Hey there, everyone! This was what came of a question posed to me by Veryfairygirl14 way back in January. I am sorry it took so long to complete, but here it is, and I very much hope that you enjoy it.

Please keep in mind that I don't have the book on me, and even if I did, verbal vomit is not my style. Enjoy!

The Question: What did Ponyboy say about Pepsi when he was talking to Cherry on the walk back from the Nightly Double?

The Answer:

Pony's POV

I couldn't believe that we were still with Cherry and Marcia. The movie was over, but they didn't have a ride back to the West side after their boyfriends had taken off. Two-Bit had gallantly offered to walk them home, but they lived clear on the other side of town. Instead, they agreed to walk with us to Two-Bit's place so we could drive them home in his car. I was pretty sure they would change their minds once they actually saw it. Two-Bit's car was a rusted out old beater that even Steve didn't think was worth the work to keep it going. Every other week there was something wrong with it, but in our neighbourhood, you took what you got and you made it work with a smile on your face.

Marcia was walking along beside Two-Bit. The pair of them were really hitting it off. They both had the same weird sense of humour, so they were both laughing at each other the whole way. Johnny trailed behind them, hands in his pockets, head ducked down. It was getting cold, and even with a jacket, I could tell Johnny was feeling it. I rubbed at my own arms from time to time, stopping almost instantly. I wanted to look tough in front of Cherry, and rubbing your arms because you walked out of the house without a jacket wasn't tough.

Cherry didn't seem to mind if I was tough or not. She seemed happy enough to listen to me talk as we followed the others deeper into the east side. I was pretty quiet most of the time, but Cherry was easy to talk to, and I could tell that she was still nervous around us, so the talking helped. And I was talking about near everything – school, track, books. Somehow, the conversation landed on Soda. I could talk about Soda plenty. She smiled when I told her about Mickey Mouse – Soda's buckskin horse. I had never told anyone about Mickey Mouse before. Soda loved that horse more than anything, and I still thought it was wrong that they were split up. I didn't tell her that part. I stuck to the fun stories about how that horse used to chew on Soda's shirt and rub up against him hard enough to send him stumbling. Soda always laughed it off.

"Soda sure sounds like a character."

"Yeah, he sure does get drunk on life." I nodded, pulling a smoke out of my pocket. Maybe it would take my mind off of how cold my bare arms were.

"He's a twin, right?"

"Yeah, him and Pepsi-cola."

"I used to think they were the same person because their names were so close."

I nodded. Some people got confused by it and thought Pepsi-cola was Soda's nickname.

"Dad named Soda and figured to call him Pepsi-cola as a nickname. Pepsi was supposed to be named Pal, but there was a mix up on his birth certificate," I explained. "Soda always says that he may be called Pepsi, but he's still his pal."

Cherry smiled at that, and I knew I was blushing something awful. I was thankful it was just dark enough and cold enough that she wouldn't be able to tell for sure.

"He sounds...interesting," she offered.

"I thought you knew him from school?"

They were both the same age, and they probably had a lot of classes together, but I could be wrong.

"I see him around, but I wouldn't say I know him. He's a Greaser...and not one of the nice ones."

I glanced at Cherry, wondering what she meant by that. Pepsi was standoffish, Pepsi was far from being a fan of the Socs, and Pepsi didn't really talk to anyone when he was at school. It wouldn't surprise me if she thought he wasn't nice. I guess he wasn't, but he was still my brother, and I was going to take up for him.

"No Soc has ever been nice to him," I offered. "He's the type you have to be nice to first."

"Oh, well, I guess I never thought about it that way." She ran a hand through her hair. "All I ever see is him sitting on his own or making trouble with Dallas Winston."

I nodded, taking another drag on my cigarette. Dallas and Pepsi were probably best friends, if either of them thought it was tuff to have a best friend. They did nearly everything together. The big difference between them was that Dallas would spend a month in the cooler without blinking, but the threat of living in a small space bugged Pepsi enough that he never did anything to earn cooler time. I was pretty sure he was scared of the way Darry would react, too. Darry always said he would skin us if we got in trouble with the fuzz. They could split us up if we did. Pepsi still caused some trouble, but the state didn't think it was serious enough to split us apart. Not yet, at least.

"He doesn't start trouble, but he usually ends up in it."

