I fought the grip as best I could, kicking and screaming, until a hand was put over my mouth to shut me up. I forgot that biting the hand would get it taken off, and I kept kicking my legs wildly. Who was that damn strong to keep me in their arms?!

"Callisto! Shut up and calm down! You're making a scene!"

I went limp in the arms, remembering the voice of Two-Bit. "Twoa-Bot?" I mumbled under the hand.

He set me down and turned me around. "What's up with you? I can't remember the last time I saw you run so fast. What's going on? What happened?"

I leapt into his embrace and wrapped my arms around his waist. "Oh, thank God it's you, Two-Bit… Thank God…"

He blinked and hugged me back. "Yeah Cal, it's me. What happened?"

{You know she has a mind

She has an attitude

And she likes her space

And her solitude

She'll tease you or please you

If she's feeling good

Or burn you

Like you knew she would}

I didn't want to answer. He would think it was stupid that I was acting so hysterical just because Steve and I had another petty fight. So I didn't respond. I put my ear against his chest and listened to his heart. It had been going fast, real fast – he probably was worried about me – but now it was slowing down, he knew I was ok. I let out a quiet sigh and loosened my arms on his waist. Thank the Lord it was Two-Bit…

"Steve yell at you again?"

I blinked. "What?"

He smiled, grasped my shoulders, and put me out at his arms stretch. "You and Steve and Johnny were meeting at that coffee house place. I know whenever someone gets you two in the same room, you start a feud. What'd he say?"

I glanced around quickly. None of the others were with him. He had been alone, standing in a dark spot, his cold blade in his hand, which was now being put against my bare arm with his hand. "He…" I looked up at his calm eyes, but he wasn't smiling. "He said you didn't scare him. But the meaning behind it was that he could tear me up all he wanted and you couldn't touch him. I… I said something about Nat."

He sighed and shook his head. He knew it was something stupid to fight about. That, or he knew I was a complete lunatic for bringing up Natalie.

"I ran off before he could deck me. But he was rising to do it! I thought he'd follow after me… So I kept running."

"How many people you run into?"

I closed my eyes, which were filling with tears for no reason at all. "Um…" my voice cracked and I hoped with all my heart that he wouldn't notice. If the person made me cry, Two-Bit took the beating twice as hard and long. "A greaser, maybe two… And three Socs. I fell off the barrier, and twisted my ankle… A girl Soc helped me up."

"Is it necessary for me to beat Randle up?" he asked softly, hugging me against his chest again.

I shook my head. "No… I just over reacted. But… you won't let him get off for dissing you, are you?" I looked up at him with confused, wavering blue eyes. That was the wrong thing to do. Totally. Where had my brain slipped off to?!

His eyes hardened and I winced. "He made you cry…" he wiped the single tear going down my cheek and put my head against his chest again. "No. I won't let him get off with paying me any disrespect."

My heart almost did a leap, but I controlled it and calmed down. "I'm sorry for scaring you."

He didn't respond to it.

"Wanna go find some trouble?"

Still, he didn't do anything.

I looked up at him and saw he was paying no attention to me. I turned in his arms and saw Tim and Curly Shepard standing inside the open building, eyeing us in the shadows. I swallowed hard and pressed myself harder against Two-Bit's chest for some kind of security.

"Get out of here…" Two-Bit whispered to me. "Run."

"What? No way!" I snapped quietly. "I'm not leaving you!"

"You want to fight Curly?" he asked, looking down at me.

I swallowed and shook my head. "No… But I don't want you to get beat up and me be known as the chicken that ran off."

He smiled and brushed back my hair. "You have Griffin on you?"

Griffin was my ten-inch butterfly switchblade. Five inches of the handle, and the blade itself five inches. I didn't have to use it much; it really was only a show prize. Griffin had a black dragon carved on its brown handle, with a red fireball coming from his mouth.

I patted all six of my pockets until I found it. I bobbed my head, "Yeah, I got 'im with me."

"Then you'll have to fight Curly with it, cause I know he has one, same with Timmy there."

I swallowed hard. My throat was dry and a lump was growing in the tube. My hands were shaking, but I refused to let the Shepard brothers see that.

Two-Bit pushed me behind him and went up to the Shepard's. They were slowly making their way out of the shop and down the stairs to the sandy beach.

I didn't like that. I didn't want to fight on the sand were Curly could throw the damned stuff in my eyes and blind me while he beat me to a bloody pulp. Worse, the sand would get into any cut opened and get into your blood flow. And trust me, that isn't the funnest thing to experience.

