"It's hard to believe,

Life will be ok,

Look at your face,

Scarred in dis-"

"What the fuck!" I shouted. I felt a light tap on my shoulder that sent me flying about twenty feet into the air. I whirled around to see Two-Bit.

"Whoa, Jack, chill out it's me...I've never heard you sing, you've got a pretty voice." He said, cracking that stupid grin of his.

I scowled at him in mock anger, "you scared the living shit out of me!"

"What were you listening to anyway?" he asked quietly, tapping the roof to my c.d. player. My headphones were wrapped around my neck now.

"Kittie, some of their earlier stuff from their c.d. 'Spit'."

He sat down beside me. "Badass, what song?"

"Brackish."

"Niiice." He replied with a grin on his face. "You know I could hear that from the sidewalk?" he added quietly.

I grinned, "That was the point. I was planning to have all of Tulsa enjoying Kittie by the end of the day." I hugged the sleeves of my hoodie to my arm. That hoodie was my security in a way. It was black with the Slipknot 'S' on the right sleeve then on the front of it; there was a picture of the band. I wore it a lot. "I gotta split, I'll see ya around." I said, standing up, placing my headphones over my ears, putting up my hood and walking away.

I believe this calls for an introduction...my name is Jackson but a lot of people call me either Jack or Genocide. I've got waist length hair that's dyed an almost blood red with two black streaks in the front with white streaks thru the rest of it, with blue eyes that have flecks of gray in them. I'm really pale because of my allergy to the sun and wore nothing but black, red, gray or navy blue.

My mom left when I was two and so I lived with my dad who hardly knew I was alive. Unless that is, he had a bad day at work where he would scream at my siblings and me and call us names. For some sick, twisted reason, I actually liked being belittled by my dad. It gave me someone to prove wrong and someone to hate besides Preps. I also have an older set of brother and sister; they're twins and a younger sister who was four. You'll meet them later I guess.

People left me alone pretty well in school. I was pretty happy about that too because even though I didn't show it, they scared me. The Preps would throw insults at me as I walked down the hallways but that was only normal. I put on a tough front though, so they couldn't target my weaknesses. How could they hurt me if they didn't know what was going on in my head? It seemed reasonable enough. I'd always had an odd obsession with death and violence that the school counselor had said 'was very healthy but should be expressed in a more constructive way'. Can we say bullshit?! I had six friends altogether. You'll meet them later. They're names are Two-Bit, Dally, Ponyboy, Darry, Soda and Steve.

Anyways, back to the story...after I left was walking down the streets, still blaring my music in my ears and watching the cars go by. The streets were pretty empty that night, mainly because it was a weeknight and there weren't any parties around on weeknights. I walked along, my eyes never leaving my shoes. That is until I bumped into someone. I paused my music on reflex

"Dude watch it!" he shouted.

I looked up at him, "sorry." I muttered, turned, pressed play on my c.d. player and continued walking. I sang the lyrics to the songs in my head, keeping an eye out for pedestrians so I wouldn't run into any more people that day. I opened the door to my house and slammed it shut. "Dad! Home!" I shouted.

"I'm aware of that!" he retorted and went back to watching the news.

I gave him the finger as I walked by...it's not like he saw me anyway. I walked into my room and flopped down on my bed. I was thinking about the remake of Salem's Lot that had played earlier that afternoon and couldn't help but repeat to myself, "If you can't find

em grind em." I fell asleep right there and awoke to my alarm clock screaming at me to wake up (not literally). I hopped up and jumped in the shower and got ready, just in time to grab my book bag and bolt out the door to meet the bus. I hopped on and took my seat in the way back where I could have my privacy. We stopped at another house about five minutes later and a boy named Johnny Cade got on. He was a small boy with jet-black hair and scared brown eyes. He had a scar on his cheek where he'd been beaten up before and no one really thought much of him and his family. That's all I really knew about him up until the bus ride.

