"LIZ!!! GET UP!!!"

I groaned and looked at my watch. 7:45. "Holy shit…" I muttered.

"LIZ! NOW!"

I rolled out of my bed and hit the floor. A dull pain started in my whole body. I scrambled downstairs to see my older sister, Jenny, standing near the kitchen table with her hands on her hips.

"Do the dishes." She ordered mercilessly.

"But I didn't even eat breakfast…"

"Well, you can wash those dishes or kiss my ass."

I stared at her, shocked. Of the two of us, Jenny had always been the more conservative kind. Where I found the need to be blunt, she always landed on some ground for a euphenism. Jenny. Sweet old Jenny. I started laughing and pounded her on the back.

"Congratulations, congratulations! Where did you ever get the nerve to swear like that?"

"New friends." She muttered, completely losing her momentum.

"Well, give them my thanks, old pal!" That must've been the sincerest thing I had said all summer to her. My blood relation was finally getting some personality!

"Yeah, yeah. Get outta here." She mumbled, slapping the back of my head lightly.

I stood on the porch, puzzled. Since when did Jenny act like that? I didn't mind her new way of behavior, but it was so… different than before. She had NEVER sworn at people before. In front of, yes, but at? No. The day she did that to Mom and Dad would probably be her last.

The first thing that occurred to me was that I was glad to know that she was making friends so quickly, no matter how bad they were. I desperately hoped that she wasn't getting fun of already because of her- our- clothes. Strange? Not really. Sisters look out for each other. Our tiny-town almamater was 50 years out of style.

I obeyed my sister (holy shit!) and walked away from the house. What would I do? Go to the ice cream shop? I wondered. Nah, too early for ice cream. Wait a minute, I was supposed to do the dishes! Oh well. I'm not complaining. Jenny probably used me as an experiment of her new language, anyway. Wait- maybe I should get to know the town. Yeah, that's what I'll do. I'll be living here for the next 5 years, anyway.

I had moved from a village in upstate New York. A village. People thought this town was small. Need I say more?

In fact, I got lost- numerous times. After a good deal of swearing at and ranking myself out, though, (picked up that listening to the radio yesterday- I would need it to fight the odds of uncoolness in my favor) I got back on track every time.

Not long afterwards I got lost again. No, I don't usually run on short fuses but I was pretty pissed off this time.

"Mother fucker!"

Point proven.

"Who are you?"

Who am I? I just moved here, idiot! How long is it going to take you to accept that fact… Jesus… Wait. That wasn't my inner voice.

I turned around. A boy was looking at me. He was short and a little on the chubby side. Who could he be?

"I… just moved here. My name's Liz."

"Liz? Like Liz Taylor? That's cool. Sincerely. I'm Vern."

He held out his hand, and I shook it.

I grinned, relieved. No raps about my clothing today. This kid was okay.

"Any chance you could show me around the town?" I asked him politely, trying to skirt around my fatal flaw. But there was something about this guy, something that told me I could trust him not to make fun of me. "Afraid I'm not too savvy with a map." I stage-whispered to him. I would make an excellent actress.

"I guess. Not much to see." Vern looked confused; I think my fancy language had gone completely over his head. (I barely understood it myself, I told myself, to compensate for the… erm… bluntness of my last thought.)

"Yeah, well… I kinda got lost." I said in all seriousness, knowing that the situation was beyond jests.

"Lost? How the hell can you get lost here?" A louder voice said, making me jump and look over my shoulder. A boy with light hair and glasses was walking toward the both of us.

"Oh, hi Teddy. This is my friend, Teddy." Vern said, turning back to me.

"Liz." I said, holding out my hand. He shook it.

"Where did you move from? A city, I don't take it." Teddy said, rather bluntly, eyeing my ankle-length skirt.

First thing on my task list- get these clothes the hell away from me.

"No. I came from a small town in New York. Really small. Actually, you might even call it a village. Modern-day."

"Teddy looked at me doubtfully. "As if anything gets smaller than this. How many people."

"Um, around 200 probably."

"Holy shit!"

I grinned, loving to shock people. "Yeah. This town is N. Y. C. compared to that place."

"Have you ever been to a movie?"

"Yes!" I pretended to be offended. The truth was, we had to go visit my auntie in Rochester to find a drive-in. Thank god we had cars.

I saw another person out of the corner of my eye. Turning my head, I stifled a gasp. It was the boy who had been thrown out of his house.

"Who's he?" I inquired as casually as possible, never taking my eyes off of him.

"Oh, that's just Chris Chambers. Dad's a drinker. Nothing special."

Something gave me the feeling that Vern and Teddy knew this boy. Or had known him-- once.

Silence. I stared at my feet.

"Hey, how 'bout you come with us to the tree house?" Vern said suddenly.

Teddy elbowed him.

"Problem?" I asked.

"I guess it'll be all right."

I grinned. "Okay, fine."

We walked across a couple streets and were soon there. The distance wasn't far at all. I guess this town was smaller than I thought…

I followed the boys up the ladder into the tree house. It was pretty small. Nothing special. That's why I loved tree houses. That's why I loved THIS tree house. Couldn't get lost in it.

In a few minutes, we were playing poker. Teddy had suggested scat, but I had no idea how to play that.

I was laughing, Teddy was swearing, and Vern was just talking. It was as if we had known each other for years. We were having so much fun. I was laughing so hard I was on the floor. Well, I was ALREADY on the floor before…

"Just shut up and deal, bitch."

