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Dallas Winston didn't know why he kept coming to Will Rodgers High School. Well, actually he did know why. His worthless, piece of crap father had gotten fired from his job just three weeks after they had arrived at Tulsa. That meant he was going to be home all day until he found a new job and Dally didn't want to be anywhere near him. He supposed he could have wandered around town but they really wasn't much to do until night came. This place certainly wasn't New York where you could find some trouble to get into at anytime of the day. The other kids had given him looks and seemed to avoid him, which was fine with Dally. He wondered how many stories had gotten around about him. Which ones were true or exaggerated or just completely made up.

Getting to his locker, Dally placed his backpack inside and took out his English and History books. Dally then closed the locker shut with more force then was necessary only to find himself face to face with probably the most annoying kid he had ever met.

"Hey Dally!" Two-Bit beamed.

He groaned.

"Why do you keep bothering me!?" Dally demanded. For some reason, this kid kept talking to him. And for some reason Dally hadn't decked him yet.

"What? Our lockers are right next to each other."

"That doesn't mean you have to talk to me."

"Sure it does. We're like next door neighbors."

Dally shook his head before spinning around and heading for English class which he unfortunately shared with Two-Bit. The other boy simply hurried along to walk beside him and playfully slapped him on the back.

"So, how have you been liking Will Rodgers since you got here?"

"I hate it," Dally growled.

"Sorry to hear that. But I just want you to know that we don't hate you. In fact, we like you." The two of them then stopped walking as Two-Bit looked Dally up and down before his eyes settled on Dally's groin area and deepening his voice. "We like you very much."

Dally shoved Two-Bit.

"Stay away from me, you queer!" He yelled, getting the attention of everyone else in the hallway as Dally stormed off as Two-Bit chuckled to himself. After the last bell of school went off Two-Bit met up with Ponyboy Curtis on the field of Berryhill Junior High and they were currently throwing a football back and forth at each other. That's when the subject of the new kid came up. Ponyboy and Two-But had been talking about Dally almost since the day he had arrived.

"I think he's starting to like me," Two-Bit said as he caught a pass.

"You should just leave him alone," Ponyboy responded as he walked up to his older friend. "I've heard things about him, bad things."

Two-Bit shrugged a shoulder.

"I don't know. He seems...sad."

"Sad?" Pony said incredulously. "Are we talking about the same kid here?"

"What would you know? You're twelve," Two-Bit answered as he roughly threw the football back at Pony.

"Thirteen!" Ponyboy yelled as he threw the ball at Two-Bit's head, which the older boy ducked in the nick of time. Two-Bit then ran at Ponyboy and tackled him to the ground. The two rolled around on the field, throwing playful punches at each other for about a minute before separating.

"Ah, I'm all itchy now," Two-Bit complained as he brushed grass off his shirt. He then ran after Ponyboy again. "Scratch me Pony!"

"No," Ponyboy started laughing as he pushed him away. "Get away from me."

Two-Bit grinned at the laughing younger boy as he walked over and picked up his leather jacket, throwing it around his shoulders. Making people laugh was always something he loved doing, something he actually prided himself on. No matter what kind of mood they were in, Two-Bit could seemingly always say or do something that would make his gang of friends smile. It was right then did he just realized that was what he needed to do. He needed to find a way to make Dally laugh somehow, some way. Two-Bit then got an idea.

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The following morning, Two-Bit heated up a can of baked beans on the stove. When his mother walked into the kitchen and saw what her son was eating her eyes widened in shock.

"Keith? You're eating beans for breakfast?" Margaret questioned.

"It's all part of a plan," Two-Bit smiled.

Margaret shook her head but said no more. She didn't even want to know. By the time he got to school about a half an hour later, Two-Bit's stomach was starting to rumble. After getting the things he needed out of his locker, he headed for English class and saw Dally sitting at his desk. As he passed him, Two-Bit asked;

"Did you do your English assignment?" He asked.

