I feel like The Outsiders fandom doesn't take enough advantage of Pony being a good liar. We see him lie to Soda in the first chapter, then on page 73-74 we see him lie to that farmer, and he says that Soda said the ability to lie comes from all the books he reads, further proving that canonically, he is a good liar! Now obviously Pony isn't the most reliable narrator, but if he were a bad liar, Soda would have no reason to lie about it, and he certainly wouldn't have fallen for Pony saying he's cold in chapter one, no matter how tired he was.
Now, I've seen people use Pony being a good liar for chaos reasons, like him starting a gang (on accident), or breaking Darry's rules, or sick fics, but what I really wanna see is how his lying can be incorporated into his canon dynamics with the gang and his family.
Ponyboy thinks throughout the entire book that the gang only tolerates him because he's a Curtis, and because he knows when to keep his mouth shut. Throughout the story, even at the end, Pony is unsure if Darry loves him as much as Soda. That kinda thinking doesn't develop over night. Imagine, 8 year old Pony feigning disinterest when Soda invites him to play with everyone else because he already knows that the older kids will just think of him as an annoyance.
9 year old Pony waking up screaming from a nightmare and telling his parents to go back to bed because 'he was scared but he's okay now,' because he doesn't want his parents to get sick of him the way the other parents in the neighborhood seem to be sick of their kids.
10 year old Pony lying to the cashier about getting cigarettes for his parents because he wants the big kids to take him seriously, and smoking seems like the only way that'll happen.
11 year old Pony lying to his parents about what he ate at school so he can save up the lunch money he gets every day, in hopes that one day he'll be able to support his family.
12 year old Pony acting unaffected when Steve pushes him and yells at him for always chasing after Soda, because he thinks that if he just handles Steve's cruelty he'll one day respect Pony.
13 year old Pony refusing to cry when his parents die, saying 'I'm fine,' in hopes that no one will see how badly the loss actually hurt him.
14 year old Pony telling his brother he's cold after he got jumped because he'd rather die than admit weakness.
14 year old Pony asking Two-Bit not to tell his brothers he's sick because he needs to fight in that rumble, only to end up passing out.
Ponyboy, who would rather lie than be himself because he was taught that being himself is bad.
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