The Teacher

I do not own The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton does :)

How would you feel if your own brother, never mind your guardian, was coming to work at your school?

I sure was happy for Darry when his boss offered to pay for his college fees. I don't know why he did – seems a little suspicious to me – but not one of us complained. If Darry went through college, he'd get a decent job, which meant Soda and I would have an even better chance of being able to stay with him. Plus, the state would respect his status a lot more; he'd be more than just a roofer in their eyes.

Also, since the college was so close by, Darry had no problem with having to be worried about me and Soda; I went to school and Soda worked, and when we got home we stayed right where we were supposed to. Darry's boss still paid him, which again was suspicious (though we didn't really care), so we had no problem with the bills, and Soda working at the DX helped too.

Soda and me were so shocked however, when Darry decided not to go down the athletic route. Instead, he decided he wanted to be a teacher! And even worse, there were a lot of free teaching spaces in my school, so of course he decided to choose mine!

"You know, I bet if ya'll wait just a few more weeks, you'll be able to get a job in an even better school," I claimed, sitting on my oldest brother's bed. He was currently gathering all of the papers he'd need for tomorrow. One more day!

Darry sighed. "Ponyboy, we've been through this twenty times today. We can't wait a few more weeks; my boss stopped paying me yesterday so if we wait a few more weeks the state will know somethin's goin' on," he explained slowly, like I couldn't understand him. I groaned and flopped back onto his bed, crossing my arms and pouting. My big brother chuckled as he finished packing his stuff together.

"He's just worried you're gonna embarrass 'im," Sodapop giggled from the doorway. I scowled and when Darry turned around I flipped my middle brother off. Sodapop giggled again, and then made a position where he looked like he was ready to charge.

I didn't leap off the bed fast enough. Sodapop tackled me and had me on the ground in a second, tickling me under my armpits. I tried not to laugh but eventually gave in, and in less than two minutes I was howling my head off and hollering Uncle at the top of my lungs.

"C'mon you two, I need to do some stuff before bed. Go play in the living room," Darry ordered, dragging Soda off of me and then helping me up. I dusted my shirt and jeans and leapt right back onto Darry's bed, lying down and pulling a cute face at him. My big brother sighed.

Sodapop looked as if he was considering disobeying Darry, but I guess the dark circles under our oldest brother's eyes put him off, because he just patted Darry's back and then left the room. Darry sat down next to me after a little bit, grabbing me around the waist and sitting me so I was facing him.

"We need to spend some quality time together pretty soon, little man," he stated, ruffling my hair. I nodded.

"Certainly. Do you know if I'm in your class yet?" I asked, silently hoping that I wasn't. How embarrassing what it be if I was?!

"Nope," Darry shook his head. "I have a meeting with the principal at 7:30 tomorrow morning. He's gonna give me my schedule and everything and give me time to set up and talk with some of the other teachers."

I nodded, but couldn't get rid of the nervous feeling in my stomach. Darry as my teacher…

Would he pick on me to answer all the questions to test my knowledge? If I got a question wrong, would he holler at me like he does when I don't get something right on my homework? Would he embarrass me if I talked back to him?

All these thoughts rushed through my head, and I couldn't help but squirm just thinking about them. Darry patted me on the head, oblivious to what I was thinking. I couldn't address these worries to him; I didn't need my big brother getting any ideas.

"Go wash up for bed; you look tired," Darry said gently, getting up and helping me off his mattress. I did as he'd said; I'd usually protest at going to bed at 9, but I felt a bit sick and my head was hurting a little bit.

I guess Soda had nothing better to do because he came in and sat next to me while I got comfortable. He rubbed my back for a little while and I eventually drifted off to sleep, though Soda had managed to take away all the worry I had about the next day. Too bad the next day was still gonna happen.

XXX

My alarm went off at 6 am, waking me up from my peaceful slumber. I immediately got a queasy feeling from knowing that I was gonna start my job in an hour and thirty minutes, but I swallowed and it went away, for a little bit anyway.

I groaned when I took out the suit from my closet. Suits just ain't my thing – greasers never wear suits, and whenever I wear one I feel like a soc. The only times I've really worn a suit in my adulthood is when I attended my parents funeral and also when the state do a house check. Mom used to make me, Soda and Pony wear a suit every Sunday for church, and not one of us liked it.

