I don't remember all the details, but I read this when I was in school. I loved Ponyboy too. :)

What a crazy coincidence! I was just thinking about this book the other day. I loved it in middle school - not required reading, but I had a teacher with a freebie lending shelf of YA books for weirdos like me - and have an audio version of it somewhere that I also loved. So I was thinking about, and thinking about what an amazing movie adaptation was made of it, then somehow I ended up watching a clip of the casting process for the show on You Tube.