The blue mustang came to a stop, and all five Socs hopped out of it and started heading towards us. I stared at the leader’s hand , he had rings on his fingers, lots of them. I remembered being jumped, remembered that one of them had a hand full of rings. It was him, it was the guy who had jumped me.

My face went white, as if all of the blood had been drained from my face. My hand went to my back pocket, to where I kept my switch-blade. But I seemed to drift off, all I could stare at were his rings. I finally came back to reality, at the sound of Bob’s voice.

“You could use a bath, greaser. And a good working over. And we’ve got all night to do it. Give that kid a bath David.”

The next thing I know I’m in a headlock and I see Ponyboy getting forced under water inside the fountain by Bob. Everything, that happens next is a blur to me. Out of rage and hatred, I scrambled out of the Socs grip, pulled out my switch-blade and stabbed Bob right in the back. I don’t know what came over me, I know I said I’d kill someone the next time I got jumped but I didn’t mean it. I didn’t feel the same after that, like me wasn’t me.

“I killed him,” I said slowly. “I killed that boy.”

Bob was laying there, in the moonlight. A dark pool was spreading from him, growing over the blue-white cement. That image seemed to get etched into my mind for the rest of my life.

“Johnny listen, we gotta get out of here. Leave, run away, the cops are gonna be here soon,” Ponyboy said.

“Ok,” I replied calmly.

“What are we gonna do about this? We have to change our image, change who we are! We need to go find Dally he’ll help us,” Ponyboy said.

I really didn’t focus the next couple of weeks, I just wasn’t me. This isn’t me! I tried to remind myself, but couldn’t. We found Dally and told him the situation, he didn’t seem surprised. He told us to go to an old abandoned church, and we did.

It wasn’t exactly home sweet home, but it’d have to do. I ran to the grocery store, bought a weeks supply of bologna, two loaves of bread, a box of matches, cigarettes, and a paperback copy of Gone with the Wind, and we were set.

The next couple of weeks went by like a breeze, or at least it did for me. But one day everything just seemed to stop. Ponyboy and I decided to have a smoke, the church probably wasn’t the best place to do it but we did it anyway. Then Dally dropped by and stayed a while, so we decided to go outside into the country.

We talked to this man named Jerry and his wife. Their kids had seemed to run off somewhere, but it was fine. Then everything went slow, about that time the wife ran up.

“Jerry I can’t find the kids!” she worried.

A blast erupted from the church and the church caught on fire…the church was on fire! Right at that moment you could hear the faintest scream from inside the church, a child’s scream.

The woman went white.

“I told them not to play in the church...I told them,” she said worried as could be.

Ponyboy and I bolted for the church, the door was locked so we had to break down a window and climb through. It was like walking into a furnace, the building was about to come down any minute. The children screamed, and we found them. We broke through the door and forced them out of the room. Dally was on the outside and broke through a window so we could get the children out. We could hear the creaking of the roof, and we all knew any second it was coming down.

“Johnny you gotta get out of there,” Dally screamed.

“I’m trying,” I said.

And right as I said that the building gave in, right on top of me. I screamed, then everything went black.

I woke up a couple days later. I had been burned in just about every way possible. Turns out I had broken my back, and my throat hurt so much I didn’t even bother talking. They told me I couldn’t see my friends until a couple days, but that didn’t stop Dally or Ponyboy from seeing me. Gosh, they were happy to see me. Ponyboy brought me another copy of Gone with the Wind so that he could read it to me to pass time.

“Your mother is here to see you,” the nurse said as she walked into the room.

“I don’t wanna see her,” I said. All this yelling and screaming was getting painful, I thought.

“But, but she’s your mother,” the nurse replied.

“I said I don’t wanna see her!” I demanded, and everything stopped then went dark.

I woke up the next day to find Ponyboy and Dally right next to me.

“Hey Dally…,” I said, forcing the words out of my mouth.

“We won, we beat the Socs, chased them outta their own territory,” Dally exclaimed.

“It’s useless, fightings no good,” I said.

“Their still writing editorials about you in the paper, about being a hero and all. Yeah, they’re calling you a hero and praising all the greasers. We’re all real proud of you, buddy,” Dally said.

Dally, Dally was proud of me. Boy, that sure did make me feel a whole lot better.

“Ponyboy,” I managed.

He came close and leaned next to me. “Stay gold, Pony, stay gold…”

Then everything went black, but this time for good.