There were no empty seats left accept for the one I sat in. he walked to the back and kind of stood there for a minute. I looked up from my book and grinned, "I'm not gonna bite you ya know." I said quietly. He grinned slightly and took his seat. It was right about then that I noticed the black eye he had. "Pretty nice shiner ya got goin' there...how'd it happen?" I asked.

He rubbed it carefully and said, "I was cornered down at the lot." His voice was quiet and it squeaked slightly. A lot of people filed him under Goth too. He wore a lot of black, hoodies and would often drown out the sound of teacher's lessons with music. So we had a lot to talk about. He cleared his throat.

"So, what kind of music do you like?" I asked. He grinned, reached one of the pockets in his book bag, brought out a c.d. player and opened it. The newest Slipknot c.d. was in there. I chuckled slightly, "you lucky bastard."

He laughed softly, I couldn't seem to get over how soft his voice was. Most guys our age were loud and obnoxious. "What about you?"

"Same kind as you" I replied shrugging. I rubbed my eyes, "it is too early to be out and about." I whined bitterly.

He nodded and brushed his bangs out of his eyes. "What's your name?"

I smacked my head, "oops! Sorry dude, I'm Jackson. But my family calls me Jack, or Genocide."

His mouth curved into a small grin, "I'm Johnny."

"Aren't you in Mrs. Pratt's English class for fifth period? I think I've seen you there." I asked, pointing to him and then straightening out my pant leg.

"Uh, yeah, I sit in the back though." He replied.

"Yeah same here, but she still insists on having me read and answer questions when she knows I don't pay attention. I sit back there just to be invisible, can she not see that?" I said heatedly. I was trying to get the kid to talk but he wasn't taking the bait.

He nodded feverishly. He didn't seem like he talked very much. But he did mutter "fuckin' sucks."

"Yep, I swear man, the world's out to get us."

The bus came to a halt at the school and Johnny and I stood up to get off. "If you want you can have lunch with me and my friends, I don't think they'd mind." I said quietly.

He shrugged, he seemed kind of uneasy about it, like we were going to get some dirt on him and like, make fun of him about it or something, the he mumbled, "ok."

I barged my way thru the crowd, cranky because it was too early. I hated the first day of school! I wasn't usually this loud but I was miserable and I wanted everyone else to be miserable too!

: LATER AT LUNCH THAT DAY:

I was scoping around the cafeteria looking for Johnny, when I saw him I jogged over, "Hey." I said quietly.

The blonde he was with eyed me skeptically, "can we help you with something?" he snapped.

"Yeah I told Johnny he could have lunch with me and a couple friends, you can come too if you want." I replied slowly. He looked kind of pissy and I didn't want to rub him the wrong way.

"Whattaya think Johnnycake?" he said, looking at Johnny.

He shrugged, "sure."

"What's your name?"

"Jackson, but call me either Jack of Genocide. You?"

"Dallas."

"Lets go then."

As we walked out in the parking lot we saw Two-Bit, Soda, Ponyboy, and Steve in Two-Bit's car. "Aren't you the one they found unconscious in the girls' room last year?" Dally asked as we approached the car.

I shrugged, "yeah."

"Why?"

I blushed, "I was huffin'" I replied, acting like it didn't matter but, that was what caused me to stop, it scared the shit out of me.

"What were you huffing?" Dally asked.

Well he's just full of questions now isn't he! I thought bitterly, "Butane."

"HEY JACK!" Soda shouted happily when he saw us coming, "who's your friends?"

I waved at him and turned to Johnny and Dally, "This is Johnny Cade, and this is Dallas." I said motioning to them. They both waved, kind of skeptical.

"Hey!" Soda said cheerfully, "I'm Soda."

We sat in the car and hung out while Ponyboy, Two Bit and Soda ate lunch. We all got acquainted and started chatting. They were still sketchy about each other but it was going well for the time being.