Changes
Chapter 2
Rating: T
Pairing: None
Summary: Life was changing fast for William Gordon, but seemed to be at a standstill for Danny Blake.
Disclaimer: Neither Tens nor I own The Outsiders or any of its characters. I own William Gordon and his family, and Tensleep owns Danny Blake and his extended-gang family. That's it.

Oh, and for our dear, impatient reviewer Mike – find the connections, babe.

Will's POV

First day at Will Rogers High School. I had always despised the first day of school. New people, new faces, new teachers… I hated everything new. What was worse was that it was in a new country, as well, making everything strange on top of it.

The first part of my day wasn't very eventful. I skipped a few of my classes, until a teacher caught me smoking in the bathrooms. He took my cigarette and shoved me from the room like I disgusted him. Well, that was one way to get me out. So needless to say, by last period, I was pissed to bloody-almighty hell. Not that last period made an improvement on my mood. It seemed like I was destined to get in trouble. The first offence was that I was late. The old hag of a teacher didn't appreciate that much. Then my mouth got the better of me, shooting out every cuss word I could think up. Her face was reddening by the second until she told me to get out of her sight. I didn't mind that so much. What I minded was that I was apparently sentenced to a week of detention. What a way to kick off the week.

So that was why I was making my way towards where the detention room was. I held my cigarettes in one hand, and stared down at a crumpled piece of paper in the other. It was the map the woman behind the front desk had given me when I had showed up that morning. I needed it – this school was confusing. I mean, it was my first day here, and they expected me to know where everything was. Yeah, right. I had the feeling it would take me a lot longer than a few hours before I could walk around the school freely.

On top of being a confusing place, the people in it didn't make much sense, either. Take the short man who ran up to me, spouting nonsense about my cigarettes, and the fact I wasn't in class. It took me a long moment to figure out that he was a teacher. I told him I was looking for detention, and he sighed a little, grabbing a hold of my arm because he was apparently in charge of detention. Well, I thought that was pretty lucky, depending at how you looked at it. Not that I needed to be dragged to detention. It was a bit annoying to have someone shorter than me pulling me along like that when I was headed in the general direction of the room already.

So naturally, when we got to the classroom, he pushed me in. He was calling me "Mr. Gordon" and chewing me out for not showing up on time. The door was shut firmly behind him a moment later, and I growled softly, making my way to an empty desk. I noticed the only other kid in the room who looked awake, mainly because he was watching me like I was going to start performing tricks. He had his hair greased back; a clump of it swirled down the middle of his forehead. He looked like every other guy in a leather jacket I had seen today, so I ignored him. I took off my jacket, propping my feet on the desk I'd chosen, and leaned back to get comfortable. I needed a smoke, but I knew better than to try that in there. I scratched my fingers on the denim of my jeans, trying to distract myself from the craving. It never worked, but it was habit by now.

"Get a load of him," the guy muttered to himself like I wasn't sitting right there. I rolled my eyes, chewing on the inside of my cheek.

It never fails that I always managed to get stuck with the loonies.

"Got something to say?" I asked after turning my head to watch him.

His lips held a smirk, like he was trying not to laugh. Yeah, fuck my accent.

The guy said, "Nothin' I wanna share with the class," like he was smart and such.

Well, his accent wasn't much better. The Southern American accent always bugged me – lazy and annoying, simple as that.

After a moment of glaring at him, I turned and looked at the teacher who was snoring away at the desk. Irresponsible, if you asked me. I wondered why the short man who had declared he was in charge of the detention wasn't here, but the other man was? I decided it didn't matter. I glanced at my watch and nearly groaned – another hour of sitting in a room with a sleeping teacher. The clock on the wall said the same time, but there was potential for it. Interesting...

I stood up and went to the teacher, bracing my hands on the desk and leaning down to look at him. He wore a watch too. Tenderly, I grabbed his wrist, waiting to see if he'd wake up. Nothing. Slowly I took his watch and began to change the time forward an hour, then placed his wrist back on the desk. I turned around and smirked at the others in the room. I stood under the clock a moment later, doing the same. Once it was forward an hour, I went back to my desk. Again, I looked at the others.

"Want to wake him up?" I asked.

The guy was smirking at me broadly, like he was impressed with me. Well, that was for him to decide. I, on the other hand, didn't see the big deal. Did people not pull these tricks with sleeping teachers here? Well… did teachers sleep here often?

"Me and you are gonna get on fine," he said, extending his hand out to me with a wide grin. "Two-Bit Mathews."

For a moment I looked at the offered hand. Two-Bit? What a weird name. I eventually took it, shaking it firmly like Charlie had taught me.

"William," I said, grinning in return.

He didn't make any move to wake the teacher up, so I stood and grabbed my few things and went to the teacher. I slapped my hand on the table, waking him up.

"You've been asleep forever. It's time to leave, so I am."

I walked on out of the class room without hearing an answer from the teacher. Two-Bit got up quickly and followed me out, looking like he was trying not to chuckle.

"Where are we off to now, Willy?" he asked me as I pulled a cigarette out.

I glared at him for a moment, hating the name 'Willy.' It just sounded wrong.

"Don't call me that. Call me Will, if anything," I corrected.

I started off for the exit. I was ready to get out of his hellhole. Fast. That, and I needed a cigarette. Bad.

"And I figured you could show me around. I'm new here," I called over my shoulder at Two-Bit

I was sure he had figured that out the moment I opened my mouth. Everyone could tell.

"Actually, I should get out of here," Two-Bit offered, and gave a nod before turning in the opposite direction.

