a/n hello! It has been a long long time since I added to this story.. in fact I completely forgot about it until recently. I have been writing a sister fic. for a while now, I've don over 30 chapters, and I haven't had much traffic or any reviews in a long time, so I believe I will take a break from that one and try to add to this one. Let me know what your thinking about this story- or my other one Beginnings. Are either worth continuing? Do I need to just go back to the drawing board?

I looked at Pony hoping I would know what to do right now. On one hand I could keep out of this and let Darry and Pony work on the whole school problem, and not tell Darry about the disappearing act, because Pony didn't really do anything wrong. However, on the other hand I could get involved and make us get to the bottom of it right now. If I believed that Pony would talk to me and we could figure it out the two of us, I would have kept it that way, however, I didn't think I could get Pony to talk to me if I was the last person on earth. If I wasn't so worried I would have been hurt by his distance.

"Darry, I need your help getting something out of the car," I told him before he was hardly three steps in the house.

"Okay," he dropped his keys and tools following me out. Little did he know the bomb I was about to drop.

"Darry, we need to have a united front and go in there and talk to Pony and work something out because we are loosing him-" I whispered when we got to the truck.

"What do you mean we're loosing him?" Darry had no clue.

"Dar, he's hurting, and he doesn't know how to express that. He blames himself, and can't move on. This is so much deeper than him simply not wanting to go to school." I knew something was wrong. I didn't know what, but I knew only Darry and I together could figure it out. We needed to tag team this. I couldn't simply sit on the fence and try to stay out of their bickering.

"Well what do you wanna do little buddy, because I don't think we can simply give in and coddle him. There's a time to grieve and to stop your life and regain your footing, but we are past that." I knew Darry was just as upset as me. I knew he wanted to help Pony, but for Darry he only really knows tough love. He is most comfortable pushing through the hard times.

"I think we have to do it his way, at least a little. It's the only way, Dar. You can't go in there and be a hard ass. He's not a scared 13 year old anymore. Honestly grounding him won't even phase him because I have to force him to even go out of the house. The harder you are- we are, the more he will shut down. I've seen it this whole week." I didn't know if I was right or not, but I figured that it had to be worth a shot.

"Well, what do you suggest?" Darry was really taking to heart what I said. He might not necessarily agree with it, but I think he was willing to try anything.

"I think we tell him that if he will open up and meet us half way, we'll talk to the school and pull him out the last month, homeschool him or something. However, in return he has to be straight with us, and we have to talk about not only what's going on at school, but what's going on with him. We have to get to the bottom of his anger." I let out a sigh with both of my hands on the hood.

"What's he going to do while we're at work huh? Sleep and read? We are rewarding bad behavior, Pepsi!" Darry didn't like this one bit.

"We're helping our little brother get back on his feet. We're hearing his cry for help Darry, because that's what this is. He's skipping class. He's not even going. Cherry told me. That's not him being lazy, that's him asking for help. He needs this. He ran off from Steve today, and I couldn't find him for a few hours. Finally I had to send Shepard's gang out to look for him. He wasn't at the drive, the dinner, the library, he doesn't have any friends so where was he Dar?" I wasn't trying to rat out Pony, and I did feel like I betrayed his trust honest I did, but I just needed Darry to understand this wasn't a discipline thing.

"He can't just quit school, it's so important Soda!" Darry's face was red from frustration.

"Darry, you don't think I know that? You think I want him to have my life? You think I want him working in the DX? Cause I don't! I'm happy there, but he never would be. But if we don't help him now, when he turns 16 he'll just be gone, and we'll never see him again." I wasn't being dramatic I meant that. I could see it in his eyes.

"Where would he go Soda?" Darry didn't believe me.

"Trust me Dar, he doesn't feel like he belongs here anymore. He doesn't see the point anymore. Johnny was his best friend. I think he'd travel to the end of the world if he thought it would feel better than here. He needs us more than he even knows." Darry's face softened, and I could tell that he was starting to believe what I was saying.

"Fine, let's do it your way."

"Okay, and one more thing." I stopped speaking thinking about the best way to say this. "We gotta be extra sensitive Dar, because he's fragile even if he just seems like a pain in the ass." He nodded his head following me in.

"You go get him while I tell Tim we found him."

xxxxxxxxxxxx

I walked into Pony's room, he was writing something in a composition book. I watched him for a second before I said anything.

"You guys done talking about me?" He asked not looking up. I couldn't help but smile at him. He's always been too smart for his own good.

"Yeah pal, now we want to talk to you, come on out. Soda's waiting on us." I really could see the fear in Pony's eyes. I disagreed with Soda, I could still see the scared 13 year old.

"Hey, Pone," Soda scooted over and Pony sat beside him. Soda draped his arm over Pony, but Pony shook it off. Maybe Soda was more right than I originally thought,

"Pony, Darry and I have done a lot of thinking, and we both decided that clearly there are issues we need to work out, and until they are worked out we are willing to talk to your school and pull you out while we work on them," Soda tried to act like he wasn't hurt by Pony, but I knew he was. I watched Pony's eyes soften, it hurt me that a kid who loved school so much all of a sudden hated it.

"That's not a free pass Pony, we're going to be doing a lot of talking and digging, as a family, and you will go back to school, if I have to tie you to desk to keep you there I will." I added that last part to try to be funny to keep the mood light, but I probably meant it more than they noticed.

"Yeah, Pony the talking starts right now. We're not getting up until we solve something," I got up and locked the door. We never ever locked our door, and I intended to unlock it when we stopped talking, but I wanted to show Pony no one was going or coming.

"I honestly don't know what to say. Thanks I guess?" Pony did look relieved, but not to the degree I expected.

