My Second Chapter.It's surprising how much I like my new story. I'll update my other one after I get to five chapters on this one. It'll be about a week or so. Seriously, I can't not write OCs. I just love them. It'll be the day when I write a story that's more than a oneshot or a song fic that doesn't have additional characters.


I'd been doing some thinking since February. Something had really struck me dumb about how that kid had actually apologized to me for interupting my performance. I mean, it was really polite, and the right thing to do, but I guess I just didn't expect that the right thing would come from a hood. He hadn't even done anything, yet he apologized. That surprised me. But since that kid did bother to apologize, it ticked me off just a bit that the guy who actuallydropped the book didn't.

August 11, 1967

It was two months until my birthday,(and three days, 24 years till I'm born!)and since my best friend Hannah was moving to Oklahoma City in a week, we decided to have mine, hers and my other friend Ashley's birthday parties all at the same time.

"Naomi, how tall are you?"

I threw my pillow at Ashley. I'm shorter than all of my friends, but then, all my friends are kinda tall except for Hannah. Hannah is only half an inch taller than me.

"I'm serious this time, Nay, what's your height?"

"Five foot five and a half." I muttered.

"I'm only five foot six," quipped Hannah.

"My cousin Travis is shorter than me," I pointed out, "And he's seventeen."

"How come I've never met Travis?" My friend Daphne asked, "He's been to Tulsa before, hasn't he?"

"Yeah, but he hasn't been back for awhile. We mostly go to see them in Missouri."

"He's her cousin that got beat up, Daph." Hannah snorted, rolling her eyes. Sheknows everything about me, and sometimes it seems weird to our other friends.

Ashley shuddered.

"I'd be scared to come back too, if I were him." Daphne and Emilie nodded in agreement.

"It's not like they'd hurt him again, but just to be careful, you know?" I said,"They'd-"

"They'd hurt him again, sure as anythin," Emilie said, her brown eyes wide with confirmation, "They'd hurt him faster'n you could try'n stop 'em."

"They wouldn't recognize him, guys," Hannah rolled her eyes.

"They'd more'n likely try to hurt him even if they didn't." Emilie was pulling her dirty blonde hair into a ponytail behind her head repetatively.

"How do you know?" I asked suddenly. The image of the kid from that time inchurch was in my head, and I somehow didn't think that he'd beat up anyone the way Travis was.

"My Lord, Naomi," Ashley bounced off her bed and sat down beside me, "All those hoods and greasers over there on the east side don't give a damn who you are. They jump just about everyone who goes over there."

"You nearly didn' go singin' over'n the east side 'cause you were scared of 'em." Emilie pointed out.

"Yeah, but that was in February. It's August now." It was the lamest excuse I had heard of, but I couldn't think of anything else. I couldn't very well say that some hood kid had shown that they weren't all monsters.

"You're bluffin'." I looked at Emilie quickly, my eyes blazing yellow. But likeI said - I get yellow eyes when I feel any strong emotion, so for all she knew, I could be really nervous about them finding out I was lying. Which I wasn't. Lying, I mean. I wasn't lying. I really wasn't scared ofgreasers or hoods anymore.

"Prove it." Daphne jumped down beside Ashley. Ashley looked sort of like Hannah - dark brown hair, and piercing blue eyes. Ashley was a bit taller, and she had longer, thinner hair. Daphne had jet black hair, nearly black eyes, and pale white skin. She would come off very ghastly if it weren't forher personality, she was friendly, bubbly, energetic- and had a certain love for gossip. So when she suggested I prove it, I wasn't surprised. At all. I mean, sheloved nothing more than to seeembarrasing things happen to others.

"How?"

"Uh..." That was Daph, all right.Cut to the chase, and figure out what the chase was later.

"I know." Ashley was quick to say, "Go to that record store down on the east side tomorrow. A lot of hoods hang out there. You have to stay in there for half an hour."

"They'll think she's stealing," Hannah burst out loudly, "No one stays in a record store that long without buying something!"

"Those greasers do it all the time!"

"Just because I'm not scared of them doesn't mean I want to come off as one!"

"So buy somethin'." Emilie suggested, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Ew, no!" I said, "That's likely the worst music in the world!"

"You're gonna have to."

"Fine. Then will you believe me?"

" 'Course. Now, can we pleeeeease go teh sleep now? Feel like mah eyelids're gonna just drop." Emilie flopped back, and her hair fell all over her face.

"Yeah, I need all the sleep I can get." I muttered, kicking Ashley's ramshackle old lamp with my foot. It was the only way to turn it off.