But still, I'm a teacher now, and suits are what teachers wear. I sighed and got dressed, checking myself in the mirror once I was done. It made me look more fat than muscular, the way the tight shirt was tucked into my tan pants. I had to look away for a minute; tan pants are a must for a soc. It was disgusting.

Picking up the case with all my paperwork in, I walked out to the kitchen and got started on breakfast. We were out of chocolate cake, so I settled on making some eggs for the boys. They'd sure be grouchy when I got them up at 6:30, but that was there problem unfortunately.

My own appetite wasn't big, but I didn't want to be half asleep while talking to the principal, so I ate some cereal and drank two cups of coffee before going to wake my little brothers up. Soda and Pony looked so peaceful, and I almost felt bad, but if I didn't wake them up now then they'd probably oversleep. Imagine teaching your own kid brother and seeing him not turn up in your class?

I wondered if I would be teaching Ponyboy. I'm sure he wouldn't be too happy with the idea, but I thought it'd be good as I'd be able to keep more of an eye on him. Not that I don't trust my little brother; I just know that if anybody was mean to him I'd be able to see it and put a stop to it. Same thing reversed, though I couldn't imagine my baby brother ever having the heart to be mean to somebody…

"Rise and shine!" I shouted. Their eyes shot open in a flash, and I couldn't help but laugh. Soda chuckled, not offended, but Ponyboy glared up at me.

"It's too early," he claimed, making to lie back down. I grabbed his arm and pulled him from under the covers so he was sitting on my knees. My little brother groaned, pouting at the ceiling. "I'm not a little kid."

"You sure about that?" I questioned, tickling him under his chin. He frowned and smacked my arm lightly, sliding off my lap to get in the shower. I shook my head and turned to Sodapop, who grinned at me before hopping up to get some breakfast.

By 7:15 we were all ready to go. Soda and Pony were gonna go to Two-Bit's house for a little bit before school and work. I ruffled their hair and we parted our ways; me getting in the truck and heading off to work while they both loped over to Two-Bit's house. Mrs Mathews had offered to give Soda a ride to work and I already knew that Two-Bit and Pony were gonna be travelling together in the car, so I had no worries about them getting to their destinations on time.

The sky was still dark when I arrived at the high school. There were a few cars and trucks in the parking lot, most of them of better quality than mine. I bit my lip; hopefully none of the other teachers would judge.

I approached the doors and nervously ran a hand through my hair. I hadn't greased it as I knew it wouldn't be very formal, and the rich kids would no doubt complain to their parents for having a greaser as a teacher. If they knew Ponyboy then they'd know me anyway, but I wasn't prepared to make it obvious.

"Ah, Mr Curtis, please have a seat," the principal, Mr Ryans, said to me when I opened the door to his office. I smiled and sat down in the chair in-front of his desk, politely declining when he offered me a cigar. "All set for today?" he asked, nodding towards my case. I nodded, placing it on the desk and getting out some paperwork that he needed to look at.

Once Mr Ryans checked over my paperwork, the man pulled out more papers for me. "This here's your schedule," he pointed to a large piece of paper, and placed it in a red folder. "In this folder is all your students. It has their names and their school pictures, and what grade they're in," he explained. "I'd recommend pinning up your schedule; so you don't have to go through papers and papers to find it." He laughed, dropping a pin inside the folder.

I grabbed the folder and started searching for Ponyboy's grade. Mr Ryans hadn't told me if I was teaching the academic students for math, so I knew I'd have to see for myself. And when I got to Ponyboy's grade, his name was written on the paper. I was teaching my baby brother after all.

"I do hope you enjoy your time teaching here, Mr Curtis," Mr Ryans stated. "Hopefully you'll remain with us for a long time, if you don't change your mind and go somewhere else. After you finish setting up, there's coffee in the teacher's lounge, and I'm sure the teachers will be glad to meet you," he smiled.

I smiled back and him and nodded, standing up and putting the papers and red folder into my case. "Thank you, sir," I said, and then left and shut the door quietly. Well, today's going to be a fun day, I thought to myself.

