OK, so remember in the book where the big deal is that Darry never hit Pony? What if that wasn't the case. I was thinking about that, then I read the part in Tex where he's thinking how Jamie gets spanked or grounded once a week, and this came to me. I wrote it and last week found this site and joined just to post. I think I'm supposed to tell you I didn't make up Pony boy or those guys, just the idea.

Pony gets a spanking

Ponyboy's POV

I sat on the bench in the lobby of the police station, chewing on my fingernails while Darry talked to the cop. When the cruisers pulled in at school, for a minute I was glad – tuff enough, I figured, but I didn't feel so tuff now. I wasn't arrested, but the fight was bad enough that the cops wanted to talk to my guardian before they'd let me go.

Darry came back to me and hauled me to my feet, not looking at me at all. I'd never seen him so mad. Glory, I was going to be grounded until I was 16.

But Darry had other plans. When we got into the truck, he said, "You are never going to do this again. When we get home, we are going to discuss this, and when we're done, you won't be sitting down for a week."

My stomach plummeted. He couldn't be serious. I was 14 years old. Not only was I way too old for a licking, no one in my family had ever spanked me. None of us had ever been spanked, as far as I could remember.

Darry didn't say another word the whole ride home. When we pulled up in front of the house, he got out of the truck and walked quickly to my side, opening my door like I was his date and he was being a gentleman. The look on his face, however, told me there was going to be nothing gentle about this.

I said the only thing I could think of. "Soda won't let you."

"Soda ain't here," Darry said, pulling me out. "And it wouldn't matter if he was."

He pushed me in front of him, with a hard hand in the middle of my back, into house and down the hall toward his room, the room that used to be Mom and Dad's.

"You ain't doing this, Ponyboy," he said when we were in the room with the door closed. "You ain't. You ain't getting arrested and running wild and giving the state any reason to stick you in a boys' home. They'd send Soda too, and he hasn't done anything." He looked me dead in the eye. "I fuss at you a lot about college, but that's your choice. I hope you go, but it's up to you. But you are going to graduate high school and you are going to stay out of trouble and you are going to act like a decent human being. Do I make myself clear?"

I nodded. I wasn't even trying to get out of the punishment, not yet. He was right, and I knew it.

"And Johnny. That it was Johnny makes it worse, do you understand that?"

I nodded again.

"All right then." Darry put his foot on the edge of the bed rail. "Come over here."

"Darry, no, come on, you can't really mean to –"

"I can and I will," he said "Don't make me come get you. I have no patience right now and you're going to make it worse for yourself."

I made myself step forward, one foot, then the other. When I was within reach, Darry grabbed my arm and yanked me over his knee.

There was no talk about how this was going to hurt him more than it was going to hurt me, because that obviously was not the case. His hands were calloused and hard from roofing, and the first crack stung enough to make me yelp, even through the seat of my jeans. I tried to pull away but Darry was taller and stronger and he kept me firmly bent over with his left hand as his right hand came back for another swat. I had nowhere to go.

When the fourth swat landed, I started to cry. By the time he'd hit me twelve times, I was full out bawling, begging him to stop, promising to be good. He didn't answer, just kept on whacking me. It wasn't just the pain, or even the humiliation of thinking I was some tough hood and being spanked like a little kid. Through my tears, I could see a picture of Mom and Dad on Darry's dresser and I couldn't shake the feeling that they were watching, disappointed in what I was doing. I was ashamed of myself.

And then it was over. I suddenly realized I wasn't pinned down anymore and I straightened up. As soon as I did, Darry hugged me to his chest and let me cry. When my sobs started to slow down, he said softly, "Ponyboy, I don't want to make a habit of this."

"Me, neither," I choked out, my voice muffled in his shirt, and Darry let me go.

Soda missed the whole thing, and Darry didn't tell him. It wasn't until we were getting ready for bed and he caught me twisting around backward, trying to see if my butt was still red, that he realized what had happened.

"Glory, Ponyboy, he paddled you good," Soda said, inspecting the damage. "Still sore?"

"Yeah," I said. Technically, Darry hadn't paddled me – he'd used his hand. But somewhere in the house, there might be an actual paddle. There were definitely belts and wooden spoons and rulers and God knows what all, and I had no intention of pushing him this far ever again. If I was still sore hours later and I'd had my jeans on, what would happen if he decided to whomp me bare-assed? He was bigger and stronger – if he caught me, I knew he could do it.

I crawled into bed and tried to get comfortable. Sleeping on my back was out of the question.

"You must have made him awful mad," Sodapop said. "What'd you do?"

"He didn't tell you?" I wasn't itching to spread the news, but I couldn't lie to Soda. "I got hauled in by the cops. I was fighting in the school yard and when I wouldn't quit, they called the fuzz."

"Fightin' who?"

This was the hard part. "Johnny," I admitted. Johnny hadn't been picked up. The teachers all saw I'd started the fight. Good thing – if he ever got arrested his old man would make Darry's punishment look like love taps.

"Johnny?" Soda sat up and looked at me. "Are you an idiot? Maybe Darry is right – you sure don't use your head sometimes."

I could have started bawling right there, looking at his face all dark and disappointed. "I'm sorry."

"Johnnycake. Lord Amighty. Like he ain't got enough problems. What in the blue hell made you take a swing on Johnny?"

A girl, but I couldn't tell Soda that. But like I said, I couldn't lie to him neither, so I kept quiet, picking a spot on the wall to look at.

"If you're gonna do something stupid enough to get you hauled away from Darry, make it count," he said in disgust.

"I know. I know." Lord, I couldn't stand Soda being mad with me.

Soda reached over me and turned out the light, then tapped my backside. I winced.

"Ponyboy," he said slowly. "You ever do anything so stupid again, I'll tan you myself."

Well? Would he really? What would Pony have done? How mad would Soda have to be? Read and Review!