Author's Note: This is pretty fast updating only because I had the whole middle of the chapter written for the last month or so! This chapter is something of a turning point for one aspect of the story.
To the readers of The Empty Chair (wow, that sounds like a club or a cult or something), there's something in this chapter that might seem vaguely familiar, but I need to point out ahead of time that the outcome is quite different, so don't worry. That would have been a bit too bizarre for this story. Here, it came from my trying to put myself in Vic's shoes, and what I probably would have had hanging over my head, knowing me.
Disclaimer: S.E. Hinton owns The Outsiders.
Dedication: This one is an early Happy Birthday to Keira, and a late one to Tens and Jhon. Keira, you've still got three days and a little more until you're old enough to be tried as an adult, so have a blast!
December 17, 1976
Pony's POV
Friday night. Sitting with the newspaper. Yepyepyep. I glanced over to the recliner, where Melissa and Lin were asleep. Linleigh had watched The Donny and Marie show, and then dozed off while Liss read a book out loud. Now they're both asleep. Vic is at some holiday dance at the school. In fact, I realized, he should be calling in about ten minutes. It was almost ten o'clock.
I had actually taken Linleigh to the group home the day after Thanksgiving. I put her suitcase in the trunk, she gathered what few belongings she had that weren't in the suitcase, and said goodbye to Vic, who was glaring at me, and Melissa, who was holding back tears. We had discussed it, though – having Vic was enough for now, especially with Liss not feeling well. I was concerned about her.
So I drove Linleigh to the home, signed her in, carried her bag to the room they had assigned her to, and we sat on the bed together for a few minutes, her looking around scared and me trying to not let on how miserable I felt about the whole thing.
I finally decided it was time for me to head out, before it got any harder. "Lin, I have to go now. You'll do fine here, these women are really nice. They'll take good care of you. And I'll come and visit you every week."
Lin had looked up at me, tears in her eyes, and quietly begged, "Pony, please don't leave me here."
I felt my legs get a little weak, like she had cast a spell over me, and I stammered something like, "Uh…o…okay." I signed her back out, put her stuff in the car, drove to my office, filled out all the paperwork, and had my supervisor sign it, and all the way back home there were only two thoughts running through my head – first, how am I going to explain this to Melissa, and second, God help me if this girl is living with me when she is a teenager, if this is how I react when she's only ten.
As it turned out, Liss knows me better than I know myself. She had the spare bedroom all set up for Linleigh by the time we got home.
I thought about how different Lin was from Vic. Vic puts up fronts, we only see shadows of him every so often peeking out, and then he retreats as soon as he realizes he's let his guard down. I don't know how much longer he can keep that up. Linleigh, on the other hand, just craves affection. She took us as her family almost from the beginning. She has a lot of issues that we're helping her to deal with, but instead of hiding from us and trying to remain aloof, she is friendly and welcoming almost to a fault. That's probably why she was withering away in her family's care – she kept waiting in vain for them to show her love and acceptance like a pet waits for the next meal that it has no control over, but no one paid attention and the bowl stayed empty.
I looked up at the clock. Two minutes after ten. I was getting a bad feeling. Vic is usually early with his calls. But he was only two minutes late, and I've told him he has until ten-after to make his call.
Three minutes after. I shifted around. No, something was wrong. I could feel it, like an intuition or a sixth sense or something. I wasn't waiting another seven minutes. I jotted down a note for Melissa, pulled on my shoes and jacket, made a couple quick phone calls, and headed out the door.
Vic's POV
I was just heading out of the cafeteria to make my hourly call-in when a strong hand came down on my left shoulder, and another around my right elbow. "Let's take a little walk," said the shoulder-gripper. "Mac wants to talk to you." I stiffened, but when I felt the tip of a blade pressed into the small of my back I kept my mouth shut and let them lead me away.
They took me out behind the school, around a couple of corners and into a darkened area back near the auto mechanics classroom. There were three other guys already there. Two of them looked tough and smug; the third one, being held tightly by the arms by the other two, looked weak and terrified. I'll never give them the satisfaction of looking like that, I thought.
