Chapter Text
Ponyboy was never apart of the gang. And he knew it, he exepted that he was just the background character only their cuz his brothers. He exepted that no one really cared, they only acted nice because its the polite thing to do. but he noticed when they would hang out with out him, he noticed when anything he said would be ignored and disregarded.
And he exepted all of it. That was the worst part, he exepted he wouldnt be as cool, older, tougher or really anything like the rest of them and he just existed their knowing he would never be apart of it. Even johnny was really only their for dally, soda or sometimes two.
Johnny was his closest friend and even he didn't mind being away from him for a while, johnny probably didnt even notice how badly pony had been left out and ignored. But at least pony knew johnny still cared about him (at least a little right?)
Honestly? What made it worse was how protective darry was with pony, he always asked questions about who he talked to, what happened in each class things like that and darry would always try to include him but in the worst ways possible, like grounding him from leaving the house after school for doing somthing wrong and he would have to sit with the gang who ignored him half the time.
So imagine his surprise when the most unlikely, weirdest, people who have nothing in common all end up together, mostly from one dumb accident.
(Buttt we'll get to that…)
During one average day, on Sunday night, the gang was all huddled in the Curtis living room darry soda and Steve on the couch, while dally and two tried (and failed) to teach johnny how to play poker.
Honestly it was funny as hell to pony watching dal aggressively shove cards in Johnny's face while trying to explain how poker worked. And two was no better he just gave johnny cards and tried to get him to learn by playing, though two might be even worse at poker than johnny cuz he managed to lose to johnny.
Even soda and steve were trying not to laugh while darry just looked like a single mother who works to jobs and is tired of everybody shit.
As pony sat next to johnny just watching everything unfold, he hears a knock at the door. Dally groans annoyed that someone's "interrupting his game of poker" even though no one was actually playing at this point.
Pony stands up saying he'll get the door, with a few faint thank you from his brothers and maybe johnny but hes to quiet to hear.
As he opens the door upon walking up, he sees non other than curly Shepard standing at his door.
"What the fuck?" Pony says just confused one why theirs a Shepard at his door
"Pony what did I tell you about swearing-" darry says getting up and pausing as soon as he sees who's at the door.
Obviously out of curiosity everyone else peers to see who's standing at the door that even darry doesnt like.
You could hear a pin drop by how shocked everyone was to see a Shepard at the door.
Pony noticed how nerves he was, sweat trickling down his forehead. Obviously nervose by 6 people all lookling at him with the exact same disgusted and annoyed face.
But when he looks at pony his face just goes plank, he notices that hes not annoyed, or disgusted. he looks like he doesnt want to be their just as much as he doesnt.
"Sorry for showin' up at your door so late…" Curly starts to say looking even more nervous.
"I… Do you mind if I talk to ponyboy real quick" Curly asked slowly, examining Ponyboys face.
Everyone stands their for a second no one expected Shepard to want their kid brother of all people
"And why exactly?" Soda says standing up from his seat on the couch walking next to darry and pony.
"No reason!" He responded quickly, still look at pony. Honestly it made pony a bit nervous because he could tell that Curly was examining him… like a puzzle he couldnt solve
"Thats not a very good reason if you ask me" dal says from the livingroom. Curly looks at him, annoyance clearly visible on his face
"I don't wanna hear anything from you, you fucking brother stealer"
…
Absolute silence before everyone start yelling questions at dal. Dal himself looked like he wants to be dead. I mean no one expects to be outed on their relationship by ur boyfriends little bitch of a brother. At least in his words
Even johnny ways spewing questions, 'why a shepherd?' 'why didn't you tell me?' 'I didn't know you liked tim' and the list goes on.
As curly notices everyone's distracted he quickly grabs ponyboys hand and drags him out the door. Before ponyboy could even form a thought he was all the way in the woods next to their house. Curly was surprisingly strong dragging him all the way over their so quickly.
"What the hell shepherd" pony asked sharply, annoyed by this whole interaction.
"Not you to" curly said almost pouting "don't tell me you hate me just like your dumbass brothers"
"And remind me why you care? And why did you even bring me over here? Whats the point of all this?"
