Ponyboy's POV

It all started one day after school while I was waiting for Two-Bit drive me home. I was sitting in the bleachers with a book, Gone With the Wind. It was the copy Johnny left me when he died and it was my most valuable possession. After Johnny and Dally died, I had clamed up and stopped talking as much. Two-Bit liked to say that I had gone mute. I could tell my brothers were worried, so I tried to pretend like I was fine. I still had terrible nightmares even a year after my friends' deaths. My grades had improved since then, basically because I wanted to make Johnny and Dally proud. When I felt like giving up, I pushed myself even harder, to the point where even Darry was worried. I rarely went out anymore, except to the movies. I still watched sunsets, each one reminding me a bit of Johnny. I didn't tell the gang this because I didn't feel like being teased.

"Good tastes," someone behind me said. I turned around and saw a girl. This girl definitely wasn't a greaser girl. She had on a nice white blouse with a red graceful skirt that made her green eyes pop and her auburn hair shine. She was wearing a bit of makeup, but nothing like Evie or Angela Sheppard ever wore. I just stared at her. "In books, I mean. Gone With the Wind, it's a great book. I love the movie, but t just doesn't compare with the book. I'm Audrey Toohey, by the way. I just moved here from Chicago. My dad's the new principal." she rambled on a bit.

"Hi, Audrey, nice to meet you. I'm Ponyboy Curtis. And I agree with you about the book versus the movie." I said politely. I already liked this girl, this Soc.

"Ponyboy. That's a very interesting and original name. I was named after the poet Auden. My mom made my dad twist a bit because she thought Auden sounded like a boy's name." Audrey told me with a chuckle. I knew she was laughing at how ridiculous her parents could be.

"I've read some of Auden's work, but I didn't particularly care for it. I'm not big on poetry." I replied casually. I was shocked how easily it was to talk with this girl. The gang liked to tease me because I wasn't good with girls yet. Not that they didn't like me, I just didn't care for many of them. I knew the reason was that my type of girl wasn't a greaser girl, but a Soc girl wouldn't take a second glance at me. Until now, I guess.

"Really? I love poetry. It can mean whatever you want it to mean." she answered defensively. We spent the next hour debating books, movies, and poetry and talking about our family. I learned that she was an only child, but was extremely close to her parents. She also loved movies and was a fan of Paul Newman. I told her about my brothers and the gang. She wanted to meet Soda and was amused by my Two-Bit stories. I told her about Dally and Johnny and that my copy of Gone With the Wind had been his. I showed her his message inside the book. She hugged me when I started to cry a bit. Our conversation was cut short when I heard Two-Bit calling for me.

"Ponyboy, oh Ponyboy, where are you?" he shouted. I could tell he was a bit drunk. Audrey laughed.

"Is he always like this?" she whispered into my ear. I nodded.

"Drunk or sober," I added solemnly. Audrey smacked my arm playfully.

"Ponyboy Curtis, you shouldn't talk about your friend that way." she scolded me jokingly.

"I should probably go before he gets himself in trouble." I said sadly. I didn't want to leave her sitting here alone. "Do you need a ride?" I asked hopefully. Then again, I'd just get a weird look of Two-Bit and questions about why we were driving a Soc girl home.

"No, my dad should be out of his meeting soon," Audrey replied wistfully. I could tell she wanted me to drive her home. "But, I can give you my number. Meet me here again tomorrow." she said kindly. She grabbed a piece of paper out of her bag and wrote down her number. She handed it to me. "See you tomorrow," Audrey said with a smile.

"You bet," I replied softly. I climbed down the bleachers and walked over to where Two-Bit was.

"Kid, where have you been? We have to get back soon or Darry's going to get mad." he said with a bit of fear in his eyes. I'd be scared too. Darry could take the two of us in a fight and win flawlessly. "Pone, what's wrong with you? You're smiling." Two-bit gasped in fake-shock.

"Nothing. Let's go." I replied with a shake of my head. I got to his crapbucket car that was always braking down on him. The car plus his driving was a safety hazard. No one but me ever noticed or said anything about it. I sat in the passenger seat, thinking about Audrey.

Two-Bit's POV

The kid was quiet the whole ride home. It wasn't the usual kind of forced quiet where he was trying to hold something in. It was the kind of quiet where he was thinking about something. Pony was always thinking. The kid was going places, places the rest of us couldn't even think of. He was a dreamer, someone who watched sunsets and thought of a world where it didn't matter if you were a soc or a greaser. I couldn't keep my mouth shut for more than five minutes if my life depended on it and my thoughts were always about girls and booze.

I looked down at the book he was holding. "Whatcha ya reading, Pone?" I asked him curiously. The kid was never without a book. He even read the same ones over and over again. Soda once asked him why he would read the same book twice and Pony smirked and said, "I know you barely read a book once, but you can read a book numerous times." He was getting mouthier by the day, something Darry didn't appreciate and I found hilarious.

"Gone With the Wind,' he mumbled softly. I knew that book had a lot of meaning to him. Johnny had left Pony his copy when he died. This baffled all of us, but the kid understood. He craved something into the grave with my switchblade. Johnny Cade: Died golden. None of us had a clue to what that meant, but Pony insisted that was all we should put on the grave.

The rest of the ride was quiet. We finally got to the house and opened the door. I could hear the tv on some game show. I opened the door and saw Soda and Steve playing blackjack.

"Hey, Two-Bit," they said in unison. That friendship baffled me almost as much as the Johnny-Pony friendship had. Those two were as different as night and day, but they were still best friends.

Soda turned to his brother, who was still grinning about something that I couldn't figure out. "Hey, Ponyboy. How was school?" he asked, knowing the best he would get was a fine.

"Good," Pony answered, still grinning like the Cheshire Cat. We all turned to stare at him. He hadn't said that about school in nearly a year. Something was definitely up with that boy. "I'm going to go start my homework," he added, clearly wanting to avoid our questions. He walked into Soda's and his room and shut the door.

Soda turned to me and asked, "What's with Pony? He actually seems like himself." It was the first time that we had seen the real Ponyboy in a while. For a few months after Johnny and Dally were gone, Pony walked around like zombie, barely eating or sleeping. He stopped reading for a while and his grades started to slip. Somehow, he managed to return to part of who he was. The kid started reading again and took up writing. He had a journal full of writing. He didn't show it to us because he knew we weren't into that stuff. I knew he'd be okay the first time I saw him admire a sunset again. Pony became quieter and didn't smile that much, but it was the best we could hope for. Or so we thought.

"Beats me. I go to pick him up from track and he just has that grin on his face." I told him with my eyebrows raised.

"We'll find out later," Steve said with a shrug. He turned to Soda. "Let's go. We're meeting Evie and her friend at the garage."

"Two-Bit, find out was up with Ponyboy," Soda commanded me, his eyes threatening.

"Sir, yes sir. Though first I am going to have a few more drinks." I replied with a fake salute. Soda just shook his head at me and followed Steve out the door.

I knocked on Pony's bedroom door. "Hey, Pone, I'm going to go have a couple of drinks. I'd bring you, but then Darry might kill me. I'll be back for dinner." I shouted through the door. I remotely heard an Okay, so I took off. I grinned to myself. The old Ponyboy was back!