"Looks like everyone's here. It's party time," said the biggest of the bunch in a even tone. He was about Soda's height, with arms that brought to mind the big oak tree at the back of Darry's yard. Man, I could use Darry right now. The big guy, who I figured was Mac, left his captive in the care of his buddy and strolled over to me. He walked right into my 'personal space' without pause, but I made a point of not backing up. He was inches from me. I could smell his sweat as his warm breath brushed my forehead.
"I'm not nice to little boys who steal my goods," he told me menacingly.
"Wasn't me," I answered, figuring that launching into a lengthy and pleading excuse would only earn me a broken jaw.
"Ain't no jury here, boy. My guy was waiting on his stuff, and I can't deliver." He clenched his fists and tightened his arms so I could distinguish every muscle and tendon bulging through his t-shirt sleeves. "My boss pressures me, I hurt you," he concluded.
"Dipshit," I muttered under my breath after he had turned and taken a few steps.
A sharp pain tore straight through my head, and I only remained on my feet because of the thugs still standing on either side of me holding my arms. Apparently Mac has decent hearing. He rubbed the back of his hand where it had connected with the side of my head and gave me a threatening look. Like hitting me wasn't enough to make me figure out that I should keep my mouth shut. I should have learned that years ago, really, this wasn't the first time my mouth had gotten me into trouble.
"Rip, I want you with me," Mac announced, and the guy holding my elbow let go and jogged obediently to his master, tail wagging. He might as well have had a tail, it was pretty obvious what he was to his boss. "Pel, keep that kid by the wall so he can watch. Don't do too much damage before I get to him."
Mac. Rip. Pel. Man, these guys are idiots. One syllable names, no one has to remember too many sounds. I should talk, with my name.
'Pel' dragged me over to the brick wall and slammed me up against it unnecessarily roughly, in my opinion, which I relayed to him. He took the front of my shirt tightly in both fists so he could pull me forward just enough to slam me back again, then held me there and smiled like a dumbass. "You keep an eye on what's going on over there," he suggested, though I knew it wasn't really a suggestion.
Mac, Rip, and Thug Number Four had dragged the terrified guy, who I recognized as a tenth grader, into a corner and were working him over. Every so often he would cry out, or beg them to stop, and they would laugh and come down harder on him. How dumb could that guy get? He was pleading with them again; I heard a sharp snap, and one of them punched him in the face to muffle his scream. I started to close my eyes, but thought better of it when Pel pressed his knife against my leg. He could have let off when my eyes instantly popped back open, but he didn't, and I got the feeling he'd been waiting for an excuse to cut me. How dumb could I get? He pressed the tip of the blade slowly and steadily against my leg until it finally punched through my jeans and into my thigh; I let out a sharp audible gasp in spite of myself.
To be honest, I was at least as terrified as the kid they were beating the hell out of. These were not your random hoods out to mug whoever came along first. They meant business. They had a purpose, and they meant to fulfill it to appease the higher ranking 'officials' on their crooked ladder. It was a hierarchy, and I was unwittingly at the bottom and didn't have a voice. They didn't give a shit about me. If the big boss had told them to put a bullet in my head, that's what they would do, even if they had known without a doubt that I was innocent.
I thought regretfully back to the three cups full of punch that I had downed at the dance. I hadn't even been thirsty, it was just something to do to keep my hands busy and my mouth shut. Having a drink in your hand keeps you off the dance floor, too. Man, I wished I had taken a leak before ending up out here. It's a pretty dumb thing to be concerned about while you're waiting to get beat into the pavement, but all I could think about was how shitty it would be if I wet my pants while they were working me over.
I snapped back to reality when Mac appeared in front of me, blood splattered on his shirt and arms and an adrenaline-fueled smile across his face. "Now, I'm gonna beat the piss outta you," he told me dryly, and I wondered if he had any idea how true his words probably were. "You stole from me, and now you're gonna hurt for it."
He moved closer to me, breathing heavily over the strangled whimpering sounds of the bloody lump of a person he had left sprawled on the pavement behind him.
I started shaking. Damn! It was taking everything I had to maintain any control. I had never been so scared in my whole life. I had never been in a situation quite like this in my whole life. Me against my old man was a different story, even when it got bad. I decided to make a last attempt to save myself. Maybe Mac had a heart in there, or a soft spot, or even a little brother at home who resembled me. One can always hope.
