I'm Baaaaack

Chapter 2: S.C.'s

The next day was Thursday, and me and Johnny were gonna hang with Dally tomorrow. So that afternoon, I had a blank schedule. I was walking out of my English class, and we were reading a book on the holocaust. It was this book called Night that I was really starting to get into. It was pretty bad what those people were going through, and what made me feel bad at one point was that I caught myself complaining about my lifestyle when these people had it worse. I was out of my thinking process when Two-Bit was waving me over towards him. I catch a ride home with Two-Bit usually, since like I said, Kenns can't walk alone all the time. Yesterday afternoon was enough proof of that rule.

I walked over to his old beat-up cutlass, which Steve had been begging to fix up. Just to annoy Steve, Two-Bit wouldn't let him. He always found it entertaining to annoy people sometimes. All of us have been victim to his annoyance, well except for Darry. He was usually working and even Two-Bit knew his limit with someone who is that size and is tired usually.

"Doing anything tonight?" he asked as I put my books in the backseat of the car.

"Not until tomorrow," I answered.

I leaned against his car, only for an image. Kennedy High School was full of Kenns, and they wouldn't respect you if you were stupid looking. Soda was pretty popular in school, so I had a couple of stripes before I skipped a grade and entered High school. I also didn't say much, and didn't talk about nobody, so they left me alone too. Not all of us went to school though. Dally never actually entered the school, they had him in alternative school, but they kicked him out because he never showed up to that either. The only ones that went to Kennedy High School was me, Two-Bit, Steve, and Kira. Johnny dropped out because they were moving too fast for him in the lessons, and you already know Soda dropped out, in my opinion, it was the same reason for Johnny. Unlike the rest of us, Darry had already graduated, but since our parents died, he didn't have the money to go to college and had to get a job to take care of me and Soda. It really did ruin Darry, and he blames me for it. Which is why he's always so cold to me. If he could have stuck me in a boy's home, he would have been able to attend college.

"There's a basketball game tonight," said Two-Bit running his hands on his cornrows, which had an original design to it.

I looked at him peculiarly. Our school didn't have a basketball game tonight. It'd be surprising if we were allowed to have a basketball game. About two or three times a fight had broken out on or off the court. You could always go to a sports game at our school and expect a fight at some point or time.

"Where?" I asked, not changing the look on my face.

"At St. Christopher."

"That's S.C. territory."

"It's a free country."

"But what I'm trying to say is what would we do there?"

"I don't know. Mess around."

"Two-Bit. They have rent-a-cops there."

"I ain't scared of no cops."

"Look. You know I can't get in with the law. They might split me and Soda up."

"Yeah. That's right. Well, we can just look at it."

"For what reason?"

"To see what their lifestyle is."

"We already know what it is. It's the lifestyle of the rich and famous."

Two-Bit looked at me with a smile.

"They ain't famous."

"But they do get in the paper. That's famous for this town."

"So. Kenns get in the paper too."

"With a reward at the bottom."

"Okay, okay. You got me."

Two-Bit and I always have our little competitive conversations, which really makes him the only non-family member who's really a friend. Everyone else was pretty much an accomplice. You already know I don't like Steve, Kira isn't around enough, Dally is someone that I wouldn't exactly want to follow, and Johnny barely speaks. I mean, me and Johnny have talked before, but we really never had a full conversation. Two-Bit continued his talking.

"But I really want to check out that school. We can just drive by it on the way back from here."

I really didn't have much to do, and I could do it for Two-Bit's sake. I mean, it really wouldn't hurt if we just looked at the school for a quick moment.

"Alright. We can look. You better ask Kira though. I don't think she'll be too happy if we-"

"She won't mind. I asked her in 5th period. I'm just waiting on her."

And sure enough, there was Kira. Walking out with one of her usual friends. They split after they reached the parking lot. When she got to us, Two-Bit asked,

"Ready to go."

"Yeah. Make it quick. I don't feel like getting in a fight today."

We got into the car, I had the whole back to myself, while Two-Bit and Kira sat in the front. Two-Bit turned on the car, and music blasted through my ears. The screaming of Lil' Jon rang throughout the parking lot. Don't get it wrong. I like Lil' Jon, a little bit. It was almost like a car show every afternoon in the parking lot. Everyone plays the music loud and try to show why their car is the best.

Two-Bit peeled out of the parking lot and headed in the opposite direction. Right towards the neighborhood. After driving for about two minutes, Kira turned the music down. Two-Bit looked at her like she had lost her mind. It made me laugh.