"Were the soc's giving you a hard time in class for Bob?" I guessed, I knew I was right too, because I had heard Two-bit say it before.

Pony thought about it for a second before answering, "I don't know Dar," he sighed.

"That's not good enough, come on Pone, try a little harder." Soda coaxed.

"Yeah, okay, they were!" Pony was starting to get angry.

"What were they saying?" Soda asked hiding his emotions pretty well.

"Why does it matter? They are just dumb socs!" Pony was past getting angry and full blown upset.

"Okay, pal, calm down." I tried to say the right thing, I knew we could't get through to him if he was defensive and upset.

He looked at us with his fist clenched, but he didn't say anything.

"Let's talk about Johnny and Dally. We read what you wrote Pony, and we want to know why you think that it's your fault."Soda put his hand on top of Pony's knee. Pony looked at it but didn't move.

"I don't want to talk about them. How am I suppose to keep living like you told me Darry, if you guys keep bringing them up?" He used me own words against me. I should have seen that coming.

"I was wrong, about everything little buddy. I shouldn't have rushed you through all of this, I just wanted you to be okay. I'm sorry." It was hard for me to say that and it didn't even phase Pony. He still looked angry.

"What about track Pony? What will your coach say if you just quit?" Soda was on top of everything.

"I quit track a long time ago, I wasn't good anymore no one cared when I did." I felt my stomach drop to my knees and Soda's mouth dropped open.

"You did what?" I snapped more angry than I meant to, but he can't just do that! Especially with out telling us.

"Why didn't you talk to us about it?" Soda coughed out.

"I knew you wouldn't let me," he shrugged his shoulders again.

"What have you been doing after school when your suppose to be at track?" I took a deep breath and tried not to let my tone rise, but man this kid was all over the place.

"The library mostly."

"So you do still like to read?" I muttered when he gave me a confused look I spoke again, "well you don't like anything else you use to!" Soda shot me a glare, but Pony he almost grinned.

"What about your classes Pony, your failing all of them. Is it because they are hard and your behind, because your a smart kid, you could pass a couple of those classes on previous knowledge along, so why aren't you going to class?" That last part Soda said caught me off guard.

"Whoa, you're not going to class! What are you doing when your suppose to be in class?" My temper was rising. I wasn't sure I could control it for too much longer.

"How did you even know that?" Pony snapped at Soda. "Who told you!"

"That's beside the point Pony," I sighed when Soda didn't speak up. I could tell he was struggling with being bad cop. Pony did look like he felt betrayed.

"Cherry came by the DX and mentioned it, she was trying to help, please Pony try to understand.

"You know what, I don't understand. I don't understand what you want from me. Just tell me what to say and I'll say it!" Pony yelled standing up.

"Pony sit down." I also stood up. "We're not done talking yet!"

"You know what, I'd rather go to school." Pony walked into the bathroom and slammed the door behind him.

Soda had his head in hands and I got up to get some coffee. I slammed my cup down harder than I meant to and it broke into a bunch of pieces. Neither of us said anything, I knew we were both feeling lost. Soda unlocked the front door, I knew he was doing it for Steve. Him and his dad were on a bad streak right now, and I knew the last thing Soda wanted to do was make him feel like he wasn't wanted. Soda and Steve were a unique kind of best friends. They were complete opposites, but they got along better than two peas in a pod. So much of their relation was based off of them just knowing each other. Steve and Soda know what to talk about and what not to talk about. They know each other's reactions to nearly everything. So, even though Soda and Steve hadn't talked about Steve's dad yet, it wasn't by accident. Soda knew what he was doing.

Now with Pony, neither of us knew what he was doing. I watched him as he slid down the wall outside the bathroom door.

" Now what?" I asked him. Hoping he has an idea.

"We try to win back his trust. He's going to break at some point. Hopefully he'll come to us when he does." Soda seemed so calm I didn't understand.

"That's not okay with me. I'm not okay waiting on a 14 year old!"

"Do you have a better idea Dar?" There was hope in his voice that I did, and I hated to let him down.

I slid down beside him on the other side of the door, "not in the slightest." We exchanged glances and sat in silence.

"You know I can break that door pretty easily. We could get him out in a matter of seconds." I told Soda about 30 minutes later.

"I'm not really sure what good that would do, other than maybe make you temporarily feel better," Soda smiled weakly.

"Why don't you go on to bed Soda, you have to work tomorrow. I'll be here when he comes out and make him go to your room."

"He told me that he thought I should move into my own room, do you think I should? Do you think I need to give him more space?" Soda ignored my comment.

"I don't think it's a good thing to give him that much alone time, he'd just stay in there all day." I was wondering how we got this point. How did we get to the point where Soda and i are on the outside of the bathroom door trying to convince Pony we are here for him. How was I so blind?

"Pony are you okay in there?" Soda finally talked loudly into the door around 9. "Please just tell us you're okay." There was a long pause. "I know your upset with us, and I understand that you think we won't get it. You're feeling betrayed, and treated like your a five year old, but we love you so much Pone, and we really just want to help." Soda nudged me to say something. I felt ridiculous talking to a door.

"I'm real sorry I didn't see any of this happening until now Pone. I just thought we were out of the chaos once we got out of court. I should have talked to you more, I should have listened to you more, and I hope you can forgive me one day. But right now I just wish you'd let us know that you are okay." I really meant what I said. It was hard for me to talk that way. I could feel my heart racing.

The door knob twisted and unlocked, but the door didn't open, "I'm sorry that I'm doing this to you guys. I wish I could just go away and get out of your hair. I'm sorry I can't just behave like you want." Soda's face turned pale and he reached to push the door open. I grabbed him first. We had been sitting on this floor for two hours and I'd be damned if we didn't let Pony come out on his own after all of this.