John stared at the muddy puddle of water on the concrete. It had rained the night before and all it left was mucky water all over the place. It was Saturday. No school. No homework to do for the night, for he always finished it on Friday night. Just a weekend to relax.
For John, that meant reading all day long. It had been a month since John first started high school in Gotham, but he still felt like he was walking in for the first time whenever he walked through the door. John had to make himself realize something. This is Gotham, not Chicago. John turned around and walked up the street.
This was usually how John calmed himself down, by taking a quiet walk by himself. It had been really stressful for him, the past few months. Heck, it was tough for him for the past few years! He had to leave all his friends in Chicago, his mom had to get various jobs, and his dad...
As John approached his house, he saw Jenny and Dylan at his front door. John was wondering why they were at his house. Then he realized, they were his good friends. He had friends in Chicago, but his friends never showed up to his house on the weekends. Whenever John DID invite them over, they had another excuse, wether it was their cat dying or spending time with their parents. John cried at the though that someone even cared about him.
"John?" he heard Jenny ask. "John, what's wrong?"
"Nothing," John replied. "My allergies are just acting up, that's all." Suddenly, John felt an arm around his shoulder. He looked up to see that Dylan had put his arm around his shoulder. "Are you okay?" he asked John.
"I'm fine," John sniffled, fighting back the tears.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. It's just my allergies. They are really acting up." John wiped his eyes and sniffled. He looked up and smiled at Dylan. "Dylan and I are going to see a movie," Jenny said, smiling at John. "We were wondering if you would like to come."
"Yeah," John replied. "I would like to come." He smiled at Jenny and put his arm around his two friends. Dylan kept his arm around John and Jenny put her arm around John. The three friends walked away.
"That was an awesome movie!" Dylan announced. The movie just ended, John and Dylan were racing out of the movie theater while Jenny was walking behind.
"I never knew that The Matrix would be so cool!" John replied. "It was so...so...REAL!"
"Boys," Jenny sighed.
"Hey!" Dylan exclaimed to his sister. "Don't you remember that I was born with super sonic ears. I can hear a cat meowing from ten miles away!"
"You can hear everything except for when Mom tells you to do your homework."
"My mother is my only weakness and you know it!" John started to laugh. Dylan grabbed John's head under his arm and shook John's hair with his fist. "Stop!" John laughed out.
"Dylan!" Jenny exclaimed. "You're going to make him go into a coma if you do it that hard!"
"Fine, fine." Dylan let go of John, who fell hard to the ground. John grabbed Dylan's legs and wrestled him to the ground. Jenny laughed at the hard yet friendly fight. John tackled onto Dylan and started to tickle him. People stopped on the street and stared at the two teenage boys.
"Okay, okay," Dylan managed to laugh out. "I give! I give!" John smiled and jumped off. He held out his hand and helped his friend up. They looked at the on-goers. "It's okay," Jenny said. "They're typical teenage guys, not homosexuals."
Everyone nodded their heads and kept on walking. John and Dylan looked at Jenny. "Of course," Jenny said, "sometimes I feel that you are a homosexual, Dylan." Jenny and John started to laugh. "I should be running now, shouldn't I?" Jenny asked.
"Yep," Dylan said. Suddenly, Jenny started running, with Dylan following her, and John following Dylan. Dylan grabbed Jenny, but John tackled the two to the ground. They were rolling around laughing. As the three got up, someone was running towards them.
At first, John thought it was someone who was running from the police. But the man had a ragged beard, long, tangled hair, and was wearing rags. The man got on his knees when he got to John and grabbed his clothes.
"Mister," the man said, "I need money. Badly. Please." The smell of stale beer was surrounding the man. John knew that if he gave him any money, it would just be wasted on alcohol. "Sorry sir," John replied, "I don't have any money."
"Two quarters," the man said, as if he didn't hear John. "That's all I need. Two quarters."
"He said he doesn't have any money," Dylan said. "So go."
"Please sir," the man kept on. "All I need is two quarters."
"I am really sorry," John replied. "I don't have any money. Even if I did, I wouldn't give it to you because you would waste it all on alcohol instead of something important like food. So stop wasting your time trying to get money from me." The man slowly let go of John. John walked around the man and walked on up the street. Dylan and Jenny followed, ignoring the man.
"John!" Dylan called. John stopped and turned around. Dylan ran up and placed his hand on John's shoulder. "That was very brave," Dylan said. "If you want to survive in Gotham, you have two choices to do whenever you're in that situation. You would either give the money to him or not."
"You would have given him the money if you didn't smell alcohol on him," Jenny kept on, "but you did. So you didn't give him the money. But if you didn't smell alcohol, would you still give him the money?" John nodded his head.
"It's men like those my father had to deal with," John said.
"Where is your father?" Dylan asked. "We've always seen your mother, but never your father."
"Yeah," Jenny said. "What did happen to your father?" John turned around. He walked up the sidewalk and stopped. John didn't turn around. "He's dead," John replied. John ran home, with his two best friends running after him.