"Mac," I began, trying to sound tough but aware that my voice was shaking almost as bad as I was, "someone got my locker combo. Someone's working against you. I swear I would never…"
My plea was cut short by another sharp backhand across the face, and I knew I was done for. I closed my eyes and shrank away against Pel's grip as Mac brought his fist all the way back and prepared to knock my head off.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you," came a voice from behind Mac.
I almost started crying right there. I have never been so happy in my entire life to hear a familiar voice; right then it was the sweetest sound I could imagine. I will never forget that feeling. It was Pony.
I looked past Mac to see four figures standing threateningly shoulder to shoulder. I could just make them out in the dim light – Pony, Soda, Steve, and Darry – and they looked like the toughest group of guys I have ever seen. It almost scared me, the way they were all looking like they were ready to kill. Even Pony looked hard as nails. I wondered vaguely if Melissa had ever seen him looking like that.
Everyone had frozen when Pony spoke. Mac still had his arm back, but his fist wasn't clenched as tightly, and his eyes were darting back and forth as he realized he couldn't know the odds until he turned around. Pel had glanced over his shoulder and was trying to figure out what to do; he hadn't loosened his grip on me. I couldn't tell what Rip and Number Four were doing, with Mac obscuring my view to the side.
"Take your hands off my nephew," Soda said in an eerily quiet and biting voice. He was glaring arrows at the back of Pel's head, and I could see by the controlled energy seeping from him that he was ready for a fight.
Pel's sudden victorious expression took me by surprise, until I realized that he still had a blade in his hand. He would land in jail for a long time if he murdered me, but it would be his ultimate loyal sacrifice to his bosses if I didn't live to tell who these guys were. My throat constricted unexpectedly and irritatingly as my own death flashed before me.
"Blade," I choked out in warning as Pel started to bring his hand toward my ribs.
To this day I don't know how Pony and Soda were on top of him so fast. As soon as they made their move, all hell broke loose. Darry smartly grabbed the smallest guy and knocked him out cold with one blow, increasing their odds to four against three. I would say five against three, but I couldn't move. I stood there against the brick wall like I'd been mortared to it and wondered when I had turned into such a damn wuss. I've been in a lot of fights, most with worse odds than I had going for me here. I wanted to join in, but for some reason all I could do was stand there watching and hoping again that I wouldn't wet my pants.
Soda and now Steve had Pel on the ground, where Steve was prying the bloody knife – my blood, I realized in a detached sort of way – out of his hand and Soda was making pulp out of his face, swearing viciously with every blow. Darry and Mac were duking it out, and Pony was on the ground grappling with Number Four. Pony was swearing angrily too, and the more he swore, the more power he seemed to gain, until he had dragged the guy back to his feet and was beating the living crap out of him.
Pony finally let Number Four stagger away (I was surprised at how fast he was actually able to move, and he made it over the fence on his second try) so he could help Darry with Mac. They seemed to be fairly equal physically, but Darry was angry and Mac was caught off-guard, so Mac was getting the worst of it.
When it was clear who had won, the four of them let Mac and Pel go stumbling off swearing into the shadows in the night. Their boss would be pissed at them, if he even ever found out what had happened. More likely they would take the loss and not make themselves look like absolute idiots.
It was quiet then as everyone stopped and looked at me, and for a quick irrational instant I was almost afraid that one of them was going to come over and start pounding on me. I had never seen these people look like that, and never expected to. Darry's eyes were hard and cold, his jaw was clenched, and he looked like he could have torn someone's arms off. Soda had a look in his eyes that I couldn't place, but it was scary all the same; I would have avoided going anywhere near him if I didn't know him. Steve looked pissed as hell, and his eyes bore right through me like he didn't even see me. And Pony. His eyes were blazing, his fists were still clenched, his jaw was set, and I suddenly realized how glad I was that I wasn't capable of making him that mad.
After a couple of seconds the adrenaline of the fight started to wear down, and the more immediate issues came to the forefront. Darry and Soda rushed over to the tenth grader. "Steve…," Darry began.
"Ambulance," Steve finished, running around the side of the building.
