Ren and Chris were having a playful argument as they walked purposelessly through downtown Castle Rock.

Giggling, Ren said contemptuously, "I can't believe you think Santa Claus is a woman."

"Ren," he said impatiently. "Think about it for a minute. Since when do men ever do Christmas shopping? They're too stupid! They don't know sizes of clothes or anything vital like that. Hell, my dad doesn't even know how old me and my brothers and sisters are. It's the women that know important stuff like that, and you're just too stubborn to realize that I'm right and you're an idiot."

"He just knows everything. Santa's magic, Chris."

"And he's a woman!"

She grinned. "Do you still believe in him or something?"

"Or SOMETHING?" he scoffed.

Poking him in the side, she sang teasingly, "Chris believes in Santa Claus…"

"That's it, I'm crossing the street, and you're not allowed to follow," he said irritably.

"Fine," she giggled. He waited for a car to pass, and then walked across the street to the other side, parallel to her. She watched his sturdy yet lanky form as he moved with his usual nonchalant direction.

She was still giggling when her brother and three of his friends came out of the pool hall. Ryder grinned upon seeing her. "Fancy meeting you here, Ren," he said, his voice dripping venomously with sarcasm. "Decided to take a break from doing the horizontal mambo with Chambers?"

"Go fuck some farm animals, Ryder," she spat.

"Dude, your sister's got balls," one of his friends said, laughing moronically.

"And you don't," she shot back.

"I like her, can I have her?"

"Fuck you, Rick," Ryder snapped. "She's my sister. That's gross, man."

"You don't seem to have a problem with her doing the wild thing with Chambers," Rick reminded him.

"Ew, mental images!" Ryder cried, and punched Rick hard in the arm. "I SAID she's my SISTER, alright?"

"Well, I'm finished with this conversation, so how about you get out of my way?" Ren said pleasantly. She glared challengingly at her brother, who was of eye level to her. The two of them looked incredibly alike, both with dark hair and the striking caramel coloured eyes, but there was something so different about them all the same. It was something that would set you off right away and you wouldn't be able to tell what it was that was wrong. The difference was the looks in their eyes and the natures of their smiles. Ren was worldly yet benevolent, whereas Ryder had this impish cruelty about him. And when they looked at each other, it was like a collision. "Get out of my way, Ryder."

"That bruise on your arm," Ryder said, ignoring her and gesturing to the multicoloured welt on her forearm. "Did Chris get a little rough last night?"

"No," she said. The bruise was actually from Zeke when he had grabbed her arm too harshly the night before. "How about your limp nuts, Ryder? Did your boyfriend bite a little too hard?"

Ryder seized her arm and swung her backwards into the wall of the building.

"You fucking whore, Ren, you're a fucking embarrassment," he barked. "Do I gotta beat the shit out of you to show you your place?"

"Can I have her now?" Rick asked.

"Would you shut the fuck up, Rick?" he snapped.

"Ren!"

Flinching, Ren looked past her brother and saw Chris sprinting across the street, not bothering to look for cars first. "Haha, Chris is going to kick your ass," Ren said smugly, and yelped as Ryder slammed her head against the brick wall.

"Don't you fucking touch her!"

"Hold him," Ryder ordered to one of his neanderthals.

"Can I beat him up?"

"I don't care. Yeah, go ahead."

"Man, she's your sister," Chris said, struggling against the guy's arms. "That's gotta mean something." He glared at the guy holding him back. "Hey, watch it, Jumbo."

"Fuck you, Chambers, don't go telling me about fucking family loyalties. Ever taken a look at your family?"

"Ryder!" Ren snapped furiously. "Don't be an asshole!"

"Well, goddammit, Ren, it's bullshit! You come from a good family and you're throwing away all the respect anyone had for you by running around with this pile of shit!" Ryder yelled. "I don't get it, and you're my sister, and I'm not going to stand by and watch you do this to yourself!"

"A good family?" she shrilled. "You actually believe we come from a good family, Ryder? Our sister is a slut because she thinks she has to be. And dad. He's the reason why all of us hate ourselves and you know it! He's told you that you're nothing, and you've always believed it. You wouldn't be going around, shitting on all these people, if you thought you were worth anything. You just can't stand people being better than you so you put them down or you get someone to kick their ass for you. Our mom is a drunk, and she's worthless. Maybe at one point she was worth something, but not anymore. She threw away everything she was worth so that she could marry the right guy. And I'm not going to do that to myself, okay? I'm trying to be worth something! And I don't know about you, but I sure as hell don't respect her for that, so I don't want to grow up to be like her. What do you really think a good family is?"

"I don't need anyone to kick your ass for me Ren, so you better watch it," he hissed, but her spiel had hit something weak in him.

"Yeah, it takes a lot of balls to beat up your sister, " Chris said, bitingly sarcastic. "Then you can be just like your dad when he beats up your mom, you fucking prick."

"Shut up!" Ryder yelled, wildly swinging his fist and connected with Chris' jaw. Chris stumbled back, but it wasn't a strong enough blow to really faze him. "You're not gonna fight back, or what, Chambers? You fucking pussy, come on!"

Chris wasn't the type to fight back, but he also wasn't the type to back away. He had always been strong enough to take it.

Ren grabbed hold of her brother's arm, shouting at him to just go home. Rick wrapped his bulky arms around her waist and yanked her back.

This was when Zeke walked out of the General Store. He was armed with a box of cereal because Elizabeth was a pig. She ate all of her cereal and didn't even realize it. He walked with his head down, making sure he didn't step on any cracks in the sidewalk. Hearing yelling, he glanced up and saw a bunch of guys bullying some other people. He kept walking, and recognized Chris.

Crap, what if Elizabeth's in trouble? he thought to himself. I don't care if she's a pig; she's still my sister. I should punch someone.

Zeke yelled, "Hey, break it up!" When the guy pushing Chris around didn't even look up, he jogged up to him and punched him squarely. Zeke was pretty scrawny so it probably didn't hurt very much, but the little short guy that looked like Ren backed off a little.

"What are you gonna do about it?" he demanded. His eyes were rootless and he looked nervous.

"Well, I just made your lip bleed," Zeke said.

Ryder touched his mouth gingerly, and saw blood on his fingertips. "You're just one guy."

"I have a lot of friends."

"Like who?"

"I can't even name them, there's too many."

"Name one."

"I'm not taking orders from you, you little grasshopper," Zeke scoffed, even though he was praying that he would leave this situation with all his limbs intact. "Get the hell out of here before I open a can of whoop ass."

Chris snorted.

"You know, whatever," Ryder said disgustedly. "I really don't care. This isn't over, Chambers, you better watch your back."

"Ooh, stop scaring me before I soil myself."

Glaring at him, Ryder began to walk away, two of his goons following. He looked back and snapped, "Rick, let's go!"

Zeke whacked him with the box of cereal. "Don't touch her, you asshole."

Rick slowly released Ren, who smiled kindly at him. "I hope you enjoyed that."

When they had disappeared around the corner, Chris grinned slowly at Zeke. "Myyyy hero."

Ren giggled. "Gee, if I were ever tied to train tracks, I wouldn't call John Wayne, I'd call you."

"I'd call John Wayne," Chris countered. "He has a horse."

Zeke smiled and shrugged. "Well, I'd better go get this cereal back to my sister. She's a pig." He caught Ren's eyes, and she nodded reassuringly to let him know that everything was forgiven between them.