lulusgardenfli : Classical style? Well you are a classical reviewer! Thank you so much!

HappierThanMost : Nice to hear from you again Happy! I glad to love the scene with Wendy and Connie, the tension with them is a major part of the story. More Johnny coming up!

Guest: I'm so flattered that you're so taken with Wendy's character! I hope she continues to impress!

songsingsitself : Noted and I'll work on it.

Phoenix Arisen Again: I'm glad you enjoy Connie's sibling! I love them two!

doomseas1 : I'm glad your enjoying it!

Chapter V

S*S

Wendy beamed pleasantly at her partner's self-introduction, spoken in the soft rasp of crunched autumn leaves. A smoker's rasp, she knew very well from her Dad and Uncle Jerry, since she could just barely smell a cigarette's lingering whiff on his jacket collar, mixed alongside other scents of fresh grass and rich earth.

Johnny. Not Johnathan, she noted, tucking that information away so she'd remember it. She nodded, pleased. Wendy liked the name Johnny better in any case. It sounded more approachable than Johnathan, more like the wiry shadow he was, than the Biblical warrior of his namestake. And that gave her a good, hopeful feeling for this year; in the agreeable way he'd reached out to take her hand.

His own was a little calloused as his lifted hers up and down briefly, but his grip was gentle. And his gaze was smart enough to make her curious. And thankful.

Especially since around the classroom...not everybody was having the same amount of satisfaction with their partners, already snipping fire at each other. Wendy didn't need that. So with effort, she let her smile widen a bit, trying to make herself appear more welcoming.

"Nice to meet you, Johnny."

Maybe it was her nerves imagining things, but she thought she saw a flicker of surprise in the depths of his gaze, though he tamped it down before Wendy could say for sure. Nodding carefully, he released her hand at once, bringing it to rest across his desk instead; long fingers drumming against the abused wood. No sure what else to do or say, Wendy shuffled uncertainty within her own seat; sitting prim and straight and awkward and very, very quiet.

They probably would've passed the rest of class like that, if Mr. Syme hadn't turned to the chalkboard and sketched out their first assignment...labeled ten things to know about your partner, and making the whole class groan midway through the white marks.

"You're killing us here sir," a Steve Randle complained from up front, speaking for all of them. The rest were decidedly well dressed, but in far less expensive clothing. Middle classers, she believed Cherry had called them.

"Hardly Mr. Randle," was the dry reply. "I'm sure you'll survive. I'll even give you an incentive. When your done with this assignment, tear it out and present it to me as your ticket out the door."

The class groaned again.

"Nice going Randle," somebody hissed bitterly. Steve gave a rude hand gesture in retaliation to the boy when Mr. Syme wasn't looking...though Wendy could tell from the twitch of his lips and gleam of his eyes that he saw it anyways. And cheerfully ignored it.

He's enjoying this... she marveled, as she began to realize that their teacher must've planned every single step and reaction for his class. It was brilliant, a Twilight Zone Twist. Admittedly though, she wished it wasn't at her expense.

S*S

Well, with little choice now, the two of them turned to face each other again, like nervous sparrows at a bird bath, unwilling to test the water. Wendy hastily fished her notebook out of her schoolbag, and tore a page loose for the assignment. Followed by another, when she realized Johnny didn't have a notebook of his own. Or a pencil for that matter.

So she loaned him one of hers, watching as her olive fingers brushed his darker ones. Wendy could tell he'd bitten his nails recently.

Pulling back quickly, he offered a low "thanks" in that raspy autumn tone, greased-banged head ducked slightly like he was shy...or ashamed. Though if it was the later, Wendy couldn't fathom why. She'd borrow supplies from classmates before, many times over the years. Surely everyone had, so it wasn't an unusual thing by any means. But she didn't want to bring that up when there was work to do. So she just nodded back and murmured a simple "you're welcome."

To say the questioning was awkward at first was the understatement of the decade. If she'd left it up to her partner, they'd have nothing at the end of class, so Wendy took the clumsily first step, toddling like a infant. It made it a few inches before falling into a little something like this:

"So..." she finally drew out, like pulling a tooth. "What do you think ofLeave it Beaver?"

