"You need to cut him some slack," I told Pony. Darry had informed him earlier of Maria's pregnancy. Soda sort of shrugged it off. Pony had called him a moron.

"Why should I?" He asked angrily.

"Because he is your brother, and people make mistakes," I answered shutting down the car. We just got to the market. I had a list a mile long of stuff to get.

"Babies aren't mistakes," Pony opened his car door.

"How's it been, Darry?" I snickered at the mistake.

I whirled around. There was a guy who was almost as big as I was. He was blonde. All the sudden he gave me a confused look. He glanced over at Pony and then me. "Who the hell are you?"

I loved the nerve some people had. Ponyboy ducked behind me. "It our other brother. He's older than Darry." He looked up at me. "That's Paul," and that was all he had to say. I read his theme.

"Good lord, there is two of you," he said. He looked over at Ponyboy. "My cousin signed up for track, it's a shame you can't run."

There was an odd sound in his voice. He was rubbing it in Pony's face. The fact that this guy was picking on a kid was really disturbing to me.

"He'll get there next year," I said. I turned around and decided to ignore him before he could piss Pony off anymore. "We got stuff to do."

When I came home Soda seemed to be in a helpful mood. He helped me make dinner, set the table and clean up after words. I finally looked over at him. He was hiding something. I could tell. "What did you do?" I asked.

"We have to talk." He looked me straight in the eyes and grabbed the car keys. "Come on."

We drove in silence until we reached the graveyard. Never in my life had I ever seen him so quite. He turned to me from the driver's side of the truck. "Sunny, I want to show you Dad's grave," he said.

I hated graveyards, funerals and all that stuff. Death freaked me out. It always has. Just being here made me nervous. "Sodapop, what this about?" I could hardly remember Dad. I didn't want to see his grave.

"You don't believe in war. Dad was proud to serve his country. I'd like to think he would be proud me, since I know he wasn't when I dropped out of school," he began.

"You went back," I said. I had a feeling where this was going. In the pit of my gut I knew.

"Not because I wanted to. I have D's in everything but music and gym. Sunny, I joined the Marines with Steve. Darry signed for me." He didn't speak fast, or string his words together. He usually did that when he told us something that we didn't like.

It would be hypocritical if I got mad. I couldn't help it. "Soda, you saw what the Army and war did to me. This isn't a movie, this is real life."

"Yeah, and not everyone has and experience like you. Dad loved being in the Navy. Let's face it, when I graduate, I'm not going to college. I don't want to be stuck here all my life. I want to see things, and I want to do something good. I want an adventure." He wasn't looking any where but my face. I wondered if he had grown up in the three months that I had been gone.

"Well, you are going to get one," I said. I couldn't believe this. Of course Darry would sign for him. All my brothers had a rally around the flag attitude. "I'm not happy about it Sodapop." I wasn't going to lie to him.

"Well I am, you could at least be happy that I'm happy." He dug his shoe into the ground. "I can't always make all of you happy at once. I have to piss off someone." He had anger in his voice. I dwelled on his last words. Soda would always bend over backwards for us. Even if it meant doing things he didn't want too. All he wanted was us to be proud of him.

"Shit, if you figure out how to make us all happy at once then you must be a miracle worker. Soda laughed a little. I punched him in the arm. "Look Soda, they will try to change you. I'm sure they will in many ways. Just don't let them take anything away from you. Don't loose sight of who you are."

"I won't," he said. He leaned forward and hugged me. "This went better than I thought."

I grabbed him by the shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes. "If you play hero, or do something stupid, and end up in this place before me. When I die, I will come find you and beat the hell out of you. Understand me?"

Soda grinned really big. "I don't think you will be able too. See, I'm going to heaven."

"You're a little shit." I shook my head, "Do me a favor, next time you want to give me news or talk, do it anyplace but here."

"Want me to take over?" I asked. Darry was sitting on the couch with Ponyboy watching late night TV. It was almost two in the morning. Pony was having nightmares. Darry shook his head and glared at me. He was still mad about the other day. The fact was, Pony needed to be held accountable for his actions. He was getting to big to throw a pity party for. Darry just didn't understand why I was so cold.

I slid next them on the couch. "You have to be up in the morning. Let me stay with him."

Darry rubbed his face. I could tell he was beat. "Don't get spooked if Steve or Two-Bit wonder in drunk," he said.

I had no clue why he insisted on warning me about things like that. I mean, I had lived here long enough, I knew people wondered in at night. "Alright kid, it's me and you," I pulled Pony close. I began to hum Blue Moon. I had no clue when I drifted off, but when I woke up. I heard a swarm of laughter from outside followed by a stream of cussing. I would never forget that voice. I got up so fast I nearly knocked Pony on the ground.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Tim Sheppard looked up at me. He was higher then a kite, and drunk as could be. He stood there holding the running garden hose. I walked out to shut off the water. "Fire," he said looking at me like I was a moron.

I looked down to see what was left of our American flag. "What the hell? The flag was attached to our house, not a flag poll. The entire house could have went up in flames if it wasn't for Tim.

"I saw some socs drive off in time," he explained. He stumbled back wards a little bit. "Fuckers got away."

"What's going on?" Darry asked. He and Soda were standing at the door way.

Soda's eyes met the charred flag. He looked between a mix of sad and confused. "Who would do something like that? Dad put that up years ago."

He pushed passed Darry and picked it off the ground. "I don't get it. Was it a anti war protest?"

"Socs did it. I saw the white car," Tim said. "Darry, I need to crash on your couch."

"Sure," Darry moved out of the way so Tim could get in.

"We have to burn it now. You have to burn flags when the touch the ground," Soda said.

I wanted to smack him upside the head. Did he not get how serious this was? "Soda, who cares about the damn flag! They could have caught the entire fucking house on fire! With us in it! If Tim wouldn't have been in the right place at the right time."

"Sodapop, go inside," Darry ordered. "Just go."

Darry's eyes were darting around the porch. He was freaked out too. This wasn't just a bunch of teenagers lighting dog shit on fire. This was serious. "We need to call the police," I said.

"For them to do what? Act like it's a joke again. I think Soda and Steve have the right idea. We need to wait up and find out who it is."

"Then what happens then? Huh? You all go into another rumble knock each other around until someone wins, and then this starts all over again!"

"Sunshine," Darry screamed on top of his lungs. "Someone or some people are targeting our family! Did you not see Ponyboy? I'm not standing around and letting this happen."

We were lucky we lived in a shitty neighborhood. If we were anywhere else, the porch lights to every house would have went on. "You've got to be fucking kidding me. You guys rumbling with socs is what got us here in the first place."

He stood hardly an inch from my face. If it were anyone other than me, they would have been scared to death. "Go to fucking hell!"

We were both fuming. This wasn't good for me. I lost it. "What did you just say to me?" I was shouting now. My voice had nothing on his. "What makes you think you can talk to me like that you bastard?"

"Knock it off," Soda said. He and Pony slipped between us. "Come on, we don't need this!"

Darry just glared at me. "Stay out of this."

"No, don't fight like this. Not now," Soda said. He was pleading at this point. If Darry was going to listen to anyone, it was going to be him. He turned around, and walked inside slamming the door shut.

I looked at Soda. "Make sure that thug is off the couch in the morning."