I walked cautiously over to where my foster uncles were crouched on the pavement, and heard a low moan followed by a sharp gasp. Darry had turned the kid over slowly and was holding his head in his lap. I almost got sick. They had beaten him so badly, I didn't even recognize him as the person who had been standing in front of me not thirty minutes earlier. His nose, what I could see of it through the blood, was definitely broken; bruises were covering every square inch of skin that was visible where his shirt had pulled up out of place; and his right forearm was jutting off at an angle where they had broken it. I thought back to the sickening snap I'd heard when Pel had me up against the wall.
"Let's get out of here, Vic," Pony said from behind me.
I stood there for another few seconds. That could have been me. I could have been lying there right next to that kid, and no one would have found us until at least a few hours later. It struck me then that Pony's stupid call-in rule wasn't so stupid after all. He'd been able to watch my back from halfway across town.
Pony's POV
"Vic, lets go!" I snapped impatiently. The last thing we needed was for him to be here involved in all this when the cops showed up. A groan from behind me distracted me from my charge. The guy that Darry had knocked out was waking up. That was better, we could get him out of the picture. The other last thing we needed was to have another hurt guy, the only one awake and aware, making up a story to the cops about my brothers showing up and mugging him and the kid.
Soda strode over, hauled the guy to his feet, and shook him the remainder of the way to his senses. "Get the hell out of here before I rip off your balls and stuff them down your throat, you useless piece of pig shit," he snarled. I sensed Vic tense up beside me. People who don't really know my brother well tend to be surprised when he switches from his standard smiling demeanor to one of intently focused rage. You'd better watch out for him if you've messed with someone he cares about. That's how he ended up staying in Vietnam for as long as he did – he saw me in the eyes of every new kid in his unit, and when the end of each enlistment year would draw near, he would look at the person who was to replace him and know that if he left, more of those kids would die than if he stayed. Like I said, he was a great soldier.
I took Vic by the arm and led him to the car. He seemed a little out of it; I practically had to shove him into the front seat. There were sirens blaring in the distance, and my only thought was to get Vic out of there as quickly as possible.
I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the street just in time to pass the police car that was on its way in. I let out a sigh. Thank God we'd made it in time. I didn't know what was going on with Vic and those guys, but I'd be damned if I was going to let the cops get it out of him before I did. This was going to be on my terms.
I looped around a one way street to head back to Darry's house. No way was I taking him home looking like this; Melissa would freak if the two of us walked into the house bleeding and bruised, not to mention that I was still a little hyped up from the whole incident.
"Pull over," Vic's voice cut into my thoughts.
"What?" I didn't get it until I glanced over at him. His legs were tightly crossed, with one hand pressed in between them against his crotch. "We'll be at Darry's in three…"
"Now," he said urgently. I pulled off to the side of the road and Vic shot out of the car like a missile. I sat in the car and waited while he took a piss on someone's front lawn. Finally he opened the door and slid back in. I turned the key in the ignition and put the car in gear.
"Wait," Vic said shakily. I looked across the seat at him. He was still pale and trembling, and I understood why he didn't want to continue on yet when I saw the tears rolling down his face. He wiped at them, but it didn't stop the release once it had started. Vic put his head down in his hands and sobbed. From what I've seen of Vic, he's a tough cocky little punk who doesn't get fazed by a beating or a new enemy. His breaking down now was giving me a good gauge for how serious tonight had been. I had the feeling things didn't end here.
I leaned over the back seat and grabbed the roll of paper towels that I keep in the car for wiping the windows and checking the oil. I ripped one off and handed it to Vic, then put my hand on his shoulder. I had expected him to jerk away from me, and was surprised when he actually leaned into my hand. I squeezed his shoulder to let him know I got it, and then waited until he was done crying. It only took a couple more minutes. He drew a shaky breath and wiped his face with the paper towel, then slumped against the door. "OK," he said, taking a deep breath, "we can go now."
By the time we got to Darry's, he and Sodapop had already arrived. Darry was pulling out the first aid supplies while Soda sat back in the chair drinking a glass of water. They both looked up when we walked in.
"How did that happen?" Darry asked Vic, indicating the bloody hole in his jeans.
