The Letter Of Hope!

Dear Diary: The next day came, and you know what that means. It means its the day for the hearing. It was much different than I expected, it was a lot... calmer. It was me,  Soda, Darry, Randy, his parents, Cherry with her green eyes, her parents, the doctor, and a few other socs who jumped us. The Doctor talked to the Judge before we started. Well they talked to Randy and I could tell he was nervous too. I am so shaky. I want a cigarette, but I aint allowed. I kept m mouth shut till it was my turn like Darry told me. They talked to the socs and they said the same story. Then it was Cherry's turn she said what had happened before and after we were jumped. Oh and now it was Darry and Soda's turn and I was scared. He asked a bit bout Dally, then he asked was he a good friend of ours and Darry just flatly stared and the Judge and said "Yes, sir," but Soda looked at me then said the same. I was proud that they didnt abandon one of our gang members. Then it was my turn and he asked me about home, school, and my grades. The Judge told me to stop chewing my nails. I tend to do that. Its a bad habit. Things didnt go back to normal. I ran into everything. I was forgetful and I didnt eat cus everything tasted like bologna. My grades plummeted but math was okay cus Darry checked my homework and made me do it again if there were any mistakes. English went from A's to F's. Me and my English Teacher had a talk after class. It turned out I was failing English class and he told me if I came up with a good semester theme, he would pass me with a C. Well at least I would pass, but I knew Darry would be mad! The week after the hearing was terrible. Everybody acted that they were scared of me. Me Two-Bit and Steve went to the lil' grocery store when a bunch of socs came up and I broke my Pepsi bottle and threatened them cus they were going to kill me for killing their friend. They left! Two-Bit told me to stay soft not tough. I picked up the glass and he grinned. I couldn't write a theme no matter how hard I tried. I put our names on a picture and drew horses and that was my paper. Soda was acting funny. He was smoking! Me and Darry had a huge fight and Soda got scared and left! We ran after him and I tackled him. Soda told us straight and he was serious. And so were we cus we saw how our fighting was really hurting him. We ran home and all tied cus we all knew that we were a family. Johnny wrote me a note in the book and it told me to tell Dally stuff and he figured out what stay gold really means. He told me bout the sunsets and that he wasnt scared to die. This letter gave me hope. It gave me power! I sat down and wrote my paper and this is how I started "When I stepped out into the bright sunlight from the darkness of the movie house, I had only two things on my mind: Paul Newman and a ride home...

You Pal,

Forever and Always,

Greaser,

Johnny

Ponyboy!