Evan+T.

__**that was then, this is now By: S.E. Hinton**__

1. Bryon and Mark are both 16 years old and are best friends. They have lived together since they were little and they are always mistaken for brothers. They are always almost together and think almost alike. However, Mark is a bad kid and does not think before acting, when Bryon thinks more thoroughly before making decisions. 2. Bryon and Mark later go to the hospital to see their injured mother. While Bryon is there he runs into Cathy, M&M's sister, and they eventually end up dating. Later on Bryon's mom asks Bryon to go visit the young man in the room across the hall. Bryon and Mike, the kid across the hall, later on end up having a nice conversation for the rest of the day. 3. Bryon and Charlie got to know each other when Bryon and Charlie's sister, Angela, dated. When Bryon and Angela broke up, Charlie and Bryon stayed friends and they have been friends ever since. Charlie is very generous to Bryon and gives him free drinks as long as Bryon promises to pay it back. 4. Bryon ends up taking Cathy to the dance, but the dance is interrupted by a fight involving Mark, Ponyboy Curtis(Marks friend), and some other kid. Mark ended up in the hospital after saving Ponyboy Curtis from being smashed on the head with a glass bottle. 5. In Bryon's private conversations with Mark, they both learned that they are slowly growing apart from each other and things are not like they used to be. 6. One night Bryon and Mark went to the bar to see Charlie and to grab a drink. While they were there hey hustled two Texans and beat them bad. On their way out the door they passed a dark alley and heard the two Texans talking to them. The Texans in the alley came out with a gun and threatened to shoot them. At that very moment Charlie came out with a shotgun and the two men backed off. When Charlie was not looking the man with the gun pointed at Mark and shot. Before it hit Mark, Charlie sacrificed his life and tackled Mark to the ground to save him from the bullet. However, the bullet ended up killing Charlie. Bryon and Mark later noticed how great of a friend Charlie was and they also noticed how bad they felt for putting charlie in that position. 7. Marks best friend Bryon is still dating Cathy, however Mark and Cathy do not get along too well. This is because Mark thinks Cathy and Bryon are spending too much time together and Cathy thinks mark is a bad influence. 8. Before Bryon dated Cathy, he dated Angela. During that relationship Bryon broke up with Angela. Later on Angela asked out Ponyboy Curtis and he said no. Because of that, Angela wanted to get even with Ponyboy Curtis so she had someone go get revenge on Ponyboy Curtis. So a man went up to Ponyboy Curtis with a glass bottle and was about to hit him upon the head, when Mark jumped in the way to take the hit. Mark ended up in the hospital, and when he found out it was Angela's fault he wanted to get even. So mark gave Angela booze. While Angela was passed out Mark went and cut off her beautiful hair for revenge. 9. Bryon learned few things about Mark he did no know about. First, he learned that Mark was happy when his parents died because he wanted to go live with Bryon. Second, he learned that Mark agreed that they were both growing apart. Finally, he learned that Mark does not care about anything that happened in the past and he never asks himself, " What if...." 10. While Bryon was on the front steps of Terry Jones' house(one of Mark's friends) two men came up to him and asked him if he was the one who cut off Angela's hair. Bryon said yes and the two men beat him up and Bryon ended up in the hospital. After he was let out of the hospital Bryon's attitude changed and he started asking alot of "what if" questions. 11. One night while Bryon, Cathy, Mark, and M&M were driving on the ribbon(a long road strip), M&M jumped out of the car to go hang with some of his friends. They went back to that same spot later that night and M&M was gone. They decided to go back home and go find him the next morning. They had no luck of finding him for the next two weeks. They later found him in a nearby hippie-house where he was given a drug. He went to the hospital that night and the doctor said that the drug did not hurt M&M physically but injured him mentally and he may never recover from it. This moves Bryon because he started to think more about Cathy and M&M than he cared about his own family. 12. One night when Bryon went into his room to look for Mark's stash a cigarettes he found something different under the mattress. He found a bottle containing pills. He then started to think about everyone in the hippie-house and how they did not look to good. He also thought about M&M and Cathy and how M&M may never recover. He thought that M&M's situation was all Mark's fault. So Bryon decided to call the police on Mark. Mark was later arrested and sentenced to 5 years in prison. 13. After Mark went to prison, Bryon's whole life changed. He broke up with Cathy and he started doing better in school because he stopped caring about his whole social life. 14. Bryon felt terrible at the end of the book because he sent Mark, his best friend, to prison. He knew he ruined his life to do the right thing and he wishes he would have never done that in the first place. 15. This book was one of the best books I have ever read. it teaches a great life lesson, " Sometimes the right thing is never the easiest thing to do."