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It was the almost Fourth of July. Every year, the gang got together at the Curtis household and celebrated with hot dogs from Mr. Curtis, potato salad from Mrs. Curtis, water balloons from Sodapop, and illegal fireworks from Dally.
This year was different. This year was the first Fourth of July the gang would be celebrating without Mr. and Mrs. Curtis.
Ponyboy felt… strange. He felt excited, but the celebration wouldn’t be as lively without their parents. Two-Bit’s mom offered to make potato salad and Steve offered to cook the hot dogs (Ponyboy wasn’t sure how much he trusted Steve’s cooking skills but alas), but it would never be the same without them.
Oh well. He would have to find a way around his mixed feelings.
~
Dallas Winston got real lucky. He had just barely made it out of the cooler on the 3rd of July. He was walking around town, looking for a broad to pick up and bring to the party since damn Sylvia was trying to pick up Johnny while he was in jail, when he passed by a Woolworth’s.
There was a huge banner over the door, exclaiming ‘4th of July Supersale!’ in huge letters. Dally peered inside. It was packed with people making their last minute purchases for tomorrow.
~
Dally had swung by the Curtis house earlier that day, and he had noticed that they seemed a little, well, tense. Darry didn’t even scold Dallas for tracking mud in the house! Ponyboy seemed the worse of them all, though, picking at his food with a pouty face.
Soda cleared his throat and blurted out, “Hey Dal, what’s up? I thought they woulda kept you for the holiday.” He was clearly trying to break the uncomfortable silence.
Dally snickered. “Nah, man. Those boys are tired of me already.”
He sat next to Pony on the table and ruffled his hair.
“So, Pony, ya ready for tomorrow? Whatcha got planned? I’ll go get those fireworks from Shepard tonight. Whaddya say you and Johnny come with me and we’ll catch a movie or somethin’?”
Ponyboy just pushed his hand away and headed for the bedroom.
“Man, what’s up with the kid?”
Darry and Soda just stared at him.
“Well, uh… I’m just gonna head out then.” Dally swiftly made his escape from Darry’s eyes burning a hole into his head.
~
So, now, Dallas stood in the doorway of the Woolworth’s, staring at the decorations that were ‘All 50% Off!” according to the sign in the window. He decided to step in.
Dallas grabbed a cart and looked around at all the suburban moms and dads buying hot dogs and hamburgers and sodas. There were a ton of little kids running around the store too. Ugh. Gross. Kids were the worst.
He strolled down the liquor aisle and got quite distracted, but he corrected himself and left (not without swiping a few bottles and sliding them into his pockets of course). He was in this store on a mission. He was going to cheer up Pony whether that little punk liked it or not.
Dallas entered the Woolworth’s with one goal: get some decorations and maybe a box of popsicles. Y’know, anything to get that kid out of the gutter.
However, Dally underestimated the sheer amount of festivity there would be in that store. There were about a billion different displays filled to the brim with half-price decorations. They had everything. There were hats, napkins, plates, pinwheels, cheap sunglasses, flags, cups, all covered in the Star-Spangled Banner.
Dally also overestimated his ability to control himself. He nicked damn near everything on those shelves until his cart was overflowing.
Seriously, he thought, I’m really going all out. This kid better be fucking grateful.
He cut about half the line with his cart that was starting to weigh real close to 6 tons.
Dally really did go all out for the party. He even paid! Well, he paid for most of it. Close enough.
He ended up walking out into the summer heat with 3 bags on each arm. Now he just had to manage arriving to the Curtis home without passing out from the weight.
Dallas arrived to the little house with his chest heaving and his arms burning. He had to collapse on the rail for a minute before he busted through the door.
“I come bearing gifts!” He presented the bags with a huge grin to Soda, who was washing dishes.
“What’s in those bags, Dally?” Soda dried his hands and leaned over Dally’s outstretched arms to try to see into them.
“I don’t know man, check for yourself.” He opened one of the bags and presented the contents to Soda. “I went to Woolworth’s and I kinda blacked out and bought everything.”
