1I whipped around. Eyeball and Ace were supposed to be about 17 or 18 but they looked at least 20. Ace's cold eyes sent shivers down my spine. I could see immediately he hadn't taken a liking to me. His eyes quickly looked me up and down, seeing if I was really worth the trouble. Apparently I wasn't.

Eyeball's eyes didn't really say much. I guess he usually waited for Ace to make the first move and he would follow suit. They both walked past me and Ace snatched Gordie's hat off his head as he strutted by him. Gordie spun around.

"Hey man, my brother gave me that! Give it back, c'mon!" Gordie made feeble attempts to grab the hat, which Ace now held over his head. He sort of smiled, with the cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

"And now you're giving it to me," he sneered. Suddenly Chris spoke up.

"You're a real asshole, you know that?" He said quietly. For a split second, Ace looked happily challenged. Then he went back to looking resentful. He passed the hat to Eyeball who put it backwards on his head.

"Ooh. Your brother's not very polite, Eyeball," he said calmly, flicking away his cigarette. Chris stood his ground but seemed to shrink slightly.

"Now Christopher, I know you didn't mean to insult my friend," said Eyeball in a mock baby voice. Gordie and I stood transfixed. I knew what was going to happen and yet I couldn't seem to be able to movie my arms or legs. Or speak, for that matter.

"I know he didn't mean it to insult me. That's why I'm going to give him the opportunity to take it back," said Ace advancing on Chris. There was a pause for almost a second in which I guess Chris was supposed to apologize but didn't. Ace grabbed Chris and slammed him down on the sidewalk.

"Oh shit," Chris breathed.

"Take it back, kid," Ace said, putting all his weight on the smaller boy. I couldn't take it anymore. I snapped out of my trance.

"Hey John!" I called to Ace. He looked up at me, probably not used to being called his birth name. "Catch!" And with that, I kicked him in the face with all my strength. It was a good kick too. My right leg is the stronger one and it landed right one his mouth. It must have hurt him because my foot was sure smarting.

He fell backwards off of Chris and everyone (minus Ace, who was lying on the ground holding his mouth which had started to bleed) stared at me. Then I yelled the only smart thing I could think of.

"Run!" Chris leaped off the ground and the three of us started to run like the wind. Behind me I heard Ace scream "Get them!" and footsteps closing in fast.

"Run faster!" I screamed to the boys. We picked up speed. I started thinking up an escape route. It was quite a task seeing as how I didn't know the town at all. Plus, the older boys were less than a block behind us so they could probably see every move we made.

Chris was on my right, and Gordie was on my left. The three of us turned a corner and found ourselves beside a super market. Well, a super market in 1960. It was kind of like one you have today except, well, it was much cleaner. I grabbed Gordie and Chris by the elbows and directed them into the store.

There was a little bell that tinkled when you opened the door. I didn't bother to look and see if Ace and Eyeball were following us because a few seconds later, the bell tinkled again. We ran through the aisles, dodging shoppers who shook their heads in disgust at us hooligans.

There were tables set up with fruits and vegetables in bowls on them. What really intrigued me about the tables was that they were all covered by table cloths that touched the ground. A good temporary hiding spot.

We rounded another corner and I, once again, shoved Gordie and Chris by their elbows under the nearest table. I was very dark under there so I found their face with my hand and pressed a finger to their lips. I felt Chris nod and Gordie just panted.

Suddenly we heard footsteps running towards us. I held my breath as they slowed near our table. Then they stopped all together, right beside the table we were crouched under. I swear to god, I stopped breathing for a good 2 minutes while they stood there.

"Where the fuck'd they go?" I head Eyeball say between pants. There was a spitting sound and a small splat. Ace must have spit up blood.

"They must have gone that way. Those kids arefuckin dead. Who the fuck was the girl anyway?" Another spitting and splat sound. I felt around in the dark until I found Chris and Gordie's hands and I squeezed them. They squeezed back.

"Eyeball, I'm gonna murder your little faggot brother. I'm gonna break both the Lachance kid's arms. And the girl, I dunno what I'm going to do to her yet, but it won't be pretty." Their voices started to get farther and farther and I noticed that they had started to walk off.