He blinked. "Um...it's alright I guess."

"Oh...I like Wally. He's my favorite character."

"That's neat."

Which was embarrassing, to put it mildly. She could just picture Connie either facepalming, or outright disowning her (how in the world did she make talking to boys look so effortless?). Not to mention that Johnny had his head tilted, looking at Wendy like she was the Living Doll or the creature from the Black Lagoon. Least to her eyes he was.

Sucking in a breath, she swallowed the lump of humility in her throat and hoped her face wasn't as red as it felt.

Well, at least that gets one question out of the way, she tried to think positively, with mixed results as she jotted down the answer. Johnny did likewise.One down, nine more to go.

She glanced over at him when she finished, her penmanship much faster than his own. He was a lefty like her, holding her pencil with three fingers instead of the normal two, much like how she held her own between her index and pointer, a habit that had driven her teachers crazy when she was younger. Even though she'd never had a grade lower than a B in her life. Such a silly thing to have to matter. Even today, Mrs. Andolini had narrowed her eyes and basically made the sign of the cross as she watched Wendy in her class.

Her thoughts were interrupted when his writing stilled suddenly. And blinking, she realized he'd noticed her watching his hands. While his inquisitive look was far from intimidating, her gaze was about to drop in shame before comprehension swept his face.

"So...that's another thing, right?" he murmured after a moment, motioning gently to their writing hands.

Wendy couldn't help but perked up a bit at that, which in response earned her a slight tug at the corner of his mouth. They wrote it down, and as lead danced against the blue lined paper, inspiration struck and Wendy had the next question.

"So...you've lived in Tulsa all you life?"

Johnny dipped his head briefly in acknowledgement. "Never been anywhere but here."

He licked his lips, a curiosity slipping from his own tongue. "How 'bout you. Where you from?"

"Washington D.C." she answered with fond remembrance, spinning her pencil in her fingers. "Do...do you have any siblings?"

"Nah...well...kinda. But not really. You?"

"A sister and two brothers."

"You the oldest?"

"Feels like it some times, but I'm second oldest."

But then end of the class, Wendy had learned that Johnny Cade's was born in Tulsa, he was a lefty, he had no siblings, his middle name was Antonio, his favorite food was pizza and spaghetti (he couldn't decide between the two), he was fifteen like her, his birthday on March 1th, he liked Elvis, his favorite song was Hound Dog, and he smoked since he was eleven. Oh, and he liked Leave it to Beaver.

But while they mutter quietly back and forth, Wendy couldn't help but notice that Johnny's dark gaze kept flickering to their classmates around them, like a fox trying to dodge a pack of bloodhounds. At first, she didn't understand. Then as time passed, she noticed her partner didn't care about any of the middle classers, only the three other Socs in the room. Without Wendy, two guy she didn't know and girl called Beth Mays were the only Socs, seated way up in the front in the other corner by the door.

She frowned then, following his line of sight. And maybe...maybe he had reason too. Cause every now and then, she'd catch Beth turning away from her middle class partner to watch them. Wendy raised her eyebrows when she saw this -she knew English class was boring to most, but she and Johnny couldn't be that much of a show.

Apparently they were, though, too the point where a note, sent from Beth, wound up on her desk midway through the class with a simple message:The Greaser treating ya o.k. Wendy?

For a second the thing didn't compute. Simply didn't process from her eyes to her brain, like a faulty telephone wire. Oh, yes,Leave it to Beaver and Hound Dog made for ghastly conversation. Wendy didn't think she'd ever recover.

Honestly, she might've been tempted to just giggle...and probably would have too, if Johnny hadn't gone still, very still. His gaze closed off into blank disks instead of eyes, devoid of emotion as they look at her, before down at his desk, jaw tense. That sucked any humor out of the note, and Wendy made a point of positioning the paper so he could see her reply before she folded it up and sent it back:

Yes, just fine.

Figuring the matter was settled, she tried to forget it as she and Johnny Cade got back to work, but the air around them had changed from earlier, like a gauzy curtain that wasn't there before. Johnny didn't seem to think it was worth his while to converse with her now that he absolutely wasn't require too...and Wendy supposed she couldn't really blame him for that.