The bag was bursting with some lame lawn decorations and a giant American flag. It even had bubbles in it.
“I thought it might cheer y’all up. Where’s Superman and Pony, anyway?”
As if right on cue, Darry came out from the bathroom. He walked over to where all the bags were and rummaged through one.
“What’s all this, Soda?”
“Dally bought all this stuff for tomorrow! Man, the house is gonna look great!” Soda was thrumming with excitement.
Darry seemed skeptical that Dally would do something so kind like that without asking for something in return.
“Well, thank you, Dallas. This stuff is great.”
Dally nodded and grinned. “Oh, yeah!” He stuck a whole hand in one of the bags and pulled out three tubs of red, white, and blue frosting. “I thought y’all could make the cake all patriotic and stuff.”
The three of them made plans to surprise Pony with the new decor. Everyone in the gang had a role. Dally and Johnny would convince Pony to go out with them to get him out of the house, Soda and Darry would bake and decorate the cake, and Steve and Two-Bit would decorate the house. It was a perfect plan.
~
Ponyboy awoke on the 4th of July and rummaged through his wardrobe. What should he wear? Does he have to wear something different than usual? He eventually settled for one of Soda’s old shirts and jeans. He usually didn’t have a problem with what he wore but today felt different. Man, this sucks. He laid back onto the bed and tried to read to distract himself.
Someone knocked the door and gently opened it. It was Johnny. Pony sat up and smiled at him.
“Hey, Johnny! What’s up, man?”
Johnny returned his grin. “Nothin’ much, Pony. Me and Dally were wondering if you wanted to go out?”
Pony shifted uncomfortably. “Sure, man. This’ll sound weird, but… what should I wear? I don’t know what seems appropriate for today.”
“Uh, gee, I don’t know Pone… Why don’t you just wear what you usually do?”
“I don’t know, I just feel like I should honor my parents in some way? Y’know what I mean?”
Johnny thought for a moment, then proposed, “Why don’t you wear something from your parents’ closet? I mean, it’ll probably fit weird, but I think it should work.”
Ponyboy agreed to the idea and immediately sprung up to head for Mr. and Mrs. Curtis’ room, skirting past Dally, Darry and Soda. He nearly tripped on Steve, who was eating leftover chocolate cake on the floor.
“Watch it!” He yelled.
Dally grabbed Pony’s arm. “Where you going, kid? You gonna go out with us or what?”
“Just a sec, Dal,” Johnny replied for him.
Ponyboy started his search on his father’s side of the closet. It was filled mostly with formal button down shirts and slacks. While sifting through the clothes, he came across a yellow T-shirt that seemed much too small to fit a man of his father’s stature.
He remembered this shirt. His father wore it frequently on casual days. One fateful day, Mrs. Curtis washed it wrong and it magically shrunk about three whole sizes. They never got around to getting rid of it.
Ponyboy took the shirt off of the hanger and inspected it. This should work. He took off the shirt he was wearing and pulled on the yellow one. It fit perfectly. He turned around and beamed at Johnny.
“Johnny, look!”
Johnny giggled. “Shoot, Pony, you look great.”
Pony ran out to the living room and outstretched his arms to present the shirt to his brothers.
“Pony, where’d you get that shirt from?”
“It’s dad’s, Darry, remember? The one that shrunk.”
“Oh, man!” Soda exclaimed excitedly. He shot up to hug his brother. “It looks great, Pony. It’s perfect!”
“Yeah, yeah, Soda leave the kid alone, you’re nearly choking him.” Darry put a hand on Soda’s shoulder while Pony struggled out of his grip. “Ponyboy, don’t you dare get a stain on that shirt, you hear me? Now go get a Coke or something. Get outta here.”
~
After the three of them left, Two-Bit joined the boys at the house and they started preparations. Steve wasn’t very enthused about spending his day decorating.
“Soda, do we really gotta do all this? The kid seemed happy enough with that shirt.”
Soda put an arm around him. “C’mon, Steve, it’s just for today. It’ll be nice for all of us.”