"I know you didn't just touch a black man's radio."

"First off, you're a black boy. Not Chris Tucker. And secondly, we don't need anymore attention towards us. This raggedy car is enough."

Two-Bit just shook his head and let the music stay quiet. The houses started to look better, and so did some of the stores and restaurants. I didn't see not a single corner store over here. I noticed that I wasn't the only one who looked fascinated. Two-Bit was looking with his right eyebrow up, and Kira looked like she had just taken her fist trip to Disney land, without the smile.

Soon enough, we noticed St. Christopher. We slowed down to a creep as we looked at the school.

"Look at it. It's so clean," said Kira. "We need some tips from these guys."

"That's just the way they want you to think," pointed out Two-Bit. "They want to make you seem low."

"Are they doing that to you?"

Two-Bit smiled.

"You know nothing can hold me down."

I surveyed what the place looked like. It was way bigger and cleaner than our school. There wasn't a single paint of graffiti on it. And you could actually hear birds chirping. Back in my neighborhood, all you heard was bass from people's stereos. We were right next to the football field, so I decided to look at that. There were some cheerleaders on the field.

"Hey Two-Bit. There are some girls over there," I told him.

Two-Bit jerked his head over towards the field and stuck his head out the window. I wasn't that head sprung over girls. Soda said that I would grow into it. I did notice this one girl on the field though. She stood out because of her red hair. She was on the very side doing the cheers.

"What are you doing here?"

I looked over and my stomach cringed again. A couple of S.C.'s had spotted us, and they were walking towards us. There were four one them, two of them were female. As they approached us, I noticed a smirk on one of their faces. I looked at Two-Bit and Kira. Like always in this type of situation, they had the display of no fear.

"Your in the wrong town, buddy," said one of the S.C.'s. All four of them were in their school uniforms.

"It's a free country," said Kira.

"Why are you in there with them," said one of the girls. "It's bad enough that you're dirty, but do you have to hang out with dirty boys?"

Two-Bit flicked out a cigarette.

"Nice clothing," started Two-Bit as he reached for a lighter. "Looking sharp. Except I see you guys wearing that all the time. Only pair of clothes you got?"

The S.C.'s seemed offended by that comment. One of the men released their girlfriend and stepped towards us. I started getting more nervous. I didn't know why. Two-Bit could take care of himself, and I have some defense. Plus Kira knows how to whoop also.

"Take that back," he demanded.

Two-Bit smiled and looked at his sister.

"Hey Kira. Let buddy here have a drink."

Kira smiled and reached under the seat while the S.C. just stayed in his position, like a dummy. Kira then yanked a bottle up and handed it to Two-Bit. It was champagne and Two-Bit released the cork. The cork, as well as the drink, hit the S.C. in the face and he backed up. As a topper, Two-Bit threw his cigarette right at the S.C.'s feet and yelled.

"Have a nice day, Chrissies."

He hit the pedal and we took off real fast. I looked in the back to see if they were going to attempt to chase us. They weren't. The damp S.C. just looked at us as we drove off.

"Now that was fun!" yelled Two-Bit.

"Yeah it was. But it wouldn't have been so hot if…."

"If what!" interrupted Two-Bit with a smile. "The S.C.'s ain't gonna do nothing."

"You never know. Remember when that crazy S.C. last year brought the gun to their school."

I remembered it. And every single Kenn knew what he was doing with it. He had a problem with somebody at school, and he wanted to end it. He got sent to Juvey, but not for too long. He came up with the excuse that a Kenn slid it in his jacket, and they let him slide. See what I mean? They always slide away with things. If a Kenn even had a knife, they were quick to lock us and throw away the key.

We reached our neck of the woods and Two-Bit drove over to my house. Soda didn't get off work until around 8:30, so I was in the house alone for a while. We only kept the house locked if no one was at home. Everyone in our neighborhood was cool with us and knew we didn't have anything valuable. Plus they were scared of Darry. When Two-Bit slowed down in front of my house, I noticed someone sitting on the front porch. He must have gotten beaten or yelled at. Two-Bit and Kira noticed him too, so he parked the car and we all got out. So we could comfort Johnny.

Pretty soon, the whole gang had been hanging out at our house, like they have done a lot of times. Steve drove Soda home and Dally happened to just stroll on by. Since it was Thursday, wrestling was coming on that night. I knew that wrestling was fake; I could just look at it and tell. But I don't say anything, because it would ruin the fun for Soda, Steve and Two-Bit. Darry really doesn't pay much attention to it; he just wants to see how they fixed the matches. And well…Kira won't hesitate to see shirtless men. Johnny and I just watch it for the heck of it.

