Johnny: 12

Soda: 12

Darry: 16

Pony: 10

Two-Bit: 14

Steve: 13

Johnny sat in the on the swing set in the park nearby his house. He winced as he touched the area around his eye. No doubt in a couple hours there'd be a bruise there. It would join all the others that were on his arms hiding under his jacket.

Sighing he slouched and focused on his breath. In. Out. In. Out. Even just breathing hurt and he wondered if he had a broken rib. He stood up and began to walk back to his house. He'd have to go back eventually and his parents tended to use being out late as an excuse to "punish" him.

He could hear his parents yelling from streets away. He frowned and wondered if now would be the best time to go home. After all he'd just be ignored. Johnny resolved just to walk around for a bit.

He wasn't very sure where he wanted to go but he just kept walking anyway. Eventually he just stopped in an alleyway and sat down. This walk was just like his life. One day he'd just have to accept that he had nowhere to go and stay in whatever place he could.

As Johnny sat there moping, a car drove up. This wasn't the type of car you saw in the type of town Johnny lived in. This was a soc car.

Johnny had been living in Tulsa long enough to know that socs were trouble, and now he had three of them getting out of a black Chevrolet. "Hey grease!" One of them called out to him. Johnny didn't move an inch. Right now he didn't care enough to try to run.

The boys whispered amongst each other and laughed before coming up to him and pulling him up by his hair. He involuntarily let out a yelp before it was cut short with a punch to his stomach.

One of them hit him in there face, right where his dad had hit him already. Johnny fell on the ground and they socs began kicking him. Once one of them took his head and slammed it into the pavement.

He just lay there and took it. He'd gotten beat up worse by his dad before. Suddenly he heard shouting and the boys stopped kicking him and we're running back to their fancy car.

Johnny sat up, his head spinning a little, and looked around. Two boys ran past him, after the socs screaming at the top of their lungs. One looked like a bodybuilder with dark hair and blue-green eyes. The other, a movie star, with gold hair and brown eyes. Johnny couldn't picture either getting jumped in their lifetime.

The bodybuilder cursed under his breath and turned to Johnny. "You okay kid?" He asked looking concerned.

Johnny had always hated the fact that he was shy and right now, he loathed it. He simply nodded and began to stand up. He must have gotten hit in the head harder than he thought though because as he got up the world began shaking back and forth so violently it seemed the buildings were going to crash into one another. Johnny felt himself falling.

"Woah kid!" The movie star said as he caught him. After a moment or two the world became still and Johnny figured he could walk home and might be able to get some sleep. However, as soon as he began to walk away both boys stopped him.

"Where do you think you're going?" The body builder asked him.

Johnny felt terror stricken for a moment. Those were the same words his father had said to him when he'd tried to leave his house earlier. He'd been hit a couple times after that. That was a very different situation. He reminded himself before answering, "Uh home."

The movie star laughed out loud. "Ha! You probably can't walk half that far unless you happen to live there!" He pointed to the house next door, "Com' on kid, you're coming to our house so we can check you over."

Johnny began to protest before the world swayed again and he once again almost fell. This time the body builder caught him and picked him up. The entire way Johnny fought with them saying it was probably illegal to carry a stranger unwillingly to your home. Then the movie star said he was Soda and the body builder was Darry and if Johnny told them his name they wouldn't be strangers. After a little encouragement Johnny gave up his name to them.

Johnny was still arguing when Darry began carrying him up some porch steps And into a house. By now he assumed no one could make sense of what he was trying to say.

Inside a younger boy was on the couch reading a book. He had reddish hair and green-gray hair. "Move over Pony." Soda ordered.

Pony looked up and saw Johnny in Darry's arms and immediately got off the couch. "Dad! Darry and Soda brought home another kid!"

Another? Johnny thought as he was laid on the couch.

A man who looked like Darry came into the room. He took one glance at Johnny and began barking orders at the other kids. Johnny could hardly hear him, let alone understand him. He closed his eyes shut hard, fighting unconsciousness.

"Hi sweetie," A feminine voice spoke softly. Johnny opened his eyes and a woman resembling Soda was crouching next to him, "I'm gonna need you to try to stay awake please. What's your name?"

Johnny mumbled something even he couldn't understand. He wasn't sure why they were making such a big deal about this. He'd gotten hit in the head worse at home. Of course he never would say that otherwise these people might never let him leave.

The man was putting something cold on the back of his head. Ice? The mother was asking him something though he wasn't sure what. "Hmm?" He replied.

"I said," she started, "would you please take your jacket and shirt off?"

Any reasonable person would be asking him to take his jacket off a this point. He'd been laying down getting kicked in the ribs when Darry and Soda had rescued him. Still, he had scars from beatings across his back and he didn't want to deal with the questions. So he just shook his head and continued to stare off into space.

Now she was trying to reason with him and saying that they needed to take it off, but Johnny found it a little too easy to tune them out.

Soon they were shaking him and trying to keep him awake when Johnny thought, What would I do at home. After all, this had happened a couple times at home. The answer was simple to Johnny. I'd just sleep it off. He thought.

And so he drifted off into sleep with the worried voices of strangers surrounding him.

Hi! So this is my first fanfic I'll be posting and I'm still new to the site and I'm still trying to figure things out. Therefore an update may take awhile and constructive criticism is appreciated. I hope this chapter is long enough but I'm not sure how long the others will be. Review Please and give me a score on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being terrible and 10 being excellent. I'll try to update soon.