Chapter 12
THE HEARING WASN'T anything like I thought it would be. Besides Darry and Soda and me,
nobody
was there except Randy and his parents and Cherry Valance and her parents and a couple of
the other guys
that had jumped Johnny and me that night. I don't know what I expected the whole thing to be
like--- I
guess I've been watching too many Perry Mason shows.
Chapter 11
I HAD TO STAY IN BED a whole week after that. That bugged me; I'm not the kind that can lie
around
looking at the ceiling all the time. I read most of the time, and drew pictures. One day I started
flipping
through one of Soda's old yearbooks and came across a picture that seemed vaguely familiar.
Not even
when I read the name Robert Sheldon did it hit me who it was. And then I finally realized it was
Bob.
Chapter 10
I WALKED DOWN THE hall in a daze. Dally had taken the car and I started the long walk home
in a
stupor. Johnny was dead. But he wasn't. That still body back in the hospital wasn't Johnny.
Johnny was
somewhere else--- maybe asleep in the lot, or playing the pinball machine in the bowling alley,
or sitting on
the back steps of the church in Windrixville.
Chapter 9
IT WAS ALMOST six-thirty when I got home. The rumble was set for seven, so I was late for
supper, as
usual. I always come in late. I forget what time it is. Darry had cooked dinner: baked chicken
and potatoes
and corn--- two chickens because all three of us eat like horses. Especially Darry. But although I
love
baked chicken, I could hardly swallow any. I swallowed five aspirins, though, when Darry and
Soda
weren't looking.
Chapter 8
THE NURSES WOULDN'T let us see Johnny. He was in critical condition. No visitors. But
Two-Bit
wouldn't take no for an answer. That was his buddy in there and he aimed to see him. We both
begged and
pleaded, but we were getting nowhere until the doctor found out what was going on.
"Let them go in," he said to the nurse. "He's been asking for them. It can't hurt now.
Chapter 7
NOW THERE WERE three of us sitting in the waiting room waiting to hear how Dally and
Johnny were.
Then the reporters and the police came. They asked too many questions too fast, and got me
mixed up. If
you want to know the truth, I wasn't feeling real good in the first place. Kind of sick, really. And
I'm scared
of policemen anyway. The reporters fired one question right after another at me and got me so
confused I
didn't know what was coming off.
Chapter 6
JOHNNY GAGGED AND I almost dropped my hot fudge sundae. "Cherry?" we both said at the
same
time. "The Soc?"
"Yeah," Dally said. "She came over to the vacant lot the night Two-Bit was jumped. Shepard and
some of
his outfit and us were hanging around there when she drives up in her little ol' Sting Ray. That
took a lot of
nerve.
Chapter 5
I WOKE UP LATE IN the afternoon. For a second I didn't know where I was. You know how it is,
when
you wake up in a strange place and wonder where in the world you are, until memory comes
rushing over
you like a wave. I half convinced myself that I had dreamed everything that had happened the
night before.
I'm really home in bed, I thought. It's late and both Darry and Sodapop are up. Darry's cooking
breakfast,
Chapter 4
THE PARK WAS ABOUT two blocks square, with a fountain in the middle and a small swimming
pool
for the little kids. The pool was empty now in the fall, but the fountain was going merrily. Tall elm
trees
made the park shadowy and dark, and it would have been a good hangout, but we preferred our
vacant lot,
and the Shepard outfit liked the alleys down by the tracks, so the park was left to lovers and little
kids.
Chapter 3
AFTER THE MOVIE was over it suddenly came to us that Cherry and Marcia didn't have a way
to get
home. Two-Bit gallantly offered to walk them home--- the west side of town was only about
twenty miles
away--- but they wanted to call their parents and have them come and get them. Two-Bit finally
talked
them into letting us drive them home in his car.
Chapter 2
DALLY WAS WAITING for Johnny and me under the street light at the corner of Pickett and
Sutton, and
since we got there early, we had time to go over the drugstore in the shopping center and goof
around.
The Outsiders
S. E. HINTON
__________
Chapter 1
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. I was wishing I looked like Paul Newman---
he looks
tough and I don't--- but I guess my own looks aren't so bad. I have light-brown, almost-red hair
and
greenish-gray eyes. I wish they were more gray, because I hate most guys that have green
eyes, but I have
to be content with what I have.
