The next morning Lori got woken up by a ray of sun shining through into her room through a tiny gap in her curtain, she looked over to Ponyboy to see that he was still asleep. She looked at the clock on her side table and saw that it was 6:00am; she slowly got out of bed and went into the kitchen to do herself some toast then went back to her room and got a fresh set of clothes and underwear, then headed to the bathroom and took a shower and brushed her teeth. After drying her hair and doing her makeup she put on her dark blue jeans, a black boob tube and her leather jacket and also her old worn converse. She left the bathroom and went into the living room to grab her bag which had a few bits and bobs such as makeup and a comb. She looked at the clock seeing that an hour went by and she still had a bit of time before she had to go school, she sat down on the sofa and watched Micky Mouse. It wasn't long until Darry had woken up and walked into the kitchen.
"Morning." Lori said, but there was no reply from Darry. "Fine, be like that." She mumbled under her breath. After a while she couldn't take the silence anymore and left the house to go school, she didn't care if she was going to be early.
"Morning Darry." Ponyboy said as he wandered into the kitchen and made himself some breakfast. He was already changed and ready to go for school.
"Morning Pony, is Soda awake?" He said, taking a sip from his coffee mug.
"Yeah, he's in the shower." Darry nodded, "Where's Lori?"
"Gone school."
"Already?" Pony asked confused.
"Yup." The front door opened and Two-Bit, Steve and Johnny walked in.
"You ready kid?" Steve asked.
"Yeah." Ponyboy grabbed the piece of toast he just finished buttering and stuffed it in his mouth, "bye Darry. Bye Soda!" He shouted.
"Where's your sister?" Steve asked Pony as they got into Steve's car.
"In school, her and Darry had a fight last night and I guess she didn't want to see him this morning." He said.
"Oh right."
At the school Lori was sitting at some empty tables at the back of the school, where the greasers hang out. She felt someone sit down next to her, she looked up expecting to see one of the guys from the gang but instead she saw Robby. Instantly she scooted away from him, feeling fear rise up within her. She looked around and saw nobody, 'Of course, which greasers are actually going to in school on time'. She thought to herself, a few of them did get there on time but they didn't hang out at the back, instead they stayed in the halls causing trouble with Socs, the back of the school was only used by them at dinner and any breaks.
"This is your fault." Robby said with anger in his voice. Lori tried to get up and leave but Robby grabbed her wrist and tugged her back down. She noticed that on his face were new bruises and a cut near his eye. "Lawson beat me up!" Dale Lawson was the leader of the Tiber Street Tigers.
"They kicked you out of the gang?" Lori said, her eyes growing wide and started to get even more scared.
"No, but he threatened to. Said that if I ever step outta line again that I'm gone. You know how many people have pounded on me cause of you? And not even all of ya brothers gang have come for me yet. If I get beaten up one more timeā¦" He left it at that before walking off. Lori felt tears prick at her eyes and felt pain in her wrist where he had grabbed her tightly.
"Lori!" She quickly wiped her eyes as she heard people approach her. She knew who it was this time; she recognised Two-Bit's voice. She looked up and saw Two-Bit and Steve walking towards her.
"Hey guys." She said quietly as they sat down by her.
"What's up with you?" Steve asked, noticing her eyes were red.
"Nothing." She tried to fake a smile but Steve didn't buy it.
"Aw shoot Lori! If it's something to do with that argument with Darry don't sweat it! Things will be back to normal again soon." Two-Bit smiled and ruffled her hair. "Anyway, I'm heading off to class. Mrs Bates said the day I get to class early will be the day she retires; let's hope she's true to her word!" Two-Bit laughed then ran off into the school.
"So where's Pony-Boy?" Lori asked, avoiding any subject that involved Darry or Robby.
"Gone his teacher about some math homework. So you going tell me what's up?" Lori raised her eyebrows at him. "Look, I know we've never been best buddies or anything, but come on, let me try help ya." Lori sighed.
"Darry wouldn't talk to me this morning. It's like I wasn't even there, he's never shouted at me like he did last night and he's never ignored me.
