Times Change [UNDERGOING EDITS]

Chapter Sixteen

I sat at the kitchen table with my head in my hands. It was still pretty early, normally by now I would have started making breakfast but I just couldn't bring myself to do anything. I kept thinking about yesterday, about the fire, about Johnny and Dally sitting in the hospital, about everything that's happened in the past week.

I looked up when I heard someone enter the kitchen. It was just Ponyboy. He was looking at me with concern.

"Sissy, you doing okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," I replied, wiping my eye and standing up. "Sorry, I'll start breakfast."

Pony shook his head, "Just sit back down, I'll take care of it." He wouldn't listen to any of my arguments and began making the coffee.

"Fine," I sighed, sitting back down, "There's a cake in the icebox, Soda made it."

"When'd he make a cake?" Ponyboy asked absentmindedly.

"He had just finished before we got left for the hospital," I answered.

He just nodded slowly then continued making breakfast. The front door banged open as Ponyboy was cracking eggs. "Anyone home?" Two Bit yelled.

"In here!" Pony called back. I quickly shushed him, I had heard the shower turn on but there was a good chance someone was still asleep. "Don't slam the door!"

They slammed the door.

"Hey Blondie!" Two cried as he charged into the kitchen, picking Ponyboy up and swinging him around.

"Two Bit no! Knock it off!" Pony yelled as he dropped a couple of eggs and they splattered across the floor. "See what you did? You made a mess. You always make a mess." He seemed irritated and I realized it had probably been a while since he had last eaten. I quickly cleaned up the eggs while he got two new ones out of the icebox.

Steve waltzed into the kitchen and helped himself to some cake. "You sure look funny like that," he commented, gesturing to Pony's hair.

"Aww give him a break," I scolded.

Two Bit and Steve exchanged a glance and Steve said, "Well, he had to get his hair cut to be in the paper. Nobody'd believe a greasy haired dork could be a hero. What's it like being a hero, big shot?"

"A hero?"

Two Bit pulled the morning paper out of his back pocket and handed it to Ponyboy. "You guys are all over the news, saving those twerps and all."

I looked over Ponyboy's shoulder at the paper. Juvenile Delinquents Turn Heroes was sprawled across the front page. There were pictures of Pony, Johnny and Dally to go along with it. At the bottom of the page, there was a small column at the bottom about our family. There were two pictures along with that story, one of me and Pony sitting there smoking, slouched in almost identical positions, and the other was a family picture of the four of us.

"I told them not to take a picture of me smoking," I muttered, remembering my threat to the reporters.

"Yeah, well, you and Dally can hunt those reporters down together," Ponyboy muttered, "They made him out to be a hero for saving Johnny and didn't even mention his police record." Dally wouldn't like that, he was strangely proud of his record.

I quickly skimmed the story, it told all about the fight, the fire, and the rescue. Johnny and Pony would have to go to juvenile court for running away and Johnny was being charged with manslaughter. Lordy.

The story about our family was all about Darry working so much and Soda dropping out of school so we could all stay together. And about how all of us but Pony had a job so we could support eachother. It even mentioned Pony making honor roll and being a track star. The article ended with saying that they shouldn't break us up after we had worked so hard to remain a family.