{When she smiles

It's like the sun shining in your face

Pulling and stretching

Her leather and lace}

Curly looked at me as Two-Bit and Tim squared off. He flipped out a blade longer than mine and smirked dryly. "You gonna fight me, prissy kitty?"

Now that blew a fuse and pissed me off immediately. He knew how to get a girl to fight. I leapt at him and flipped Griffin five times. I grasped the other side of the handle and sliced at Curly.

He dodged and sliced back at me, thinking a girl was nothing new to fight. Well, I'm not just a girl with a blade.

Name's Shinigami. And you won't live to challenge me again… I twisted from him and grabbed his arm behind him. I slammed my knee into his back and shoved him into the sand in front of me. "Get the point, Shepard?"

The next thing I knew, he had turned and something stung my eyes. I screamed and tried to cry the sand out of my burning eyes. I knew he would do it. He was on the ground too long after just a small kick in the back. Why hadn't I figured out that he had been grabbing some sand and aiming for my eyes? Damn, how could I be so stupid. Now he'd beat the shit out of me…

He grabbed my wrist that held my blade and snapped back, making me drop Griffin into the sand. He slammed his fist into my stomach and his other into my face.

I collapsed backwards onto the soft sand without so much as a scream. I refused to bother Two-Bit and his fight with Tim. I rubbed at my eyes and tears filled the inside of my eyes. I groped around me for something, anything. Damn it, where's Grif?! The blade was gone, or at least out of my reach.

Something sharp hit my right cheek and went in deep. The blade went across my whole right cheek and curved up to my forehead and stopped at my hairline.

At that painful slice I screamed in all earnest. Tears, real tears, went down my cheeks and one burned my open wound. In a blinding white rage, I scooped up as much sand I could manage in both hands and threw it around in front of me. I turned my body in a circle just in case Curly wasn't there, and panted as I stopped. I dropped to my hands and I felt the curling cool blood trickle from my cheek to my arm.

There was a loud crash and a scramble and Two-Bit yelled my name. They were getting away.

"Griffin!" I howled after him. "Where's Griffin?!"

Two-Bit grabbed my arm and hoisted me up. "Damn it Callisto, why didn't you shield you're eyes?! Do you know how deep and long that fucking slash is!"

I winced at his words, and heard someone yell in the distance. Steve and Johnny, and maybe the others, had caught up with us. I started crying harder. "Where's Griffin?" I whimpered and went limp on him. I slumped to my knees, pulling him down with me.

"Cal, calm down." He murmured.

Calm down? How can I calm down when my best blade is missing and you're yelling at me?! I thought frantically as my right hand ran through the sand. "Where's Griffin?!" I cried again.

{And she's a

Hot one, a halepena

Ooh la Senorita

In Baha, California

Ooo la Senorita}

He sighed heavily. "They don't pay me enough…" he mumbled.

Something cool touched my hand, and I sighed in relief. He had found Grif for me. I didn't bother thanking him after that last comment, and I slid the blade into my middle pocket.

Two-Bit hoisted me up and I heard a voice come closer.

"Two-Bit! Callisto! What the hell happened?!" Sodapop…

"Tim and Curly." Two-Bit said as he propped me against his side.

My eyes were red and puffy and that slash was still bleeding badly. Worse was, I couldn't see straight, and every time I blinked, I could feel the grains of sand in my blue eyes. "Who is it?" I asked softly.

He put his right arm around my waist and we stumbled up the stairs. "The guys." He pulled me up into his arms, off my burning feet.

I put my head against his cheek and swallowed. "All of them?"

"Yeah." His voice was cold like ice, and harder than.

I knew he was glaring, or at least looking at, Steve. He was going to have a good talking with that boy if it was the last thing he did. I just hoped they didn't start a brawl over it.

"Hey Cal, are you ok?" That was Ponyboy.

I shook my head. "No Pony," I whispered softly. "I ain't."

The guys weren't making a fuss over Two-Bit, only me, so I figured he came out of the fight okay.

"Would you shut up already?" Two-Bit finally snapped after the guys had started talking to the two of us at once.

They did shut up, to my blind amazement.

"Do you want me to take you to your house or mine, Cal?" Two-Bit asked sharply to me.

"Yours. Mom won't understand…"

He nodded and started walking, and I figured the others followed.