Change Your Life (The Outsiders fanfic)

Chapter 9

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?"

"You'll figure it out," Ponyboy says. I finish eating, do the dishes, and then change clothes. It's a nice summer day. I guess it's nice enough to beat up on someone for practice. I tie my hair up with a ribbon to get it out of my eyes since it's breezy. And my headache is going away which is a good thing I guess. I'm gonna kill Two-Bit for this...

I meet the boys outside. They're already wrestling on the ground and laughing like idiots.

"Alrighty. What first?" I ask, coming down the steps. They get off the ground. Darry dusts off his shirt and stands in front of me.

"First, you've got to know where and how to hit. Hold your arms up like this," he says as he holds his arms up to shield himself. It almost looks like a boxer's fighting position. He holds up his hands.

"Hit my right hand." I put all my strength into a right hook. My fist smacks his hand with a loud pop.

"Hit my left hand." I repeat the same process with my left arm. He shakes his hand. "Man, you've got an arm on you," he says.

"I guess so," I answer.

"Alright. This is called an uppercut. You take your fist and hit them under the chin. Like this," he says as he slowly moves his arm and barely makes contact to my chin. I nod as he moves his arm away.

"I remember some stuff. I used to take lessons. But I can't remember a lot," I say.

"Show me what you've got," he challenges.

"I don't want to hurt you. It was some pretty extreme stuff. And besides, I don't even know if I can remember it all."

"It's okay. I can take it," he says. Darry stands there like a rock. I guess so he can't risk accidentally hurting me. But he's so much stronger and more muscular than I am. I can't take him down!

"Okay. But I can't do it if you stand there. Come at me," I tell him. He slowly moves forward. I grab his shoulder and force my heel into the bend of his knee. He falls to the ground as I quickly stand up and place my shoe at his neck. He stares at me from the ground in disbelief.

"You're good," he says. "Where did you learn this?"

"I don't remember, really. My parents knew people, you know?" I step down and help him up. He picks up his leg and bends his knee.

"I never would've thought to do that," he says.

"Hey, Darry. Let me take a shot," Soda says.

"Be my guest. She'll hurt you real good," Darry answers as he sits on the porch steps by Ponyboy. Soda stands in front of me.

"Are you sure?" I ask. "I might remember something that could really hurt..."

"I'll be alright. Go for it."

"Come at me." He starts to charge at me, faster than Darry did. I dodge and extend my leg to trip him. He stumbles and hits the ground. I pounce on him, pinning my knee on his back and holding his arm back.

"Okay, okay! I'm never doing this again!" he says. I hear Darry laugh.

"I told you, little buddy." I get off of him and help him up too.

"Ponyboy, you wanna try too?" I ask. He shakes his head.

"No thank you," he insists.

"Are you sure?" He nods. "Alright. What else do I need to know?"

"Well, we can do a bunch of gymnastics stuff like front flips and all, in case you haven't noticed," Darry says.

"I used to do that stuff when I was little!" I answer excitedly.