Steve grumbled and continued struggling to pin a banner to the wall. When he stumbled on the ladder, he yelled at Two-Bit, who was supposed to be holding it.
“You actually gonna help me or are you just gonna stare at that damn TV the whole time?”
Under Steve, Two-Bit stared at the cartoon, completely hypnotized by the screen.
“Yeah, yeah, just give me a… second…”
“Damn that fucking mouse.”
~
Pony, Johnny, and Dally walked all around town, enjoying the summer air. Dally stole sparklers from some kids and they lit them all at once. They lit Dally’s sleeve on fire in the process, but other than that it was fun.
Johnny and Dallas were supposed to keep Pony out of the house for at least another 2 hours, so they decided to get into some trouble.
They walked into the local corner store, looking as greasy and mischevious as they were. Johnny was sure that they all looked tuff as hell, but they received some odd looks from the loyal patrons of the shop.
The plan was to get fireworks. Not buy, get. You needed some permit or other to buy them in a respectable store like this, which was why Dally usually got them from Tim Shepard. Today, however, they were going to cause a scene. It took a lot of convincing to get Johnny to agree to this plan, let alone play an active role in it, but he eventually gave in to Pony’s begging.
The security guard at the front had been eyeing them since they walked in, but they didn’t go straight for the fireworks. First, they walked around the store, picking things up and putting them down to avert suspicion. That, of course, did not work whatsoever. The dense security guy was still narrowing his eyes at them.
The boys had their whole scheme planned out. While Pony and Dallas were seriously inspecting some bread, Johnny went over to the security guard. He had to be the one to do this since he seemed the most innocent. Even his real nervousness played into his performance. So, with his puppy dog eyes, he went up to the man and asked:
“Say sir, do ya know where y’all keep the jams and jellies?” Johnny was practically fluttering his eyelashes in his attempt to look as young and naive as possible.
The man chuckled and responded, “Sure, son, they’re right over there, in aisle three.”
“Do y’think you could show me over there?”
“Oh, no, son. I gotta stay here and protect the store from no-good criminals trying to set up shop here.”
“Please, sir? It’ll just take a second.”
The guard hesitated but succumbed to Johnny’s eyes and pout and reluctantly agreed. He took the lead while Johnny gave the other boys a thumbs up behind his back. They shuffled towards the fireworks and gathered as many of the most interesting ones into their arms as they could.
Johnny stood in the jam isle next to the guard, pretending to deliberately consider every possible option of strawberry and grape jelly. He was putting down his 3rd jar of jam when Dally’s screech of “Johnny!” echoed across the store. He turned to the man and nervously shot out,
“Uh, thanks, sir, I gotta go!”
By the time Johnny had caught up to Pony and Dally, the guard was already hot on their heels. Luckily for them, Dally had experience running from the fuzz, Pony was a future track star, and Johnny was terrified of the police.
The boys outran the man in no time, but they didn’t stop running until they reached the lot. All three of them collapsed onto the ground and bursted out laughing. Well, except for Johnny. Dally was running his mouth.
“Oh man, oh man, did you see that guys face? I thought his head was gonna blow off!” Dally kept cackling while Pony kept wheezing.
“Man, never make me do something like that ever again! That man almost got us! We could’ve gotten killed! He could’ve had a heater!” Johnny was practically trembling
Dally put an arm around Johnny’s shoulders. “Now don’t you worry, Johnny Cade, ‘cause you’ve got the one and only Dallas Winston and Ponyboy Curtis to protect ya.”
Dally got up and stretched. “How about we hide these in a bush and go to the Dairy Queen for a soda and ice cream, then we’ll head back to the house”
~
While Steve and Two-Bit decorated the place, Darry and Soda tried to bake the cake. They already had 2 failed attempts. Soda never should’ve let Darry help.
In their first attempt, Soda was responsible for the dry ingredients and Darry was responsible for the wet ingredients. Darry completely forgot to put the eggs in, which resulted in the cake being flat, crumbly, and dry. After this failure, the brothers switched roles. In their second attempt, he forgot the flour. The flour! The most important ingredient!
