The Outsiders - Three Brothers

47

As soon as they got home from shopping, Ponyboy put his things in his room - he'd organize them later. And hurried out the door, "remember, be back at three-thirty!" Darry said.

The social worker was coming at four-thirty, so that would give Ponyboy an hour to wash up and straighten any stray messes up. "Okay!"

It was a little after one now, so he had about two hours to hang out with Johnny before he needed to come home. Johnny was walking down the sidewalk when Ponyboy spotted him. He waved at his friend, "hey Ponyboy!"

"You get your schedule yet?" He asked, running to his friend's side and then slowing back down to a walk.

"Yeah, I went this morning when they opened the doors."

"Let's look and see what we've got together."

"Well, we know lunch is the same." Ponyboy knocked his shoulder a little at the dumb joke. "Okay okay." He took out his schedule from his jeans jacket and opened it up.

Ponyboy took it and looked it over, he'd already memorized his schedule so he didn't have to take his out. "Oh cool! We have history, Science, and math together! Dang our gym times are different...Oh! And we both have that new teacher Mrs. Lewis As our home room teacher. Did you go say hi to her?"

"Nah. I just got my schedule and left. Was she nice?"

"Yeah. She's super nice and kinda cute. I think she's new, she looks like she's only twenty-two or twenty-three."

"Hope that means she's really nice. Usually the old teachers are stuck up."

"She doesn't seem like that. She told me if I ever need help i can come to her. Which means you can too. And I'll help you study like always."

"Thanks Pony, you're a great friend."

"You able to get your school supplies?"

"I'll get 'em."

"I got some extra from helping Soda at the DX this summer. I can give you a dollar for notebooks and pencils."

"You don't have to man -"

"Here," he fished out the change from his pocket and handed it over. "And don't try to give it back. You at least gotta get the basics."

Johnny smiled, pocketing the money with a nod. "Wish my folks would take me school shopping like Darry does with you and Soda."

"Soda isn't even in to it. He's set on dropping out after his birthday. Hell, he will probably give you the supplies he didn't use. I'd be surprised if he uses any of it."

They walked a block to the corner store and got candy bars and sodas. "Want to go to the movies?"

"Can't. I gotta be back soon. The social worker is coming at four-thirty today. But we can go to the laundry mat and play the pin ball machine? Or to Charlie's and play pool?"

"Let's go play pool. I need to practice my game anyways. Thinking of playing for money soon."

"Be careful. Dally says if you beat someone to bad they'll get mad and beat your head in."

"I ain't looking to hustle people. Just win a little bit of money here and there."

When they got to Charlie's it was slow, only a few customers. So the man didn't mind them coming in to play pool for a bit. "Sucks we don't have more classes together this year." Johnny said as they started their first game.

"Yeah, but in high school we get to pick our classes for the most part. So we can make our schedules pretty much the exact same."

"You should take those honor classes though. The classes for smart kids. Don't worry about me. We can always take some electives together though."