Emily+C

=// That Was Then and This is Now //=

**//1.) Who are Bryon and Mark? //**
====//Answer-Bryon and Mark are like brothers and are both of the age of sixteen. They have been friends even before Mark actually came to live with Bryon. Bryon is a big guy with dark hair as well as eyes. On the other hand, Mark is small yet firmly built with golden eyes and hair. //====

//2.) Who are the two young people Bryon meets at the hospital? //
====//Answer-The two young people that Bryon meets at the hospital are Mike Chambers and a girl he used to know named Cathy. Mike Chambers is the boy who is currently staying across the hall from Byron's mother at the hospital. He is a boy no younger than Bryon and is not getting any visitors during his stay which is due to being beaten up by a group of about twelve guys. Cathy is the girl that works at the snack bar in the basement of the hospital and also happens to be M&M's sister. Bryon and Cathy used to know each other when they were younger, but they still were not the best of friends at the time. //====

**//3.) What kind of relationship does Bryon have with Charlie? //**
====//Answer-Bryon and Charlie have a special realtionship;almost as if they read each other's minds. They constantly have each other's backs and are always there to protect and look out for one another. They know each other so well because years back Bryon used to go out with Charlie's sister, yet they never let that put a dent in their long-lasting friendship. //====

**//4.) What happens at the dance? //**
====//Answer-At the dance, there was a sudden scream from the back parking lot, so everyone went to investigate. Bryon chose to stay with Cathy and not get involved until Curtis, one of the guys that Mark was hanging out with that night, came up to him and said that Mark had been hurt. Bryon immediately went outside to find out what happened. Apparently, a guy that Mark and Curtis had never seen before came over and started to punch Curtis. After they started fighting, Mark came over and tried to help and then got wacked unconscious with a beer bottle. Mark was immediately rushed to the hospital and Bryon was right there with him. Mark only needed to receive ten stitches, so they all went home afterwards. //====

//**5.) What does Bryon begin to discover in his private conversations with Mark? **//
====//Answer-Bryon begins to discover that when Mark was cracked in the head with the beer bottle that he was scared to death and he thought he was going to die. He also discovered that Mark does not exactly consider his (Bryon's) mom his actual "old lady," yet he does think of Bryon as his real brother. Lastly, he found out that Mark's father was a cowboy, and his mom happened to look just like him by sharing Mark's traits of golden eyes and hair. //====

**//6.) What happened to Charlie? How do Bryon and Mark feel about it? //**
====//Answer-After playing a wicked game of pool with a group of guys, Bryon and Mark were trying to leave when out of nowhere the group of guys they played pool with showed up and told Bryon and Mark to step into an alley. Bryon and Mark were going to make a run for it, but they did not want to be too hesitant so they slowly stepped into the alley. The group of guys were about to beat them up, when all of a sudden Charlie came in to try to save them, yet guns were fired shortly after. Minutes later, Bryon was lying on the ground and found Charlie on top of him. Charlie did not seem to move and Bryon soon turned him over to find a bullet hole just above his left eye. During this difficult and tragic time, Bryon was completely stunned and traumatized after experiencing this horrible affair and cannot seem to get over it. On the other hand, Mark was not as disturbed and just explained to Bryon that things happen, and there's nothing you can do to prevent it. //====

//**7.) What do Mark and Cathy think of each other? **//
====//Answer-Cathy is not bothered by Mark too much and does not feel that he is that big of a problem because she has been spending a longer amount of time with Bryon than Mark has. However, Mark is not very fond of Cathy because he is afraid he is losing Bryon to her. He feels that they are separated a lot of the time now, and he has become very upset because of the time Bryon spends with Cathy. As Bryon explained, "It was as if he felt something slipping and was trying to hang on." //====

//**8.)What does Mark do to Angel? Why? **//
====//<span style="color: #ff00d7; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 200%;">Answer-One night, Bryon and Mark were going for a ride when they came across Angela who was drunk with her friends. They got out of the car and asked her if she wanted to go for a ride, and she said yes. While Bryon was driving, Mark cut off Angel's hair. Bryon knew that they would get caught for doing it, but he still went along with it. Mark wanted to cut off her hair to get back at her for hiring some guy to start hurting him and Ponyboy Curtis for no apparent reason. //====