"One of them stuck his knife in me," Vic answered tiredly.
"Take your pants off," Darry ordered. "Pony, you check him for anything else while I take care of this." We both did as we were told.
I checked out the bruises on Vic's face first. He had been backhanded at least once that I had seen, probably twice based on the bruises. Soda handed me a package of frozen peas. "Here," I told Vic, putting the bag of peas in his hand, "hold this on your face." I pulled his shirt up next, but couldn't find anything but some scrapes and bruises on his back. There wasn't much to do about that.
"You'd better hold onto something," Darry suggested. He had laid a plastic trash bag and a towel under Vic's thigh and was holding an open bottle of hydrogen peroxide over the knife wound. As soon as the clear liquid hit skin and began foaming, Vic shut his eyes tightly and clenched his jaw and his fists. I winced too, since my arm was inside of one of his clenched fists and his fingernails were digging into my skin. Darry gave it one more washing before packing gauze over the hole and taping it into place. "You need to keep an eye on this, it's a puncture wound and who the hell knows where that knife has been."
We all moved back then and looked at Vic. His color had returned, but he still looked a little shaky and pathetic. He was trying to put up his tough front, but sitting there in his underwear and t-shirt with a bruised up face and trembling hands, he wasn't pulling it off in the least. I wasn't about to let him out of it, either. The words of one of his attackers kept ringing through my head – 'You stole from me, and now you're gonna hurt for it' – and I had no intention of letting up on this kid until I knew exactly what was going on. He could have been killed tonight, and he knew it.
"Who were those guys?" I asked him.
"Mac, Rip, Pel, and I don't know the other one's name," he answered, knowing full well that I hadn't been asking for their names.
"What did they want with you?" I persisted.
Vic shrugged. "Looked like they wanted to beat the shit out of me I guess." He gave me his I-don't-feel-like-answering-your-questions look.
I had had enough. Gripping the front of his shirt with both hands, I pressed him against the back of the couch and looked into his face. "You are going to tell me what is going on," I explained calmly, though my voice steadily rose as I continued, "and you are going to tell me everything. We will sit here all night if we have to. Hell, I will have you strip naked and sit on a chair in the middle of the living room with a spotlight on you if that's what it takes; but you are going to answer every damn one of my questions without a damned attitude and without that damned cocky look on your face!" He actually looked like I was scaring him. Good. I didn't bother looking at my brothers, who I knew were staring at me. I don't usually rant like that. "I am going to let go of you now and go get a drink. When I come back I am going to ask you again who those guys were, and you are going to give me an answer. The right answer."
I let go of Vic and headed for the kitchen, where I got myself a glass of water just to be doing something out of the room for a couple of minutes. Darry had followed me and was leaning in the doorway. "Are you OK?"
I nodded. I felt surprisingly calm after stating my position so clearly. "I'm fine."
"You're sure you want to do this now?" he asked, though I knew he thought it was the best time as well as I did.
"He's still got that image of us fighting for him fresh in his mind. Some of that new respect might wear off by tomorrow. Let's do it now."
Darry and I grabbed some dining room chairs on the way back to the living room. Vic was still in the same place on the couch. We positioned the chairs in a semicircle in front of the couch, and I tossed Vic a blanket from the armchair before sitting down to start the interrogation.
"Does this have anything to do with the grass they found in your locker back in October?" I asked. The idea had occurred to me when I was in the kitchen, that the two incidents might be related. Vic nodded.
"Well? Start talking, kiddo."
Vic sighed, defeated. "A couple guys came after me last spring. I guess they scout out kids before they get into ninth grade. I don't know who they were, they came at me from behind and knocked me out. When I came to, I was blindfolded and tied up." Vic glanced around the room nervously, looking at everything but us.
"Go on," I urged.
"They pick out guys who wouldn't stand out if they got into trouble. We give them our locker combos, and they use our lockers to do their drug trafficking. Only someone took their supply out of my locker yesterday. That's it. If we get caught by the cops, we don't even know who they are to identify them. Not that any of us would, not after…"
Vic gave a quick shiver, and it wasn't from being cold.
"Vic?" Darry asked. "What happens if you tell someone?"
