time. When he finished he slipped the cards back to each student and fifty cents went into his pockets.

Easiest three bucks ever, but it made him feel guilty. Usually Ponyboy didn't care that much about going against Darry - his oncoming teenage rebellion and puberty helped ease his guilty conscience. But he had actually wanted to listen this time, especially after the lecture and threat of a belting he got in regards to faking signatures and the trouble he could get into.

And because he did it for the Soc kids, he had to do it for the rest of his classmates. He only charged greaser kids fifteen cents (greaser discount. And they didn't have as much money).

He ended up making four dollars and ninety cents (eight Socs and six greasers). Dirty money. He shoved it into his pockets and went outside to wait for Soda. He still wasn't allowed to walk alone, so he went to the picnic table and sat down.

He knew Soda was going to be late today, he'd already told Ponyboy he had to stay after school and take a history test that he'd failed last week and was being allowed to have a do-over. So Ponyboy knew to just sit and wait. He decided he had a while to wait, so he would work on his book report for English. Soda would definitely be at least an hour late, so he had plenty of time to get it started.

"Hey grease." He felt a pair of hands clamp onto his shoulders.

He jumped at first, and then rolled his eyes, "hey Two-Bit."

"Heard you made good money today. Thought you gave that up." He jumped on the table, sitting on top of it and planting his feet next to where Ponyboy sat.

"I have. Today was the last time. I'd already promised a bunch of kids I would. So I couldn't back out."

"Too bad. It was a great little business. What you gonna do with the money?"