"Well… tim is no where to be found, angela invited over a bunch of firends over, including one random soc?? And all my firends are busy"
"And what does any of that have to do with me?" Pony was clearly getting more annoyed by the second, he was just enjoying his night watching the gang (try) to play poker and somehow ended up in a forest with one of the only people in the whole world his brothers didnt like (and the reson of the gang for that reason)
As curly was right about to speak a car swives onto the sidewalk near the road a couple feet away, as both curly and pony look in complete shock and confusion a soc gets out and starts speed walking over to them.
She stops and looks at them
"What the fuck are yall doing in a forest?" The red headed soc asks
"Better question is why are you speed walking into a random forest?" Curly snaps back
"… look im trying to avoid my ex boyfriend and the greaser part of town is the place I can go right now"
"So you went to the greaser part of town to avoide an ex boyfriend?" Pony asks
"Pretty much"
"Are you aware that it looks like your about to jump some random greaser?" Curly says sharply
"Oh shit… I didnt even think of that.. but what do YOU expect me to do your just a random greaser in a forest for some reason"
"Well sorry miss prissy princess but its common knowledge not do go wondering around in the wrong part of town"
"Can we please not start a fight right now? Greaser, soc doesnt matter" ponyboy says trying to calm down the situation
"… I like this kid" - "Shut the fuck up" both the red headed soc and curly say in unison. They just stare at eachother both angry and surprised.
"Look im currently away from my VERY STRICT brother without him knowing where I am in the middle of the night, in a forest talking to two people i barely know. So can we please not??"
"So you have a strict family too?"
"Yeah.. like Hella strict, I got grounded for saying 'hell' last week"
"Damn… well I dont wanna deal with any angry greaser rn so wanna get the hell out of here?"
"Don't you think you should trust some random greaser?"
"Probably not but hey your different from all the greasers I've met in my life" she says before turning to curly "exept you. You are exactly what I expect every greaser to be like"
"Wow ok damn and who are you?" Curly said in a joking but annoyed tone
"Im sherri, Sherri valance but you can call me cherry"
"Im ponyboy, ponyboy Curtis"
"Wait i know you, your in my honors class"
"Yeah im in alot of soc classes"
After a bit of a brief introduction and more talking pony end up in a socs car with two people he barely knows but feels ten time as close with as he ever was with the gang
They end up in a random dairy queen parking lot, god knows how faw away from his house.
As pony looks around observing and memorizing his surroundings as he learned to do a long time ago, he sees a blonde haired guy selling what looks to be beer to a random short black haired girl. They both look to be greaser which is weird since they're in the socs part of town.
Cherry and curly notices them too, especially because they're the only people there
"Are they mad fr selling alcohol in the middle of a dairy queen parking lot…" cherry wispers watching them dumb founded
"And on the soc part of town??" Curly adds peering from the back seat
"Wait…" pony says looking at them "I know that kid!!" He says grabbing his phone that he forgot was in his pocket
"Wait you know one of them??" Cherry says turning around so fast the car shakes as curly leans over to look at his phone.
Curly scoffs as pony swipes part all of the miss calls and texts from darry, soda, and basically the whole gang
"Damn at least you know your cared about" Curly says laughing a little
"For once in my whole life" pony wispers as he looks through his contacts stopping at a contact named "annoying sience partner" with a pfp of the same blonde guy actively selling alcohol.
"Yeah this is him" ponyboy says turning the phone around showing cherry
"So he's from our school..?" Cherry asks
"Yeah he was my science partner before I got transferred to an honors class"
"Lmao 'annoying science partner'??" Curly said before taking Ponyboys phone straight from his hand
"Hey wtf Shepard! Ponyboys says trying to take the phone back, pushing him onto the seat next to them
"Woah ok lovebirds" cherry says clearly judging but laughing.
"WE ARE NOT LOVE BIRDS" ponyboy practically yells, as he gets off curly, face all red.
Curly continues to mess with ponyboys phone
"What the hell are you doing" cherry asks
"Im gonna call him"
"WHAT?? NO DONT-" pony yells trying to grab his phone again and curly taps the call button holding above ponys head
Cherry looks ahead and watches as the blonde hair guy almost drops what hes holding surprised by the sudden call as he answers the call the black hair girl opens a bottle of that I can only assume is beer and chugs it while hes looking away
"Heyy" he says the voice coming through the phone "did you finally take me up on that offer"
"No! Mark is will not buy drugs off you!! My brother would personally kill me himself" ponyboy said ask curly give him his phone back
"Sooo why'd you call??"
