The entire day of moving in with her father was a blur to Anna. That could have been because her eyesight was actually blurry from the building tears that she thought she had long since cried out. Anna had always prided herself on being able to hold her tears in whenever she took a hard fall, but upon the death of her mother that seemed to change.
What Anna remembered most of that day was her tight grip on her brother's hand, the solemn face of their stepfather as he left them, the smile of her father as he guided them in, and the sleepless night she had. The rest of the week was like that until she and Henry officially settled in. After that, life with their father seemed so easy.
They quickly made friends and established a solid relationship with their father. Time seemed to fly as they spent their days at school playing with their friends. Once summer approached, Henry always became excited for his birthday, even though it wasn't till August.
Years passed and soon Anna reached the age of ten. She remembered that October day clearly because it was when she first met John. They quickly became friends. When she brought him home later on in the month to go Trick or Treating with him, she was greeted by Henry and his two new friends, Tony and some boy who called himself Riff.
Anna became instantly smitten with the smiling Tony. His smile and optimism instantly won over Anna's ten year old heart. Throughout the night, Anna would walk in between Henry and Tony, while John walked on Tony's other side between him and Riff. Riff, Tony, and Henry were joking around the entire night, pretty much ignoring Anna and John as they would walk door to door collecting candy.
By the age of twelve, Anna had pretty much outgrown her fascination with Tony, although she would still get a little flutter in her stomach whenever he would smile at her. Which was quite often, as Tony and Riff always came over. Anna would always overhear Henry talking to Riff and Tony about the Jets.
Anna didn't figure out that the Jets were a gang until she was thirteen. By that time, Henry wasn't Henry anymore. He was Ice. He barely came home except to eat dinner and sleep. Also, John began spending more time with the Jets than her. They began calling him Baby John. Every time Anna would try to speak with John when his new friend A-Rab was around, he would just shrug her off.
John didn't really talk to Anna again till one night when Henry came in with another boy. Both of them were holding John up, who had a swollen eye and a gash across his cheek. Anna quickly grabbed peroxide and a rag as she tended to John's wounds. She told Henry to grab ice to put on John's eye.
John kept apologizing to Anna throughout his treatment, saying that he was sorry for blowing her off every time she would speak to him. Anna, never able to hold a grudge, quickly accepted his apology and put the past behind her. Then she remembered the other boy in the room. Turning to him, Anna looked at his face, which had a small bruise on his cheek bone. She then looked down to his knuckles, which were cut open and swollen.
The boy kept insisting that he was fine, and that he didn't need any help, but Anna's arguments eventually won out. She cleaned his knuckles and put ice on them. Later in the evening, John had fallen asleep on the couch, and Henry headed to bed. Anna led the other boy out to the door, and instructed him to put ice on his knuckles if they began to swell again. The boy rolled his eyes and left.
This seemed to be the routine every month, as John, Henry, and the other boy kept showing up with new wounds. Anna never asked questions, though. She didn't even ask the other boy what his name was. It was John who told her that he was called Action.
Soon, Anna was going to Doc's candy store every night, meeting all the other boys who were part of the Jets. Their names were Snowboy, Gee-Tar, Joyboy, Tiger, Mouthpiece, and Big Deal. The monthly routine of John and Action showing up at her house had all but stopped, so Anna figured she needed something to do during the afternoons. Doc would always greet her with a smile and a simple hello. Anna would then walk to the back of the store to sit next to John and Henry, keeping her mouth shut as they would talk about who they were going to have a rumble with next, or what building they would vandalize.
When Anna's fourteenth birthday came around, Henry brought her the present of his new girlfriend, Velma. Anna's initial dislike of Velma quickly grew once Velma began to speak. She hated the way Velma would pop her gum and say her annoying little snide comments about everything Anna did. But Henry was pretty much in love with Velma, so Anna just ignored Velma and everything was fine.
Once winter break came, Anna knew that there would be more fighting because the Jets always found ways to find trouble since they had more time to. One night was particularly bad for Anna because Henry had not arrived home when John and Action arrived. And what made it worse was that Action looked absolutely awful. His eye was swollen shut, he had a gash across his forehead and his lip was split open. And that was just his face. His knuckles were swollen, like usual, and Anna noticed that he was limping when Baby John helped him in.
So, Anna spent the night cleaning Action's wounds and worrying herself to the point of tears about Henry. John held her as she cried, while Action slept on the couch with a pack of ice on his ankle. Once Henry arrived home, he had no wounds, besides a few bruises on his knuckles. He went straight to his room and locked himself in there for the night.
After that night, everything seemed to change. Henry always had Velma with him; John began spending all of his time with A-Rab again; and Action began to go over to Anna's place by himself.
And that is pretty much where the beginning of Anna and Action's story takes place.
So I know it seems kind of jumpy right now. I guess I just want to get to the story. If you're confused on something, private message me or leave a review and I'll explain anything you need help understanding. Thank you so much for reading. Also, I would like to give a shout out to the anonymous reviewer who calls himself or herself AJ. Even though you didn't guess correctly, I just want to thank you so much for the review. I hope you keep reading.
