Chapter 38: War Games

Finally, the greasers had a very good reason and the means to party: as of the day after they had beaten Gurney's ass, they had been welcome to Frank's bar again! Norton and Johnny were in friendly terms! There wasn't much school left until summer! Not one of the young men could remember a time when booze had tasted so good. Of course, there was also the more controversial reason why everyone was feeling well: Johnny and Lola were no longer together and it seemed that Lola had lost interest with the greasers.

While Johnny was certainly merrier than the greasers had seen him in a long time and was acting as if his breakup had been nothing, everyone could tell that he was still getting over the ordeal. The occasional wistful sigh and a longing look into the distance told the other greasers that while Johnny could make scornful comments and crude jokes about "that unfaithful whore" and his underlings were allowed to laugh at them, they weren't allowed to poke fun at Lola themselves. As a result, there was a strange air of tension and restraint surrounding the table occupied by the greasers and the random girls Lefty and Vance had picked up.

Then, sometime during the evening, Johnny found himself sitting quietly in the middle of all the laughter and buzz. He was on the prowl, stalking for a good moment. The time came just before Ricky was about to say the punchline to the very poor joke he was telling: Johnny stood up and raised his voice.

"I need some fresh air. And Vance, I need to talk to you", he interrupted, gathering strange looks as he started walking towards the door. Vance looked at his friends inquisitively and all they did was shrug at him. With an apology to his date, he followed his senior into the cool spring evening.

When Johnny stepped outside, he dug out a smoke from his pocket and lit it. As Vance scrambled through the door, already a bit intoxicated, the greaser reminisced the last day they had been made to shovel snow. As he recalled, Vance and he had called dibs on the main gate and dorm area because those were the least challenging. The redhead had worked fast, as if he had been in a hurry, so Johnny had figured Vance had wanted to be somewhere else, soon. Having felt exceptionally charitable, he had let him go and very briefly after that, Lance Jackson had passed him on his way inside the boys' dorm... It had been no coincidence.

"Vance?" Johnny harrumphed, breaking the silence.

"Yeah boss?" the redhead responded, somewhat worried about what this was about.

"You went to talk about Lola with Peanut a couple of weeks ago, didn't you?" Johnny confirmed, not realizing the usage of the moniker as he counted the weeks.

Vance gulped nervously – was the fact that Johnny knew a good thing or a bad thing?

"What else did you talk about?" Johnny asked, turning his attention from the cloudy night sky to his stout junior.

"I, uhh. We... Nothing in particular, boss. I tried askin' him some stuff but he wasn't feelin' chatty", Vance explained vaguely.

Johnny squinted his eyes at him and weighed his words.

"I know he's gay, y'know. Lola told me", he then said, hoping it would open his underling up a bit more.

"O... Oh", Vance stuttered.

"So, wouldja mind tellin' me what you talked about? Were you talkin' about me?"

The younger boy's expression became graver. He opened his mouth, but he hesitated once before any sound came out.

"I dunno if it's right for me to tell. Sorry boss", he said, taking his chances with withholding information from Johnny. After all, Larry had told him some very personal information.

"I see", Johnny murmured, giving Vance an understanding nod as he let out a puff of cigarette smoke. He didn't seem content, though.

"Do ya think it'd be a bad idea if I went to talk to him myself?" he then asked, very seriously.

Vance frowned, not exactly sure what to say. On principle, he thought that it would've been for the better if the two talked things over face-to-face. On the other hand, Larry had seemed determined to figure this out on his own and hadn't seemed even remotely prepared, emotionally or otherwise, to talk about these things with Johnny.

"I... I don't know boss, I really don't", Vance responded truthfully, arguing with himself over whether to tell his boss more or not.

"See, Peanut's... This is sort of a big deal to him, alright? It seems like a matter of pride", he said.

"Heh", Johnny suddenly chuckled, his face lighting up a bit as he took a drag. He looked like he was reminiscing.

"That's so him, innit. Bein' worked up about stuff like that", he murmured and shuffled his feet uncharacteristically.

Pot, meet kettle was the first thing that popped into Vance's mind.

"Y'know, I'd be more at ease talkin' about this with ya if I knew more", the redhead hinted, "I mean, I heard about you pullin' him outta trouble that one time, but you two go back further than that, dont'cha? I don't know much about that."

