Chapter summary: The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
...n the boys threaten Ponyboy and his friends, they say they’ll go with them. Ponyboy feels bad because he knows Cherry will never talk to him in school, because he’s a greaser. Two-bit goes off to get drunk and Ponyboy and Johnny lay down in a vacant lot and watch the stars. They fall asleep and when they wake up, Ponyboy runs home. Darry yells at him, Soda sticks up for him and Darry yells at Soda. When Ponyboy tells Darry not to yell at Soda, Darry hit’s Pony. Pony runs out of the house and back to the lot. Johnny is still there and they talk as Pony cries. They decide to take a walk before they go back home. Chapter 4: Ponyboy and Johnny walk to the park and sit there talking. Suddenly the blue car pulls up and the soc’s get out. There are five of them. Johnny and Ponyboy can’t get away and the Soc’s start hassling them about picking up their girls. They grab Pony and shove his head in the park fountain. He’s drowning and know’s he’s going to die. The next thing Pony knows is he’s laying on the ground gasping for air. He hears Johnny say, “I killed that kid”. He sees one of the Soc’s lying there in a pool of blood, and Johnny is holding his bloody switchblade. They decide to go get Dally and have him help them get away. He gives them dry clothes, a gun, and $50. He tells them to jump on a train and go to a town up the line and stay in an old abandoned church. He’ll come to them when he thinks it’s safe to. They thank him and run for the woods to wait for the train. Johnny and Pony jump on the train and ride it until they get to their jump off point in a meadow. They don’t know where they are so they decide to ask for directions. Pony goes down the road to ask for directions. A farmer gives them directions, and they find the old church and go in. Pony has a bad feeling about the church, but he falls asleep before he can tell Johnny. Chapter 5: When Pony wakes up, Johnny is gone. He went to town to get supplies. Pony is imagining the worst, worrying that Johnny got caught and won’t come back. When Johnny gets back they unload the supplies and make plans. Johnny cuts Pony’s hair and bleaches it. Then Pony cuts Johnny’s hair. They sit and talk and Pony cries because everything is happening too fast. They both cry themselves out, then promise that from now on they won’t cry and that they’ll be able to handle things. Pony and Johnny kill time by reading ‘Gone with the Wind’ and playing cards. They can’t go outside much because they have to be careful. After five days have passed Dally shows up. He has a letter for Pony from Soda. Soda doesn’t know where they are, but he knows that Dally does. Dally tells them how the Soc’s are really making life hard for the greasers. They’ve planned a rumble, and Cherry is being a spy for the greasers. Chapter 6: Dally takes Pony and Johnny to town and buys them food at the Dairy Queen. They eat and eat until they’re almost sick. Pony asks questions about what’s going on at home as Johnny listens. Suddenly Johnny speaks up and says that they’re going to go back and turn themselves in. He figures they won’t get into too much trouble because neither he or Pony have ever been in trouble. He knows that Pony and Cherry will tell that it was all self defense. He’s upset that his parents don’t even care that he’s gone. Dally gets mad and tears out of the parking lot and drives them back toward the church. He tries to talk Johnny out of turning himself in. He tells him he doesn’t want him hurt, or to turn into someone like himself from jail. When they reach the top of the hill and see the church, it’s on fire. A crowd of people have gathered in front. Pony goes up and asks what’s happening. The people were on a school picnic and they notice the flames. Suddenly a woman comes up and says some of the kids are missing. They hear cries coming from inside the church and realize the kids are inside. Pony runs to get them out and Johnny follows. They figure it’s there fault that the fire started. They go in through a window and work their way to the back through the smoke and flames. They found the kids and started dropping them out the window, there were 4 or 5 of them. Dally was outside telling them to get out, that the roof was going to collapse. Johnny pushed Pony out the window but was too late to get out. The roof came down, and Johnny screamed. Pony tried to go back in, but Dally hit him and knocked him out. When Pony woke up he was in an ambulance. He thought he was going to jail. They told him that he had passed out from smoke and because Dally had hit him so hard to put out the fire on his back. He was told Dally went back in for Johnny and pulled him out. Dally was burned on his arm pretty bad, but Johnny might have a broken back from the timbers falling on him, and he was burned really bad. Pony was really scared but the man riding with him kept talking to him calmly all the way to the hospital. He said that Pony, Johnny, and Dally must be angels or heroes because they saved all those little kids. Pony told him they were greasers. After Pony was checked at the hospital, he was waiting to find out how Johnny was. The man came in and told him there were people there to see him. It was his brothers. He realized then that Darry really does love him. He was home, to stay. Chapter 7: The police and reporters came to the hospital to ask Pony questions. He answered as many as he could, but he was confused and scared. Finally the press and the police left and Pony, Darry, and Soda waited around to hear how Dally and Johnny were doing. They found the doctor and he told them that Dally would be okay, his arm would be scarred but he’d have full use of it. Johnny had a broken back and 3rd degree burns over most of his body. If he lived he would be crippled for the rest of his life. Pony and his brothers couldn’t believe it, they were shocked. The doctor sent them home to get some rest. When Pony woke up the next morning, he started to fix breakfast for his brothers. Two-bit and Steve showed up and were so glad to see Pony they were spinning him around. Darry and Soda had to go to work, so they left Pony with Two-bit. Two-bit and Pony cleaned house because the state workers would be by. Pony had to go to court to see if he could still stay with Darry…him and Soda. Two-bit and Pony then walked down town to go see Johnny and Dally. They stopped to get a coke and the soc’s in the blue car pulled up. One of the Soc’s, Randy, wanted to talk to Pony. He told him he wasn’t going to show up at the rumble, because he was sick of it all, nothing would change. He wanted to know why Pony and Johnny saved the kids, and said he wouldn’t have. Pony told him that he probably would have, that it didn’t have anything to do with being a soc or a greaser, it was just who you are as a person. When Pony left, Randy told him “bye Ponyboy”, and Pony told him “nice talking to you Randy”. They were no longer soc and greaser, they were just people. Chapter 8: Pony and Two-bit are allowed in to see Johnny. He’s awake, but not doing very well. He knows he’s in bad shape, and that if he makes it he’ll be crippled. He wishes he had the book, ‘Gone with the Wind” so Two-bit goes to buy it. Johnny tells Pony he’s afraid to die, that he’s not ready to. He wants to live more, that 16 years isn’t long enough. Pony understands. Johnny’s Mom comes but Johnny refuses to see her. He gets upset and tries to sit up. He passes out and the nurse sends Pony out. Two-bit and Pony decide to go upstairs to see Dally. They see Johnny’s Mom and she say’s rude things about them. Dally is doing ok, and is upset because he can’t go to the rumble. He finds out how bad Johnny is and becomes really mad. He takes Two-bit’s switchblade and hides it under his pillow. He swears he’ll revenge on the soc’s. Pony and Two-bit head home, and see Cherry on the way. Her and Pony talk about things, and they both realize that things aren’t different from the west side to the east side. Chapter 9: Pony arrives home in time to get ready...