Trade Mistakes

12

Ponyboy's POV

When we got home, Lizzie was laying on her back on the floor, staring at the ceiling. She was chewing on a stick of gum, still crying silently, legs crossed in front of her and hands folded on her stomach.

Darry was asleep on the couch, and the TV was playing some old movie.

"Hey." She said quietly, blowing a bubble with her gum. It popped and stuck to her lips and she sighed.

"How you doin', kid?" Soda asked.

She blew another bubble and it popped before it could form at all. "Eh. Where's everybody else?"

"They went home." I replied, sitting next to her. She sat up slightly and used my lap as a pillow. Soda went in the kitchen and came back a moment later with a soda.

"Cannibalism." Lizzie said, and he smiled tiredly. "How was bowling?"

"It was bowling." I shrugged.

"Wow, so descriptive."

"Who was that girl you were sitting with?" I asked.

"Oh, she's my new friend. Her name is Georgia, she moved here from-"

"Georgia?" Soda asked hopefully.

"No, California."

"Damn."

"It's nice you made a friend that's your age, though." I said.

"Mhm. She's really nice."

"That's good."

.

The following week, Darry was forcing me and Lizzie to get haircuts. She didn't mind, but I was mad about it.

"But Darry, my hair looks fine long!" I said as we arrived at the barbershop.

"You need a haircut and that's final."

"Darry, can I go look at the drugstore? I don't wanna just wait around while Pony's getting his hair cut." Lizzie asked.

"Yeah, that's fine. Look both ways before you cross the street." He said, raising an eyebrow at her.

"Ha ha."

I watched her cross the street, trying to stall as much as possible before Darry made me go inside.

.

I didn't have to get my hair cut too much, thankfully. By the time Lizzie was back, she looked significantly happier.

She didn't get her hair cut too short, either. Lizzie was pretty simple- she liked what she liked and she didn't let anyone make her feel bad about that, and only changed if she wanted to. I could respect that.

I felt bad though, since ninety percent of her clothes were hand-me-downs and way too big for her. I knew she was saving her money to try and get clothes her size, and I knew she got picked on at school for her clothes.

Even if they were her size, they were from thrift shops and you could always tell. She was a small kid, and it was just easier for her to get things that were too big. Like the jeans jacket she got from mom for her thirteenth birthday- but she couldn't wear it anymore. It had gotten pretty shredded when she wound up getting hit by the car.

But I knew she was getting a new one in a few weeks for her birthday, and we hoped she'd be happy with it.

.

Three days later, the Saturday before school started, it was my birthday. "Hey, wake up, Pony!" Soda woke me up by jumping on our bed.

"C'mon, it's Saturday and it's my birthday, let me sleep in, won't ya?"

"No way! Come on!"

Me, Lizzie, and Soda and birthdays real close together. Mine was at the end of August, Soda's was at the end of September, and Lizzie's was in the first week of October. Darry's wasn't until January, however.

"Fine." I groaned. "Get out so I can get dressed."

In the kitchen, Darry was making pancakes and Lizzie was making chocolate cake. Darry made the best chocolate cake- Soda usually added too much sugar to the frosting because he liked it really sweet, and Lizzie usually got distracted when she was measuring ingredients and forgot how much she needed.

But we always appreciated the effort.

"Wait, how much sugar did I put?" Lizzie frowned, checking the measuring glass.

"Put more!" Soda encouraged.

"No, that's enough," I told her.

"Oh, thanks,"

While the cake was in the oven, we ate the pancakes. Lizzie and Soda convinced Darry to let us frost them.

"This is so disgusting, I never want to eat anything but this ever again." I said.

"I dare you to put syrup on top of it," she grinned devilishly.

"You think I won't?" I grabbed the bottle of syrup and Darry took it out of my hands.

"Let's... not."

.

Every year, it was switched off on how presents would go. One year it would be multiple small things, and the next would be everyone pitching in for one big thing.

This year was everyone pitching in to buy one big thing. They gotten me a new pair of running shoes for track that year.

After that, we just hung around the house all day, and for the first time in a while, it was just the four of us.

We were all sitting on the floor, crowded around the coffee table playing poker. "Can't we play somethin' other than poker? I don't even get how to play it." Lizzie complained.

And so that was how we ended up spending the rest of the day playing go fish.