Yay! I uploaded quicker this time! Wooo! Shorter chapter, I apologise, but I just felt I had to get this out of the way before the big rumble! Enjoy my lovelies!

-Disclaimer- I own nuffin'!


It was six thirty that night when we all started getting ready for the rumble. Me, Steve and Ponyboy had put in more hair oil then was necessary, we always did before a rumble. We like to show them Socs how we had earned our rep, and our hair was one of the reasons. Ponyboy was in the bathroom staring himself in the mirror while Darry was in the kitchen doorway combing his hair. Me and Steve were playing poker, cheating for the most of it. Steve had turned the radio up as loud as it would go and we could hardly hear each other over it.

I was keeping up a stream of wisecracking and jokes, and Steve was smug about claiming to win. I was just trying to get an ace out of my shoe before Steve could see, when Ponyboy yelled at me form the Bathroom, "Soda, when'd you start shaving?"

"When I was fifteen," I yell back and Steve kicked the ace out of my shoe.

"When di- when did Darry?"

"When he was thirteen. Why? You fig-" I stumble over my words as I laugh. "Figgerin' on growing a beard for the rumble?"

"Oh, you're real funny. We ought' to send you into Readers Digest. I hear they pay people a lot of money for funny things."

I laugh at this as Steve starts throwing card after card in my face, trying to make a point about how a jack can't beat a king.

Ponyboy is real quiet for a moment. Steve and I start arguing over who was winning and who was cheating in poker.

"That's it," I growl puttin' my elbow up on the table, challenging him in an arm wrestle.
"Come on!" Steve grabs my hand and starts pushing.

"You like fights, don't you Soda?" Ponyboy asks me.

"Yeah I like fights man," I say through clenched teeth, gripping Steve's strong hand.

"How come?'

I think about this for a minute. Why do I like fights? I don't like them for the drama they cause, or the thrill of hurting someone. I like them for the reason I like everything else, for fun I guess. "It's a contest, like a dance or a drag race or somethin' like that," I say, my voice straining as I push Steve's arm closer to the table I struggle to look at Pony.

"You like fights, huh? Shoot, I want to beat those Socs' heads in. When I fight I want to stomp the other guy good, I like it too!" Steve yells as he pushes with all his strength against my arm and slams it down on the table. I laugh and throw two bucks in his face.

"How come you like fights Darry?" Pony asks him.

Darry is wearing a tight black top showing of all of his muscles. Darry doesn't answer for a
second and I take a gulp of chocolate milk, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand before pipping up, "He likes to show off his muscles!" And laughing at my own statement.

"I'm gonna show 'em off on you, little buddy, if you get any mouthier," Darry mutters to me. I laugh and lean back on my chair, wondering why Ponyboy was asking these questions.

"I don't know if you ought to be in this rumble, Pony," Darry said slowly to him.

Panic registered on Ponyboy's face. Poor kid. "How come? I've always come through before, ain't I?"

"Yeah," Darry said with a proud grin. "You fight real good for a kid your size. But you were in shape before. You've lost weight and you don't look so great. You're. . . Tensed up all the time."

Darry worry's too much, Pony'll be fine. I stand up giving Steve the finger as I go, walking over to Darry and Pony. "Shoot, everybody gets tensed up before a rumble. Just skin against skin he ain't gonna' get hurt now is he," I grin reaching over and punching Ponyboy softly in the shoulder and slapping Darry on the back.

Ponyboy smiles in thanks at me and looks back to Darry. "I'll be okay," Pony pleads with him. "I'll get hold of a little one, okay?"

"Well, Johnny won't be there this time . . . "- Ponyboy and Johnny sometimes gang up on a big guy together- "but then, Curly Shepard won't be there either, or Dally, and we'll need every man we can get," Darry sighs.

"What happened to Shepard?" I asked, remembering Tim Shepard's kid brother, Curly, who was a tough, cool, hard as nails Tim in miniature.

"He's in the cooler," Steve said, throwing a dollar bill at me. "In the reformatory." Again? I thought to myself rolling the bill up and tucking it behind my ear.