I let go of the boys' and rubbed my sweaty hand on my jeans. I felt for their faces in the dark and held one in each of my hands.

"Listen," I said in a hurried whisper. "Do you both know where the door is?"

"Yeah," Chris whispered. Gordie just nodded.

"Ok, swell, that takes care of one door. Hey, do you know if there's a back door to this place?" I asked quickly.

"There is. I know where it is, do you Chris?"

"Naw, I never come into this place. You know, never have enough dough," he said, without a trace of shame.

"Ok, whatever. Gordie, Chris, I want you both to run to that door and..." I was cut short by Gordie.

"We can't get out that way. There's a lock on the door and it needs a key. If we went down there it would be a dead end. We have to leave through the front door."

"Fuck! Ok, I'm going to go out and see if the coast is clear," I said.

"What? You can't!" Chris said a little loudly.

"Shh, why not?"

"Because if they see you, they'll kill you," whispered Gordie.

"Yeah, but imagine what they'd do to you. I'll tap my foot if it's clear and we'll make a dash for the door, crystal?"

"Yeah," they both said.

"All righty, I'll see you cats on the flip side," I said and slid out from under the table.

Ace and Eyeball where nowhere in sight. The door was straight ahead of us. The only problems were that there were five orsix tables blocking the exit so we would have to dodge around them. We were right in the corner, with two walls of shelves blocking the view of two-thirds of the supermarket. Ace and Eyeball could be right around the corner and we wouldn't know it until it was too late.

Oh well, we'd have to risk it. I tapped my foot. The two boys appeared beside me. They looked around nervously and then set their eyes on the door.

"Looks like we're going to have to dodge the tables," said Gordie. I nodded.

"On the count of three?" asked Chris.

"One..." I said quietly.

"Two..."said Chris.

"Three!" We started sprinting towards the door. We slid under tables, pulling the cloths with us. Baskets of fruits flew everywhere but we didn't stop. Chris actually succeeded in jumping clean over a table and landing like a cat. For the most part we just tried to avoid the tables but in some cases it was just easier to go under or over.

As we neared the door, I looked to my left. There, in the frozen goods section, stood Eyeball and Ace. Ace was leaning against the wall with his eye closed and a packed of ice on his mouth. Eyeball on the other hand was looking straight at us. His mouth opened in surprise and his eyes went wide. He grabbed Ace and pointed to us. Ace's eyes shot open and he threw down the ice. He pushed himself off the wall and bolted towards us.

We reached the door and slammed it behind us. Gordie and I started to run away but Chris reached over to a stand that was outside the front of the store and grabbed a piece of lumber. The door hand was one that was shaped like a backwards "C" so he slid it through the gap and stood back.

Ace and Eyeball slammed into the door and tried pulling it open to no avail. Gordie and I stopped running and cautiously walked back to Chris. He stood smiling triumphantly while Ace got madder and madder on the other side of the door.

"Open the door, you little shit," he spat at Chris.

"Go fuck your sister," Chris retorted.

"We're gonna to get you Chambers, you little faggot. And your fuckin friends. This is big time, baby," Ace continued to pull at the door and we saw the wood starting to give. I nudged Chris and he nodded.

"Who the fuck are you?" Eyeball asked, looking at me. For the first time, I felt sort of scared.

"Jayna. Jayna Drake," I answered.

"Jayna, if you open this door, I'll forgive you for kickin me. And trust me, you'll want me to forgive you," said Ace. I'll admit, I was tempted. I know Ace looks hot and everything in the movie, but when he's mad, it's quite scary. Replace the word quite with extremely and the word scary with horrifying. But, I couldn't just give up little Gordie and Chris.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I don't sell out my friends, unlike you, you cock-sucking pansy," I told him. That just got him even madder. He started pulling on the door like a mad-man and I got worried that the wood would break.

"Let's go," said Gordie, as if reading my thoughts.

"Yeah, these bastards are stinking up my cloths. Oh, and Ace," said Chris, as he walked up to the window of the door. "You really are an asshole." Then, quite cooly, Chris flipped him the bird. "Suck on this."

We all ran off laughing. We were a couple of blocks away and near the tree house when we heard a snapping sound and Ace yelling.

"Get the other guys and meet back at Irby's!"

We ran to the tree house faster.