Cherry nodded, pulling her sweater tighter around her shoulders. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean that he was a bad guy."

"Yeah, you just don't know him," I agreed.

"Tell me about him. I feel like I practically know Soda from the way you talk about him. Is Pepsi just like him?"

I wanted to laugh.

"No, they're not a lot alike. They both like to fix things, eat chocolate cake, and ride horses. That's about it."

Pepsi used to fix things around the house, like the radio, the lock on the back door, the washer, and once he even fixed the clock, but he never did get cars. That was alright because Soda never could figure out how to fix the things Pepsi did. Aside from that, they had the same nervous fidgets, and that was about it.

"Pepsi rides in the rodeos," Cherry commented like she had just remembered that.

"Yep, every year. He has a horse over at the Slash J – Dunn. Pepsi likes him, even though he says he would never race him for money."

Especially not against the horse Dallas rode. The horse had some fancy name, but Dallas called him "Goblin" and the horse apparently didn't mind. He was white and thin and liked to run. When Dallas was on his back, Pepsi said that there was no use in even racing him.

"So, why did he stay in school when Soda didn't?" Cherry asked and I shrugged.

I'd asked Soda why he dropped out a few times because it bothered me so much. Soda said it was because he was dumb, but he was never dumb. He just didn't get school. It just wasn't something he was good at.

Pepsi wasn't much better at school, but that was mainly because he didn't put any effort into it. It was something Darry and Pepsi argued about all the time. Darry wanted Pepsi to do better, and Pepsi just wanted Darry to leave him alone. It would have been more peaceful around our house if Pepsi just dropped out, but Darry would be even madder if that happened. He still hated that Soda dropped out.

"Soda's happy to work on cars all day," I paused.

Working on cars really did make Soda happy. I wasn't sure what made Pepsi happy these days, if anything. I was sure he was still in school because he had nowhere else to go.

"Pepsi wouldn't be. So he's going to finish school."

"Not everyone has to know what they're going to do at sixteen," Cherry offered.

"You should tell Darry that."

"Did Darry know what he wanted to do?"

"From the day he was born, but instead he's stuck raising Soda, Pepsi, and me. He'd rather be doing anything else."

And he never let us forget it. He was always harping about grades and school so that we could go to college and make something of ourselves. He wanted us to go because he never did. He should have just dumped us in a boys' home somewhere, and then he could go do whatever he wanted to.

"I'm sure he doesn't think that way," Cherry coaxed.

"You don't know him. He ain't like Soda, or Pepsi, and he sure ain't like me. He's always yelling at me. I can't do anything right for him. He'd just as soon kick Pepsi out and huck me in a boys' home, but Soda won't let him."

"No, Kid. You got it all wrong," Two-Bit butted in, giving me a look like he thought I really did have it all wrong.

"Pony, that ain't true," Johnny piped up, looking at me with wide eyes. "You all get along real good."

"No we don't! And you can shut your trap Johnny Cade! You ain't wanted at home, either!"

Johnny's face fell and he looked back at his shoes. I felt like groaning. It just came out...

"You shut your trap, kid," Two-Bit snapped, cuffing my ear. "He didn't mean that, Johnny. We couldn't get on without you."

"I'm sorry, Johnny. I just..." I trailed off with a shrug. I was just mad, but now I felt pretty deflated.

"It's ok, man," Johnny rasped back, shrugging it off, but I could tell that he was still hurt by it.

It was true though, what Two-Bit said. We could get on without anyone but Johnny. Johnny was the gang's pet. We were all he had. We were his family. And if anyone knew what it was like to get knocked down by your brother with just a couple words, it was me.

I opened my mouth to apologize again when the bright flash of headlights blinded us for a moment. Cherry and Marcia froze, looking anxious. I supposed it was their Soc boyfriends.

It looked like our night was about to get a lot more eventful.

Well, I hope everyone enjoyed that! It was fun to write a bit of a snippet for this story that was so near and dear to my heart for so long.

Oh, and on other business, I have figured out how to use the comma - mostly - so I will be going back and correcting this story. As for DV2, Pepsi and I are negotiating terms of continuing it. So far, he really wants to kill Hughes, and I really think he should see the shrink, so I'll let you know how that standoff goes.

See ya in the funny papers!

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