"Let me fight, Darry. If it was blades or chains or something it'd be different. Nobody ever gets really hurt in a skin rumble," Pony begs him.

"Well"- Darry gave in-"I guess you can. But be careful, and if you get in a jam holler and me or Soda'll get you out."

"I'll be okay," Pony said wearily. "How come you never worry bout' him so much?" Pony said, nodding to me evilly. I stand in the doorway, observing them and waiting curiously for Darry's answer.

"Man," Darry grinned and slung his arm across my shoulders. "This is one kid brother I don't have to worry about." I punch him in the ribs affectionately as he starts knuckling my head.
"This kiddo can use his head." I looked down on Ponyboy with mock superiority and Darry went on. "You can see he uses it for one thing-to grow hair on! Let's go!" He ducked my swing and took of out the door, laughing.

Two-Bit stuck his head in the door just as Darry went flying out of it. Leaping as he went off the steps, Darry turned a somersault in mid-air, hit the ground and bounded up before I could catch him.

"Welup," Two-Bit said cheerfully, cocking an eyebrow. "I see we are in prime condition for a rumble. Is everybody happy?"

"Yeah!" I screamed slapping him across the head playfully as I did a flying somersault off the steps.

I flipped up to walk on my hands then did a no-hands cartwheel across the yard to beat Darry's performance. Screeching like an Indian, Steve went running across the lawn in flying leaps, stopped suddenly, and flipped backwards. We could all do acrobatics because Darry had taken a course at the Y and then spent a whole summer teaching us everything he'd learned on the grounds that might come in handy in a fight. It did, but it also got me and Two-Bit jailed for the night once.

We were doing mid-air flips down a downtown sidewalk, walking on our hands, and otherwise disturbing the public and police. We usually got ourselves into a lot of trouble with the fuzz when we got together. The cops had called us 'juvenile delinquents' and a 'public nuisance'. . . Whatever that's meant to mean. Leave it to us two to pull something like that.

With a happy whoop, Ponyboy did a no-hands cartwheel off the porch steps and hit the ground and rolled to his feet. Two-bit followed in a similar manner. We jump around in the middle of the street, punching each other playfully and pushing each other around, laughing and yelling.

"I am a greaser," I chanted. "I am a JD and a hood. I blacken the name of our fair city. I beat up people. I rob gas stations. I am a menace to society. Man, do I have fun!"

"Grease. . . . Greaser. . . Greaser. . . " Steve sing-songed, as we push each other around. "O victim of environment, underprivileged, rotten, no-count hood!"

"Juvenile delinquent, you're no good!" Darry shouted.

"Get thee hence, white trash," Two-Bit said in a snobbish voice. "I am a Soc. I am the privileged and the well-dressed. I throw beer blasts, drive fancy cars and break windows at fancy parties."

"And what do you do for fun?" Ponyboy inquired in a serious, awed voice.

"I jump greasers!" Two-Bit screamed and did a cartwheel.

We settled down a little bit then, walking down the middle of our street. It was a cold night, but none of us were wearing a jacket except Two-Bit. Nobody gets cold in a rumble. I was wondering what Kate was doing and I got butterflies in my stomach thinking about her.

I had told the rest of the gang about us just after I got home from work. None had been shocked at this, just Ponyboy but he soon was happy for me.

"Listen Soda," Darry said to me as we strode down the street. "If the fuzz show, you and Ponyboy beat it out of there. The rest of us can only get jailed. You two can get sent to a boy's home."

"Ain't nobody gonna call the fuzz in this neighbourhood! Cause they'd know better!" Steve screamed, jumping around and laughing crazily.

"All the same, you two blow at the first sign of trouble. You hear me?"

"You sure don't need an amplifier," I said, and stuck my tongue at the back of Darry's head.

Ponyboy stifle's a giggle. If you want to see something funny, it's a tough hood sticking his tongue out at his big brother.


Please review, I really hope it wasn't too boring! If so, I apologise, there's a biggy coming along!
That's all for now, ta ta my lovelies.

-Fee xx