XXX

"You've only got cookies for lunch?" I asked Two-Bit in shock. My buddy nodded, gobbling down a chocolate chip cookie as we sat together in the parking lot. I sighed, shaking my head.

"So." Two-Bit gulped down a bite of his cookie. "Do you know if Superdope's your teacher?"

I groaned. "No," I answered gruffly. "Hopefully he'll be teaching you and Steve."

Two-Bit laughed loudly. "Imagine! He'd be smackin' our hands every few minutes to tell us to stop foolin' around. Man oh man, I hope Darry's our teacher!"

"I hope so too," I thought to myself bitterly. I didn't have a problem with my big brother at all. But my big brother being my teacher…that's a different story.

I got out of the car and slammed the door, startling Two-Bit and causing him to almost choke on his cookie. Laughing I ran off before he could get out of the car to give me a piece of his mind.

The hallway was busy as usual. I spotted Darry walking out of the teachers' lounge (which was strictly forbidden to students) and ran over to him. The nervous feeling was killing me – I had to know if my big brother was teaching me. I had math first lesson anyway…man, Darry's a math teacher!

"Hey Ponyboy," Darry smiled at me. I gulped, but before I could ask him the question, he already answered it for me. "I'm your teacher."

The small grin fell from my face. Just great.

XXX

"Oh my gosh, the new math teacher is hot!"

My eyebrows shot up as I heard some of the girls behind me giggling to each other. I seriously hoped they weren't talking about my brother, but there were no new teachers, never mind math ones, apart from Darry.

"What's his name?"

"Mr Curtis."

"Wait, is he related to…"

I turned around and hushed them, telling them to be quiet. They all looked at each other with wide eyes, and the girl who I'm guessing called my brother hot turned her head down in embarrassment. I felt my own cheeks turning red too, but tried to hide it as best I could.

When the bell rang for first period, I considered going to the restroom to hide, but I knew that Darry would probably lecture me to no end once he got home, so I decided to hold my head up high and walked into the classroom without a care in the world. Who am I kidding? Of course I cared!

I didn't expect any different when I saw a lot of the girls who claimed themselves to be popular sitting at the front desks, all fluttering their thick eyelashes at my big brother. That was good though; those girls usually took the back desks so they could mess around, but now those spaces were free which meant Darry couldn't keep a very close eye on me.

Once everybody was seated, I noticed Darry looking around the room. When he set his eyes on me he frowned, but decided not to address the issue yet. Instead he stood up and crossed his arms.

"My name's Mr Curtis," he grinned, ignoring the girls who all exhaled heavily at the sound of his voice. "As ya'll already know, I teach math. I'm new here so I don't know how the system works around here, but I do know that there'll be no messing around in my classroom."

A few of the kids shrunk back slightly, while a lot of the guys, mainly greaser guys, groaned.

"I'm not here to make friends; I'm here to teach. But if you're nice to me, I'll be nice back. But if you're not nice to me, you won't have the most pleasant time, let's put it that way."

"He's cute when he's mad," some girl hissed to her friend.

"He ain't mad; he's just bein' firm," the friend hissed back.

"Also," Darry said loudly, alerting everybody. Some kids jumped while I chuckled inwardly; that wasn't even the loudest Darry could do, but I knew my brother was loud when he wanted to be.

"I don't tolerate talking while I am; that's just bad manners and makes me feel insulted. And trust me, I don't like being insulted," he shook his head. "And boys," he directed his attention over to some soc boys who were mocking him, which aggravated me slightly. "Don't act like babies. Whatever you act like you'll be treated like."

One of the boys glared at Darry, but once Darry gave him a look he instantly dropped his gaze to the floor and squirmed in his seat slightly. Darry smirked and turned his attention to the whole class again.

"What if I act like I screwed around with your mom?!" some boy shouted. It was Timmy. Everybody gasped, even though they didn't expect any less from Timmy Kacy. He just shouted whatever was on his mind, but he was smart.

Darry raised his eyebrows and I was honestly expecting him to flip out. But he didn't, and instead just smirked at Timmy. "How can you act like you've screwed around with one's mother?" he inquired.

