oh my lanta! Sorry it took so long for this. Que wrote this chapter and she's been a bit distracted by her other story, Stalking Fear at the moment. Forgive us? Please? Eh, well anyway, here it is.

Chapter 12

Emmy giggled with delight as she rammed her bumper car into Jack's, and he skidded into the railing. "That's it Wonderland!" he growled trying to stir his green car. Emmy drove away with Chan at her side, whooping with laughter.

"He gonna getcha." she cackled as Jack rammed into her friend, the two of them slamming into Haley and Ever, who were trying not to get hit in pursuit of Chan. Ever glared and steered her car around the quickest Jack had ever seen one go.
"You know what Rofter? You just have a way of pushing a girl to her limit and now," she slammed into his car and he swerved around into the railing. "I'm pushing back!"

Haley reared up behind Jack car with a wicked smirk."And this is for those annoying days of detention."

Jack yelped as he propelled forward into the platform where the ride engineer hailed. Chan and Emmy laughed as the other girls bullied the unlucky boy. What goes around comes around after all.

After a while the man operating the bumper car, nagged them about being too old for this and they all moved to the drive in movie outside. The five of them sat against the hood of a dark SUV, Chan by Emmy, Jack in the middle, then Haley, Ever at the end. Jack held a bag if buttered popcorn that he shared with Haley. The others all denied his offer, Emmy stating she wasn't allowed in the evening, Chan couldn't stand the smell let alone taste, munching a bag of M&M's instead, and Ever had ignored him when he asked. So Haley was the only normal popcorn lover he could share with.

He finished his hand of popcorn and reach in the bag for another when his hand touch something smooth and soft. He looked over to see that his and Haley's hands had met and they both blinked before retracting their hands. "Uh, guess the popcorn gone...I'll go get some more."

"Okay..." she said awkwardly as he got to his feet and went back into the arcade to the snack stand. He looked up at the menu for the prices and brought out his approximate cost. He waited a bit, since the cashier was in the back with a pair of earphones in his ears.

"Hey." he called to the slacking employee who turned to look at him with uninterested blue eyes. Then he looked again and a humor smile came to his lips as he took out the ear buds.

"Well if it isn't the Ripper." Jack raised an eyebrow peering at this young man who apparently knew him. After a second he recognized him as one of the jockizoids from the football team at a G.G. He also remembered him being in his last notorious prank. Pepper powder in their showers. Sweet, sweet laughter it had caused when the group of jocks ran into the gym butt-backed holding their peepers. But he was aware that this one was not very Moyer at the moment.

"Yeah...anyways can I have a refill on the popcorn?" Jack asked nonetheless. He was starting to learn from his mentor that not acknowledging the pain you caused a person when seeing them again, made things go smooth. The jock glared at him, but got a sneaky grin.

"Sure." he took a scoop of popcorn and dumped it on Jack's head. Jack blinked in disbelief ready to pound the shit out of the doof when butter topped his head next. "Forgot the butter." the yellow liquid stung the Ripper's eyes as he stumbled back. At that second the girls, noticing how long his absent was, were at the door to witness this.

"Ripper!" Chan exclaimed as her and the rest of them came to his side.

"What's wrong?" Emmy asked as Chan laid him back onto Haley's lap so she could check his eyes. Ever winced as he moaned but she didn't know how she should react. So she just sat there beside Haley. Emmy and Chan turned to the cashier enraged. It was then that Emmy recognized him as Trenton, a kid from her creative writing class.

"What the Fuck did you do to him?"

"Called revenge, freak. I didn't know you brought your cult of freaks with you, Ripper. Gonna have your chicks fight your battles?" Jack growled along with Em and Chan who didn't take well to being called freaks. Haley and Ever snarled as they help Jack, who had stinging red eyes, up to his feet.
"Don't. Call. Us. Freaks." Chan warned in a dark menacing voice, none of the group had heard before.

"Or else what? You psychos gonna have a break down?" somehow the five kids in front of him were emulating a maniacal presence that made him want to run. But from what? These freaks had never done anything violent besides carrot top and the plant wench. What harm could they do? "Huh, you gonna do a crazy cult thing to me?"
"Actually..." Haley hissed, baring her teeth. "We'll do something just like that!" she lunged forward and tackled him into the popcorn machine. He screamed like a girl as Chan and Ever appeared pinning his arms behind his back as Emmy stood him up so Jack could face him.

"How bout we show you what we do? How does that sound, Trent?" Jack smiled at how the huge jock shook before he smashed his fists into the fucker's nose. Trent cried out as blood splattered onto Jack's shirt and down his wrists. It felt good to hit someone for a change. He'd always been the victim, getting bloody noses and split lips. From every piece of trash his mother had brought home from time to time tended to rub him the wrong way. But this now felt great.

Ever and Haley blinked at Jack's expression. He was smiling a crazy delirious grin. As if he was high. As if beating the shit out of someone was the greatest crack on earth. It was then that the girls realized that it had only taken a month working for The Joker for the teen to completely lose his moral marbles. In a way it was sort of sad. But also it was a thing to be accepted. It would happen to all of them soon enough.

Jack laughed a bit as he pulled back his arm for another punch, but a pair of hands caught his wrist. He turned to look at Haley, raising an eyebrow. She shook her head gesturing to the bloodied black and blue Trenton who had checked out of reality a second ago. Jack blinked, realizing what he had done to the kid. What the hell had gotten into him?

He took a step back and Emmy and Chan released the beaten jock who crumbled on the ground. The five of them all looked at each other silently as if taking an oath. Stay together and defend each other no matter what. The promise to help out everyone of their apprentice pack. After the shared agreement was made Jack called Harley to pick them up...

Jack walked into the apartment as quietly as he could. His mother was laying on the couch passed out on whatever she had brought home. He couldn't allow himself to keep up with her lists of poisons. It would only depress him further. She was already pale as a ghost and skinny as a stick despite the munchies. Her teeth were rotten and she couldn't smell a thing. And she was a stranger to him, living a dangerous life in which he could never imagine. He guessed in turn it was vice versa now, with his new occupation.

He sighed as he turned off the TV and headed to his room when he heard someone's painfully pitiful voice call to him. He turned around to see his mother sitting up now scratching her head. "Jacky, you're home." she yawned.

"Yeah, just got here."

"How was the arcade, you have fun?" Jack smiled faintly as he went to his bed.

"Yeah. We had a really nice conversation with an old friend." he answered. His mother smiled and rubbed her bagged dark eyes.

"Okay, good night."

"Night."

Damn, looks like they are already changing.

Probably more Haley in the next chapter. *looks around and whispers* I has a plan *_*

Review please!