"Oh my God!" yelled Kira. "John Cena is so cute!"

She makes me crack a smile every time she talks about men. She loves all them, every once in a while, her voice pops in my head saying,

"Jaleel White. Now that's what I call good-looking!" or "T.I. looks so damn sharp!"

I went to the back since I still had to finish reading a chapter on Night, and I needed some peace and quiet. They commotion up front died down slowly, which let me know that the gang was leaving to go home.

I had finished the little homework I had the next day at school, so I didn't have to take anything home that day. When I got outside, Johnny was waiting for me right around the corner. I knew he didn't want to stand directly in front of the school, probably bring back bad memories. Dally told us that he would be meeting us at the corner store near the school, so me and Johnny headed on towards there. When we got there, he was leaning on a light post. His usual stance, making quick smirks at cops as the drove by eyeing him or laughing at girls walking by. There was a Sonic down the road, which was a hangout for some of the Kenns. We went over there and sure enough, there was a crowd around it. Some of the Kenns had pulled up in their own cars, so we all just leaned in their windows chatting around. Dally walked through and leaned in one of the guy's cars. I knew this guy. It was this Hispanic guy named Rico, who always had weed on him. I don't do weed. I just smoke regular packs. And neither do Darry and Soda. But I know that Two-Bit has a couple on him and I recall Steve talking about doing it once.

"What's up Rico," greeted Dally as he leaned in the window. Johnny and I stood on either side of him.

"What's up, homes," he greeted back. "Heard what happened to Zane and them."

"What happened?"

"Him and two of his other boys ran up and tried to trash that S.C. school. Cops caught them while they were there."

"For real?"

Zane was this kid that had been here for at least a month or so. He already had a good rep, but I can tell he wanted it to be bigger. I'm satisfied at where I'm at right now. The conversation was cut short by a commotion. We turned around to see two guys fighting. One of them was getting whooped and when he got enough distance from the guy, he started reaching for his back pocket. All three of us knew what was coming up next, so we left quickly. As we walked off, sirens rang through. So the guy that was getting beat up was most likely going to get arrested.

We fooled around for a little bit more, and we decided to hit the movies now. We have our own way of getting into the movies. At least one of us have been in there before, so we saved our ticket stubs. The guy that was tearing tickets was always busy on Fridays, so we walked right past him. Most of the time he'd yell "Do you have tickets?" and we'd flash our old ones and keep walking. But he didn't notice us today. We walked into this R-rated movie, and it was pretty much empty. Most likely because it was a movie that had been playing for a while. Actually, there were two people in the place. They were girls. Dally smiled, he had something to do. As we walked down towards them, I noticed what type of girls they were, and I began to get nervous. They were S.C.'s. Do you remember what I said about them?

Dally sat right behind them, and we followed. When he sat down, he started talking loud, trying to interrupt their movie. He just started saying random things, and then his mouth got dirty. I was actually getting embarrassed, and I couldn't read Johnny's mind, but he seemed like he didn't want to be here either. Then Dally said something real bad, and I don't want to repeat it.

It was bad enough for one of the girls with red hair. I recognized her immediately. She was the cheerleader at St. Christopher. The one that stood out.

"Would you shut-up," she said angrily.

"You gonna make me?" replied Dally.

Dally didn't stop there, he put his hand on her head and slid down her hair. She slapped his hand and turned around again.

"Leave us alone, or we'll call the cops."

"The police," laughed Dally, and then he repeated an N.W.A. line. "Look at my record. They're practically family. Take a guess at what I've been in for."

"Could you be nice please?" said the girl getting frustrated.

"Nice, huh? I'm never nice. But I might do a good deed. Want a coke?"

"Leave us alone!" repeated the girl.

Dally got up and strolled off, still the evil smile on his face. Then she looked at me, and I got more nervous.

"You gonna start talking bull too?"

"No," I said shaking my head slightly.

She seemed to calm down after my answer, and she smiled a little bit. She was real pretty.

"You don't seem like the type anyway. What's your name?"

"Michael Curtis. But my friends call me Ponyboy."

"Ponyboy. That's an original name. My name's Sherri Valance. But my friends call me Cherry, because of my hair."

"My name's Marcia," jumped in the other S.C. Then she looked at Johnny.

"What's your name?"

"Um...Johnny."

"Johnny. That's a nice name."

Johnny seemed to smile, and I think he blushed.