"Whatever, faggot."

I started laughing again, having never cussed so much as I did today. And probably never as much since.

Two minutes later, I was still laughing. I took deep breaths and willed Teddy not to joke around anymore. Opening my eyes, I noticed a pale orange beam falling from the window to the floor of the tree house. Sunset. How could it have gotten so late? It was breathtakingly beautiful, but…

"I have to go, guys. This has been so much fun."

"Come back tomorrow, alright?" Vern asked. This time, Teddy had no objection.

"Sure! What time?"

"1:00."

"Fair enough. Bye!" I climbed down the ladder. I was still having light giggle fits.

I started walking home. By this time, I wasn't giggling anymore. I was completely serious, on the other end of the scale, so to speak.

"Who the hell are you?"

My head shot up. A group of boys stood in front of me. They must have been around 17 or so. They were tall. And they looked dangerous.

"Why do you need to know?" I said in a slow, steady voice. I had to stand my guard.

"Just answer the question," one of the boys said. He had reddish blond hair, and looked the most intimidating of them all. But even more intimidating than his face was his voice, which was as slow and steady as mine. Only cooler. Much cooler.

That was a dangerous sign.

"Why?"

"Just do it," he said coolly.

Why wouldn't I do it? It was just a name. But something stopped me. I guess it was my stupidity.

"No."

Everybody behind him suddenly went into action. In a split second, 2 of his comrades (or maybe accomplices?) had me in a vise grip. And the thing I hated most about it was that he was just standing there. There was no change in his movement, position, even his expression remained the same.

"Let me go." I said in a low voice.

"Why?" He asked. I knew he was mocking me.

Who was this guy? Who was he to think he ruled the whole fucking town? To just stand there while everyone else around him did his bidding?

Who was he? I wondered again, this time in awe.

"Let me go," I repeated.

Where was my courage coming from? There was nothing I could do, and I knew it. I didn't know any self-defense skills. I couldn't run that fast even if I did escape. Hell, I couldn't even get up to get the ball that one day on the porch.

So what would I do?

I struggled against the 2 boys who were holding me.

Click.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Same voice, same expression, same monotone. Except this time he was moving.

And holding a knife about two feet away from me.

I gulped. Boy was I in deep shit. But I was still too stupid to be scared. Or so I thought.

I guess the main matter was that I was not afraid of him. And now was not the time to question that. But seriously, how long were they going to stand here?

"Let her go."

Teddy! I squirmed around to face the voice. But Cool Boy only held the knife closer to my throat.

"Duchamp." There was pure, unmistakable malice in his voice. Wow. That must've been French, I thought. A tiny flip of the switchblade brought me back to reality.

"Let her go."

I struggled harder and watched the blade stay exactly where it was.

"Bad choice."

Warm liquid crept along my arm.

I was bleeding.

Yet I still wasn't scared.

Were these guys going to hold a knife to me all day or actually do something to me?

I guess that wasn't really important right now. Main Goal: Get at least 50 feet away from that knife. But doing that alone was next to impossible. And I doubted that Teddy would be able to do anything to help me. I mean, I could get my head cut off any second now.

Click. The knife was put back. I was shoved away. I landed on the pavement, slightly disoriented, not feeling anything. After all this, I still wasn't afraid. Getting up, all I saw of the mighty Cool Boy was his back. He and the group was walking away from me. Away from us. Teddy was still here.

I turned around to face him.

"Are you all right?" Were the first words out of his mouth. He actually looked grim.

"Yeah. Who was that guy?"

"Ace. He's bad business. You have to watch out for him."

I almost started laughing; but instead, I nodded simply. Somewhere in the back of my head, I couldn't take that statement seriously.

Teddy gallantly walked me home. He took the time to fill me in on the background of the people, the school- everything I needed to know.

"Thanks for walking me home." We had arrived at my house.

"Yeah, don't want the Cobras after 'ya."

He sang "Paladin," as he walked away. That was what he had called the song when he taught it to me a few minutes ago, anyway.

I'm settling in rather nicely now, aren't I? I smiled slightly as I walked into the house.

Halfway inside the door I remembered my cut. Oh shit, what'll I do? I can't have everybody knowing about that! Great. I took a quick look inside. Nobody in the hall. I ran in and made a quick dash for the stairs, trying to cover my throat as inconspicuously as possible.

To my relief, I made it to my room without anyone seeing me. I whipped off my bloody blouse and rummaged around in my dresser for a new one. The door opened. I stiffened.

"Knock before you come in!" I shouted irritably.

"All right, all right, quit bitchin'…" Jenny slammed the door.

I sighed in relief. I was more concerned about my sister seeing my arm than seeing me shirtless.

Finding a new shirt, I casually draped a towel over my arm and peeked outside my door to see if there were any bathrooms open. (We had two.)

Not three seconds later Jenny was in the hall, laughing at me. I jumped.

"A little strange. Fully dressed with a towel on your arm."

I rolled my eyes and sauntered into the bathroom. Jenny would never lose her out-in-left-fieldness, using one of her popular euphenisms. Five minutes later, I was carefully washing the blood from my neck. After it looked satisfactorily clean, I pondered possible stories as to how it happened. Mom would probably not see how thick it really was.

"Liz! I need to get in there!"

I wrapped the hand towel around my arm again and left the bathroom, leaving it to Jenny and her girlish endeavors.