Vic shifted his gaze to his lap. "Remember that kid who got hit by the train last June?"
I did. The kid was maybe fifteen or sixteen; the papers said he had been drinking and got hit by a high-speed train. They were picking up pieces of him over a quarter-mile stretch.
"That was these guys?" I felt sick. Vic looked like he was actually about to be sick. I almost got up to get him a bucket, but he regained his composure enough to continue.
"Yeah. It was them. That kid went to the cops last year. I was blindfolded, but I could hear him screaming. They tied him…tied him to the tracks…" Vic's voice cracked, and he stopped talking.
"Glory, Vic, you were there?" Darry nearly shouted, and Vic jumped. My brothers and I exchanged horrified looks.
Vic nodded. "The guys from tonight, they're just a step above me. It goes way up, a whole network. You can't get any of them. You try to go after the ones you've had contact with, and the ones above them come after you. There's no way out," he finished weakly. He was terrified, and I didn't blame him.
"There's a way out of everything," Soda assured him. I hoped he had some sort of a plan, because I was stumped. If we went to the cops, they would do exactly what Vic was afraid of – they'd get who they could, and to hell with what happened to their informant afterward.
"Vic, look at me," I said. He barely lifted his head enough to make eye contact with me.
"I'm sorry, Pony," he breathed. "I'm sorry you had to get involved…"
"This isn't your fault," I interrupted. "We're your family. We are here for you. We will figure this out." I wished I felt as confident as I sounded.
"My family until July, anyway," Vic commented quietly.
"What? What're you talking about?"
"The baby comes in July," Vic explained. "You'll have your own kid. I'm going somewhere else. Right?"
I was shocked, though I don't know why. This had been an issue before. I had really thought that Vic understood he wasn't leaving. But every change in our life seemed to jolt him into thinking that we would give him up to someone else when he became inconvenient. I hadn't wanted to say anything too soon, since I didn't want him to be disappointed if things didn't work out right, but now seemed the time to let him know how serious we were.
"Vic, Liss and I are planning to adopt you." He looked up at me, startled. "The paperwork is all filled out. The only thing we're still waiting on is for the court to remove your mother's parental rights. It's taking longer than I hoped because they're trying to find her. Another three or four months, though, and they'll have met their statute of limitations and we can make it official. It's not me and Melissa, and you. It's all of us. You're part of our family. That's not going to change, no matter what you do or what happens in our lives. You're a part of our life, not a passing trend."
"You're adopting me?" Vic was genuinely startled and confused.
"We need to figure out what to do about the current problem," Darry reminded us all. I felt like I was switching gears faster than a drunken carnival worker.
"What we need," Soda suggested, "is someone who would know who the higher-ups are in this deal."
"Someone who knows every criminal and hood from here to the state border and back," I added.
The three of us looked at each other and answered ourselves in unison, "Shepherd."
"I'll go hunt him down tomorrow, see what I can work up," Darry offered. He reached over and patted the blanket over Vic's knee. "Don't worry, kid, we'll get you outta this."
"I guess sometimes it pays to have family from the wrong side of the tracks, huh?" Soda added with a grin.
Vic still had a stunned look on his face. Darry and Soda excused themselves then, apparently sensing that we needed a little time alone.
"Vic? Are you alright?"
He looked up at me, and for the first time in four months, I didn't see a mask, didn't see a tough exterior, didn't see a stranger. I just saw Vic. Fourteen years old, mother ran off, father got drunk and beat him, been through the group home three times and juvenile hall twice. It all showed through his eyes now.
From the beginning, Vic had made me think of a kid hiding behind the wood pile during a snowball fight who's been told too many times that the game is over, only to be hit in the face with another icy missile when he stepped out. Since he had moved in with us, he had been looking around the corner every so often, for an instant at a time, just long enough to see our faces, before ducking to safety again.
Now, for the first time, he had come into full view. He was tired and cold and hungry, and all he wanted was for someone to take him inside and warm him up. He was tired of wondering if the game was over, and he was putting himself at my mercy. I could see it so clearly, I almost offered him a cup of hot chocolate.