Timmy swallowed and turned red – Darry had caught him out there. "Unless you're my father, but my father's dead, as is my mother. So tell me, young man, if my mother's dead, how could you have possibly screwed around with her?" my brother's voice was calm, but that was usually worse than shouting.

All eyes were on Timmy now, including my own. Timmy sunk down in his seat, looking as if he was about to cry. "But I'll tell you; when people make jokes about my mother, I'm not very nice to them, let's put it that way. See me at the end please."

Everybody turned around to face Darry again once he finished scolding Timmy. Serves you right, I thought to myself, not feeling the least bit sorry for the kid when his lip trembled and he hid his face in his hands. That was my mother he was talking about as well.

"Any other questions?" Darry asked.

"Sir," another boy said, putting his hand up. A few people rolled their eyes; it was Joey. He was my age but acted like a little kid. It wasn't his fault really; his parents just babied him too much.

"Yes?" Darry said, but his tone was softer now. Every teacher I've had has never shouted at Joey; they never have the heart to when he gives them his puppy dog stare.

"If you treated those boys like babies," he pointed to the socs from before. They all sighed at him. "Wouldn't that mean that they wouldn't have to do any work? Babies can't write you know."

Darry chuckled. "Don't worry, they'll still be doin' work like everybody else. I'm sure they'd love to recite the numbers one to ten over and over again while they write lines for me. And if they can't remember how many lines they've written then I'll help 'em remember by making them count them ten times." He smiled.

Everybody's eyes widened, including my own. Our old math teachers had never given us punishments that harsh for misbehaving. Joey however smiled.

"Ah, I get it now," he said seriously. Everybody frowned at Joey.

"Anyway," Darry said with a no nonsense tone. "Now that ya'll know the rules, I'll be glad to get on with my lesson," he smiled. Then he looked at me. "And if you don't believe me when I say there'll be consequences for your actions, just ask my little brother Ponyboy what it's like at home."

Everybody turned around to look at me. A lot of kids had wide eyes, while others were glaring at me. Timmy's glare was the worst though; he looked like he wanted to kill me. Some kids, mainly girls, were smiling as if to say "You're related to him? Could you get him a date with me?" Joey was smiling at me too, but it was a different kind of smile, as if he'd just been told I was the brother of his hero. Just great; I was gonna be the talk of my school. Thanks Darry.

Darry went to the desk and took a sheet of paper, most probably his lesson plan. Then he went to the blackboard and wrote some simple equations.

"Mr Ryans informed me that your old teacher made you take your books home last week," Darry hinted. Everybody sighed and got their books out, except for Timmy and some other kid. "Where are your books, gentlemen?"

"Math class is a waste of time," Timmy spat. I guess any sadness he felt before was gone now; now he just wanted to push my big brother to his limit. And if you know Darry like I do, you know that ain't a good idea.

Darry raised his eyebrows at the kid. "Right." He pressed his lips together, and I knew this meant he was trying to refrain from yelling. "You can just get out then. Go to Mr Ryans and tell him why you won't do math. You see," his voice was getting louder. "I do not appreciate you interrupting my lesson, young man. But that's not a problem, you can just get moved to the lower math class." Timmy looked as if he were about to protest. "I don't care how smart you are; if you're causing me problems then-"

"Mr Curtis," a new voice serenaded through the classroom. We all looked up to see Miss Saunders standing at the doorway, smiling. "Sorry to interrupt, but I'm trying to move my bookcase since Curly Shepard knocked it over, but nobody can lift it up. I though since you were…never mind, but can you still help me?"

She was fluttering her eyelashes slightly, like those girls had been doing a few minutes before. I scowled; my brother was getting hit on by other teachers already? Well that wouldn't do; he was here to teach, not to make friends!

My big brother chuckled slightly and the frown on my forehead deepened. He was enjoying this.

"Of course, Miss Saunders. Everybody copy out these equations into your book and try to get one done," Darry ordered, following Miss Saunders out of the classroom. Joey giggled.

"That's my mom," he grinned at me. My eyes widened and I groaned slightly.

"And my cousin," one of the socs from the 'mocking group' called to me. Great, could my life get any worse?

AN: What did you all think of that? I quite like the idea!