"Hell no," Dally mumbled, not even bothering to look up at him.

"Me neither."

"Thank you for sharing that with me."

Two-Bit ignored the sarcastic comment and went to go sit at his desk which was across the room from Dally. After about another minute went by, the entire class had piled in as the bell went off. Their teacher of the class, Mrs. Brooks then began to speak.

"Alright class, please turn to page two hundred and twenty. Today, we are going to be going over dash and ellipses." As Mrs. Brooks began going over her lesson, Two-Bit could feel his stomach start to rumble again. Okay, this was it. "An ellipse indicates an omission from a direct quotation, a dash emphasizes certain material within a sentence-"

Two-Bit then farted.

And not just any fart. You would have thought Two-Bit had been holding it in for the past two days. It sounded like a miniature explosion had just gone off in a log cabin and the smell that quickly followed would have gagged a slaughterhouse worker. While the boy sitting behind him immediately got up and moved away while coughing the rest of the class had busted out laughing but Mrs. Brooks was outraged.

"Two-Bit Mathews!" She yelled. "Get out of my classroom this instant!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Brooks," Two-Bit smiled as he got up while the teacher went over to open the window. As Two-Bit got to the door, he turned his head to look back at Dally. He had his elbow propped up on his desk and he had forehead resting against the palm over his hand, as if he was trying to hide his reaction but Two-Bit could see that he was laughing like the rest of the class.

Two-Bit beamed. He had done it. He made Dally laugh.

He wasn't allowed back in the class for the rest of the hour. Once the bell rang, Two-Bit was then read the riot act by Mrs. Brooks and she warned him never to do something so disgusting in her class again. When it was time to head to gym the class, the class was taken outside by Coach Conroy. Two-Bit grabbed a basketball and walked over to one of the courts. After throwing the ball up in the air and through the hoop, he heard a voice from behind him.

"So, did you shit your pants or what?"

He turned around and to his surprise it was Dally, and he was in his gym uniform for the first time. Ever since he had arrived, Dally had not participated in gym at all. Every time he chose not to change his close and simply sat on the ground, his back against the wall of the school and just watched the sky. Two-Bit really didn't understand why Dally was trying so hard to not interact with anyone else.

"Close," Two-Bit grinned. "So, you finally decided to put your gym clothes on?"

Dally shrugged.

"I don't have really anything better to do."

"Well then, care for a game?"

Two-Bit then tossed the basketball at Dally who caught it.

"How about we place a waver on it?"

"Five bucks to the winner," he suggested.

"Just five bucks?"

"That's all I've got on me. How about the first to make to twenty points wins?"

"Fine," Dally grinned. Whenever money was at stake, no matter on what it was, Dally always did whatever it took to win. He bounced the ball once as he got ready. "Oh, and by the way. It's 'make it, take it'. Which means whoever scores keeps the ball. Check!"

Dally then roughly threw the ball into Two-Bit's chest, momentarily knocking the wind out of him. Dally took the ball back and ran up to the hoop before throwing it up and making the first point.

"Oh, I get it," Two-Bit said as he narrowed his eyes while rubbing his chest. "We're playing by prison rules, is that it?"

"Don't tell me you can't take it, Two-Bit," Dally responded, saying his name with a mocking tone.

Two-Bit grinned. Dally might have had a reputation of being someone you didn't mess with, but he was going to be surprised that despite how goofy he might have acted sometimes, Two-Bit wasn't exactly a pushover either. After getting the basketball back, Dally tried to go around Two-Bit again but the other boy ran forward and knocked his shoulder right into him, making Dally stumble back and lose his grip on the ball which was then caught by Two-Bit.

Turning around and taking the shot, Two-Bit managed to shoot it threw the hoop before running forward to reclaim the ball. He turned back around to see Dally slightly rubbing his shoulder, but by the look on his face, you could tell that he was up for the challenge.

Grinning again, Two-Bit then thought to himself;

'New friend.'