I shrugged. Well, I was out one tour guide. That didn't mean I was going to stand around and hope for another to crash into me. Just as I started to make my way again, I caught sight of another kid standing in the doorway of the detention room. He was laughing his ass off at something I didn't catch, if that raspy chuckle could be called a laugh. Or maybe, he was just laughing in general. I knew people like that. Kenneth always did that when he was high. I wondered if this kid was high, too.

"Detention is cancelled!" I called to him as I lit my cigarette. Yes, I was still inside the school. So what? How much more trouble could I really get in during my first day of school?

The kid's chuckles died as he turned towards me, looking wary. He seemed to take a long moment looking between me and the door before making his way closer to me.

"Thanks….You're doing time too?" he asked, looking at the floor instead of at me.

"I was," I corrected. "Lucky for me, the teacher fell asleep so I could change the clocks in the room. Even his watch. Damn idiot's a heavy sleeper."

His eyes had wandered from the floor up to where they were fixated on my cigarettes. He probably had the same nagging craving I had. That or he was really high and liked the paper.

"Want one?" I asked, holding the pack out to him.

The kid eyed it, looking indecisive, then shook his head. He fished out his own crumpled looking pack and pulling one out. "Thanks, but I can't stand that Menthol crap."

He cursed when he found that he only had two left in his pack. I hated it when that happened.

"You're not from around here," he offered, sticking one of the sticks behind his ear.

"England," I told him. "Been here for a few days."

He nodded, probably not having a clue where England even was. "And how are you liking our fair city?"

I glanced at him, wondering if he had looked around lately. The city was anything but fair from what I had seen thus far. But that wasn't something worth mentioning.

"Not bad. Like it a whole lot better than my old town. A stupid, pristine little town in London. Not enough up there for me."

It wasn't true. I did miss things about the place – mainly it was familiar, that it was something I didn't have to second guess myself on. Tulsa was far too new and strange for me to have made up my mind one way or the other. Hopefully, it would turn out to be a good place.

The guy nodded, spacing out a bit and snapping his attention back to me a minute later. Yes, he was very high.

"I'm Danny Blake. Most call me one or the other," he offered.

He actually seemed to look at me then. He had bright green eyes under his messy blond hair. He couldn't have been more than fifteen. His face was also very thin and his cheek bones were very prominent. All in all, he looked like your typical druggie.

"William Gordon," I replied. "Either is fine." I dragged on my cigarette deeply. "I've been called a lot of different things. Will, Bill, Gordy..." I listed. I hated being called Willy, though.

"Got a light, Will?" He asked, watching my cigarette and I nodded, handing over the lighter I had in my pocket.

I watched as he lit his cigarette and handed back the lighter. He took a long drag and considered his cigarette for a moment before offering himself a shrug.

"Nice to know ya, Will," he yawned. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm not lookin' for any more teachers to catch me doing something fun."

He waved his cigarette, as if I didn't know what he was doing that would be frowned upon by the establishment.

"Well I don't know about you, but I'm supposed to be in detention until the end of school." I was walking backwards as I talked, opening the exit when I bumped into it. "And I'm not going to stand in the hallway if I can go outside."

He kind of frowned at me and I flashed a small grin. By that point, my cigarette was more ash than stick, so I dropped it onto the floor and stepped on it before leaving the building.

Danny seemed to think about it for a few seconds before following me outside. He blinked at the sky, squinting into the light.

"What do people typically do when they skip school?" He asked and I offered him a shrug.

"This is your country, mate. You tell me."

He only nodded and I was starting to think that he had a screw or two loose, drugs or not.

"I'm in the same boat as you are, my fine feathered friend," he offered. "Nothing feels right on this side of the river."

"Well since I'm new, and you only know one side of town, why don't you show me what you do know."

Which isn't much, I added in my mind. My opinion of the guy was slipping with everything he said. It seemed like he was burned out at fifteen. He only laughed, though, like I had said something funny. It was that same raspy laugh from before. I imagined everything was funny when you were that high.

"I think I work around here," he mused, turning in one direction, expecting I was going to follow. "And there's an old witch with a broom...and a rolling pin...But the waitress..."

The guy lost me after 'the old witch with a broom'. Rambler, I assumed.

"Just lead and I'll follow," I said when he trailed off.

This guy surely was original, though. I wondered vaguely what he would be like if he weren't high. Something told me there weren't many of those moments, though.

He led the way, looking back over his shoulder from time to time, as if he had forgotten I was there. He finally stopped walking outside a really poor looking house in a very shabby looking neighbourhood. It looked just like one of the towns I was always bumming around in back in London. Better than that stuck-up town I lived in.

The kid kind of blinked at the place and gestured to it. "Good news - I now know where we are. I live here."

"And you didn't know before?" I asked, only slightly surprised.

He only shrugged, looking at me like he was trying to remember who I was. What a weird kid.

"Nice place," I commented, not knowing what else to say.

"We clean it every Friday." He looked at me for a moment, rubbing at his arm, and offering a shrug. "This is what I know."

I nodded, figuring that what he knew wouldn't have been much of a trip anyways.

"I need a Coke," he said suddenly, walking past me in the direction we had just came from.

"A Coke?" I asked, keeping pace with him.

"I'm coming down. I fall asleep when I come down. Coke keeps me awake. I need a Coke."

That...actually made sense. So I settled with following him, having nothing else to do. My hands were shoved into my pockets and I was chewing on the inside of cheek. This day was turning out to be more exciting than I planned.