Biting her lip again, she tried to respect that, really she did...but a curious tug on her gaze had her watching him out of corner of her eye. The note had named him a Greaser, and she couldn't contest that. After all, he obviously was. Both his jean jacket and the black t-shirt he wore under it had seen better days, and his sneakers were caked with years of mud that must've been holding them together. Like glue.

Her brow furrowed. Though what that had to do with how he treated her, she didn't pretend to know. Gosh, they were in a English classroom filled to bursting with students. What could he do to her? And it wasn't just David or Beth...Bob, Jack, even Randy and the girls. They all acted as if the invasion of Normandy was going on.

She didn't understand it.

She still didn't, when class came to an end and students were scrambling to present their papers to freedom, prompting Johnny to give her back her pencil with another muttered thanks before making for the door.

This time, he made sure their fingers didn't brush.

"Nice to meet you," Wendy repeated herself as he departed, earning a brief nod of acknowledgement before they were out the door and separated by the surge of the crowd.

S*S

Slightly downhearted from how the whole debacle had turned out, Wendy pitter pattered her way down the hall to her locker, eager to rid her bag of the books she didn't need to carry home with her. Which basically was none. Only Mrs. Andolini had assigned her class homework on the first day. Not that finding some basic facts about the State of Oklahoma would be terrible hard. Still, from the uncompromising way she had assigned it, Wendy was starting to understand why her car might've been egged in the first place-

"Wendy!"

Looking up from where she was discarding her Math and English books, Wendy saw Cherry and Connie and the other girls in the group rushing her way, eyes lit with varying emotions -Cherry and Marcia look concerned, so did Peggy to a lesser degree. Meanwhile, Lilian Wood boarded on being almost smug, gleeful in the pinched corner of her mouth. As for Connie, her sister just looked distantly baffled.

"Um, yes?" Wendy finally asked, for lack of anything else to say.

"Are ya okay?"

She blinked. "Well, yeah, it's only the first day. I don't even have a lot of homework."

Cherry shook her head impatiently, "No, that not what I meant. Look Wen, we just ran inta Beth Mays and she-"

"She said ya were in her English class, and glad-hand Syme paired ya up with a Greaser that runs round with Curtis' brothers and Dallas Winston," Lilian finished with a bit of relish on the last two words, though it meant nothing to the either Allen girl.

"Who?" Connie droned, hand on her hip, speaking the same time as her sister. And this earned them plenty of disbelieving stares, like they were aliens off the moon.

"Who?Who? Glory Allens, Dallas Winston is the toughest hood in Tulsa, probably all of Oklahoma!" Marcia exclaimed, eyes wide. "King of the beasts! Lord of the flies! And with a meaner temper than a grizzly!"

"Sounds wild," Connie remarked dryly.

Wendy snorted.

Lilian sniffed. "Like a rabid tiger maybe."

Wendy tried to process this. She didn't know anything about rabid tigers or bears (oh my) but the boy she met in class belonged in neither category. He still reminded her of a dark furred fox, well aware of that fact that he was surrounded by larger hunting animals. She knew how boys could be, it was part of the reason she worried after Sam and Eric, since they were small for their age. They'd had problems at school before with bigger classmates.

A surge of guilt floated her then. She hardly spared the twins a second thought all day, when it was as much their first day too. Were they all right? Did they like their teachers? Had they made friends?

"We're getting off topic," Cherry snapped, look annoyed. "So this kid treated you good, Wendy?"

She nodded, hugging her bag strap to her shoulder. "Yeah, he was fine. And its not like we had a choice you know. We had to work together. We'll have to whole year-"

"Rotten luck," Lilian smirked.

Wendy ignored her, though a flare of irritation made her lips tighten. "-so I'll just make the best of it. Anything else?"

"Yeah," Connie said, twirling a dark curl round and round her finger. "Is he cute?"

S*S

Well, I walked right into that one, Wendy thought, flushing, while Peggy and Lillian gasped, apparently horrified at the thought.

Thankfully, she was spared from answering when Cherry broke in.