"Don't sweat it doll, he'll come around! I guess it's just a shock for him that it was you going home late and not Ponyboy, and you shouted back at him." Steve smiled and nudged her but then noticed a red mark around her wrist; it looked like someone had grabbed her. "What happened?" He asked, pointing to her wrist. Lori tried to quickly think of something but came up with nothing.
"Oh, I don't know. It just erm, came from nowhere." She mentally smacked herself in the face for coming up with such an awful lie. Steve knew she was lying but she was already upset about Darry so he figured he would get it out of her later. "Come on lets go to class." They stood up and entered the school building. Further down the hall way, on the second floor they heard a commotion, and then saw a bunch of students all gathered around cheering. "Let's go see what's going on!" Steve dragged Lori to the front of the crowd. There they found Two-Bit pinning Robby up against a locker and punching him repeatedly in the stomach. Robby quickly glanced up and shot Lori a look, she quickly thought of the hanging threat that he left her with. Again, an instant fear hit her and she ran through the crowd and down the hall. She could hear Steve calling her and possible following her but she didn't stop and she ran right into the girls toilets; she went into one of the cubicles and started crying, wondering when exactly did her life start going downhill and tried to remember a time when things were actually good for her.
"Lori! Lori come out! What's wrong with you?" Steve said on the opposite side of the girls toilets, he obviously couldn't go in but at that moment he was starting to debate with himself whether he should or not, but then he saw Angela Shepard walking towards him with a concerned look on her face.
"Is she in there?" She asked as she reached him.
"Yeah, I don't know what's up with her. She just saw Robby and Two-Bit fighting froze for a minute and just ran." He said rubbing the back of his neck.
"Okay, I'll go talk to her. You go make sure that Two-Bit isn't killing Robby, as much as we'd all like that, we don't want Two-Bit go prison for life do we." Steve nodded and walked away in the direction of the fight. Angela entered the girl's toilets and heard sniffles coming from the middle cubicle.
"Lori? It's Angel, come on out or I'm coming in!" A few seconds past before Lori walked out of the stall. "What's wrong?"
"You know I was scared of telling my brothers and the gang about Robby. But when I did tell them I thought it was the best thing to do, everything would be better and normal again!" Lori started crying.
"But babe, it is normal again! Robby can't hurt you anymore." Angel said rubbing her arm in a comforting way.
"Yes. Yes he can! He came speak to me this morning when I was alone, he grabbed my wrist that's how there's slight bruising on it. He threatened me this morning, he didn't say exactly what he would do but it was the tone of his voice! He's going hurt me again Angel." Angel hugged her.
"Robby isn't going to do anything to you! Your brothers and the gang won't let him, and neither will I!"
"You guys aren't going to be with me all the time! There's going to be one point where I'm alone and he's going to get me Angel."
"Lori think about it, the amount of times he's been beaten up by guys in this neighbourhood cause' of what he did to you, do you really think he's going try anything else? They'd kill him!"
"I guess you're right." Lori sniffled, grabbed a load of toilet role and wiping her eyes.
"I'm Angela Shepard. I'm always right." She laughed. "Eww, look at you. You look hideous! Let's get all this black shit of your face." They both laughed.
"Okay so what happened?" Steve asked in the school parking lot, him and Two-Bit were sitting on the hood of his car smoking some weed.
"The jerk had a stupid smile on his face talking to one of his buddies, I'm pretty sure he mentioned Lori's name." Two-Bit said taking a drag.
"Do you think it was the best idea?"
"The dick deserves everything he gets."
"Yeah, but after everything had just calmed down? I don't know man, I'd like to smash his face in again n' everything but maybe it would have just bin' best to leave it. Lori got pretty upset when she saw you two fighting."
"I guess, too late now though. Hey where is Lori anyway?" Two-Bit asked, wondering where she had gone off to.
"Last I know she was with Angela Shepard in the girls toilets."
"Huh. Aw man we're late for class; I guess Mrs Bates isn't going retire! Damn Robby distracted me." Steve laughed and the two boys slowly made their way to class.
So there is chapter 9! I hope you enjoyed it! :) It seems much longer on word! It's just over 3 and a half pages :)
Thank you for all your reviews! They mean a lot and do make me very happy! =) so remember to review this chapter and let me know what you think!See you guys next Saturday
Holly xxx