Curly leans over and says into the phone "are you aware she's currently chugging all of your beer"
"Wait how do you know that-" he says before cuting himself off before a bunch of incoherent screams come through as he yells at the girl
As they're yelling at eachother a dairy queen worker comes out yelling at them, and they can hear the worker threaten to call the police through the phone.
Mark looks around and spots their car and grabs both the girls hand and the bag of what they can only assume is drugs and run toward the car.
As they both geting to car, mark next to curly and the dark hated girl next to cherry, mark begs cherry so start the car
Cherry, unimpressed with the fact theirs a bunch of random greasers in her car says leaning back in her chair "and what do get in return?"
"Umm I'll give you 50 bucks?"
"Im a soc i dont need drug money" she deadpans
As she sits their and the worker is running towards the car he ex, (bob sheldon) coincidentally pulls in and as soon as cherry sees that mustang she speeds out the parking lot so fast nobody gets a chance to even think.
"Omg thank you so much" mark starts "i cant go back to jail again"
"Again??" ponyboy says leaning forward to look at him. As ponyboy looks at his very nervous and guilty expression he looks over and the girl is trying to take marks drug bag or wtv it is without him realizing
"And who are you?" Pony asks unimpressed, his annoyed tone making her jump. Honestly it made everyone jump a little
"Why do you talk like that?" The girl asks
"Like what? Pony asks confused
"Like the world kicked your ass to many times and your over everybody's shit"
"Cuz he probably is" Curly cuts in before pony chould speak
"And how do you know Shepard?" She asks in an angry tone, its clear the whole school knows the Shepards and none of them like him
"Because if you've ever see his 'friends' they're real pieces of work"
"Damn that sucks.. but i get that…" she says looking down for a bit before looking back at pony
"Yeah trust me I get that" cherry says looking at him through the review mirror "my parents force me to be friends with a bunch of spoiled rich kid because its better for their reputation"
"Curly, out of everyone you can't be talking about my friends" pony says in a joking tone
Curly turns to him with a dramatic fake hurt expression "WOW PONY WOW" making everyone in the car laugh a little
Cherry pulls into a random drive through, no one really sure how long they've been out or how long they just talked in the car
Cherry presses her head against her steering wheel and wispers "i have a bunch of greasers in my car rn…"
"Yeah you do but at least we're cool" the girl says proud of herself
They start to talk more and pony learns the girls name is scout, well actually its Belinda but she'd kill anyone who called her that.
After a while of talking they end up all giving their phone numbers to eachother and making a group chat together. Mark spams the group chat with emojis to "make sure everyone's in it" even though everyone is in the group chat.
His personality is loud, but the kind of loud where you know your worth, but he wasn't as cocky or loud as steve, dally or anyone else. It was nice to not be around the same group of people (especially when they ignore you half the time)
"Alright so I have to be at my parents ball in like an hour so I'll have to drop yall off" Cherry says starting the car
"Buttt cherrr" scout says leaning on her "we dont got anything to dooooo"
"Ill talk to yall when I get a chance, ill probably end up hiding in my room anyways"
"Why? Do you not like thoes fancy balls?" Mark asks
"Not really its just a bunch of dumb rich people talk, like they're just a bunch of emotionless dolls with no personality its weird"
"And i dont wanna deal with all the 50 year old men that try to flirt with me all night"
"Ew.." Mark says clearly disgusted
"And your parents don't care about this happening?" Pony says confused
"They would but he never does it in front of them"
"Wait… your saying this like it happeneds often how long has this been going on?" Scout says confused
"Hmm… About since my 16th birthday ball…"
"Ok so hes a pedophile?" Mark says leaning back in his seat
"Pretty much" Cherry says pulling into a driveway
"Ok so both scout and mark live right around here so yall can walk"
"Butttt whyyyyhyuu" scout wines
"Come on scout before I drag you out of my car myself"
"Ok damn.." she says opening the door and getting out
As both Mark and scout walk away towards where ever their houses are the group chat gets around 3 separate text all about how scout already misses them and a couple more begging to stay the night at someone else's house
About 30 minutes later she pulls into the Shepards house and before she could even say anything Angela starts walking out the house
She grabs the window that was down on ponys side a leans in a little
"Wow curly made new firends?" She antagonizes.