Johnny let out a thoughtful hum from his cigarette-occupied mouth and ran his hand through his hair as he raked through his memories.

"I keep forgettin' that you moved in so recently... Most of us date way, way back in one way or another", he told.

Vance Medici nodded – he had moved in sometime after Larry's warehouse incident. He had spent most of his childhood with his mother, but his constant troublemaking had taken a toll on her, so he had been sent to his father. Not being good at committing or taking responsibility, his father had sent him to the nearest boarding school after taking him in.

"Me n' Peanut, though, we never spent time around each other when we were kids", Johnny explained.

"See, we had this gang thing goin' on in New Coventry, to be cool like the older kids. There was a lot more of us back then – there was Luis, Casey, Miller, Davis White n' his cousin, buncha guys who've moved outta this dump of a town since then..."

"Anyways, we tykes split New Coventry to eastern and western side between two gangs. The first gang war we had was about whose side was west and whose side was east – in the end, we got it the wrong way round", he said, inciting a sudden guffaw in Vance.

"Of the current greasers, me, Norton, n' Lucky were on the 'east' side and Peanut, Lefty, n' Hal were on the 'west' side. It was just a game, but we took the gang thing very seriously, so we rarely hung out together unless there was a ceasefire", he sniffled casually and tossed the remains of his cigarette away.

"How it all worked out so we ended up bein' in the same gang in Bullworth Academy is a bit hazy to me. Y'know I was in the juvie, right?"

Vance nodded, wincing. He had personal experiences with juvenile hall as well.

"So yeah, I was in the juvie for a while and had some trouble gettin' new foster parents. When I saw the guys again, they had already integrated – for the most part anyway", Johnny said while trying to stitch his recollections into a coherent image of some sort.

"That... That's where things between me n' Peanut got hairy", he stated sternly.

"Because of Lola, right?" Vance hemmed somewhat daringly.

To the junior's surprise, Johnny hesitated, then shook his head.

"I dunno, it wasn't that simple. Sure, I fell for her the moment I got outta juvie and I was riled up 'cause Peanut had gotten into her favor. But, he stuck out 'cause he was also liked by the older greasers", he said with a frown.

"As for what made him hate me – it was probably when I got popular with the older greasers and did it faster than he did. And then there was the peanut butter."

There was an awkward silence after that addition.

"... So you really did put peanut butter in his food", Vance stated. Part of him had still hung on to the thought that it was all just a joke.

"Uh-huh", Johnny responded, feeling embarrassed but chuckling at it anyway.

"I thought I was a genius, too. I mean, what other way to make a guy look uncool in front of his girl than to make his face swell up n' make him gasp for air? It worked, too – Lola found it hilarious...", he said.

"Too bad that near suffocation gets pretty old after you've gone through it a couple of times. Man, what an asshole I was", Johnny then muttered awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck.

Vance wasn't sure what to say to that understatement.

"So yeah, that's where the war between us broke out. He put dead rats n' roadkill into my locker, I rigged his bike, he signed me up for Ms. Peters' school play, I poured Earnest's ant farm into his bed, while he was in it, ... The list goes on. And we genuinely beat each other up, too."

"Yeah, I'm startin' to see why Peanut's havin' trouble with this whole thing...", Vance stated sourly and crossed his arms.

Johnny fell silent and looked at him expectantly. The redhead cocked his brow at him, not quite sure what he was supposed to add.

"Er, yeah. I wanna go talk to him. Should I?" the clique leader asked.

Vance bit his lip, pondering.

"I'm not sure... You're probably the last person on earth he wants to admit anythin' to. Also, Lola... I don't know all the stuff that happened between her n' him either. I just know he put up with a lot. Knowin' that, think you can handle him?" he asked.

"I wanna try", Johnny declared.

"Can ya do it without callin' him Peanut?" Vance inquired further, squinting his eyes.

"Was I calling him that just now?"

"All this time", the redhead regretted to inform.

"... Fuck."

Author's Notes: Basically all I know about the American school system and social welfare system comes from watching TV and skimming through Wikipedia... So, I'm sorry if there are any headscratchers in this fic. I know I'm walking on some pretty shaky ground here, but I'm attracted to it like a freakin' moth to a flame.