"Pony," he said, and when I saw the tears rolling down his face again I moved to sit next to him, put my arm across his shoulders. "I'm so tired, Pony," he sobbed, dark hair falling across his forehead and one hand over his eyes. "I'm so tired."
"I know," I answered gently, leaning him onto my shoulder, and he didn't resist. "I get it. But you can relax now. You're home."
Years later, Vic told me that even after the events of the next several months, it was that point in time, sitting on the couch with me in Darry's house with a hole in his leg and my arm across his shoulders, that he first truly understood and believed that he was no longer alone. He had found the family he belonged with – the only one he would ever turn to for advice, strength, and love for the rest of his life. Vic was our first one and, in the end, as different as we were, the one with whom I formed the strongest bond.
Review thanks now:
Ale Curtis-Carter: Thanks! Hope you liked this chapter.
mrs sodapop curtis: This was a pretty quick update, since it was mostly written already. Hope you enjoyed!
Taurus: Thanks! I'm glad you like Jenn. She seemed like the type he'd go for. Dislocated wrist doesn't sound much better. Yeah, it's hard to think of Pony as a grown-up, so I'm sort of winging it. It's fun though, and easier as the story is developing. Hope you liked this one!
Keira: Just don't go reading this in English, it might get confiscated, then I'll have a firm teacherly review to contend with. Just kidding! Glad you liked the stuff with Linleigh. They couldn't just leave her off at the group home on Thanksgiving, that's how I saw it anyway. This chapter should have cleared up the confusion about Vic's behavior. I think he'll be even more fun to write about now, I've already got some 'big brother' stuff handwritten about him. Sorry I hurt your arm! Yeah, it's never happened to me, but when Rich played football in high school, one of the guys dislocated his shoulder, and he was crying. Thanks for the compliments, I guess we all kind of inspire each other. Have a great week! Eat lots of cake! And don't do anything illegal after Friday…
FoxFyre33: Thanks! Jenn's personality sort of evolved in my mind while I was writing the other chapters, and I realized that she was a little of both of them. Yeah, Vic's got a big mouth, and he can't help telling people the truth. Didn't work out too well for him in this chapter. Thanks for the compliments, I'm so glad you're enjoying the story. I'm trying to keep it flowing as a whole group of people, centered around the original characters, and how the people around them now are affecting them. Some things from the past ten years also show up, so I'm hoping they come off as a little different than who they were "ten years ago." Thanks for the review, hope you enjoyed this chapter!
virgil-t-stone: Thanks, glad you enjoyed!
kiki-kirara: Thanks so much, I'm glad you're enjoying. I guess the thing with Pony not getting what was going on with Vic has something to do with, real life and textbooks don't always fit together perfectly. I imagine him at this point just starting to understand the psyches of some of the kids he deals with. Darry and Jenn (and this wasn't pointed out anywhere in the story) have actually only been going out since about a week before Melissa's accident. That kept Pony pretty busy, and with Melissa feeling sick they haven't gotten out much to visit or had company. That was my view on it, anyway, so I figured that he was the one who kept missing meeting Jenn. Hope that makes sense, and hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Tensleep: Yeah, I think Vic is starting to see what he's got. It really struck him in this chapter, it was just out of his reach and willingness to believe before. I'm so glad you liked it, for you are awesome! Sorry, that was just funny. I love how you write! You rock too!
Tessie26: Thanks! I always thought of Darry as kind of the one who would take care of everyone, so I'm glad that made sense. Hope you enjoyed!
darkdestiney2000: Thanks, I'm glad you enjoyed, and that was a nice compliment. Hopefully I don't start to slide. Vic makes me laugh, even though I'm the one writing him, with his reactions to other people. The little girl in the hospital sort of just happened out of the blue. Hope you liked!
kaz456: Thanks, that's a really nice compliment. I like to picture the events in my mind for a while before I write them down, so I can see the big picture. I'm glad that's coming across. Thanks again, and I hope you enjoyed this one!
Rock: Wow, usually my timing is off. I'm not very graceful, either. Glad I could help! I'm so glad you liked Jenn, it isn't easy coming up with the right women for these guys. Everyone has their own ideas, too, so yeah, it's good to hear when the one I came up with works for some people. Take care, hope you liked the chapter, and stay sane!