When the undercooked puddle came out of the oven, Soda gave up and sent Darry out of the kitchen while he baked the cake himself. In all his 20 years of living you’d think he’d pick up how to bake a cake, but no. Soda had to do it all himself.
Once Soda put the 3rd attempt at baking in the oven, Darry was released from his confectionery time-out. Soda sent him to wash the dishes while they waited for the cake to finish baking. Steve yelled from the living room.
“Soda! Come look at this. Look at what Two-Bit did.”
“Comin’!” Glory, Soda thought. What have they set on fire this time?
Soda came into the living room and stared up at a huge, upside down American flag on the wall.
“Now, what am I looking at?” Soda tilted his head.
“Two-Bit, the moron, put this up. I swear Soda, sometimes I think you and I are the only ones in this gang with a brain and some sense.”
Soda huffed and made it back to the kitchen while Steve and Two-Bit bickered.
Darry was leaning over the cake, with each of the tubs of frosting open around him.
“Darrel, what the hell are you doing to my cake?”
Darry was trying to write something on the cake, but they didn’t have piping bags, so he was really just slathering around red and white frosting with a knife. It was not legible whatsoever.
“It says ‘4th of July’! Can’t you read it? I think it looks pretty good myself.”
“Man, give me that!” Soda pulled the cake away from Darry and tried to scrape off the horrors of what he had written. He wasn’t about to let Darry cause a 3rd failed attempt.
“Don’t try to write nothin’. Just make it look like the flag. They should be back soon.” Soda rubbed at his temples and sighed.
~
Pony, Johnny, and Dallas were walking back to the Curtis house with their arms full of fireworks but Dallas practically had to waddle because he ate so much. Pony didn’t eat as much so that he would have plenty of room to load up on hot dogs and potato salad.
Johnny and Dally let Ponyboy go ahead of them. He saw the pinwheels on the grass.
“Huh. Wonder where we got those from.” Dally snickered behind him.
When Pony opened the door, he was immediately flooded by red, white, and blue everywhere. Soda an Darry had been waiting right by the door for him.
“Woah, Soda, what’s all this?” He was breathless and smiling. Soda grinned like a madman.
“You like it? Dally bought the stuff but we all helped out. We thought it might cheer ya up.”
Pony beamed and hugged both of his brothers. Then, he turned and hugged Dally. Dallas usually wasn’t a hugger, but he returned this one.
“Man, Thank you guys! I love it!”
~
Everything was going great. Darry’s cake decoration actually ended up looking nice, the sun was setting, and even Steve’s dubious cooking skills didn’t seem to be greatly affecting the safety of the food! The whole gang was hanging outside in the backyard while Two-Bit threw water balloons at everyone.
The second Steve finished grilling the first batch of hot dogs, Ponyboy piled 3 on his plate, along with a mountain of potato salad and a puddle of ketchup. It went like that for a while, each of the gang throwing around water balloons and grabbing more hot dogs and watermelon, until…
Pony groaned. Johnny was sitting right by him. “Man, I don’t feel to hot. My stomach hurts…”
Johnny put an arm around his shoulders. “You alright, Pony? How many hot dogs did you eat?”
“Ungh… seven…”
“Seven? What the hell, Pone! They could not have been that good!”
“…I really like hot dogs… Johnny, man, I think … I think I’m gonna be sick…”
“Geez, man, don’t do it on me!” Johnny pushed Ponyboy away from him.
Ponyboy lunged for the trash can with an arm around his stomach and a hand over his mouth. Unfortunately, he retched all the contents of his stomach into the bin. Johnny sympathetically patted his back while he did.
When he was done, he spread out on the grass with a groan. Darry and Soda checked up on him, but Steve didn’t seem to care, Dally was busy setting up the fireworks, and Two-Bit was much too drunk to know what was going on.
Dallas had finished setting up the fireworks and yelled out.
“Hey, guys! Check it out!” He lit them and ran back for cover as they shot to the sky.
Johnny laid back with Ponyboy as they watched the colorful explosions fill the inky sky. It was almost as pretty as a sunset.