"And is that soc girl?" She says leaning in a little more
"Damn replacing your sister i see?" She says letting go of the window "well bye pony-baby and curly close the door behind you, your not an animal jeez" she says as she walks back into the house
"Is that your sister?" Cherry asks
"Yeah thats Angela but shes kinda-" he stops and just looks at cherry whos face is read as a tomato
"…"
"DO YOU LIKE MY SISTER?!?"
"WHA- NO!"
They start to get into a full argument before pony calms them down
"Can you please not right now" he says leaning on the seat infront of him
"You good pony?" Cherry says leaning over to look at him
"Do me a favor and give me a black eye"
"WHAT??"
"Please"
"NO PONY WTF"
Curly pauses what cherry says and fully turns to pony
"You ok?"
"Yeah i just need some sort of excuse for being out so late so I dont get my ass beat"
"Well no can do ponyman" cherry says clearly against the idea of any violence
"Mk well talk later" he says getting out of the car, grabing curly and dragging him out of the car
"Ill walk to my house so they dont see me in a socs car" pony says letting go of curly
"Kk I'll next you an update later of how the balls gonna go byee" she says pulling out of the Shepards driveway
"Bye curly.." he says looking away and pausing looking at a window. Curly turns to look to see his sister watching them
Curlys phone buzzes and he sees Angela texted some form of "you gay?" And "is that your boyfriend?" And she mouthing the words 'boy kisser' as she walks away
"I dont wanna know" pony says looking at Angela backing away in confusion
"Yeah you really dont…" Curly says putting his phone in his pocket
As pony starts to walk back to the Curtis house, hes just praying that the gang left are soda and darry are asleep, even though he knows darrys sitting in the same spot he always does when someone misses curfew.
As ponyboy tried to quietly open the door he's thought were interrupted by darrys voice
"And where the hell have you been??" Darry says as angry as ever. But before pony can say anything soda runs up and hugs him
"We were so worried you were gone for almost 4 hours! Probably more!!" Soda say hugging pony so tight he can barely breathe
A pony scans the run to see if the gang left and he sees Johnny who was sleeping on the couch quickly get up a soon as he hears soda
"Pony! You're back! What happened??" Johnny says getting up worry clearly written all over his face
"Honestly i don't know, cu- I mean shepherd just grabbed me and dragged me into the woods by the house" he says thinking of a way to cover this up while giving vage answers. He was always good at lying, tiny things to bigger things he could always think of somthing
As soda finally let go of him pony fully looked at Johnny's face, he was worried but almost annoyed? but pony guessed it was just from being woken up or because he hated shepherd so much
"What did he even want anyways?" Johnny says hugging pony
"Im not sure some soc pulled up when he was trying to talk-"
"WHAT??" darry says getting up "did they jump you? Are you hurt??"
As he continued to ask questions johnny let's go of pony and steps back letting darry talk
"Im fine darry, we just had to find a place to hid for a while"
"How long where they looking for yall for you to be out for 4 hours" soda says confused
"Im not really sure but Shepard was being real annoying the whole time"
"Makes sense" johnny say finally dropping the suspicion face
Pony looks between soda and johnny as they hold eye contact for a little to long before darry asks
"So why didnt you answer your phone then?"
"Their was no signal" pony says coming up with a lie so clean it sounded real
Everything else they darry says pony kinda blocks out looking between soda and johnny.. their was definitely somthing going on that they weren't being honest about
When you lie enough you become really good at telling when other people lie. As pony was looking at them johnny realized he was looking at him. Then when he realized he was looking at both him and soda his fade flushed red so fast it could've been a world record. And whatever darry was saying he paused as he looks at johnny.
"Johnny.." darry started before being cut off but pony
"I KNEW IT I FUCKING KNEW IT" pony says grabing Johnny's shoulder and shacking him back and forth
"Knew what?? And let 'em go before he pukes" darry says annoyed but confused
"Soda.." pony says letting go of johnny and looking at him
As soon as soda realized his tan skin suddenly flushes red as johnny covered his face trying to hid how red his was.
"Oh I am so telling the group chat about this" pony says bolting to his room. Soda tries to run after him but is stopped by johnny
"Dont. Hes a fucking track star, ain't nothing gonna stop him" he says, face still a red as a tomato