**//<span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 200%;">9.) In chapter seven, what does Bryon begin to discover about his good friend Mark? //**
====//<span style="color: #00ffff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 200%;">Answer-In chapter seven, Bryon started to realize that Mark was bringing in as much cash as he was. Bryon did not believe that Mark could have stolen all of it, so he figured that he must have gone in serious for poker. Bryon nor his mom never had asked him where he got the money, but his mom would have never thought that he was getting it dishonestly. He also discovered why people liked Mark so much. People wanted to be his friend because they wanted someone dangerous to stand between them and the world;and that was Mark. //====

//**<span style="color: #00ff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 200%;">10.) What happens to Bryon at Terry Jones' house? How does his attitude change? **//
====//<span style="color: #00ff00; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 200%;">Answer-After Bryon's date with Cathy he was supposed to pick up Mark at Terry Jones' house, but nobody was home so he waited on the front porch. While he was sitting there a group of fours guys pulled up in a car. He realized that two of them were Tim and Curly Shepard, Angela's brothers. They came up to Bryon and asked him about what happened to Angela. Bryon admitted that he did it, and then he apolgized. However, they did not seem to care, so all four of them beat him up. When he woke up, he found that Mark was wiping his face with a wet rag. He then explained to Mark that he was sick and tired of getting even with people because he came to realize that it was pretty stupid. He then begged Mark not to try to get even with Tim and Curly Shepard because he did not want to cause any more trouble. //====

//**<span style="color: #9249ee; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 200%;">11.) In chapter nine, what happens to M&M? Why does this move Bryon? **//
====//<span style="color: #9249ee; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 200%;">Answer-In chapter nine, Bryon and Cathy go over to some hippie club to see M&M. They finally are led to him by one of the hippies at the club, and they find him with his hair closer to his shoulders, much skinnier, and very dirty. They try to talk to him about what is going on and how he got there, and the hippie that led them to him said that he had become out of it because of some dropping acid. M&M was saying stuff about how all these spiders were in his stomach, but no one understood what he was talking about. This seems to move Bryon a little bit because after they took M&M to the hospital, he felt really bad and felt as if M&M was his little brother as well as Cathy's. //====

**//<span style="color: #ee8c49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 200%;">12.) What shocking discovery does Bryon make in Mark's bedroom? What does he do? //**
====//<span style="color: #ee8c49; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 200%;">Answer-Bryon was searching under Mark's mattress for a cigarette and happened to find a long cylinder-like thing. Bryon unscrewed one end of it and a bunch of pills spilled out. He would have known if Mark was taking them, which he wasn't, but then he figured out where he was getting all the money from. Mark was selling these pills that happen to be the type of drugs that cause what M&M has. Bryon doesn't know what else to do but call the cops on Mark, so he ends up doing it. Mark gets taken away by cops and cannot believe that Bryon would do this to him. //====

//**<span style="color: #e11b14; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 200%;">13.) How does Bryon's relationship with his friends and his attitude toward life completely change? **//
====//<span style="color: #e11b14; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 200%;">Answer-Bryon ends up breaking up with Cathy because he felt that he all of a sudden did not love her anymore. He was so shocked that his feelings and emotions so deep for someone could change so quickly. He did not really think of M&M as a brother too much either because of his memory loss and all of his other problems. He went to visit Mark numerous times and finally he got the chance to see him. They started having a conversation and it ended after Mark said, "Make sure I hated you." Bryon's life just continues to go on without care of anything. //====

//**<span style="color: #ff0075; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 200%;">14.) How does Bryon feel at the end of the book? **//
====//<span style="color: #ff0075; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 200%;">Answer-Bryon still works at the grocery store, and he can't ever imagine the fact of someone taking Mark's or Cathy's place in his life. He then asks himself a bunch of "what if" questions such as, "What if I had found out about Mark some other time, when I wasn't half out of my mind with worry about Cathy?" "What if I hadn't met her in the first place, would I still have grown away from Mark?" He is still too mixed up to even care about anything anymore. He used to think that he had all the answers, but now he wishes that he was still a little kid again, when he had all the answers. //====

//**<span style="color: #ff00d7; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 200%;">15.) What do you think about this book and what life message does it teach? **//
====//<span style="color: #ff00d7; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 200%;">Answer-This is one of the best books I have ever read. It talks about friendship, realtionships, and what it is like to always have someone there for you. It also talks about the ups and down sides of life;what actually happens in reality. It teaches that you are not always going to have all the right answers. You have to live by experience and trust the people who you love and care for more than anyone else. Lastly, even someone, such as the ones you love, could do the wrong things;you just have to make a wise decision and do whatever you think is best. //====