"Look, we gotta get goin' or Bob and the others will start lookin' for us. Come on," she ordered irritable. And such was her status that neither Lilian or Connie dared argue. Instead, they five of them moved as one through the halls, Wendy closing her locker before falling in step behind them. She fell a few steps further back with Peggy when it became clear a battle of looks was happening between Lilian and her sister, both girls strutting step for step against the linoleum floor. It was like watching two chariot pulling horses race in the Roman arena.

And of the two, Connie was winning. Most defiantly winning with her easy grace, and that secretive, Mona Lisa smile; favoring everyone and no one equally. The fact that Lilian was slowly turning more and more red probably helped in that regard, as the girls made their way down the front steps of the school, back out into the sunlight.

No way was she getting in the middle of that, Wendy preferred her head firmly on her shoulders thank-you-very-much. Bu someone was braver than her, and a talented whistle broke the air with glee.

Following the familiar sound, Wendy saw the culprit was none other than "Mr. Matthews" from earlier in the day. And he wasn't alone, Steve Randle stood to the left of him, Johnny Cade to his right. From the wide grin on his face, Wendy could tell rusty haired boy recognized them.

"Work it darlin's!" he called out in genuine endorsement. "Come on, work it for me! Don't be shy!"

Lilian's nostrils flared like an angry cow before she stormed away towards the parking lot, Cherry and Marcia hurrying after her with a bite to the redhead's tone. But Connie stilled long enough to toss a lazy smile her admirer's way.

"Call a little louder why don't you," she suggested. "They might've hear you on Independence, but I sure can't hear you."

Matthews' eyebrows shot up with delight. "Well, we got a live one here don't we?"

"You just try and find out," Con returned smoothly, before gilding out of the conversation, skirt swaying around her knees, and Wendy just shook her head, and wonder for the hundredth time how did shedo that? Breathing out, she made to follow in her sister wake, like always, when Peggy stopped her by remaining still, and gently tugged on her arm, wide eyes timid, but curious.

"Isn't the boy in blue your partner, Wen?" she asked.

Involuntarily, Wendy's gaze lifted to find his, while he stood quietly besides his friends, and Con's question wiggled it's way back into her mind.

She fidgeted in her spot.

...Yes, she silently admitted. If she were being honest, she'd say yes. Yes he was cute. Very cute, with a narrowed Italian looking face, smooth copper tan skin, full but chapped lips and long eyelashes, half hidden by his bangs (why did guys get the best eyelashes anyways?) and solemn stare.

"Yes, that's him."

Peggy looked up, brown doe eyes soft and trotted on. "He's kinda rough lookin'. Ya sure you'll be alright this year?"

This time, the question didn't really bother Wendy. How could it, coming from Peggy, so little, so quiet, so often forgotten among the louder voices in the group? With the concern in her voice being both honest and genuine. Softened, Wendy offered the same smile she'd give Sam and Eric, looping her arm through Peggy's paler one.

"I'm sure," she started to promised. But Peggy nervously cut her off.

"He's lookin' at ya."

Losing track of what she was about to say, Wendy followed her friend's gaze to see a dark one widen with the startlement of being caught, before quickly jerking away, hands shoved deep into his pockets. Unfortunately for him, Matthews saw this and a wicked grin crossed his face as he began nudging he friend.

"Ah, Johnnycakes grownin' up so fast. He got himself a little girlfriend!"

His voiced carried, and it was hard to tell which face of the two mentioned people got redder. "Shut up Two-Bit. She ain't my girlfriend! I told ya-"

Johnny's embarrassed sounding protest was drowned when "Two-Bit" lassoed an arm around his neck and began hulling him away, false sobbing in loud Italian voice about his "little Johnbino" leaving him. And somehow, in watching this scene, both Wendy and Peggy wound up in a fit of giggles themselves, till their eyes watered with mirth.

"Like I was saying," Wendy gasped out when she could. "I think I'll be fine."

To her relief, Peggy merely nodded, looking satisfied.

"If you say so Wendy. It's just English after all."

"Right," Wendy beamed, glad to be taken seriously for once. "Come on now, before Bob leaves us."

Reviews make me happy so tell me what you thought and I'll update sooner.

Well, I hope you enjoyed reading the English scene as I had writing it...poor Wendy needs a little more practice talking to boys before she's as smooth as her sister.